To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the total cost to his Department was of educating children with special education needs in residential special schools in each local authority in England in the last 12 months for which figures are available. (309354)

[holding answer 6 January 2010]: The requested information is not collected centrally by the Department. However, during the 2009-10 financial year local authorities in England budgeted net expenditure of over £5.2 billion for the provision of education for children with special educational needs. It is not possible to identify how much of this £5.2 billion was for the total cost of educating children with special educational needs in residential special schools as the data are not collected in that way.