To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding his Department has provided to schools in (a) England and (b) Gloucestershire for broadband services in each of the last five years; how much funding he plans to provide in future years; and if he will make a statement. (321047)

Funding for broadband services in schools is made available predominantly via the Harnessing Technology Grant. This is paid by the Department to local authorities through the standards fund. It is not possible to identify the proportion of the grant that is used by schools to purchase broadband services, however we do have figures for the overall Harnessing Technology Grant for the latest three financial years:

The available figures on the amount of the Harnessing Technology Grant paid specifically to the Gloucestershire local authority for each of the three years in the current spending period is set out in the following table:

However, these figures can only be provided as an indication as it is not possible to extrapolate from this the spending on broadband provision in particular. Additionally, the Harnessing Technology Grant will not be the total ICT spend, as schools are free to use money from other sources on technological services and infrastructure.