Armed Forces: Private Education

Mr. Pope
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much was spent on providing education in independent schools for the children of (a) officers and (b) other ranks of the armed forces in the last year for which figures are available.

Derek Twigg
Information on cost details of Service Education Allowances that have been spent by Service parents to help provide education for their children at independent schools is not held. When an eligible Service parent claims a Service Education Allowance, it can be used to help provide continuity of education for their child(ren) in either the independent or state maintained school sector; this is the parents' choice. The allowances can also be used at independent or state maintained education establishments that offer professional or vocational qualifications for the post-16 age group. All of these schools and establishments are listed on the Ministry of Defence's Accredited Schools Database.

The net cost of Service Education Allowances for the academic year 2005-06 was £93.6 million and for 2006-07 is estimated to be £93.7 million.

From 1 April 2007, all Service Education Allowances are now managed by the Joint Personnel Administration system. I am able to provide information on the number of Service Education Allowance claimants for 2005-06. This is shown in the following table:

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|Service        |Officers|Other ranks|Total|
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|Royal Navy     |920     |457        |1,377|
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|Army           |2,675   |1,605      |4,280|
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|Royal Air Force|1,286   |971        |2,257|
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|Total claimants|4,881   |3,033      |7,914|
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Information on the cost for officer and other rank claimants from the legacy single Service administration systems could be provided only at disproportionate cost.