Written question asked by Nadine Dorries (Conservative) on Wednesday, 3 June 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 June 2009. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 June 2009 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Class Sizes

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how much funding his Department has allocated to reducing class sizes in schools in (a) Mid Bedfordshire and (b) the East of England schools in each year since 1997;

Answer: Local authorities are responsible for the distribution of funding (including funding provided through the dedicated schools grant (DSG)) to schools in their area. Each local authority in consultation with their schools forum can choose to include a factor in their funding formula to direct resources to schools with infant classes to enable them to meet the class size duty. The Department does not collect information on how much funding was allocated to employing more teachers for Mid Bedfordshire and eastern region schools.In 2008-09 the final DSG amount for Bedfordshire was £227.69 million. The 2009-10 final DSG amount for central Bedfordshire are yet to be published.

Secondary information