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Written question asked by Blake Stephenson (Conservative) on Wednesday, 12 March 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 14 March 2025. It was answered by Catherine McKinnell (Labour) on Saturday, 29 March 2025 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Schools: Admissions and Pupil Numbers

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2025 to Question 26151 on Schools: Admissions, what estimate she has made of the (a) number of pupils and (b) school capacity for (i) Central Bedfordshire, (ii) Bedford Borough and (iii) Luton Borough for each of the next five years.

Answer

Data on state-funded school places is published at local authority level in the annual ‘School capacity’ publication. The full release can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity.

The latest available data for the number of pupils and school capacity, as at 1 May 2023, for Central Bedfordshire, Bedford borough and Luton borough can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/190afba3-869e-4ef0-f219-08dd5cc661f7.

Local authority pupil number forecasts for Central Bedfordshire, Bedford borough and Luton borough for the five academic years from 2023/24 to 2027/28 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9631024d-157e-4b93-0eb3-08dd5ccbf23a.

The linked table also includes numbers on roll for 2022/23 as at January 2023, which differs to the numbers on roll in the capacity table that relate to May 2023. Forecasts were submitted to the department through the School Capacity survey 2023.

School capacity estimates are made for three academic years ahead, in this case 2023/24 to 2025/26, as part of the department’s estimate of future school place shortfalls and surpluses. These estimates can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/data-set/b12c3f30-c22c-4b88-b5b2-2c1848981b4e. These estimates reflect the position reported by local authorities at May 2023 through the School Capacity survey, supplemented with the department’s internal data on central programmes.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
37779
Session
2024-26
Related items
Schools: Admissions
Friday, 31 January 2025
Written questions
House of Commons
Registered interest declared
Yes
Subjects
Admissions Bedfordshire Schools Pupil numbers
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk