Select Committee
Parliament

Committee chair Hilary Benn welcomes the Secretary of State, David Davis, to the first of "many" meetings.

Mr Benn begins by asking when the government intends to publish its negotiating plan, before triggering Article 50 by the end of March.

Mr Davis says there is still a lot of policy work to be done in numerous areas, and he doesn't confirm if the government will publish a white paper, or publish details in some other form of document.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP MP Neil Gray now introduces his bill which would require pre-paid funeral plan contracts to be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

Currently such funerals are not regulated.

He tells MPs that many elderly people are pestered by cold callers and can be coerced into buying more expensive funeral plans than they need. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Peter Bone notes that a similar formula is used in the NHS. He tells MPs that his constituency of Wellingborough is always at the bottom because there is no desire to reduce the money of the best funded areas.

He expresses a concern that "this sort of thing is going to creep" into school funding. Are schools actually going to get the cash? he asks.

Justine Greening says he is right to "flag this up" because schools needs to "see the gains come through".

Select Committee
Parliament

MPs on the Exiting the European Union Committee will be hearing from Brexit Secretary David Davis shortly.

This will the first time the committee has heard from the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.

Since being established in October, the committee has been examining the UK's negotiating objectives as it prepares to leave the EU.

The committee has heard from representatives of business, trade unions and industry bodies on the priorities for the UK's future relationship with the EU, and potential new trading partners.

Read more about the committee's inquiry here., external

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Robert Jenrick says the formula addresses the "lazy assumption" that there is no deprivation in rural areas.

He tells MPs that there is extreme deprivation in his own constituency and is surprised that Labour MPs don't recognise that.

Justine Greening agrees, stating that it is time for a "proper evidence-based approach".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Helen Goodman notes that the education secretary has sought to reassure rural MPs and sought to reassure London MPs.

So who are the real losers? she asks.

Justine Greening replies that the National Union of Teaching carried out "terrible scaremongering" before the formula was published and urges MPs to look at the data.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Nusrat Ghani says that schools in her constituency suffer from their size and rural location. 

She therefore welcomes the new formulas and specifically the help for rural schools which she argues will be "vital" to ensuring that they can continue to provide a "superb" education.

House of Commons
Parliament

Former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell says this statement is coming in the context of wider cuts to schools.

She tells MPs that budget cuts will mean an end to one-to-one tuition, and extra-curricular activities such as drama. 

Justine Greening acknowledges that the NAO report flags up cost pressures on schools but notes that this is in part due to the introduction of the national living wage. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Education Committee Chair Neil Carmichael welcomes the new formula, arguing that it will help with teacher retention and future planning.

He asks the education secretary to accommodate issues about future of local government.

Justine Greening replies that her department is working on that but says the formula will be published today to give colleagues a chance to engage with the data.

House of Commons
Parliament

Education Secretary Justine Greening describes herself to be "absolutely staggered" by Angela Rayner's response.

She argues that everyone knows that it is "impossible to justify" the current approach and wishes Labour had offered "a more thoughtful response rather than a diatribe of political rhetoric". 

She insists that the government can protect the schools budget because they have created "a thriving economy". 

She then tells MPs that she will not spend more time responding to Angela Rayner in order to give colleagues with "more thoughtful questions" a chance. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner wishes the fair funding formula "lived up to its name".

How can it be fair when a 10,000 schools serving two million children will be loosing money? she asks.  

The Labour frontbencher accuses the "unelected PM" of "ripping up the manifesto" promise to protect the money that follows children into schools.

She argues that the only new money available will be for grammar schools - 80% of which "will be in Tory councils". 

House of Commons
Parliament

She tells MPs that these changes will ensure that schools that have been underfunded for years will see their funding increase. 

She adds that these gains will be seen quickly with schools receiving a 3% increase by 2018/19.

No school, she assures the House, will see a reduction of more than 3% per pupil and no local authority will see their funding reduced.

She tells MPs that there will be a consultation on the new formula will be open for 14 weeks and that a final decision will be made before the summer.

House of Commons
Parliament

In the final question of PMQs, Conservative Philip Davies told MPs that in 2010 the Overseas Aid budget was £7bn. He continued that by 2020 it will have "more than doubled".

He urged the prime minister to use some of that budget to cover the £2.5bn shortfall in social care funding.

Surely government priority should be too look after elderly and disabled before handing money over to other countries, he argued.

Theresa May replied that the UK should be "proud" of the help it gives to people in difficult circumstances. We take our moral responsibility seriously, she added.

House of Commons
Parliament

The school funding system is unfair, opaque and outdated, the Education Secretary, Justine Greening, tells MPs.

The funding system allows similar schools, with similar students, to receive radically different funding. A school in Coventry can receive £500 more per puil than a school in Plymouth, she says.

The funding system is broken, she says and "we cannot allow that to continue".

The proposals she lays out are: 

- a proposal for a consistent base rate for every pupil at primary and secondary school

- a proposal to protect resources for pupils from disadvantaged families, and a targeted £3bn of funding for those most in need of support - those in areas of disadvantage as well as those receiving free school meals. Part of that includes rural schools, she tells MPs.

- £2.4bn funding will be targeted to pupils with low prior attainment, so they can catch up with their peers.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, PA

The government is announcing draft proposals for a new “fairer funding” formula for schools in England.

The new formula is designed to stop inequalities which see schools with similar intakes receive varying amounts per-pupil.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that schools in England face an 8% budget cuts by 2019-20.

The government has said annual cuts will be limited to 1.5% for those schools experiencing a drop in funding.

House of Commons
Parliament

Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron says that every day since Brexit has been a "good day to bury bad news".

He notes that the health secretary "needs more money" but the chancellor did not offer a "single extra penny" for health or social care. Who does she agree with? he asks.

Theresa May responds that the community and local government secretary will be making a statement tomorrow.