DfE fails to meet pledge to National Audit Office to publish free schools costs by end of 2018

The Department for Education has failed to publish updated data on the amount of taxpayer cash it has spent on start-up costs for individual free schools projects –despite telling the National Audit Office (NAO) it would do so by the end of 2018.

The department’s statement to the NAO, saying that it expected to update its free schools capital spending spreadsheet by the end of last month, was significant as it featured in a decision by the NAO to reject a freedom of information application I made, asking for this spending data.

As Education Uncovered reported in October, I had asked the NAO for data on the capital costs of individual free schools projects.

These had formed the basis of statements in an NAO report, published nearly two years ago now, on “capital funding for schools”. The report had stated that 24 free school sites had cost more than £10m each. But neither the DfE nor the NAO has so far disclosed the identity of any of these schools.

In rejecting my FOI request, the NAO relied on two exemptions allowed under freedom of information rules.