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Pupils: English Language

Asked by Lee AndersonReform UKDepartment for EducationTabled Answered 30 October 2025UIN 73670

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated to local authorities to support (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils who have English as a second language in each of the last five years.

Answered by Georgia Gould

The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates core funding to local areas for mainstream schools. The NFF includes an English as an additional language (EAL) factor. Pupils attract this funding to their school if their first language is not English and if they entered the state education system in England in the past three years. The table below shows the total funding allocated through the EAL factor from the 2021/22 to 2025/26 financial years:

Financial Year

Primary EAL funding

Secondary EAL funding

Total EAL funding

EAL funding as a proportion of total NFF funding

2021/22

£311 m

£108 m

£420 m

1.1%

2022/23

£307 m

£105 m

£412 m

1.1%

2023/24

£318 m

£116 m

£434 m

1.0%

2024/25

£343 m

£141 m

£484 m

1.1%

2025/26

£365 m

£173 m

£539 m

1.1%

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