The aim of Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) is to assist Service personnel to achieve continuity of education for their children that would otherwise be denied in the state-maintained day school sector due to the mobility of their family because of consecutive assignments both in the UK and overseas. CEA is available to all Service personnel, irrespective of rank, subject to them satisfying the qualifying criteria.

Service personnel may select from a wide variety of schools across the UK from within the independent and state-maintained sectors. To qualify for the purposes of CEA, a school must: offer full boarding facilities; be registered with the appropriate UK education department; be subject to Ofsted inspection and, in the case of independent schools, be a member of an organisation affiliated to the Independent Schools Council or the Scottish Council for Independent Schools. Each claimant is required to contribute at least 10 per cent of the fees at independent schools.

During the last five Financial Years (FY, 2015-16 to 2019-20) the cost of CEA to Defence was as follows:

The number of Service personnel who claimed CEA during the last five FYs, by rank, was as follows:

Note: a key to NATO Rank Codes and UK equivalencies can be found in the attached document.

During Financial Year 2019-20, the cost of Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) to Defence was £83.2 million which supported a total of 4,420 school places for the children of Service personnel. CEA is paid only in respect of schools in the UK.

Service personnel may select from a wide variety of schools across the UK from within the independent and state-maintained sectors. To qualify for the purposes of CEA, a school must: offer full boarding facilities; be registered with the appropriate UK education department; be subject to Ofsted inspection and, in the case of independent schools, be a member of an organisation affiliated to the Independent Schools Council or the Scottish Council for Independent Schools. Each claimant is required to contribute at least 10 per cent of the fees at independent schools.

1,730 military officers claimed Continuity of Education Allowance for UK based schools during the period 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019 inclusive.

The breakdown by rank is detailed below:

In line with Defence Statistic Policy all figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid systematic bias.

I am mindful of our obligations under the Data Protection Act and will, in due course write to the hon. Member with information which will not compromise the protections under the Act.

I am mindful of our obligations under the Data Protection Act and will, in due course write to the hon. Member with information which will not compromise the protections under the Act.

The aim of Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) is to assist Service personnel to achieve continuity of education for their children that would otherwise be denied in the state-maintained day school sector, due to the mobility of families as result of consecutive assignments, both in the UK and overseas.

CEA is an allowance claimed by qualifying Service personnel, within a strict governance framework, which is then paid to qualifying schools, all of which are in the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The total cost of CEA, and that paid to schools in England only, for the last five Financial Years (FY), is as follows:

The Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) payments made by Service personnel to the schools in question during Financial Year 2018-19 were as follows:

Service personnel may select from a wide variety of schools across the UK from within the independent and state-maintained sectors. To qualify for the purposes of CEA, a school must: offer full boarding facilities; be registered with the appropriate UK education department; be subject to Ofsted inspection and, in the case of independent schools, be a member of an organisation affiliated to the Independent Schools Council or the Scottish Council for Independent Schools. Each claimant is required to contribute at least 10 per cent of the fees.