What was claimed
The number of school places in the country has expanded by 800,000 since 2010.
Our verdict
Correct, they've increased by around 825,000 in primary and secondary schools in England since 2010.
825,000 more English school places since 2010
8 June 2018
"We’ve expanded the number of school places in the country by over 800,000 since 2010 ".
Damian Hinds MP, 7 June 2018
It's correct that there are around 825,000 more school places in state-funded primary and secondary schools in England than there were in 2010. That’s an increase of 11%.
That includes 577,000 more places in primary schools and 248,000 in secondary schools.
The number of pupils at state-funded primary and secondary schools has increased by around 505,000 or 7% since 2010.
Around 23% of state-funded primary schools were at or over capacity in May 2017 (around 3,800 schools). Around 16% of secondary schools were in the same situation (around 550 schools).
There were around 1.1 million unfilled places in primary and secondary schools in 2017, an increase of around 277,000 since 2010. 58% of these unfilled places are in secondary schools.
Local authorities estimate that 79,000 primary school places will be needed across England “to meet demand for academic year 2021/22.” In secondary schools it is an estimated 87,000.
We’ve looked more at the proportion of places created in schools rated good and outstanding here.