Schools: Indoctrination

Baroness Warsi Excerpts

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, in April 2015 we established a counterextremism helpline to avoid exactly the situation that the noble Baroness raises. Teachers can contact it for confidential advice. We have had more than 450 uses of this helpline from educationists and other members of the public.

[Baroness Warsi (Con)]

My Lords, could the noble Lord give the House some statistics relating to the number of children who have been referred under the Prevent strand of the counterterrorism strategy from schools? Could he give details of how many have been referred and how many were then followed up with further action? Could he also give details of how many were within the last 12 months and how many within the 12 months before that? Could he also break it down between religious extremism and far-right extremism?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, unfortunately I do not have all that information to hand, but I will of course write to my noble friend.

Education: Initial Teacher Training

Baroness Warsi Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We will encourage schools to take on apprenticeships, yes.

[Baroness Warsi (Con)]

Will my noble friend indicate how initial teacher training has been amended to reflect the new Prevent duty that teachers now have? Who is delivering that training—universities or the approved Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent co-ordinators, as listed by the Home Office? If it is those providers listed by Prevent, could he write to the House and put a letter in the Library with a list of those accredited providers?

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend raises an extremely important point. We will look at this in the new ITT framework, which is under consideration. It is currently conducted by Prevent co-ordinators, but I shall certainly write to her further on this.