Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to investigate delays to vocational and technical exam and assessment results in 2022.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, to write to the noble Lady and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the (1) recruitment, and (2) retention, of teachers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of teachers remains high, with over 465,500 working in state-funded schools across the country at Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This is 24,000 more than in 2010.
The department recognises there is more to do to ensure teaching remains an attractive, high status profession, and to recruit and retain teachers in key subjects and areas. Reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment through an attractive pay offer and financial incentives such as bursaries, as well as at ensuring teachers stay and succeed in the profession.
The department remains committed to delivering starting salaries of £30,000 to attract and retain the best teachers.
The department is investing £181 million in financial incentives. For those starting initial teacher training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year, bursaries worth up to £27,000 and scholarships worth up to £29,000 are offered to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key secondary subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. This offer has also been expanded to international trainees in physics and languages.
The department offers a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers working in disadvantaged schools in the first five years of their careers.
In autumn 2021, the new digital service, ‘Apply for teacher training’ was launched. This provides a more streamlined, user-friendly application route, to make it easier for people to train to become teachers.
The department is also taking action to enable teachers to succeed by transforming their training and support. 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities will be delivered by the end of 2024, giving all teachers and head teachers access to world class, evidence based training and professional development at every stage of their career.
To support retention in the first few years of teaching, the department has rolled out the Early Career Framework (ECF) nationally, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching, with over £130 million a year in funding.
Additionally, the department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, including the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which schools are being encouraged to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The charter can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter. Additionally, the workload reduction toolkit has been developed alongside head teachers and has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. Several other resources have also been published to support schools to implement effective flexible working practices, and these can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/flexible-working-resources-for-teachers-and-schools.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the rise in energy bills on ventilation in classrooms over the winter.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has not made an assessment of the impact of the rise in energy bills on ventilation in classrooms over the winter. Maintaining adequate ventilation remains the responsibility of individual schools.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government provided over 386,000 CO2 monitors to schools, colleges, and early years settings to help manage ventilation. As well as helping settings to identify areas that are poorly ventilated, CO2 monitors can be useful in helping balance good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm.
In December 2022, the department published guidance on energy efficiency for schools and colleges, including guidance on managing ventilation, which can be found attached and at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-efficiency-guidance-for-the-school-and-fe-college-estate.
In addition, eligible schools and sixth-form colleges will receive an allocation of £447 million of capital funding to improve energy efficiency in 2022/2023. This is part of an additional £500 million of capital funding for schools and further education institutions in England.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Initial teacher training: trainee number census 2022 to 2023; and in particular, the finding that the recruitment target for physics has been missed by more than 80 per cent.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
23,224 postgraduate trainees have been recruited for 2022/23, which is a 20% decrease from 30,093 in 2021/22. This is 71% of the Postgraduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) target, down from 97% in 2021/22.
Teacher recruitment has been challenging for several years, driven by increasing demand for teachers in particular phases and subjects, and a competitive graduate labour market.
As expected, the unprecedented increase in new entrants to ITT because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/21 has declined over the past 2 years. The graduate and general labour markets became more competitive and pay has risen in competing sectors, especially in priority Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
Some STEM subjects face more recruitment challenges than others and this is reflected in their performance against the PGITT targets. For example, physics achieved 17% of the PGITT target in 2022/23. Mathematics and biology achieved 85% and 111% respectively in 2022/23.
The department launched a pilot initial teacher training course in spring 2022 called ‘Engineers Teach Physics’. Following the first year pilot for ‘Engineers Teach Physics’, it has been expanded to a second year with a national rollout. The department is continuing to work closely with sector experts, representative bodies and academic institutions to ensure that the course reflects best practice and includes the most up-to-date industry knowledge. This expansion will ensure that this programme will be available to more trainees across the country, further ameliorating the shortfall in physics teachers.
The department has also announced funding for physics for those training in 2023/24. A £27,000 tax-free bursary or £29,000 tax-free scholarship in chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics reflects the priority the department places on training teachers to teach STEM subjects.
Additionally, the department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. This will support the recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most. The department is also extending eligibility of the physics bursary to all non-UK trainees.
The manifesto commitment to raise the starting salary for teachers to £30,000 remains as important as ever.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the impact of inflation on (1) school budgets, (2) the cost of uniforms, (3) classroom staff, (4) extra-curricular activities, (5) schools' energy bills, (6) school meals, and (7) the costs for parents associated with their child’s education.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Schools will receive an additional £2 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years as a result of the 2022 Autumn Statement. The core schools budget, which covers schools’ day-to-day running costs, including schools’ energy bills and the costs of providing income-related free school meals, has risen from £49.8 billion in 2021/22 to £53.8 billion in 2022/23 and will continue to rise to £57.3 billion in 2023/24 and £58.8 billion in 2024/25. By 2024/25, funding per pupil will have risen to its highest ever level in real terms. These increases provide support to schools to deal with the impact of inflation on their budgets.
From October 2022 to 31 March 2023, schools will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This provides a price reduction to protect schools from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
The department is clear that school uniforms should be affordable. No school uniform should be so expensive that pupils or their families feel unable to apply to or attend a school of their choice. In November 2021, the department issued statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms to ensure the cost of school uniforms is reasonable. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms/cost-of-school-uniforms. Governing boards should be compliant with much of the guidance by September 2022 and fully compliant by summer 2023.
Teachers’ pay is reviewed on an annual basis by the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which considers the current economic climate. Pay awards this year provide a careful balance between recognising the vital importance of teachers, whilst delivering value for the taxpayer, and being careful not to drive inflation. The department has implemented the STRB’s recommendation of an 8.9% pay uplift to teacher starting salaries outside London in 2022/23, bringing them up to £28,000. The department has also implemented the STRB’s recommendation of a 5% pay uplift for experienced teachers and leaders in 2022/23. This is the highest pay award for experienced teachers in 30 years. Teachers and other classroom staff will also benefit from wider government cost of living support announced for households.
The department supports a range of initiatives to increase access to high quality extra curricular activities. This includes investing £3.4 million between 2021 and 2024 to support the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to expand into more schools in the most disadvantaged areas of the country and investing over £200 million a year in the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. HAF provides free holiday club places with activities and healthy food for children from low-income families during the summer, Easter, and Christmas school holidays. Additionally, both pupil premium and recovery premium can be used to fund extra-curricular activities.
The government spends over £1 billion annually delivering free school meals (FSM) to pupils. Around 1.9 million disadvantaged pupils are eligible for free school meals (FSM) as well as an additional 1.25 million infants who receive a free meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy. Core schools funding has increased, which includes the FSM factor in the National Funding Formula £470 per eligible pupil this year. Universal Infant Free School Meal funding has also been uplifted to £2.41 per meal per child in June 2022 and backdated to 1 April 2022 in recognition of the cost pressures faced by schools.
The government has announced further support, worth £26 billion, for next year. This is designed to target the most vulnerable households and families. This is on top of the £37 billion cost of living support provided by the government this year.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure childcare is (1) accessible, and (2) affordable, in particular for low-income families.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Improving parents’ access to affordable, flexible childcare is a government priority. In July, the department announced measures to increase take-up of childcare support and reduce the costs and bureaucracy facing providers. This included consulting on changing staff-to-child ratios for two-year-olds in group-based settings and clarifying flexibilities for childminders, to give providers more autonomy.
The department announced additional funding of £160 million in 2022/23, £180 million in 2023/24, and £170 million in 2024/25, compared to the 2021/22 financial year, for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers.
The department also announced a £1.2 million marketing campaign underway via the Childcare Choices website to ensure that every parent knows about the government-funded support they are eligible for. The campaign has driven a significant increase in traffic to the Childcare Choices site, and an increase in referrals for Universal Credit, Tax-Free Childcare, and 30 hours entitlements.
The department extended eligibility for the disadvantaged two-year-old entitlement to families with no recourse to public funds, subject to income thresholds that are broadly equivalent to those for families who are able to access benefits.
We continue to work across government to look at ways to make childcare more affordable and to encourage families to use the government-funded support they are entitled to.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of 3 September 2019 of the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Official Report, column 150, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of sheep that would be eligible to receive a headage payment and (b) the fiscal levels at which headage payments would be set; and when she plans to publish the details of headage payments for sheep.
Answered by George Eustice
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2019 to Question 278471, what estimate he has made of the number of cubic metres of cold meat storage that will be available to store sheep meat on 1 November 2019 in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by George Eustice
We remain focused on ensuring our smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU with a deal as soon as possible. However, as a responsible Government we have been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of a no deal.
Defra Ministers and officials have been meeting regularly with the food and farming industry to understand the potential impacts of a no deal scenario in October and to support contingency planning by industry. This has included working to understand storage capacity in the UK at that time of year and the likely industry-led response to any potential disruption.
The Government is developing a number of potential interventions to help sheep producers should assistance be required in the event of EU exit without a Withdrawal Agreement. Our preference is to consider financial support to farmers to offset part of the lost income caused by market disruption rather than to purchase and store lamb. There is insufficient storage capacity to intervene in the lamb market in any meaningful way and the likely worst case scenarios are best addressed through income support in the short term.
Ultimately our aim is to continue trading and exporting our sheep meat post 1 November 2019. With third country listing from the EU, we will continue to be able to export lamb to the EU, and our exports to third countries will not be affected.
The expertise, capability, levers and resilience to plan for and respond to supply chain disruption lies within the industry, and Defra will continue its close working with industry to support their contingency planning.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July to Question 278955, what the economic basis is for an increase in the availability of lamb on the domestic market potentially leading to an increase in international demand for UK sheep meat products.
Answered by George Eustice
We remain focused on ensuring our smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU with a deal as soon as possible. However, as a responsible Government we have been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of a no deal.
The short term impacts of no deal are likely to be significant for some sectors. Of particular concern is the sheep sector, as over 30% of UK production is exported, approximately 95% of which is to the EU.
In the event of no deal, we expect exports to the EU to fall as the result of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. This will increase the supply of lamb on the domestic market, which may in turn depress the domestic price for lamb. With lamb consumption on a long term downward trend we would expect this to lead to an increase in domestic consumption.
Lower domestic prices will also make UK lamb more attractive to markets outside the EU. Developing market access and increasing UK exports remains a high priority with collaboration across Government and industry to identify priority markets. UK lamb exports to non-EU countries had a value of £15.2 million in 2018.
In January 2019, Defra successfully opened the market for lamb exports to Japan following its two decade long ban on imports from the UK. The market is estimated to be worth approximately £52 million over the first five years of access. The Japanese market has a growing demand for high quality lamb and Defra’s Food is GREAT campaign has already built lamb promotion into its activity there, showcasing UK lamb and beef to Japanese consumers, trade and media in April. The campaign will continue to promote lamb in Japan during September and October, capitalising on the cultural hook of the Rugby World Cup.
In December 2018 Defra opened the market for lamb exports to India. The new agreement, which covers a range of sheep meat cuts, is estimated by industry to be worth £6 million in the next five years.
Asked by: Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the evidential base is for the Government's proposal to apply zero rate tariffs for eggs and egg products.
Answered by George Eustice
In setting that temporary regime the Government has sought to strike a balance between the impacts on consumers and producers.
The Government considered the available evidence on tariff rates, exposure to competition, and the potential impact on business costs and employment, weighing this against the impact of tariffs on consumer prices and producers’ supply chains.
Recognising that there are significant uncertainties, the Government believes it has adopted a policy that strikes the right balance between not exposing the UK market to an unreasonable level of competition, and liberalising tariffs to maintain current supply chains and to avoid an increase in consumer prices.
The temporary tariff policy would only apply for up to 12 months. During the 12 month period, the Government will work with industry and remain responsive to businesses and consumers. We will consider exceptional changes where clear evidence is provided against the criteria set out by the five principles of the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018.
After this, the Government intends to introduce a long-term tariff regime. This would be developed over the course of the next 12 months following an appropriate public consultation process with interested stakeholders, including the eggs sector.