Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to improve the transparency of decisions taken by Local Economic Partnership (LEP) members, such as requiring registers of members' interests or the publication of a conflict of interest policy.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is clear that Local Enterprise Partnerships should operate transparently: giving people confidence that decisions made are proper, based on evidence, and not biased by conflicts of interest.
How each Local Enterprise Partnership is achieving this is set out in their own local assurance framework, and verified by their accountable local authority. We are reviewing every framework as part of the criteria for the current round of growth deals, and again through annual performance conversations with each Partnership.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training teachers preparing to work in prisons receive beyond their teaching qualification.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
In the majority of adult prisons in England education is delivered by Skills Funding Agency (SFA) Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) providers. Individuals wishing to be employed by OLASS providers to teach in prisons should meet the same standards as those preparing to teach SFA funded provision in the learning and skills sector in England.
In addition, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills grant funds the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) to deliver a specific programme of work to support teaching and learning in prisons, this includes activity to support the professional development of OLASS teachers. In 2016-17 we made available £0.6m to the ETF.
Training such as in health and safety is the responsibility of the Prison Governor and is arranged locally for OLASS staff by individual prisons.
There are also a number of privately managed prisons where the operator is responsible for providing education under their contract with the National Offender Management Service. The Directors of those prisons ensure that, beyond their teaching qualifications, teachers will attend a training course varying between three days and one week, depending on which prison they work at. This training is aimed at preparing them to work in the prison environment. A number of these prisons operate a further period where the new starter will observe and shadow existing staff, usually lasting two weeks.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what funding contingencies are in place in the event that the UK exiting the EU results in a drop in foreign nationals studying in Britain and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
We remain an EU member until the time we complete successful exit negotiations, with all the rights and obligations that derive from this. The UK has, and will continue to have, a world-class education system that attracts students from across the world including the EU.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to cover any shortfall in university research funding as a result of the UK leaving the EU if a satisfactory negotiated alternative cannot be achieved.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The future of UK access to European research and innovation funding will be a matter for the new Prime Minister and government to discuss. The government is determined to ensure that the UK continues to play a leading role in European and international research and innovation.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards and governance arrangements have been put in place to prevent a recurrence of the situation where (1) the Principal of North East Surrey College of Technology allegedly paid her husband over £170,000 during the course of a contract with a Saudi Arabian college, and (2) the Board of Governors were unaware for over 18 months that such payments were made.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
As an independent corporation North East Surrey College of Technology is responsible for ensuring appropriate safeguards and governance arrangements are in place in relation to the corporation including subsidiary companies. The Skills Funding Agency has received a report from NESCOT and is considering whether there is any risk to public funds and if so what action should be taken.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards they have put in place to ensure that, if the student loan book is sold on, students are not faced with increased rates of interest on their student loans.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
As stated in the March 2016 Budget, the Government is continuing to prepare for the sale of the pre-2012 income contingent repayment student loan book, with a first sale expected in 2016-17.
Purchasers would have no direct relationship with borrowers, and would have no power to amend the terms of repayment. Government would still finance student loans and continue to collect repayments.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what penalties are in place for higher education institutions that knowingly accept UK student fee status for students who hold British passports, but whose parents have not paid tax in the UK for past five years, and whose education is shown to have taken place overseas.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Higher education institutions have discretion to charge a student who is not eligible for home fee status whatever fee they deem appropriate, including the same fee as they charge students who have home fee status.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) allocates funding to HE institutions, to cover some of the teaching costs of students who are eligible for home fees status and studying high cost subjects. The Council monitors the student number data of all institutions, to ensure they receive only the funding to which they are entitled. HEFCE has powers to withhold funding from any institution which has received funding for which it is not eligible.
Student Finance England is responsible for assessing students’ eligibility for financial support. It can only award support to students who satisfy the eligibility criteria in full. The fee a student is paying is not considered in this assessment.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park on 26 January (HL5024), what assessment they have made of whether the specialist software Turnitin is able to detect whether a whole essay was not written by the person submitting, such as if that essay had been paid for from an essay mill.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Government has made no such assessment. The selection of particular types of software is an academic matter for individual institutions.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park on 26 January (HL5024), what systems are in place to ensure that a standardised approach is taken by higher education institutions in relation to dealing with cheating, and to encourage best practice relating to plagiarism.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Higher education institutions are independent and autonomous bodies and are required to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which requires that ‘assessment is equitable, valid and reliable’. As such, institutions are expected to have clear policies on cheating and plagiarism.
As part of its cyclical review of UK universities and colleges, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) reports publicly on its findings, including if there are concerns relating to plagiarism.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park on 26 January (HL5024), what is the timeframe of the discussions about the legality of essay mills between the Consumer and Markets Authority and the Quality Assurance Agency.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Quality Assurance Agency have now met with the Competition and Markets Authority and are considering further how to take this forward.