Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to combat increasing levels of pupil truancy in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Improving attendance remains a top priority for the department as regular school attendance is important for children’s educational progress, for their wellbeing, their safeguarding and for their wider development. Truancy is subset of absence; the largest cause of persistent absence is sickness.
In 2022, the department published stronger expectations of schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance. This guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf.
The department now expects all schools to appoint a champion, and for local authorities and schools to agree individual plans for persistently absent children. In January 2024, the department launched 18 new attendance hubs, bringing the total to 32, which will see nearly 2,000 schools helped to tackle persistent absence across the country. These hubs will support schools responsible for the attendance of over a million pupils.
At the same time the department also announced an extra £15 million to expand one-to-one attendance mentoring over the next three years, to help 10,000 children struggling to attend school. To help identify children at risk of persistent absence and to enable early intervention, the department has established a timelier flow of pupil level attendance data through the daily attendance data collection. 88% of state funded schools are now signed up to this.
Across all phases, around 380,000 fewer pupils were persistently absent or not attending in 2022/23 than in 2021/22. Daily data for 2022/23 shows school absence of 9.3% in secondary schools, down from 10.0% absent or not attending school for covid related reasons in 2021/22. Further absence data from the school census is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by the Victims Commissioner to provide payments to the relatives of those killed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Caine - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government fully recognises the terrible loss of those bereaved through Troubles-related incidents. Support for victims is a devolved matter for consideration by a restored Northern Ireland Executive. It is right that a restored Executive considers how best to acknowledge and support people who have lost loved ones during the Troubles.
This Government has always made clear, in successive manifestos, that it will never accept any moral equivalence between those who defended democracy and the rule of law in Northern Ireland, and those who sought to destroy both.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the proposal by the Victims Commissioner to issue payments to the relatives of those killed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, whether the scheme will apply in respect of paramilitaries who were killed.
Answered by Lord Caine - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Support for victims is a devolved matter for consideration by a restored Northern Ireland Executive.
This Government has always made clear, in successive manifestos, that it will never accept any moral equivalence between those who defended democracy and the rule of law in Northern Ireland, and those who sought to destroy both.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the current threat to the territorial integrity of Guyana posed by Venezuela.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are concerned by the recent steps taken by Venezuela. The UK's position is clear: the border was settled in 1899 through international arbitration. The Foreign Secretary has reassured President Ali of this. The UK continues to engage with regional partners and international bodies to de-escalate tensions.
Minister Rutley visited Guyana on 18 December. HMS Trent also visited on 29/30 December as a further signal of support for Guyana's sovereign borders.
The UK welcomes the Argyle Declaration signed by Venezuela and Guyana in St Vincent and the Grenadines on 14 December, which makes clear that Venezuela is to refrain from the use of force and any further escalation.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are giving Guyana to deter any aggressive territorial activity by Venezuela.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are concerned by the recent steps taken by Venezuela. The UK's position is clear: the border was settled in 1899 through international arbitration. The Foreign Secretary has reassured President Ali of this. The UK continues to engage with regional partners and international bodies to de-escalate tensions.
I [Minister Rutley] visited Guyana on 18 December. HMS Trent also visited on 29/30 December as a further signal of support for Guyana's sovereign borders.
The UK welcomes the Argyle Declaration signed by Venezuela and Guyana in St Vincent and the Grenadines on 14 December, which makes clear that Venezuela is to refrain from the use of force and any further escalation.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to fill the gap in the jobs market created by the anticipated reduction in legal working migrants as a result of the Government's proposed change to the income requirement thresholds for legal migration, and how much such actions or training schemes are expected to cost.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As the Prime Minister has made clear, current levels of migration to the UK are far too high. The long-term plan the Home Secretary has announced would mean around 300,000 of the people who came to the UK last year would not have been able to come.
Raising the salary criteria is designed to ensure that resident workers’ wages cannot be undercut and ensures that the skilled worker route is not used as a source of low-cost labour. This will encourage employers to invest in the resident population and move away from the reliance on migrant labour.
This is alongside our extensive efforts to get more British people working. The Government believes immigration must be considered alongside investment in, and development of, the UK’s domestic labour force, rather than as an alternative to it. Enquiries on how best to address recruitment issues and/or take of advantage of the skills system to grow the workforce should in the first instance be directed to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Education, as the departments dealing with employment and skills respectively.
DWP has a broad offer to support people back into and progress in work. Our £2.5bn Back to Work plan – announced as part of the Autumn Statement - will go further by helping thousands of people with disabilities, long-term health conditions and the long-term unemployed, to move into jobs.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all five joint consultative UK–EU sub-groups as outlined in the Windsor Framework have been established and complete membership appointed on both sides.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The rules of procedure of the Joint Consultative Working Group (JCWG) provide for the establishment of structured sub-groups. Five new structured sub-groups have been established and UK and EU co-chairs for each group have been appointed. Consistent with the JCWG rules of procedure, before each meeting, those sub-groups inform each other of the intended composition of their respective delegations. The delegations are confidential unless otherwise decided by the co-chairs.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings have taken place of each of the five joint consultative UK–EU sub-groups established under the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Consistent with the Joint Consultative Working Group (JCWG) rules of procedure, meetings of the structured sub-groups to the JCWG are held as necessary and on a confidential basis.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) further statutory instruments, or (2) other pieces of legislation, they still need to bring forward to fully implement the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Since the Windsor Framework was agreed in February 2023, the Government has been working to deliver the full benefits of that agreement for people and businesses in Northern Ireland. The Government has introduced secondary legislation to that effect and any further legislation would be introduced in Parliament in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to implement reforms to replace the single-word assessment system for schools currently being operated by Ofsted.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The overall effectiveness grade is an important part of the government’s accountability arrangements. It provides clarity for parents, and triggers support where it is needed to improve outcomes for children. In the absence of that grade, there would need to be an alternative basis for intervention, which would add complexity and risk the loss of transparency when decisions are made.
There is also an important read across to other sectors. Grades are used across Ofsted inspections, not just in schools, and are used by other inspectorates in some other public service inspectorates, including in health and adult social care.
Following the tragic death of Ruth Perry, the department is working with His Majesty’s Chief Inspector to look closely at the coroner’s findings. The department and Ofsted will make further changes beyond those already announced in June 2023 where these are needed to make sure that the inspection system supports schools and teachers.