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Written Question
Department for Education: Digital Technology
Monday 4th November 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who is responsible for digitisation in his Department; and what mechanisms the person with responsibility for digitisation uses to champion digitisation.

Answered by Chris Skidmore

The Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Emma Stace, is responsible for leading Digital Delivery across the Department for Education (DfE).

The DfE Transformation Aims involve promoting user-centred, end-to-end service design and delivery across the whole department.

The CDO and policy directors have jointly sponsored scoping work to identify opportunities for the development of digital services to deliver better outcomes for our users and continue the transformation of DfE into a service delivery department.

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDT) Directorates within DfE are supporting the government-wide focus on the development of “digital maturity”, developing the department’s processes, tools, infrastructure and capabilities. In support of this, the CDO is promoting the development of the community of service owners, sharing experience and best practice and identifying how the DfE can continue to develop to better support the development and delivery of digital services. This includes work to grow and develop DDT capability across the department, including through improving recruitment, training and procurement.

The DfE works with the Government Digital Service to provide assurance against the Government Service Standards, to ensure that the services being delivered are high quality, user centred, and delivering value to users.


Written Question
Corporal Punishment: Children
Thursday 24th October 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ban the physical punishment of children.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.

The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.


Written Question
Corporal Punishment: Children
Thursday 24th October 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department collects information on the public’s view of corporal punishment of children.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.

The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.


Written Question
Corporal Punishment: Children
Thursday 24th October 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of smacking as a form of punishment on children’s mental health.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.

The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.


Written Question
Corporal Punishment: Children
Thursday 24th October 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department collects data on the prevalence of the use of smacking by parents as a form of punishment in (a) Norfolk and (b) other counties.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.

The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.


Written Question
Department for Education: Chief Scientific Advisers
Monday 7th October 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many meetings he had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser from 1 June to 31 August 2019.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had any meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) between 1 June to 31 August 2019. The CSA’s staff regularly attend meetings as required. The CSA regularly provides written advice to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.


Written Question
Department for Education: Chief Scientific Advisers
Thursday 20th June 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many meetings he held with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.

Answered by Anne Milton

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had any meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019. The CSA’s staff regularly attend meetings as required. The CSA regularly provides written advice to my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education.


Written Question
Sex and Relationship Education
Thursday 9th May 2019

Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2019 to Question 239199, whether HIV PrEP will be taught as a method of HIV prevention in the new Relationships and Sex Education courses in schools.

Answered by Nick Gibb

From September 2020, the Department expects schools to teach the new content in the relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance. The required teaching content covers sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDs, and teaching on prevention and the importance of testing and how and where to access advice and treatment. In teaching about sexually transmitted infections, schools may choose to include information about HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in the context of HIV prevention. The guidance is clear that schools should draw on medically accurate information and set this in the broader context of the subjects as a whole.

Schools will be supported to deliver high quality teaching of relationships education, RSE and health education. This will include making training, good practice and high-quality resources available to schools.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 07 May 2019
Timpson Review of School Exclusion

Speech Link

View all Norman Lamb (LD - North Norfolk) contributions to the debate on: Timpson Review of School Exclusion

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 25 Apr 2019
Children and Young People: Restrictive Intervention

Speech Link

View all Norman Lamb (LD - North Norfolk) contributions to the debate on: Children and Young People: Restrictive Intervention