Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the value is of student loan debt assets sold to the private sector since 2010.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The value of student loan debt assets sold to the private sector since 2010 was £0.16 billion as of November 2013 and £1.7 billion as of December 2017.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2018 to Question 131183, if he will provide a breakdown of the advisory and transaction costs in the sale of the student loan book.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The advisory and transaction costs from 2013/14 to the closing of the sale in December 2017 are broken down in the attached table.
The cost against the proceeds of the sale (£1.7 billion) is less than 1 per cent and the preparation and execution spanned five years.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money his Department has raised from the sale of (a) assets, (b) land and (c) buildings in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department has raised the following income from the sale of assets over the last seven financial years.
Financial year | Amount (£) |
|
|
2016-17 | 14,316,264.38 |
2015-16 | 1,131,818.04 |
2014-15 | 0.00 |
2013-14 | 410.53 |
2012-13 | 395.89 |
2011-12 | 669.17 |
2010-11 | 0.00 |
The department does not split the data between the different categories requested, and we have yet to come to the end of the 2017-18 financial year so no monies for the current financial year have been reported in this reply.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent from the public purse on grants and loans to academies and free schools since 2015.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As of January 2018, 3.76 million pupils were being taught in academies, including free schools – 47% of the English school population. The department’s spend and loans to academies and free schools in the last two full Financial Years, is as detailed in the table attached.
We are in the process of making a routine update to the data that we hold on pre and post-opening grant allocations for free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools, following the opening of new schools in September. We will be publishing the latest data on GOV.UK in due course.
Further information can be found in the Department's Consolidated annual report and accounts, for the year ended 31 March 2017, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports and in the National Audit Office report on Converting maintained schools to academies, Feb 2018, which can be found at: https://www.nao.org.uk.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent from the public purse on the purchase and development of land and buildings for academies and free schools to date.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has committed to invest more than £23 billion in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21. This includes a combination of formula and bid-based allocations to schools, local authorities and academy trusts and centrally delivered programmes.
The Government’s free school programme was introduced in 2010 and is currently the only programme responsible for both purchasing and developing land and buildings for schools. As of 1 March 2018, there are 391 open free schools, 35 studio schools and 49 university technical colleges (UTCs), which will provide over 256,000 places when at capacity.
The Department’s total capital costs for free schools, UTCs and studio schools in each financial year since the inception of the programme, are provided in the table below.
Financial year | Total Free Schools Capital Costs1 |
2010-11 | £1m |
2011-12 | £50m |
2012-13 | £275m |
2013-14 | £704m |
2014-15 | £761m |
2015-16 | £931m |
2016-17 | £965m |
2017-18 | TBC2 |
1 Rounded to the nearest £1 million.
2 This figure will be available in July of this year once the department lays the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s annual accounts before Parliament.
A detailed assessment of the capital budget required for each free school project is carried out both before site purchases and again before construction contracts are signed. All variations to the capital budget are reviewed and approved through an established and audited capital approval process and significant variations are escalated to Ministers, the Education and Skills Funding Agency Accounting Officer and, if required, HM Treasury.
Capital funding for individual free schools, UTCs and studio schools, where costs have been finalised and are no longer commercially sensitive, are published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools.
Data publications for our other main capital funding programmes can be found at the following links:
Schools Condition Allocations and Devolved Formula Capital: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations.
The Priority Schools Building Programme: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/priority-school-building-programme-psbp.
Basic Need:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to his Department has been of the (a) sale of student loan book and (b) servicing of student loan debt.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The advisory and transaction costs were circa £16 million from 2013/14 to the closing of the first sale in December 2017. The costs of servicing the sold loans are being charged to investors on a cost recovery basis, uprated annually in line with the retail price index.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of allowing schools to admit children from one religion on integration and social cohesion.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
All schools must promote integration and social cohesion whatever their character and ethos. The Department is currently consulting on proposals to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in new faith free schools. We have proposed additional measures to promote inclusivity and community cohesion, alongside existing requirements to promote fundamental British values, which will apply to all new faith free schools. These are aimed at ensuring all pupils can play an active role in our society and are prepared for life in modern Britain. The consultation document is available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it the Government's policy to ensure that schools are open to pupils from a range of different religious and non-religious backgrounds.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We want all parents to have a real choice about which school their children attend irrespective of their background. It is also important that all schools: promote inclusivity; enhance understanding of other faiths and those with no faith; promote community cohesion; and prepare children and young people for life in modern Britain. Regardless of whether or not they have a religious character, schools should enable pupils of all faith and of no-faith to play a full part in the life of the school.
We are currently consulting on proposals to enable more high quality providers of schools, including faith schools, to establish new schools which, alongside our investment in the free schools programme, will improve choice for all.
The consultation document is available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships for people aged 16 to 19 years old.
Answered by Nick Boles
Apprenticeships are jobs which provide quality training; their availability is dependent upon employers offering opportunities. Our goal is for young people to see apprenticeships as a high quality and prestigious path to successful careers, and for these opportunities to be available across all sectors of the economy, in all parts of the country and at all levels.
There were 2.4 million apprenticeships starts delivered in the last Parliament, 26 percent of which were under 19. Our 2020 Vision sets out how we will reach 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020. This includes continuing employer-led reforms, making it more attractive for businesses to offer more apprenticeships.
We will continue to work with employers to encourage them to take on younger apprentices. Government fully funds framework apprenticeships for 16-18 year olds and will continue to do so. Other employer incentives include the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE), which offers payments of £1,500 per apprentice to employers taking on a young person aged 16-24. We are providing £85 million to extend AGE to the end of the 2016/17 academic year. The apprenticeship levy will put apprenticeship funding in the hands of employers and will encourage them to invest in their apprentices and take on more.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, why school and academy sixth forms have not been included in recommendations arising out of reviews of post-16 education and training; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Boles
Area reviews of post-16 education and training institutions are predominantly focused on general further education and sixth form colleges in order to ensure that there are high quality, financially resilient colleges across the country. Schools with sixth forms can opt in to a review, if they wish to do so, and if they have the agreement of the review’s local steering group.
Each review will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current post-16 provision in the area which will include the offer made by schools with sixth forms. Regional Schools Commissioners and local authorities will sit on local area review steering groups. These groups will identify issues with school sixth form provision, including provision by academy sixth forms, free school sixth forms, and University Technical Colleges, and feed these issues into the reviews. We expect Regional Schools Commissioners and local authorities to take account of the analysis from area reviews in any decisions they make about future provision.
The reviews are aimed at delivering a skills system that meets the economic and educational needs of areas whilst also ensuring the long term sustainability of colleges to support productivity. Early evidence from the pilot reviews indicates that there is also potential for the reviews to secure efficiency savings.