Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 103 of the Industrial Strategy, when she plans to undertake a review into higher level technical education at levels 4 and 5.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government announced a review of higher technical education on 31 October. We want to allow T level students in 2020 to have a clear sight of progression pathways into higher education. During the review we will engage with employers, education providers, students, and others with expertise in this area and I will keep the House updated on progress.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 110 of the Industrial Strategy, when she expects the National Centre for Computing Education to be in operation.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The new National Centre for Computing Education will form part of the government’s new £84 million package over the next five years to improve the teaching of computing and drive up participation in computer science. The centre will support a national network for schools to provide training and resources to primary and secondary schools. We are currently developing plans for the delivery of the package and will be announcing more details about the National Centre in due course.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 11 of the Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the effect of funding cuts to the Adult Skills Budget since 2010 on the ability to establish a technical education system that rivals the best in the world.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Adult Education Budget (AEB), introduced in 2016-17, replaced three separate funding lines: funding for adult vocational education outside of apprenticeships (previously held within the Adult Skills Budget), Community Learning and Discretionary Learner Support. We have maintained funding for the AEB in cash terms at £1.5 billion for this year to support adult skills participation. In the 2017-18 financial year, the overall funding for adult Further Education and skills (excluding capital) is £3.4 billion. This £3 billion will be available to directly support learning (this includes funding for offender learning which is now the responsibility of Ministry of Justice). This is set out in the Skills Funding Letter 2017-18 which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-funding-letter-april-2017-to-march-2018.
Furthermore, in the Spring 2017 Budget, the government announced the investment of an additional £500 million per year in England’s technical education system once T levels have been fully rolled out. We announced £20 million to help providers prepare for the delivery of T levels and to help teachers prepare for these changes.
In the first wave of reforms to technical education, we are focussing on developing T levels as high quality level 3 technical study programmes for 16 to 19 year olds. We will consider how we adapt T levels so they are appropriate for adult learners and will review technical provision at levels 4 and 5. On 30 November we published a consultation setting out proposals for T levels and the wider reformed technical education system. It seeks views on how best to implement the reforms to make sure they are a success and meet the aims of the Sainsbury Report and the Post-16 Skills Plan.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 102 of the Industrial Strategy, when she plans to introduce revised performance measures for school and colleges performance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The school and college performance tables will be revised to take account of the introduction of T levels. A public consultation on T levels was published on 30 November and the consultation included a question on the performance measures for T levels. We will consider the responses to the consultation carefully and provide further details of revisions to performance tables in due course.
The school and college performance tables are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure the published measures are robust and relevant, and put useful information into the public domain in an easily accessible format.
Substantial reforms were made to the 16-18 school and college performance tables in 2016 and further information will be published for the first time in the 2017 performance tables to be published in January. The data that is published provides information on the outcomes of students following academic, applied general or technical courses.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will require all universities in the UK to publish regular remuneration reports.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) already requires all the institutions which it funds to publish the salaries of their Vice Chancellors in their annual accounts.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures the Government plans to introduce to regulate pay increases granted by internal remuneration bodies to Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of universities.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Universities are autonomous bodies and it is for them to determine pay arrangements for their staff. However the Government said in the 2016 Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) grant letter that,
“it is clear that efficiency includes demonstrating restraint in senior pay and remains concerned about the substantial upwards drift of the salaries of some top management.
We would like to see leaders in the sector exercise much greater restraint”.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local authorities will retain rights of overage, clawback or pre-emption or any other interest in land transferred to her as a result of the Government's recent academisation proposals.
Answered by Edward Timpson
In our recent White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, we announced our intention for the freehold of land at community schools to transfer to the Secretary of State on their conversion to Academy status. We are clear that we want all schools to become academies and are considering proposals to remove obstacles for schools - there are too many cases where negotiations over the use of land have delayed conversion to academy status.
We are now working closely with local authorities to explore how these transfers will work in practice, including how we can best minimise the costs local authorities already face in relation to resolving land issues during conversion. The Secretary of State for Education already has the power to direct that where academy land is no longer required for a school, the land or any proceeds of sale can be returned to the local authority. That power will remain unchanged. We will, in considering how best to implement these measures, of course ensure that local needs are taken into account.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether a standard precedent lease will be issued to all schools planned to be converted to an academy under her Department's recent proposals; what the proposed standard length is of such leases; whether a market rent will be charged; whether the tenant will be responsible for (a) internal and (b) structural maintenance; whether formal consent will be required from her Department before any underlettings or assignments; and whether the local authority will be (i) noted on the lease and (ii) holding an interest right on the property.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Under the proposals outlined in our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, it is our intention that academies would occupy land transferred to the Secretary of State under the terms of a standard lease. We are currently working to improve and simplify our current model lease.
The Secretary of State has a clear policy position that publicly funded education land should transfer at no cost to the public, so our intention is to replicate the existing arrangement of 125 year peppercorn leases. A tenant would in the vast majority of cases be responsible for all maintenance and repair of a site, as is the case with our current lease.
Academies already require the consent of the Secretary of State to dispose of or change the use of any publicly funded land and this is going to remain the case. We are still working with local authorities on how best to implement these measures, including discussions on how we best consider and recognise local needs and interests.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether a property management company will be created for land held as a result of the proposals to transfer land owned by local authorities to the Secretary of State as part of the policy of converting all schools to academies.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We have no plans to create a property management company to hold land transferred to the Secretary of State as a result of the proposals outlined in our White Paper for converting community schools. Our expectation is that any such land would be held by the Secretary of State to ensure the land is safeguarded for educational use.
We are separately developing proposals for a new body of property specialists to help meet our commitment to deliver 500 more free schools by 2020. Their focus will be on acquiring sites for free schools; rather than the management of existing school land. Finding sites quickly is often the biggest obstacle to opening new schools, and this proposal will help ensure we have the right people working for us to secure best value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of legal costs (a) to her Department and (b) to the academies and local authorities affected arising following the transfer of all local authority school land to the Secretary of State under the plans to convert all schools to academies; and what estimate she has made of such costs of the granting of leases to each academy under those plans.
Answered by Edward Timpson
In our recent White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, we announced our intention for the freehold of land at community schools to transfer to the Secretary of State on their conversion to Academy status. We are clear that we want all schools to become academies and are considering proposals to remove obstacles for schools - there are too many cases where negotiations over the use of land have delayed conversion to academy status.
We are now working closely with local authorities to explore how these transfers will work in practice, including how we can best minimise the costs local authorities already face in relation to resolving land issues during conversion. The Secretary of State for Education already has the power to direct that where academy land is no longer required for a school, the land or any proceeds of sale can be returned to the local authority. That power will remain unchanged. We will, in considering how best to implement these measures, of course ensure that local needs are taken into account.