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Written Question
Children: Literacy
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of having subtitles switched on as a default for children's television programmes and films on children's literacy levels.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department has recently made an assessment of the evidence behind the Turn on the Subtitles campaign and the current evidence is inconclusive as to whether turning on the subtitles improves children’s reading. It is the choice of parents and carers whether their child watches television with the subtitles on.

The government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards, ensuring all children can read fluently. There is a supportive package of measures in place which aims to benefit the most disadvantaged pupils and is a key step in our mission to level up education standards in England. This includes the £67 million English Hubs programme which is now in its sixth year of delivery. It also incorporates the updated Reading Framework, an updated list of validated phonics programmes, funding for the purchase of phonics programmes and the National Professional Qualification in Leading Literacy.


Written Question
Overseas Students
Thursday 11th May 2023

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent fiscal assessment she has made of the value to GDP that international students bring to the UK economy per year.

Answered by Robert Halfon

International students make a significant economic and cultural contribution to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector. We have met our International Education Strategy ambition to attract at least 600,000 international students for the second consecutive year.

International students have a major economic impact in the UK through their spending on tuition fees and living expenditure. Statistics published by the department show that in 2020, total revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity was £25.6 billion, with the total revenue from HE being £19.5 billion. This data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/uk-revenue-from-education-related-exports-and-transnational-education-activity/2020.

London Economics have calculated the net economic impact of international students to the UK economy, taking into account not just the value of spending by international students, but also indirect effects, and the spending of friends and families visiting international students. It also takes into account the costs to my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer associated with teaching and supporting international students and the costs of providing public services, such as healthcare, to international students and their dependants. They estimate that for the 2018/19 cohort, the net economic impact of international students to the UK was an estimated £25.9 billion, representing around £95,000 per ‘typical’ international student. This figure does not include other sources of value that international students bring to the UK, such as tax revenues, improved longer-term trade and investment links and wider cultural and social benefits. The report can be found at: https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2021/09/09/the-costs-and-benefits-of-international-higher-education-students-to-the-uk-economy/#:~:text=The%20costs%20and%20benefits%20of%20international%20higher%20education,public%20services%2C%20which%20are%20put%20at%20%C2%A32.9%20billion.


Written Question
Public Service: Conduct
Friday 22nd July 2022

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether any teachers of politics and citizenship in England have made formal complaints to his Department on the need for public officials to uphold the standards of public life since 2010.

Answered by Will Quince

This information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Adoption
Monday 16th May 2022

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 8 March 2021 to Question 162716 on Adoption, what recent steps his Department has taken to make the Houghton Report publicly available; and what his planned timetable is for making that report available.

Answered by Will Quince

The department commits to making the Houghton Report publicly available within the next six weeks.


Written Question
Department for Education: Official Hospitality
Wednesday 5th January 2022

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether any social events took place between three or more people within the Department for Education buildings between (a) 5 November 2020 and 1 December 2020 and (b) 16 December 2020 and 22 February 2021.

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

This information is not collected. At the time, staff were expected to work from home and undertake meetings remotely, wherever possible. Some people did need to work from the office and, if so, they had to comply with relevant requirements. The Cabinet Office investigation will establish the facts surrounding a work-related gathering at the Department for Education on 10 December 2020, which the Department has publicly acknowledged.


Written Question
Human Papillomavirus: Curriculum
Wednesday 16th June 2021

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including education on the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in the school curriculum, to (a) help tackle stigma and misconceptions, (b) improve knowledge of cervical screening and cervical cancer, and (c) ensure informed consent for the HPV vaccine.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Pupils need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal, and social lives in a positive way. That is why we have made health education compulsory in all state-funded schools in England alongside making relationships education for primary pupils and relationships and sex education for secondary pupils compulsory, collectively known as relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).

As part of the statutory curriculum at secondary school, pupils will be taught how the different sexually transmitted infections are transmitted, how risk can be reduced, and the importance of and facts about testing.

The Department has also published implementation guidance and teacher training modules covering all the RSHE topics to help schools develop their curricula and teach the subjects confidently and effectively: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health. The module covering intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health, states specifically that pupils should be taught about the NHS human papillomavirus vaccine scheme and the protection it offers and links schools to the relevant content on the NHS website.

More generally, at primary school, pupils will be taught about the facts and science relating to immunisation and vaccination. This knowledge is developed at secondary level to include the prevention of infection, including the facts and science related to antibiotics, the immune system, how vaccines work and the need for booster jabs.


Written Question
Adoption
Monday 8th March 2021

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the debate on forced adoption in the UK of 12 July 2018, Official Report, column 1187, whether he has met with any victims of the historic practice of forced adoption in the UK since that date; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Vicky Ford

Following on from the debate in 2018, I can confirm that my hon. Friend, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families and current Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department of Health and Social Care, Nadhim Zahawi, met with the hon. Member for Wirral South on 24 October 2018. The meeting was attended by a number of women who had experienced these historical adoption practices. I understand it was a very difficult and moving experience to hear from women who gave up their children under historical adoption practices.

However, whilst we cannot undo the past, we now have a society that takes a very different attitude to single mothers and lessons of the time have been learned and have led to significant changes to legislation and practice.

Single parents are now supported to help ensure that families can stay together, and children are only removed permanently without the consent of the parents by a court if it is satisfied that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to suffer significant harm.

NHS maternity services now have robust policy, guidance and processes in place to safeguard care for vulnerable women and babies.

I understand in the 2018 debate Minister Zahawi committed to making the 1972 Houghton Report available. I will ensure this is publicly available as soon as possible.


Written Question
Adoption
Monday 8th March 2021

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the debate on forced adoption in the UK of 12 July 2018, Official Report, column 1187, whether he has met with any victims of the historic practice of forced adoption in the UK since that date; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Vicky Ford

Following on from the debate in 2018, I can confirm that my hon. Friend, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families and current Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department of Health and Social Care, Nadhim Zahawi, met with the hon. Member for Wirral South on 24 October 2018. The meeting was attended by a number of women who had experienced these historical adoption practices. I understand it was a very difficult and moving experience to hear from women who gave up their children under historical adoption practices.

However, whilst we cannot undo the past, we now have a society that takes a very different attitude to single mothers and lessons of the time have been learned and have led to significant changes to legislation and practice.

Single parents are now supported to help ensure that families can stay together, and children are only removed permanently without the consent of the parents by a court if it is satisfied that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to suffer significant harm.

NHS maternity services now have robust policy, guidance and processes in place to safeguard care for vulnerable women and babies.

I understand in the 2018 debate Minister Zahawi committed to making the 1972 Houghton Report available. I will ensure this is publicly available as soon as possible.


Written Question
Adoption
Monday 8th March 2021

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the findings from the 1972 Houghton Report on adoption; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Vicky Ford

Following on from the debate in 2018, I can confirm that my hon. Friend, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families and current Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department of Health and Social Care, Nadhim Zahawi, met with the hon. Member for Wirral South on 24 October 2018. The meeting was attended by a number of women who had experienced these historical adoption practices. I understand it was a very difficult and moving experience to hear from women who gave up their children under historical adoption practices.

However, whilst we cannot undo the past, we now have a society that takes a very different attitude to single mothers and lessons of the time have been learned and have led to significant changes to legislation and practice.

Single parents are now supported to help ensure that families can stay together, and children are only removed permanently without the consent of the parents by a court if it is satisfied that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to suffer significant harm.

NHS maternity services now have robust policy, guidance and processes in place to safeguard care for vulnerable women and babies.

I understand in the 2018 debate Minister Zahawi committed to making the 1972 Houghton Report available. I will ensure this is publicly available as soon as possible.


Written Question
Pupils: Coronavirus
Thursday 1st October 2020

Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Departments' policy is on measuring attendance rates at schools where children have been sent home from school due to a covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Nick Gibb

School attendance rates are based on the data collected via the termly school census. Data relating to the autumn term of the 2020-21 academic year will be collected as part of the spring 2021 census.

The Department has included an additional category ‘not attending in circumstances relating to coronavirus’ for use in situations as outlined in the following guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance/addendum-recording-attendance-in-relation-to-coronavirus-covid-19-during-the-2020-to-2021-academic-year.

Sessions recorded under this category will not count towards normal absence in the statistical releases derived from this data.

In addition to the termly school census, the Department is monitoring data collected daily from schools who are self-reporting and manually inputting data through a web portal each day. We ask schools where children have been sent home due to a COVID-19 outbreak to provide the number of pupils and students not attending due to a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19, and those that have been requested to remain home due to a potential contact with COVID-19.