Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the level of funding for special education needs pupils in schools.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Our ambitions for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are exactly the same as for every other child and young person. As part of this, we are pleased to announce that we will be providing an additional £700 million, 10% in high needs funding next year alone, which will help local authorities to ensure that they can continue to offer the right support for children and young people with the most complex SEND.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to lifelong learning.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Our adult skills system seeks to improve productivity, employment levels and social inclusion. It supports people who are starting out in their careers, those who want to upskill and those who want or need to change careers.
Adult skills and lifelong learning provision includes:
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to introduce requirements for schools to teach pupils in secondary school about the dangers of gambling online.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants all schools to deliver a high-quality education that ensures all young people are equipped with the knowledge they need to prepare them for adult life, including the risks associated with harmful behaviour and addiction.
Schools are required to teach a balanced and broad curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares pupils for the opportunities, experiences and responsibilities of later life. The Department is aware that some schools choose to teach about gambling and addiction in an age-appropriate way, as part of their wider school curriculum or through Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE).
The non-statutory PSHE programme of study, published by the PSHE Association, includes teaching about gambling (including online) and its psychological and financial impact. There are also organisations that work with schools and children to raise awareness of the risks around gambling, including the Young Gamblers Education Trust.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2017 to Question 65926, on overseas students: loans, for what reason there was an increase in the outstanding balance from 2014-15 to 2015-16; and for what reasons the 18 per cent increase in the outstanding balance sits alongside an 11 per cent increase in the amount lent.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The total amount loaned out as English student loans in the financial year 2015-16 increased by 11% compared to the financial year 2014-15 due to increasing numbers of students receiving support and a higher proportion of those students being entitled to more financial support as they are on post-2012 tuition fee loan arrangements.
The main reason the outstanding balance of English student loans was 18% higher at the end of the financial year 2015-16 was that more was loaned out (and therefore added to the outstanding balance) than was repaid in the financial year 2015-16.
A more complete breakdown of the English student loan book can be found in table 1 of the Student Loans Company (SLC) Statistical First Release (SFR) Student Loans in England.
http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/england.aspx
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2017 to Question 65926, on overseas students: loans, for what reasons 4.8 per cent of borrowers residing in the UK are not required to repay their student loans.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Student loan borrowers who are liable to repay their loan and known to be in the UK can be categorised as ‘status that does not require repayment at this point’ for a number of reasons. Most typically these are borrowers who were known by Student Loans Company to have been resident in the UK and had confirmed they were not working, or HMRC or DWP advised that they had been receiving benefits.
Further information on how the repayment statuses are categorised can be found in the ‘Notes for Users’ section of the Statistical First Release.
http://www.slc.co.uk/media/7594/slcsfr012016.pdf
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2017 to Question 65926, on overseas students: loans, if she will take steps to reduce the number of borrowers who have not repaid their loans.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Department is taking action to reduce the number of borrowers due to repay who are not repaying their loans.
If borrowers based overseas fail to remain in contact with the SLC, the SLC will set up a fixed repayment schedule and will place those borrowers in arrears. Borrowers with post-2012 loans who have not remained in contact with the SLC are charged the maximum interest rate of RPI+3% until they get back in touch. Further action, including legal action, can then be taken to secure recovery. The SLC established a dedicated Repayments Evasion Unit in 2016 to detect borrowers overseas who fail to comply with their statutory obligations to repay their loans.
The Department published a Joint Repayment Strategy in February 2016, which sets out how action will be taken to trace borrowers and act to recover loans where avoidance or evasion is identified. This publication can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/student-loan-repayment-strategy.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2017 to Question 65926, on overseas students: loans, what proportion of the 2.8 per cent of borrowers resident overseas are (a) British, (b) EU and (c) non-EU nationals; and what the total value of the amount lent to borrowers resident overseas is.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Statistics covering English student loans are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Student Loans in England’.
The latest statistics show that there were around 113,600 English student loan borrowers, liable to repay, who were known to be overseas at the beginning of the financial year 2016-17. Of these around 25,300 (22%) were EU domiciled borrowers (those resident in the EU prior to studying).
Data provided by SLC shows that the overall outstanding loan balance of these borrowers resident overseas was around £1.6 billion, of which around £220 million (14%) was held by EU domiciled borrowers.
Information has been provided on the basis of the borrower’s prior residence as equivalent information on the basis of the borrower’s nationality would only be available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2017 to Question 65926, on overseas students: loans, for what reasons the amount lent in 2015-16 was greater than that lent in 2014-15; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The increased spend in tuition fee loans to both English and EU domiciled students in the financial year 2015-16 is due to increasing numbers of students receiving support and a higher proportion of those students being on post-2012 tuition fee loan arrangements.
Statistics covering English student support paid to English and EU domiciled borrowers in each academic year are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Student Support for Higher Education in England’.
http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of the Higher Education Policy Institute report, Higher Education in New Zealand: What might the UK learn, published in July 2016.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Department for Education welcomes any lessons learned and insights on approaches adopted by other countries.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total amount owed by non-UK EU graduates in English student loans has been in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Statistics covering English student loans are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Student Loans in England’.