Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 46 of the Success as a knowledge economy White Paper published in May 2016, what plans she has to introduce an alternative model of student finance including Sharia-compliant student loans.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government has introduced the primary legislation required to allow alternative student finance, consistent with the principles of Islamic finance, to be offered alongside grants and loans. The Higher Education and Research Bill is currently before Parliament.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government takes to reclaim student loans from graduates from non-UK EU countries who fail to repay those loans.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Student Loans Company (SLC) has arrangements in place to collect repayments from borrowers who move away from the UK. SLC establishes a 12 month repayment schedule based on the borrower’s income and provides information on the methods of repayment available.
SLC sets up fixed repayment schedules for borrowers who do not remain in contact and will place those borrowers in arrears. Further action, including legal action, can then be taken to secure recovery.
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, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that non-UK EU nationals who graduate from UK universities having taken out student loans repay their debts within the agreed timeframe.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Student Loans Company (SLC) has arrangements in place to collect repayments from borrowers who move away from the UK. SLC establishes a 12 month repayment schedule based on the borrower’s income and provides information on the methods of repayment available.
SLC sets up fixed repayment schedules for borrowers who do not remain in contact and will place those borrowers in arrears. Further action, including legal action, can then be taken to secure recovery.
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, whether she plans to implement the Teaching Excellence Framework proposed in the White Paper entitled Success as a knowledge economy published in May 2016
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government set out a proposed implementation timetable for the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in Success as a knowledge economy.
The implementation of the TEF has been in line with the timing set out and 299 institutions, including all English members of the Russell Group, have opted in to the current round of assessments. However, as the White Paper noted, we are implementing the TEF using a staged approach. Following further consultation with the sector about implementing subject level TEF, the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation announced that we will be extending the pilot phase of subject level TEF by an additional year. Two full years of piloting is in line with the best practice demonstrated in the development of the Research Excellence Framework and recognises the additional complexity involved in developing a subject level assessment. This will mean that the first full year of subject level TEF assessments will take place in 2020.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on infraction proceedings in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given by my Rt Hon Friend, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, in PQ 36288 on 11 May 2016.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many infraction proceedings the EU has initiated against her Department in each of the last 10 years; what the reasons were for each such proceeding being undertaken; and what the outcome was of each such proceeding.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is publicly available on the website of the European Commission where the infringement cases for each member state can be found. This includes the infringement and the decision. These records go back to 2002 and can be found here.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on which occasions since her appointment she has met (a) staff from the European Commission Directorate-General (ECDG) for Communication and (b) communication officers from ECDG for Education and Culture.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Secretary of State has not met any staff from the European Commission Directorate General for Communication or communication officers from the Directorate General for Education and Culture since her appointment.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of additional places needed in (a) primary and (b) secondary education in England as a result of immigration from (i) EU and (ii) non-EU member states in each of the next five years; and what estimate she has made of the cost of providing such places.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places remains one of this Government’s top priorities. The basic need capital funding we allocate to local authorities to create new school places is based on their own data on school capacity and future pupil forecasts. Any increase in need for places should be reflected in the local authority’s final basic need allocation.
The Government has committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which, when added to our investment in the free schools programme, will help to create 600,000 new places.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for how many pupils the pupil premium has been paid in each year since its introduction; and how many pupils from which countries are eligible for the pupil premium.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Since 2011-12, schools in England have received the Pupil Premium which targets funding at pupils from the most deprived backgrounds to help them achieve their full potential. In 2011-12, the premium was allocated for each pupil known to be eligible for Free School Meals, looked after children and children of parents in the armed services. In 2012-13 coverage was expanded to include pupils known to have been eligible for Free School Meals at any point in the last six years. The per pupil amounts for each type of pupil are shown in following table in cash terms:
Pupil Premium per pupil (£) | 2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 |
Free School Meal Pupil Primary | £488 | £623 | £953 | £1323 | £1320 |
Free School Meal Pupil Secondary | £488 | £623 | £900 | £935 | £935 |
Service Children | £200 | £250 | £300 | £300 | £300 |
Looked After Children | £488 | £623 | £900 | £1900* | £1900* |
*Also includes children adopted from care
Eligible pupils attending state funded schools in England attract the premium. Information on the country of origin of these pupils is not held centrally. Details of the eligibility of pupils and how allocations are made to schools for the current financial year can be found in the conditions of grant at this link:
Details of the numbers of pupils receiving the premium in each financial year since 2011-12 can be found at the links below:
2013-14: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-2013-to-2014-final-allocation-tables
2014-15: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-2014-to-2015-final-allocations
2015-16: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-2015-to-2016-allocations
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from her Department to the Harperbury Free School governors of 17 November 2015, if she will make an assessment of the implications for housing and other planned developments in the catchment area of the proposed Harperbury Free School of the risk referred to in that letter that no suitable site can ever be found for that school.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Assessing the implications for housing and other developments is a matter for the Council rather than the Department.
In order for planning permission to be granted for a site in the Green Belt, as is the case for the trust’s preferred site, the Local Planning Authority would have to accept that there is a strong need for a school in the locality of the identified site, which they do not.