Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she was first made aware that the site initially secured for Harperbury Free School was too small for that school; and what steps she took in response to that information.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Approval to build the school on the site is subject to the views of the Local Planning Authority. They first raised concerns, alongside a range of other concerns arising from its location in the Green Belt, to my officials in March 2015.
Discussions between officials at both Departments did identify that two adjacent properties could be purchased to provide additional car parking. However, the nature of the sale of the remainder of the former hospital site to a residential developer meant that further land could not be released for the school. Even if additional land were made available, there remain substantial risks associated with developing this Green Belt site.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health on making more land available at the proposed site for Harperbury Free School to enable the planning application for that site to proceed with a site large enough to meet local planning officers' requirements.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Approval to build the school on the site is subject to the views of the Local Planning Authority. They first raised concerns, alongside a range of other concerns arising from its location in the Green Belt, to my officials in March 2015.
Discussions between officials at both Departments did identify that two adjacent properties could be purchased to provide additional car parking. However, the nature of the sale of the remainder of the former hospital site to a residential developer meant that further land could not be released for the school. Even if additional land were made available, there remain substantial risks associated with developing this Green Belt site.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, by what process her Department ensured the site secured for the proposed Harperbury Free School (a) was large enough and (b) met other requirements to be suitable for a secondary school with the capacity for up to 840 students and 70 staff.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Approval to build the school on the site is subject to the views of the Local Planning Authority. They first raised concerns, alongside a range of other concerns arising from its location in the Green Belt, to my officials in March 2015.
Discussions between officials at both Departments did identify that two adjacent properties could be purchased to provide additional car parking. However, the nature of the sale of the remainder of the former hospital site to a residential developer meant that further land could not be released for the school. Even if additional land were made available, there remain substantial risks associated with developing this Green Belt site.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's agreement with the Department of Health to secure the Harperbury Free School site included a provision that the Department of Health would meet the costs of relocating Harperbury Bowls Club elsewhere on the Harperbury site.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The negotiation for land for the site of Harperbury Free School was part of a wider land sale for new homes which was being negotiated by the Department of Health. Heads of Terms for the sale were agreed in September 2014 and subsequently revised in October 2015.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department engaged in a contract with the Department of Health to transfer land within the Harperbury site for the proposed Harperbury Free School.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The negotiation for land for the site of Harperbury Free School was part of a wider land sale for new homes which was being negotiated by the Department of Health. Heads of Terms for the sale were agreed in September 2014 and subsequently revised in October 2015.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the reasons were for the time taken for her Department and the Department of Health to reach an agreement on the site for Harperbury Free School.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The negotiation for land for the site of Harperbury Free School was part of a wider land sale for new homes which was being negotiated by the Department of Health. Heads of Terms for the sale were agreed in September 2014 and subsequently revised in October 2015.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the performance of the Education Funding Agency on the case of Harperbury Free School; and what the cost to the public purse of that school has been to date.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I have every confidence in the performance of the Education Funding Agency on this project.
The combined capital and revenue cost of the project to date is £1,919,000.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that people under the age of 16 are paid for employment; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of legal protection of children under the age of 16 who are employed.
Answered by Edward Timpson
There are legal safeguards for children of compulsory school age who are employed. These safeguards include the nature of the work that they may be asked to do, the maximum hours they may work, and the safety of their working environment. Local authorities and the Health and Safety Executive are responsible for ensuring compliance with the relevant legislation.
Minimum wage legislation does not apply to children under 16.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many unauthorised school absences there have been in (a) St Albans constituency, (b) Hertfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) the UK since 2010; and what steps he is taking to reduce such absences.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Department for Education publishes statistics on England only. Information on unauthorised pupil absence in St Albans constituency has been provided in the following table. Pupil absence rates at regional and local authority level are available in the local authority tables in the absence statistical first release for each year[1].
We know from evidence that pupils who have regular attendance at school are four times more likely to achieve five or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and maths than those pupils who are persistently absent[2]. This is why the Department for Education reduced the threshold at which pupils are classified as being persistently absent, from 20 to 15 per cent of school missed. This measure enables schools to identify earlier those pupils with troubling attendance patterns, and to do something about them.
In 2012, we increased the level of the school attendance penalty fines of £50 and £100 to £60 and £120 respectively; and in 2013 reduced the overall timescales for paying fines from 42 to 28 days. Our reforms are working. In 2012/13 persistent absence was 300,895 pupils – a fall of almost a third from 2010. 130,000 fewer pupils are now persistent absentees.
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| STATE-FUNDED PRIMARY, STATE-FUNDED SECONDARY AND SPECIAL SCHOOLS (1)(2)(3)(4): | ||||||||||||||||
| UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE RATES (5) | ||||||||||||||||
| Academic years 2009/10 - 2012/13 | ||||||||||||||||
| St Albans parliamentary constituency | ||||||||||||||||
| Unauthorised absence rate (5) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2009/10 | 0.7 | |||||||||||||||
| 2010/11 | 0.6 | |||||||||||||||
| 2011/12 | 0.6 | |||||||||||||||
| 2012/13 | 0.6 | |||||||||||||||
| Source: School Census | ||||||||||||||||
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. | ||||||||||||||||
| (2) Includes primary academies, including free schools. | ||||||||||||||||
| (3) Includes city technology colleges and all secondary academies, including free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools. | ||||||||||||||||
| (4) Includes maintained special schools, non-maintained special schools and special academies. Excludes general hospital schools, independent special schools and independent schools approved for SEN pupils. | ||||||||||||||||
| (5) The number of sessions missed due to unauthorised absence expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions. | ||||||||||||||||
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[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-pupil-absence
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183445/DFE-RR171.pdf