Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether unspent funds from the Multiply Programme will be returned to HM Treasury.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Local authorities in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland can access up to £430 million across the three years of the Multiply programme. Multiply is provided as a Section 31 ringfenced grant in England. The grant arrangements for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are set out in the United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) prospectus.
There is flexibility for places to approach the delivery of interventions in response to their local needs so they can effectively support a critical skill area.
The department’s prospectus for Multiply set out a menu of interventions for local areas to draw from. Each local authority in England has submitted an investment plan, which outlines their annual predicted spend. Payments in Year 1, the 2022/23 financial year, have been made on that basis.
The department will monitor delivery against these investment plans, including facilitating peer support across local areas and sharing best practice. It is important that local interventions deliver value for money. Any underspends will be recovered by the department. Further information on how underspends will be managed is set out in our technical guidance available to all local areas.
HM Treasury rules stipulate that the department cannot carry underspends between financial years. This also applies to the wider programme.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to provisions in the Schools Bill, what steps he has taken to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place around the (a) use and (b) protection of the data collected as part of the proposed requirements to create a register of home schooled children; what assessment he has made of the compatibility of those provisions with GDPR; and to whom that register will be accessible.
Answered by Will Quince
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The proposed ‘children not in school’ registers are intended to help with the identification of children being educated otherwise than at school, so that local authorities can undertake their existing responsibilities, to ensure all children are receiving a suitable education.
All local authorities will be required to process personal data they collect and store on their register in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. This legislation requires each local authority, as a data controller, only to collect and store the minimum personal data necessary and to protect and restrict access to the personal data by implementing appropriate technical and organisational measures.
Policy changes which require personal data processing, such as the ‘children not in school’ registers, are subject to scrutiny by the data protection officer (DPO) and their team, as part of the Data Protection Impact Assessment. The DPO will discuss requirement with the Information Commissioner’s Officer as part of their duties under the ‘prior notification’ obligations in Article 36 of the UK GDPR. This will ensure there are safeguards in place to protect the data on local authority registers.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial assistance will be available for (a) institutions and (b) projects for the administration costs of bidding for funding under the Turing scheme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Turing scheme will be backed by at least £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021. We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in spring 2021 for placements taking place from September 2021. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
I am pleased to confirm that the new scheme will be administered by the same consortium of British Council and Ecorys which have been delivering Erasmus+ in the UK for a number of years, drawing on their experience of working with education providers across the UK, and ensuring continuity.
Further details of the scheme will be published shortly.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding (a) projects and (b) institutions in Wales have received through Erasmus+ in each year since 2015.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The National Agency collect and publish data on projects funded as part of Erasmus+ by devolved administration, which can be found here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
The table below shows the value of Erasmus+ projects funded in Wales from call year 2015 to 2017. This is the latest data available and can be found in table 14 here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/file/14125/download.
Value of Erasmus+ projects funded in Wales (in euros)
| 2015 Call | 2016 Call | 2017 Call |
Total value of projects funded | €6,847,551 | €8,513,375 | €8,821,941 |
The Turing scheme will be backed by at least £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021 and across the UK. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
We are also pleased to confirm that the new scheme will be administered by the same consortium of British Council and Ecorys which have been delivering Erasmus+ in the UK for a number of years, drawing on their experience of working with education providers across the UK, and ensuring continuity.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the £100 million allocated to the Turing scheme will be spent on the administration costs of facilitating that scheme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The National Agency collect and publish data on projects funded as part of Erasmus+ by devolved administration, which can be found here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
The table below shows the value of Erasmus+ projects funded in Wales from call year 2015 to 2017. This is the latest data available and can be found in table 14 here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/file/14125/download.
Value of Erasmus+ projects funded in Wales (in euros)
| 2015 Call | 2016 Call | 2017 Call |
Total value of projects funded | €6,847,551 | €8,513,375 | €8,821,941 |
The Turing scheme will be backed by at least £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021 and across the UK. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
We are also pleased to confirm that the new scheme will be administered by the same consortium of British Council and Ecorys which have been delivering Erasmus+ in the UK for a number of years, drawing on their experience of working with education providers across the UK, and ensuring continuity.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many participants there were in the Erasmus+ programme in 2020-21; and how many of those participants were from Wales.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government is committed to international education exchanges. The Turing scheme will be backed by over £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers across the UK to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks for placements to take place from September 2021. This will include information on how applications will be assessed, and funding allocated and we plan to have a call for bids much like Erasmus+. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
This scheme will be demand-led and will be open to bids from providers across the UK. As such, there is no projection as to the number of students from each nation or specific limits for any specific region.
On tuition fees, we expect these to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
On participant numbers, the National Agency collects data on Erasmus+ participation by devolved administration, available here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
Data for the programme year 2020/2021 is not currently available.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will provide details of the funding arrangements for (a) universities, (b) colleges and (c) schools under the proposed Turing scheme; and whether those institutions will be required to participate in a competitive bidding process for that scheme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government is committed to international education exchanges. The Turing scheme will be backed by over £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers across the UK to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks for placements to take place from September 2021. This will include information on how applications will be assessed, and funding allocated and we plan to have a call for bids much like Erasmus+. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
This scheme will be demand-led and will be open to bids from providers across the UK. As such, there is no projection as to the number of students from each nation or specific limits for any specific region.
On tuition fees, we expect these to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
On participant numbers, the National Agency collects data on Erasmus+ participation by devolved administration, available here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
Data for the programme year 2020/2021 is not currently available.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of students from Wales that will participate in the Turing scheme in (a) 2021-22 and (b) future years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government is committed to international education exchanges. The Turing scheme will be backed by over £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers across the UK to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks for placements to take place from September 2021. This will include information on how applications will be assessed, and funding allocated and we plan to have a call for bids much like Erasmus+. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
This scheme will be demand-led and will be open to bids from providers across the UK. As such, there is no projection as to the number of students from each nation or specific limits for any specific region.
On tuition fees, we expect these to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
On participant numbers, the National Agency collects data on Erasmus+ participation by devolved administration, available here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
Data for the programme year 2020/2021 is not currently available.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department plans to allocate under the Turing scheme to (a) projects and (b) institutions in Wales in (i) 2021-22 and (ii) future years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government is committed to international education exchanges. The Turing scheme will be backed by over £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers across the UK to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks for placements to take place from September 2021. This will include information on how applications will be assessed, and funding allocated and we plan to have a call for bids much like Erasmus+. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
This scheme will be demand-led and will be open to bids from providers across the UK. As such, there is no projection as to the number of students from each nation or specific limits for any specific region.
On tuition fees, we expect these to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
On participant numbers, the National Agency collects data on Erasmus+ participation by devolved administration, available here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
Data for the programme year 2020/2021 is not currently available.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether UK students will liable for fees in their host countries under the Turing programme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government is committed to international education exchanges. The Turing scheme will be backed by over £100 million, providing funding for around 35,000 students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements and exchanges overseas, starting in September 2021.
We will be making further information available very shortly to enable providers across the UK to prepare to bid for funding when applications open in the coming weeks for placements to take place from September 2021. This will include information on how applications will be assessed, and funding allocated and we plan to have a call for bids much like Erasmus+. Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience.
This scheme will be demand-led and will be open to bids from providers across the UK. As such, there is no projection as to the number of students from each nation or specific limits for any specific region.
On tuition fees, we expect these to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.
On participant numbers, the National Agency collects data on Erasmus+ participation by devolved administration, available here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.
Data for the programme year 2020/2021 is not currently available.