Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to respond to the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and whether her Department has made an assessment of the submission to the CRC by the Children's Rights Alliance England in their See It, Say It, Change It report, published in July 2015.
Answered by Edward Timpson
As part of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, the UK Delegation will attend an oral hearing with the UN Committee in May 2016. Following this, the UN will produce concluding observations, which the UK will consider.
The Government welcomes the views of children and young people. Senior officials, including the UK State Party’s delegation, have read and noted the contents of the ‘See It, Say It, Change It’ report and the Minister for Children and Families will meet with the group of young people who produced it to hear more about the issues that concern them.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what policy evaluations have been carried out by external organisations for her Department and its agencies in each financial year since 2010-11; whether the output of those evaluations was published; which organisation carried out each such evaluation; and what the value of each contract to provide that evaluation was.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education commissions external organisations to carry out policy research and evaluation. All of the commissioned research and evaluation feeds into policy strategy, development and refinement.
The department follows Government Social Research (GSR) commissioning and publication protocol and ensures research and evaluation products are made publicly available and released promptly upon completion.
Between 2010/11 and 2014/15, the department spent a total of £71.1 million on policy research and evaluation undertaken by external organisations.
The department predicts an expenditure of c.£12,000,000 on policy research and evaluation in 2015/16.
The information below covers all research and evaluation commissioned by the Department for Education and its agencies. The agencies are: the National College for Teaching and Leadership, the Standards and Testing Agency and the Education Funding Agency.
Since May 2010 the department’s commissioned work and the work commissioned by its agencies has been published on the following websites:
Department for Education (March 2010-March 2013): http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130403150653/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/RSG/AllRsgPublications/Page1
Department of Education: (Since April 2013): www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=&publication_filter_option=research-and-analysis&departments%5B%5D=department-for-education
Completed policy evaluation and research carried out by departmental agencies can also be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications
The department also funded three research centres until March 2013. The evaluations and research carried out by the research centres can be found on the following websites:
Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre: www.cwrc.ac.uk/resources/773.html
Centre for Understanding Behaviour Change: www.bristol.ac.uk/cubec/researchreports/
Centre for Analysis of Youth Transitions: www.ifs.org.uk/search/publications?centres%5B0%5D=325&sorting=newest
Details of which organisation carried out the research or evaluation studies can be found on the front page of each report.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what amount her Department and its agencies spent on research and development in each year since 2010-11; and what proportion such spending was of total departmental spending.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The total amount the Department for Education and its agencies has spent on formal research and development in each year since 2010-11; and what proportion such spending was of total Departmental spending, can be found in the table below:
Year | Research Spend Actual (£M) | Research expenditure as a proportion of total Departmental expenditure |
2010-11 | 27 | 0.046% |
2011-12 | 13 | 0.023% |
2012-13 | 14 | 0.027% |
2013-14 | 14 | 0.026% |
The 2010-2013 data is available from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) online at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-352137. The figures we have supplied for research spend for the financial year 2013/14 have already been supplied to the ONS as part of the 2014 Government Research and Development Survey. This survey has yet to be published.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of undisputed invoices her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid within five days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education and Education Funding Agency (EFA) report this information via their Annual Report and Accounts. Both links are below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014
From the first link above, on Page 57 the core Department reports 86.2% of undisputed invoices were paid within 5 calendar days during the 2013 to 2014 financial year. The Government’s target is to pay 80% of undisputed invoices within five days. The core Department is performing above this target.
From the second link above, on Page 44 the EFA reports 33% of invoices were paid within 5 calendar days during the 2013 to 2014 financial year. The EFA does not differentiate between valid and invalid invoices. This explains the lower performance figure as the majority of invoices received did not meet the “submitted correctly requirement”. The EFA is taking action to resolve these issues and there has been significant improvement, with 50% of invoices paid within five days in the final quarter of the year.
The information requested is not available for all of our agencies and non-departmental public bodies as there is no current requirement for them to report on their prompt payment performance.