Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her interview with Sky News on 4 September 2023, if she will provide details of the portacabin providers her Department has contracted to provide temporary accommodation for schools affected by the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Answered by David Johnston
This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the maintenance of their schools. These responsible bodies may deploy temporary buildings for a wide range of reasons, not all of which will relate to building or refurbishment works. In addition, most building and refurbishment works within schools and colleges do not involve RAAC and will not require the involvement of the Department. The Department does not therefore hold information on the number of schools using temporary classrooms.
Where schools need to vacate buildings due to RAAC, they use a range of different types of accommodation including accommodation on and off site. On site accommodation can include semi rigid structures and temporary classrooms. Where this is the case, the Department is working with three contractors to accelerate the installation of temporary units in particular. The Department has not, therefore, produced central estimates of the number of temporary classrooms required, however, we can confirm that we have secured significant capacity to meet current needs, and can increase this if necessary. Our focus is on working closely with individual settings to make sure they have workable plans for their individual circumstances and context. Based on the experience where RAAC assessed as critical was found, the Department expects the vast majority will be able to continue to provide face to face teaching with either minimal or no disruption.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on how many portacabins have been supplied by each provider to schools which need temporary accommodation because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC); and how much her Department has paid to each such provider.
Answered by David Johnston
This Government has taken more proactive action on RAAC than any other in the UK.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, Local Authorities, and voluntary aided school bodies – who work with their schools on a day to day basis, to manage the maintenance of their schools. These responsible bodies may deploy temporary buildings for a wide range of reasons, not all of which will relate to building or refurbishment works. In addition, most building and refurbishment works within schools and colleges do not involve RAAC and will not require the involvement of the Department. The Department does not therefore hold information on the number of schools using temporary classrooms.
Where schools need to vacate buildings due to RAAC, they use a range of different types of accommodation including accommodation on and off site. On site accommodation can include semi rigid structures and temporary classrooms. Where this is the case, the Department is working with three contractors to accelerate the installation of temporary units in particular. The Department has not, therefore, produced central estimates of the number of temporary classrooms required, however, we can confirm that we have secured significant capacity to meet current needs, and can increase this if necessary. Our focus is on working closely with individual settings to make sure they have workable plans for their individual circumstances and context. Based on the experience where RAAC assessed as critical was found, the Department expects the vast majority will be able to continue to provide face to face teaching with either minimal or no disruption.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of accrued interest on student loans on the ability of women to pay off student loan debts.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Government wants a sustainable student finance system that is fair to students and taxpayers, and which continues to enable anyone with the ability and the ambition to benefit from higher education to do so. The student finance system will continue to protect borrowers, including women on maternity leave, or any person on any form of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Student loan repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant repayment threshold.
The recent student loan, Plan 5 reforms, will make the student loan system fairer for taxpayers and fairer for students, helping to keep the system sustainable in the long term. The new loan plan asks graduates to repay for longer and from an income threshold of £25,000 per year, but also increases certainty for borrowers by reducing interest rates to match inflation only. This change ensures that borrowers on the new Plan 5 terms will not repay, under those terms, more than they originally borrowed over the lifetime of their loans, when adjusted for inflation.
Lower earners will still be protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold of, currently, £25,000 per year, they won’t be required to make any repayments at all. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of borrower protection.
A comprehensive equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022. More information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure there is no adverse financial impact on women of student loan interest accrued while they are on maternity leave.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Government wants a sustainable student finance system that is fair to students and taxpayers, and which continues to enable anyone with the ability and the ambition to benefit from higher education to do so. The student finance system will continue to protect borrowers, including women on maternity leave, or any person on any form of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Student loan repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant repayment threshold.
The recent student loan, Plan 5 reforms, will make the student loan system fairer for taxpayers and fairer for students, helping to keep the system sustainable in the long term. The new loan plan asks graduates to repay for longer and from an income threshold of £25,000 per year, but also increases certainty for borrowers by reducing interest rates to match inflation only. This change ensures that borrowers on the new Plan 5 terms will not repay, under those terms, more than they originally borrowed over the lifetime of their loans, when adjusted for inflation.
Lower earners will still be protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold of, currently, £25,000 per year, they won’t be required to make any repayments at all. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of borrower protection.
A comprehensive equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022. More information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in the London Borough of Brent received what funding from the National Tutoring Programme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has published school-level information on funding provided through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) for the 2022/23 academic year. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-tutoring-programme-ntp-allocations-for-2022-to-2023-academic-year. This information includes the Local Authority of each school that received funding.
Information for the 2021/22 academic year is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-led-tutoring-conditions-of-grant. This information includes funding provided to schools during the 2021/22 academic year and the net funding position for each school following recovery of any unspent funding. This information applies to school-led tutoring only.
School-led tutoring accounted for 84% of the NTP courses delivered in the 2021/22 academic year in the London Borough of Brent. Data on funding received by schools that employed Academic Mentors in the first year of the programme is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase opportunities for (a) exposure to and (b) engagement with the arts in secondary schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to encourage the uptake of creative subjects at GCSE level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing an arts premium to encourage state schools to increase the (a) range and (b) quality of arts provision.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has provided to further education colleges in London in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) allocates funding to further education colleges throughout England. These colleges can either have multiple sites or be part of a group, both in and out of London, therefore it is not possible to identify specific London colleges.
From academic year 2019/20, part of the Adult Education Budget (AEB) was devolved so funding for London AEB learners will be through the Greater London Authority.
For national ESFA funded providers, we publish provider allocations here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations#published-allocations and https://www.gov.uk/guidance/19-funding-allocations#published-allocations.
The values we publish relate directly to 16 to 19 and 19+ allocations, so will exclude funding from any other sources.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeships have been started in the hospitality industry in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The most recent statistics on apprenticeship starts by industry sector cover the academic years 2012/13 to 2019/20 and are published on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/apprenticeships-in-england-by-industry-characteristics.
The attached table shows the number of apprenticeship starts in the accommodation and food service industry in England between academic years 2015/16 and 2019/20.