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Written Question
Teachers: Ethnic Groups
Wednesday 1st July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school teachers by ethnicity in each of the last five years.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The numbers of teachers in state-funded nursery and primary schools and state-funded secondary schools from different ethnic groups for the last 5 years is attached.


Written Question
Department for Education: Renewable Energy
Wednesday 1st July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) solar panels and (b) wind turbines his Department's buildings (a) have in 2020 and (b) had in each of the last five years.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department does not have any wind turbines, nor does it have any functioning solar panels. This has been the case across the last 5 years.


Written Question
Department for Education: Carers
Tuesday 23rd June 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will place in the Library a list of the workplace benefits that his Department provides to its staff with caring responsibilities.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department for Education provides the following workplace benefits to its staff with caring responsibilities:

  • A Flexible Working Policy which enables employees with caring responsibilities to achieve a more effective work/life balance. Flexible working offers a wide range of working patterns, for example: informal flexible working, part-time working, or remote/home working.
  • The DfE Carers Charter sets out the policies and helps managers to understand how they can best support employees with caring responsibilities.
  • A Special Leave Policy that offers a variation of leave which can be requested by employees who are carers: up to 5 days special leave with pay for domestic emergencies, statutory emergency leave for dependants, extended unplanned special leave
  • Career breaks which can be requested for a variety of reasons, including caring for dependants.

For the past five years the DfE has supported a Carers’ Support Network for its employees with a caring role. This group of volunteers provide emotional and practical support to carers as well as working to influence DfE HR Policy.

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Written Question
GCSE: Nature Conservation
Monday 22nd June 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he will introduce a natural history GCSE; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The exam board OCR has launched a consultation to gather views on what people think should be in a proposed GCSE in natural history. The Government has not made any commitment to introducing a GCSE in natural history, but we have indicated that we would consider any proposal put forward. Any such proposal would need to meet the same high standards and regulatory rules that we and the independent qualifications regulator Ofqual require from all GCSEs.


Written Question
Schools: Buildings
Monday 22nd June 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of temporary classrooms used in schools by each local authority for each of the last five years.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The number of temporary classrooms used in schools by each local authority is not held centrally within the Department.

The Department does collect information on the condition of the school estate through the Condition Data Collection programme. This information is collected at the school building level; as it does not collect information on individual classrooms, we do not have a central record of the number of temporary classrooms used by schools.


Written Question
Department for Education: Carers
Wednesday 17th June 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in his Department had caring responsibilities in each of the last five years.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The information requested is not held centrally. The Department does not collect information about how many of its staff have caring responsibilities. The Department for Education is committed to supporting its employees with caring responsibilities. It has an active carers network which has recently achieved 'Carer Confident' accreditation, one of 10 Civil Service organisations to have done so.


Written Question
Parliamentary Estate: Art Works
Tuesday 16th June 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, what percentage of art on display on the Parliamentary Estate is from (a) BAME, (b) LGBTQ+, (c) disabled and d) female artists.

Answered by Pete Wishart - Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Home Affairs)

This information is not currently held.

In future the form which is sent to all contactable artists whose work is added to the Parliamentary Art Collection collecting their personal information will be amended to allow them to declare any protected characteristics they wish to provide. This information will be added to the searchable database which holds information on all works of art in the Collection.


Written Question
Parliamentary Estate: Art Works
Tuesday 16th June 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether guidance has been issued to staff procuring art for display on the Parliamentary Estate encouraging them to choose pieces from (a) BAME, (b) LGBTQ+, (c) female and (d) disabled artists; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Pete Wishart - Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Home Affairs)

The acquisition of artworks to the Parliamentary Art Collection is decided upon by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art.

It has been a focus of the Committee’s work over the past 15 or so years to actively improve diversity in the Collection, both in terms of the artworks and the artists represented. The curatorial staff work to enable this aspiration to be achieved by the Committee.

Recent examples of this focus are the acquisition of a bust of Olaudah Equiano, a commissioned portrait of Bernie Grant MP and works from the ‘209 Women’ project, all of which are on display in Portcullis House (Atrium and first floor corridor).

A new Committee has just been appointed and will be considering this matter further as they review policies and collecting priorities.


Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 12 Feb 2019
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Funding

"I will start with my four recommendations to ensure that I get them out in time. This is my first request to the Minister: when the Department looks at the high needs block formula, can it look at the historical element, because there is no justification for the allocations? They …..."
Ed Davey - View Speech

View all Ed Davey (LD - Kingston and Surbiton) contributions to the debate on: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Funding

Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 12 Feb 2019
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Funding

"Is the Minister able to tell me, either today or in writing, how the historical spend factor in the formula was set? I understand what history is, but it needs a justification...."
Ed Davey - View Speech

View all Ed Davey (LD - Kingston and Surbiton) contributions to the debate on: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Funding