Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when university students will be permitted to return to campuses in the UK; and what discussions he is having with universities on the safe return of students as soon as possible.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Following the review into when the remaining higher education students can return to in-person teaching and learning, the government has announced that the remaining students should return to in-person teaching no earlier than 17 May 2021, alongside Step 3 of the roadmap. Students and institutions will be given at least a week’s notice of any further return in accordance with the timing of Step 3 of the roadmap.
The government roadmap is designed to maintain a cautious approach to the easing of restrictions to reduce public health risks and ensure that we can maintain progress towards full reopening. However, the government recognises the difficulties and disruption that this may cause for many students and their families and that is why the government is making a further £15 million of additional student hardship funding available for this academic year 2020/21. In total we have made an additional £85 million of funding available for student hardship.
We are supporting universities to provide regular twice weekly asymptomatic testing for all students and staff on-site and, from May, at home. This will help break chains of transmission of the virus.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether nurseries that have closed due to covid-19 and continue to charge parents full fees are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Competition and Markets Authority issued an open letter on 28 July 2020, followed by detailed advice to the sector, following complaints from parents about allegedly unfair charging practices during early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. These are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/904194/Open_letter_to_Nursery_and_Early_Years__settings.pdf and https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Fnursery-and-early-years-sector-covid-19-restrictions-and-consumer-law%2Fnursery-and-early-years-sector-covid-19-restrictions-and-consumer-law-advice&data=04%7C01%7CCraig.McClue%40cma.gov.uk%7C13f076f944ec466e247908d89b80c830%7C1948f2d40bc24c5e8c34caac9d736834%7C1%7C0%7C637430324728268280%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=9en2gwX9WZOMNHfFhbXioDVoJg1XujuKtWgAahheiVM%3D&reserved=0.
The letter supported the government’s position that providers must be balanced and fair in their dealings with parents, and that they must avoid unfair charging practices. While contracts are a private arrangement between consumers and providers, the provisions of the letter are still broadly applicable. If parents or their children test positive for COVID-19, or are contacted by NHS Test and Trace, the principle that parents should not be charged for a service that cannot be provided without breaching government legal requirements would apply. We ask that providers continue to be fair and balanced in dealings with parents and must continue to avoid unfair charging practices.
An early years provider can access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to cover up to the proportion of its salary bill which could be considered to have been paid for from that provider’s private income. This would typically be income received from ‘parent-paid’ hours that have not yet returned because of COVID-19, and excludes all income from the government’s free entitlements. Providers should use the month of February 2020 to represent their usual income, in calculating the proportion of its salary bill eligible to be covered by the scheme, taking into account parent-paid income that has returned. Providers should adjust these proportions in subsequent furloughing applications if their income from the governments free entitlements changes.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools and education establishments are fully compliant with fire and safety regulations; and if she will ensure that checks will be made to ensure the safety of schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Responsibility for ensuring compliance with fire and safety regulations sits with the employer of staff in a school or other educational establishment. Depending on the type of establishment, the employer may be the local authority, trust, diocese or proprietor.
The Government is taking the potential impact from the Grenfell Tower seriously and as such, we are taking a strategic approach to the assessment of the wider public sector estate. The Department is undertaking an analysis of all school buildings to identify those over four storeys high, to ensure we include all buildings that are over 18m in our analysis. This analysis is to establish what, if any, external cladding has been used on these buildings.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding from the public purse was spent on the Get Into Teaching campaign in 2015-16.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The expenditure for the Get Into Teaching campaign for the financial year 2015-16 is shown in the following table:
Financial Years | 2015-16 |
Total recruitment marketing | £7,740,000 |
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many bursaries and scholarships were provided under the Your Future Their Future campaign for the academic year 2016-17; and what the value was of each of these.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Initial Teacher Training (ITT) bursaries of varying amounts are available to eligible trainees depending on the academic year in which they undertake their ITT, the subject in which they are training to teach and their highest relevant academic award. The amounts and eligible subjects change each year based on assessment of need informed by the targets and past performance.
Scholarships are awarded to those trainees who have gone through an additional selection procedure over and above that of their chosen ITT provider. These were available in 2016/17 in physics, chemistry, computing and mathematics.
Table 1 shows a breakdown of the total number of trainees who have received training bursaries or scholarships in 2016/17, and the total value of these incentives.
Table 1: Summary of the number of trainees that received Training Bursaries or scholarships in academic year 2016/17, and the total value of these bursaries and scholarships
No of trainees | Total values | ||
Bursary | Scholarship | Bursary | Scholarship |
16609 | 326 | £190,582,000 | £8,725,000 |
The numbers are based on trainee data supplied by ITT providers, but as the academic year has not yet concluded, it does not take into account trainees that have withdrawn, or deferred. Nor does it take into account reconciliation activity.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the budget for the Get Into Teaching campaign was for (a) research, insight-gathering and audience testing, (b) creative development and production, (c) media buying, (d) website design, construction and management, (e) public relations, (f) field activity and partnerships and (g) evaluation in 2016-17.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The budget for the Get Into Teaching campaign for the 2016-17 financial year is shown in the following table:
Financial Year budget (1 Apr - 31 Mar) | 2016-17 |
(a) Research, insight-gathering and audience testing | £217,000 |
(b) Creative development and production | £1,852,000 |
(c) Media buying | £10,985,000 |
(d) Website design, construction and management | £578,000 |
(e) Public relations | £200,000 |
(f) Field activity and partnerships | £0 |
(g) Evaluation | £138,000 |
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of EU graduate students who have remained in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland, employed in jobs relating to (i) science, (ii) technology, (iii) engineering and (iv) mathematics subject areas in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Destinations of students six months after leaving UK higher education institutions (HEIs) are collected and published annually by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) as part of the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey. Statistics on the destinations of EU domiciled students six months after leaving UK HEIs, including the numbers in UK employment, are published in Table 1 of HESA’s Statistical First Release. The latest statistics were published in June 2016 for students leaving their courses in the 2014/15 academic year at the following link:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/30-06-2016/sfr237-destinations-of-leavers
The occupations of employed graduates are also recorded in the DLHE survey but a standard categorisation of these into science, technology, engineering and mathematics is not available.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of EU students who have remained in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland after graduating with degrees in (i) science, (ii) technology, (iii) engineering and (iv) mathematics in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The information requested is not available. Destinations of students six months after leaving UK higher education institutions (HEIs) are collected and published annually by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) as part of the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey. However, the location of residence of higher education leavers is not collected.
Latest statistics were published in June 2016 for students leaving their courses in the 2014/15 academic year and are available at the following link:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/30-06-2016/sfr237-destinations-of-leavers
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to commit to maintaining funding for Scottish and UK higher education institutions from EU sources at or above current levels after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government has confirmed that HM Treasury will underwrite the payment of Horizon 2020 awards, even when projects continue beyond the UK’s exit from the EU. HM Treasury has also guaranteed structural and investment fund projects signed before the UK leaves the EU, as long as they provide strong value for money and are in line with domestic strategic priorities.
Decisions on both funding for higher education institutions and access to Erasmus+ following the UK’s exit from the EU will be considered as part of wider discussions about the UK’s relationship with the EU.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that early years settings and schools are aware that socket covers should not be inserted in BS 1363 sockets.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All schools and early years settings in England have a duty to keep children safe. As part of that duty we expect them to keep their health and safety policies under review and up-to-date.
Working with ‘Action for Children’ we have brought the Department of Health’s recent alert on the dangers associated with the use of electrical socket covers to the attention of early years providers in England. ‘Action for Children’ has published a notice, via the Foundation Years website, about the use of electrical socket covers in early years provision in England. This is available at: www.foundationyears.org.uk/2016/10/dfe-note-on-the-use-of-electrical-plug-socket-coversinserts-in-early-years-provision-in-england. ‘Action for Children’ has also published the information in a newsletter to early years providers.
We are currently reviewing our health and safety advice for schools, and will consider whether to include a similar reference in a future addition of this advice as part of this work.