Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with (a) academia and (b) industry on the (i) implications of and (ii) opportunities for the economy of artificial intelligence.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what levels of apprenticeships are offered by his Department; and how many apprenticeship starts there were at each level in each of the last three years.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department offers apprenticeships at levels 2 to 6. We plan to offer level 7 apprenticeships in the near future.
The data on apprenticeship starts is not available in the format requested. The table below provides the number of those who started an apprenticeship in the department in each of the last three years:
Year | Number of apprentice starts |
2015/2016 | 64 |
2016/2017 | 50 |
2017/2018 | 116 |
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much land (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its non-departmental public bodies owns in (i) England and (ii) the South West; and how much of that land has been identified as being surplus to requirements.
Answered by Anne Milton
The landholdings of the department are shown in the table below. This does not include land previously identified as surplus that has now been disposed. The information is correct at time of publication:
Size of the freehold of the Department for Education’s land holdings in England as at 5 February 2018
| All land (hectares) | Surplus land (hectares) | ||
| England | South-West | England | South-West |
Department | 10.69 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Agencies | 94.72 | 6.88 | 0.88 | 0.00 |
Non-departmental public body | 160.32 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Total | 265.74 | 6.88 | 0.88 | 0.00 |
Note: figures are rounded to two decimal places.
Details of the department's surplus land holdings are published on the register of surplus land and can be viewed at: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/epimstransparency.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to retain the international GCSE on school league tables in order to encourage take-up of that qualification.
Answered by David Laws
The Government announced on 24 July 2014 that the only English and mathematics qualifications that will count in the 2017 secondary school performance tables will be reformed GCSEs in those subjects or qualifications reformed to meet the same standards and expectations. The decision was taken following advice from Ofqual, the independent regulator, about the specific challenges of the first awards of reformed GCSEs in summer 2017. That advice is published online at:
www.ofqual.gov.uk/news/advice-ministers-performance-tables-2017
The present arrangements for recognising current level 1/level 2 certificates, such as IGCSEs, will end with the introduction of reformed GCSEs in all subjects.
Following the first exams in the new GCSEs, exam boards will be able to propose alternative academic qualifications for inclusion in performance tables. Any such qualifications will need to be accredited by Ofqual and be at least as demanding as and share key characteristics with the new GCSEs. New alternative academic qualifications could be recognised in performance tables from 2018.