Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools (a) are affected by and (b) have been forced to close due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in Rossendale and Darwen constituency.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Departments have been asked to report on the current picture of suspected and confirmed RAAC in their estates as soon as possible. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out.
The Government published lists of education settings confirmed as having RAAC on Wednesday 6 September, and committed to providing further updates.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support SEND provision in Rossendale and Darwen constituency.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
High needs funding for supporting children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England is increasing by a further £440 million, or 4.3%, in the 2024/25 financial year, which will bring the total high needs budget to £10.5 billion, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 high needs allocations. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of provision for these children and young people.
The department has recently announced provisional 2024/25 high needs allocations for local authorities. Funding is provided to local authorities rather than constituencies. Lancashire County Council’s allocation is £203 million, which is £10.5 million more than it will receive this year, an increase of 33% per head over the three years from 2021/22. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s allocation is £33 million, which is £1.3 million more than it will receive this year, an increase of 34% per head over the three years from 2021/22.
In March 2022, the department also announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment. This funding is to support local authorities to deliver new places for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years and improve existing provision for children and young people with SEND. This funding forms part of the £2.6 billion we are investing between 2022 and 2025 and represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision.
Of the £1.4 billion announced, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council received £3.1 million and Lancashire County Council received £26.1 million.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support apprenticeships in Rossendale and Darwen constituency.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Apprenticeships are crucial in driving growth and social mobility. They boost skills across the economy and improve people's earnings and career opportunities nationwide. Since 2010, there have been 13,680 apprenticeship starts in the Rossendale and Darwen constituency, and we want to ensure that this number continues to grow.
The Accrington and Rossendale College offers high-quality apprenticeship training with a particular focus on the construction and automotive sectors. Blackburn College is supporting people to develop the skills and knowledge they need for a rewarding career in a variety of industries.
To continue this growth in starts, the government is increasing its investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, encouraging more employers across the country to recruit new apprentices. The department has introduced flexible training models, such as flexi-job and accelerated apprenticeships, to make apprenticeships more accessible, and has improved the transfer system so that levy-payers can make better use of their funds. We are also supporting employers to access apprenticeships by reducing administrative burdens and cutting by a third the number of steps needed to register to take on an apprentice.
The department recognises the vital role that small to medium-sized employers (SMEs) play in creating apprenticeship opportunities. That is why we removed the limit on the number of apprentices that smaller employers can take on, making it easier for SMEs to grow their businesses with the skilled apprentices they need.
We are also allocating an additional £40 million over the next two years to support degree apprenticeship providers to expand and help more people access this provision, on top of the £8 million investment in 2022/23.
We continue to promote apprenticeships to young people in schools and further education colleges across the country through our Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme, and UCAS will be expanding its service to allowing students to search for and apply to apprenticeships alongside degrees.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what type of heating system is the primary source of heating in each building occupied by his Department and its agencies; and what fuel is used by those heating systems.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government Property Agency (GPA) acts as a landlord to government department clients, including Cabinet Office, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for International Trade, the Department for Education and others.
The majority of GPA’s properties have heating systems served by gas fired boilers. This includes the Whitehall District Heating System, which is a system owned and operated by GPA that distributes heating to premises in the Whitehall Campus from conventional fossil fuel boilers.
GPA’s newly developed assets have utilised more carbon efficient forms of heating, such as the new hub in Birmingham at 23 Stephenson Street, which has a mechanical heat recovery system with electricity as its fuel source.
GPA has started a Net Zero Offices Programme, which seeks to remove fossil fuel boilers (where they have reached end of economic life) and replace them with more environmental forms of heating such as use of air source heat pumps and, in the case of the Whitehall District Heating System, the utilisation of ground source heat pumps. The Net Zero Offices Programmes is seeking funding for its heat decarbonisation projects through applications to the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support apprentices to catch up on the training and learning that they have missed during the covid-19 to ensure that they can finish their apprenticeship fully qualified.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The department is committed to supporting apprentices and employers to safely continue with, and complete, their apprenticeship programmes. We have introduced flexibilities to ensure that apprenticeship training and assessments can continue during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Where it is not possible and practicable for the apprentice to continue training, a break in learning can be used to allow the apprentice to return to learning at a future date. It is our goal that apprentices are able to promptly resume their apprenticeship and continue to successful completion of end-point assessment. For apprentices who have taken a formal break in learning, this will result in the planned end-date for their apprenticeship being replanned upon returning to learning to take into consideration the duration in line with the length of their break.
We continue to review the flexibilities in place to ensure high-quality training can continue allowing apprentices to undertake their learning and assessments despite current operating constraints. Our guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-apprenticeship-programme-response.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the legal basis is for the detention of students within halls of residence at Manchester Metropolitan University who are not displaying symptoms of covid-19 and have not tested positive for the disease.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The safety and wellbeing of staff and students in higher education (HE) is always our priority. The government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our HE providers in this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.
Students should follow the latest health advice, meaning that they should stay in their accommodation in the event that they, or anyone in their household, develops symptoms or are otherwise required to self-isolate.
Decisions on which measures to apply should be made by the local public health team, based on the information received through NHS Test and Trace. HE providers should work with Public Health England to agree on which instructions they provide to students and should ensure that students understand what is required of them if they need to self-isolate.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to include worker representation on its departmental board.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
I refer the Hon Member to the oral statement on Corporate Governance of 29 November 2016, Official Report, Column 1408 and to the Corporate Governance Reform Green Paper which is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/573438/beis-16-56-corporate-governance-reform-green-paper-final.pdf.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the percentage gap in earnings is between the highest-paid and lowest-paid full-time employee in her Department.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The table below shows the percentage gap in earnings between a) employees in the highest grade and average pay in the department and b) the highest and lowest paid employees in the Department.
Table showing percentage pay gaps
| Percentage Gap* |
Percentage gap between the highest grade and average (median) pay | -78% |
Percentage gap between the highest and lowest paid employees | -89% |
*Percentage gap has been calculated as (Highest Earner – Value)/Highest Earner. This figure includes the department and its agencies as at March 2016 (and does not include staff moved into the Department following Machinery of Government changes announced in July 2016)
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the percentage gap in earnings is between the pay of full-time staff in the highest pay grade in her Department and average full-time pay in that Department.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The table below shows the percentage gap in earnings between a) employees in the highest grade and average pay in the department and b) the highest and lowest paid employees in the Department.
Table showing percentage pay gaps
| Percentage Gap* |
Percentage gap between the highest grade and average (median) pay | -78% |
Percentage gap between the highest and lowest paid employees | -89% |
*Percentage gap has been calculated as (Highest Earner – Value)/Highest Earner. This figure includes the department and its agencies as at March 2016 (and does not include staff moved into the Department following Machinery of Government changes announced in July 2016)
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to publish information on the gender pay gap among its employees.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Education is planning to undertake gender pay gap analysis using salary data from 31 March 2017 and will be publishing the information as soon as possible afterwards.