Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to form the expert panel for Gypsy, Traveller and Roma education; and who will be invited to participate in that panel.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to progress and succeed at school. There are a number of factors that influence the educational outcomes of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils and the Department is exploring the drivers for improving attainment. The Department will share its plans in due course.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the potential effect of withdrawal of the archaeology A-level on the number of students taking that subject at undergraduate level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is disappointing that AQA has taken the decision to withdraw from offering these subjects at A level. Neither subject, however, is a pre-requisite for degree level study, and both are taken by a relatively small number of students.
The option for AQA or another exam board to develop A level specifications for these subjects in future will also remain open. We are in discussion with the exam boards on this issue.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the potential effect of withdrawal of the history of art A-level on the number of students taking that subject at undergraduate level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is disappointing that AQA has taken the decision to withdraw from offering these subjects at A level. Neither subject, however, is a pre-requisite for degree level study, and both are taken by a relatively small number of students.
The option for AQA or another exam board to develop A level specifications for these subjects in future will also remain open. We are in discussion with the exam boards on this issue.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of recommendations made by the Bacc for the Future campaign before deciding which subjects to include in the English baccalaureate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) comprises the core academic curriculum: English, mathematics, the sciences (including computer science), history or geography and a language. The subjects are closely based on the facilitating subjects at A level, which the Russell Group of universities say keep a wide range of degree courses open to students.
The Government believes that, alongside the EBacc, all pupils should have access to an excellent, well-rounded education and the arts are central to this. All schools, including academies and free schools, must provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. We expect all schools to offer a wide range of options alongside the EBacc which has been designed to be limited in size so that there is flexibility for pupils to take additional GCSEs that reflect their own individual interests and strengths.
We are considering the responses to the consultation on the implementation of the EBacc, including those from the Bacc for the Future campaign, and we will publish the government response in due course.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma pupils were excluded from school in each local authority area in 2014-15.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department has not yet published exclusion information broken down by ethnic group at local authority level for the 2014 to 2015 academic year. It will be published in due course.
The information is available at national level in the ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England: 2014 to 2015’ National statistics release[1].
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of staff on the payroll of her Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. However, there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of her Department.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. However, there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.