Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Office for Students spent on equality and diversity training in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all Equality, Diversity and Inclusion spending in the Civil Service. The audit forms part of the Government’s drive to improve productivity across the public sector by reducing waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in Solihull constituency were entitled to the pupil premium in the last academic year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government provides additional funding through the Pupil Premium to support disadvantaged pupils. The Pupil Premium rates have increased by 5% for 2023/24, which takes the total Pupil Premium funding to almost £2.9 billion nationally.
As of June 2023, 3,521 pupils attending schools in the Solihull constituency were eligible for Pupil Premium, equating to £4,418,980 in funding. The Department publishes Pupil Premium allocations, including at constituency level, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average time taken to respond to public inquiries by her Department was in each of the last five years; and whether she plans to introduce measures to improve response times.
Answered by Nick Gibb
By the nature of their work, inquiries deal with complex and often cross-cutting issues. It is important that the Government properly considers its response to such issues and ensures cross Departmental alignment. The Department has not issued a response to any public inquiry that has concluded within the last five years.
Public inquiries are an important mechanism to allow the Government to learn lessons for the future. The Department takes recommendations from public inquiries seriously and recognises the importance of taking time to thoroughly consider its response.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, including written parliamentary questions (WPQs). The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to WPQs to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.
All Departments also have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
The below table provides the percentage of WPQs answered on time, and the average number of working days to respond, which were received from Members of the House of Commons and due for answer between 1 March 2023 and 31 August 2023.
Total WPQs answered | % WPQs answered on time | Average working days to respond |
1,576 | 86.3% | 6.1 |
Footnotes:
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) enhance cybersecurity and (b) protect personal data.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Being cyber secure and protecting personal data underpins everything we do in the Department. In accordance with the Government Cyber Security Strategy, the Department is working to ensure that its critical functions will be significantly hardened to cyber attack by 2025, with all government organisations across the whole public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities and attack methods no later than 2030.
The Department continues to focus on the development of secure services and the Department’s ability to detect and respond to cyber incidents, including within the supply chain. The Department’s cyber team continues to work closely with colleagues across government, including at the National Cyber Security Centre, to manage its cyber risk.
The Department is engaged with the newly launched GovAssure process, which will ensure that cyber security is delivered effectively and consistently across government.
The Department takes the protection of personal data very seriously. All personal data is handled in accordance with the Department's data protection policy, which ensures that the Department has put in place appropriate and effective measures to make sure it complies with data protection law. The Department’s staff have access to a number of policies, operational procedures and guidance to give them appropriate direction on the application of data protection legislation. The Department also implements appropriate technical and organisational measures in an effective manner to ensure compliance with data protection principles. This is done by applying adequate resources and controls to document UK General Data Protection Regulation compliance.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, including written parliamentary questions (WPQs). The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to WPQs to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.
All Departments also have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
The below table provides the percentage of WPQs answered on time, and the average number of working days to respond, which were received from Members of the House of Commons and due for answer between 1 March 2023 and 31 August 2023.
Total WPQs answered | % WPQs answered on time | Average working days to respond |
1,576 | 86.3% | 6.1 |
Footnotes:
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to ministerial correspondence to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.
The deadlines set by government departments and agencies for responding to correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers should not exceed 20 working days. The Department has set a more ambitious deadline of 18 days to ensure a customer-centred approach.
The table below provides the volumes of correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers received between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023.
Receipt Date | Correspondence from MPs and Peers | On time 18 days | On time 20 days | Average time to reply |
01/01/2023 – 30/06/2023 | 4,029 | 70.4% | 72.3% | 23 days |
The timeliness of Ministerial Correspondence is reviewed weekly by Ministers and the Permanent Secretary and continues to be a priority.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Official National Statistics on Freedom of Information (FOI) performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
The Department continually monitors and looks for ways to improve its FOI performance.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to ministerial correspondence to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.
The deadlines set by government departments and agencies for responding to correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers should not exceed 20 working days. The Department has set a more ambitious deadline of 18 days to ensure a customer-centred approach.
The table below provides the volumes of correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers received between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023.
Receipt Date | Correspondence from MPs and Peers | On time 18 days | On time 20 days | Average time to reply |
01/01/2023 – 30/06/2023 | 4,029 | 70.4% | 72.3% | 23 days |
The timeliness of Ministerial Correspondence is reviewed weekly by Ministers and the Permanent Secretary and continues to be a priority.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average response time to subject access requests was by their Department in the latest period for which data is available; and if they will make an assessment of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department measures whether a subject access request (SAR) received did or did not receive a response within the legal deadline. It is, therefore, not possible to report on actual clearance time averages. The legal deadline is within one calendar month, or three months if deemed complex. For quarter one, 2023/24 performance for completion within timeframe was 99%.