Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to issue additional guidance to local education authorities on the effect of sugar on young people's health.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The government wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished. We encourage a healthy balanced diet and healthy life choices through early years and school funding, legislation and guidance.
In July 2015 the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) published its report on Carbohydrates and Health, available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sacn-carbohydrates-and-health-report.
SACN concluded that increases in sugar consumption lead to increases in energy intake and that consuming sugary drinks results in weight gain and increases in body mass index in children and adolescents. The Committee recommended that the intake of free sugars should not exceed 5% of total dietary energy and that the consumption of sugar sweetened drinks should be minimised in both children and adults. These recommendations were accepted into government policy.
Messages on sugar are communicated via a range of different routes, including Change4Life materials of which are available to schools. The Public Health England (PHE) Campaign Resource Centre available at: https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/ is a ‘one stop shop’ for all PHE marketing campaign resources and might be of use to local educational authorities on this issue. There are no plans to provide additional guidance on this issue at this time.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the refreshed school food standards set out in the Childhood Obesity Plan; and whether those standards will reflect new requirements on dietary fibre.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The childhood obesity plan, published in August 2016, mentions that we will update the School Food Standards in light of refreshed government dietary recommendations. We are currently reflecting on the best course of action and further announcements will be made in due course.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of overseas students currently studying at UK (a) schools and (b) universities.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
(a) The Department does not have any data source that separately identifies the number of ‘overseas students’ attending schools in the UK where an overseas student is defined as a student who is not normally resident in the UK but has travelled to the UK to study.
(b) Data published by the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) shows that in 2015/16, 438,000 international students (from both EU and Non-EU countries) were enrolled in UK Higher Education Institutions. Enrolment data for 2016/17 is currently unavailable.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of faith schools that were opened in 2015; and where each of those schools are situated.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In the 2015 calendar year, 14 new state-funded mainstream schools opened in England. The table below gives a breakdown of this number by local authority.
Local Authority | Total faith schools opened in 2015 calendar year |
Birmingham | 2 |
Plymouth | 1 |
Hillingdon | 1 |
Hounslow | 1 |
Norfolk | 1 |
Staffordshire | 1 |
Kingston upon Thames | 1 |
Manchester | 1 |
Slough | 1 |
Lancashire | 1 |
Stockton-on-Tees | 1 |
Derby | 1 |
Buckinghamshire | 1 |
England Total | 14 |
Source Edubase
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list the number of faith schools in England by (a) religion and (b) local authority area.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
This information is available in the statistical first release at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2016
Figures for England are in table 2c. Figures for each local authority are in tables 7f and 7g.