Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure equality in survivor benefits for widows and widowers in the Teachers’ pension scheme.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Pensions for widows were introduced in 1972 to most public sector pension schemes, including the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). Surviving partner pensions were extended in 1988 to cover widowers, in 2005 for civil partners and in 2014 for same sex marriage spouses. The Government has made it clear that it believes that it is right that married same sex couples and civil partners should be treated equally to married opposite sex couples. That is why TPS legislation ensures that survivor benefits, accrued since 1988, are built up equally for all legal relationships.
The Supreme Court Case of Walker v Innospec, has confirmed that the surviving partner of a pension scheme member must not be treated differently based on their sexual orientation. HM Treasury is responsible for policy in this area and will soon provide instructions to departments on the implication of the Walker case. When the full extent of this ruling is understood, we will take all steps necessary to ensure the TPS complies.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on ensuring that DBS checks for volunteers and governors who volunteer at multiple schools remain valid across all schools.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had discussions with my Rt hon. Friend, the Home Secretary about DBS checks for school volunteers, including governors. Department officials maintain regular contact with the Home Office and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and are involved in key discussions on policy development.
Statutory safeguarding guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2, explains the circumstances in which schools are required to obtain DBS checks for staff, governors and volunteers. Where a person moves between roles in schools or between schools, provided the ‘level’ of DBS check required for each role is identical, there is nothing to prevent a school from accepting previously issued certificates. It is for schools to decide whether to accept a previously issued DBS certificate.
DBS offer an online Update Service that reduces the need for individuals who subscribe to the service to apply for multiple checks to work with different organisations. Where the individual consents, a school can use the service to carry out a free online check to confirm if the information released on the DBS certificate is up-to-date. This helps shorten the time taken by employers to decide on suitability. DBS checks and subscription to the Update Service are free for those in unpaid roles.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of teacher recruitment and retention.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Teaching remains a popular profession. There are now more teachers in our schools than ever before – 15,500 more since 2010. Secondary postgraduate recruitment is at its highest level since 2011.
Teacher retention remains stable and the number of teachers returning to the profession is up 8% since 2011.
However, we continue to invest significant sums in teacher recruitment and are actively addressing the issues that teachers cite as reasons for leaving the profession.