To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Department for Education: Personnel Management
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the job titles are of people working in her Department's Human Resources and Transformation Directorate.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The job titles for everyone working in the Human Resources & Transformation Directorate are as follows:

  • Business Partnering and Organisation Development
  • HR
  • HR Services & Specialist Advice
  • Payroll, Reward, Policies and ER
  • Transformation
  • Workforce, Skills and Strategy

Written Question
Department for Education: Staff
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people work in her Department's (a) Human Resources and Transformation Directorate and (b) Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) team; and whether the PSED team is part of the Human Resources and Transformation Directorate.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Every department across government has a responsibility for equalities. Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), all public authorities, including government departments, are required by law to ensure that they have due regard to certain equality considerations when carrying out their functions. The government is auditing the cost-effectiveness of all equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) activities, through the review of EDI spending announced last June, to ensure value for money for taxpayers.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office will be outlining the final proposals in response to the review in due course. As at the end of February 2024 there were 156 people working in the department’s Human Resources and Transformation Directorate. The PSED team is not part of the department’s Human Resources and Transformation Directorate.

The ‘general duty’ of the PSED is in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 and requires public authorities in England, Scotland and Wales to give due regard to certain equality considerations when carrying out their functions.The department's PSED team sits within the department's central Strategy Group and ensures that the department is compliant with Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. The PSED team is resourced by 0.8 FTE. In addition, the department, through the PSED team, has a model of maintaining dispersed capacity across the department to comply with its duties.


Written Question
Department for Education: Equality
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which unit in her Department is responsible for equalities.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Every department across government has a responsibility for equalities. The Human Resources and Transformation Directorate is responsible for equalities in the Department for Education. The department also has a Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) team who can provide colleagues with advice on equalities-related issues. Under the PSED, all public authorities, including government departments, are required by law to ensure that they have due regard to certain equality considerations when carrying out their functions.

The government is auditing the cost-effectiveness of all equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) activities, through the review of EDI spending announced last June, to ensure value for money for taxpayers. The Minister for Cabinet Office will be outlining the final proposals in response to the review in due course.


Written Question
Degrees
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of degrees were awarded at first class in each year since 1994.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), now part of Jisc, collects and publishes data on student qualifications across all UK higher education providers, including data on degree classifications. Counts of first degree qualifications by class of degree for academic years 2006/07 to 2021/22 are published in Chart 9 of HESA’s Student Data, which is available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/chart-9.

The data includes students studying for first degree qualifications and excludes students who qualified with an unclassified first degree (mainly including degrees that do not have a classification, such as Medicine).

Counts for academic years 1994/95 to 2005/06 can be found in HESA’s publication archive, and can be accessed for the relevant years via the links below:


Written Question
GCE A-level and GCSE
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average point score was at (a) GCSE and (b) A level in each local authority in each year since 2010.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department produces two average point score measures at GCSE, Average Attainment 8 and Average Ebacc APS. Average Attainment 8 was first introduced to all schools in the 2015/16 academic year, and Average Ebacc APS was first introduced in the 2017/18 academic year. More information can be found in the Secondary accountability measures guide here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/progress-8-school-performance-measure. The data can be found at the following links:

Figures are based on pupils at the end of key stage 4 who attended state-funded schools in England.

The A level average point score (APS) for each local authority in England, including number of students and average grade from 2014/15 to 2022/23, are available from the links below.

Prior to that, APS data for local authorities covered all level 3 qualifications (A levels, but also other level 3 academic and vocational qualifications) where links are provided for the 2009/10 to 2013/14 academic years.

All figures are based on students at the end of 16-18 study who attended state-funded schools and colleges in England.

Note that APS data for the 2015/16 to 2022/23 academic years for A levels is on a scale of 0-60, where a grade A* is given 60 points and a grade E is 10 points. APS data for the 2009/10 to 2014/15 academic years uses an older QCDA points scale where A level grades are on the scale 0-300, where a grade A* is 300 points and a grade E is 150 points. Vocational qualification grades are scaled 0-270.

2014/15 - 2022/23 data: A level APS per entry and grade:

2009/10 to 2013/14: Level 3 APS per entry:


Written Question
Pupils: Per Capita Costs
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the funding per pupil was in each (a) secondary and (b) primary school in England in the most recent 12 months for which data is available.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Current school funding, for individual schools and at local authority level, cannot be directly compared to school funding in 2010 due to structural changes in the funding system. For local authorities, funding for schools was only identified separately from funding for high needs or early years in 2013, so comparisons cannot be made before that point. In 2018, the schools national funding formula (NFF) started to direct funding according to a consistent assessment of need, rather than historic local spending decisions. Funding changes since 2018 will therefore reflect this move to fairer funding.

Local authority level data on school funding, including average funding per pupil, is published annually as part of the announcement of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations.

The block of funding in the DSG relating to primary and secondary mainstream schools (the 'schools block') was first introduced in 2013/14. DSG data between 2013/14 and 2017/18 provides the schools block per-pupil unit of funding for each local authority. This covers both primary and secondary schools together. The department does not hold separate data for primary and secondary pupils for this period and does not have comparable data for years prior to 2013/14.

The funding system changed again in 2018/19 when the NFF was introduced. With the introduction of the NFF, funding was provided by reference to primary and secondary schools separately.

The scope of the per pupil figures pre and post-2018 are not directly comparable. In particular, the central services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in 2018/19, and instead funded separately through the central school services block from that year onwards.

Links to the published DSG tables can be found here:

2013/14

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2013-to-2014

2014/15

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2014-to-2015

2015/16

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2015-to-2016

201617

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2016-to-2017

2017/18

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018

2018/19

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pre-16-schools-funding-guidance-for-2018-to-2019

2019/20

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2019-to-2020

2020/21

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2020-to-2021

2021/22

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2021-to-2022

2022/23

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2022-to-2023

2023/24

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2023-to-2024

2024/25

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2024-to-2025

The DSG allocations are at local authority level, not at the level of individual schools. However, notional school level funding data is published annually in the NFF school impact table, including notional funding per pupil. However, this does not represent the level of funding that individual schools will necessary ultimately receive, as schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ local funding formulae.

Links to the latest NFF school impact tables can be found here:

2023/24

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2023-to-2024

2024/25

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2024-to-2025


Written Question
Pupils: Per Capita Costs
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average funding per pupil in state (a) primary and (b) secondary schools was in each local authority in each year since 2010.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Current school funding, for individual schools and at local authority level, cannot be directly compared to school funding in 2010 due to structural changes in the funding system. For local authorities, funding for schools was only identified separately from funding for high needs or early years in 2013, so comparisons cannot be made before that point. In 2018, the schools national funding formula (NFF) started to direct funding according to a consistent assessment of need, rather than historic local spending decisions. Funding changes since 2018 will therefore reflect this move to fairer funding.

Local authority level data on school funding, including average funding per pupil, is published annually as part of the announcement of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations.

The block of funding in the DSG relating to primary and secondary mainstream schools (the 'schools block') was first introduced in 2013/14. DSG data between 2013/14 and 2017/18 provides the schools block per-pupil unit of funding for each local authority. This covers both primary and secondary schools together. The department does not hold separate data for primary and secondary pupils for this period and does not have comparable data for years prior to 2013/14.

The funding system changed again in 2018/19 when the NFF was introduced. With the introduction of the NFF, funding was provided by reference to primary and secondary schools separately.

The scope of the per pupil figures pre and post-2018 are not directly comparable. In particular, the central services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in 2018/19, and instead funded separately through the central school services block from that year onwards.

Links to the published DSG tables can be found here:

2013/14

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2013-to-2014

2014/15

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2014-to-2015

2015/16

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2015-to-2016

201617

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2016-to-2017

2017/18

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018

2018/19

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pre-16-schools-funding-guidance-for-2018-to-2019

2019/20

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2019-to-2020

2020/21

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2020-to-2021

2021/22

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2021-to-2022

2022/23

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2022-to-2023

2023/24

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2023-to-2024

2024/25

https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2024-to-2025

The DSG allocations are at local authority level, not at the level of individual schools. However, notional school level funding data is published annually in the NFF school impact table, including notional funding per pupil. However, this does not represent the level of funding that individual schools will necessary ultimately receive, as schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ local funding formulae.

Links to the latest NFF school impact tables can be found here:

2023/24

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2023-to-2024

2024/25

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2024-to-2025


Written Question
Office for Students: Equality
Tuesday 5th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in the Office for Students have job titles which include the words (a) equality, (b) diversity, (c) inclusion, (d) gender, (e) LGBT and (f) race.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department does not hold this information. The job titles of staff at the Office for Students are a matter for the Office for Students.


Written Question
Education and Skills Funding Agency: Equality
Tuesday 5th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in the Education and Skills Funding Agency have job titles which include the words (a) equality, (b) diversity, (c) inclusion, (d) gender, (e) LGBT and (f) race.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department does not hold the information requested. The department does not hold information on job titles, as the department’s records are by job grade only.


Written Question
Department for Education: Equality
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in their Department have job titles that include the words (a) equality, (b) diversity, (c) inclusion, (d) gender, (e) LGBT and (f) race.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The information requested is not held centrally. Departmental records are categorised by job grade only.