Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of officials in her Department were hired via positive action schemes in the last financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All Civil Service departments work within the Recruitment Principles, as regulated by the Civil Service Commission, to recruit using a fair and open process and appoint on merit.
Departments will only limit a campaign to a specific group as a form of positive action as a proportionate response to achieve a legitimate aim as defined in section 159 of the Equality Act 2010.
The Civil Service is committed to a diverse workforce and culture of openness and inclusivity, not as ends in themselves but as means of delivering better outcomes to the citizens we serve.
The Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022 to 2025 promoting fairness and performance, published in February 2022, is positioned as an essential lever to deliver a modern Civil Service, where our values are to serve with integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality; driving our vision to be a skilled, innovative and ambitious Civil Service equipped for the future. This strategy sets out a broader definition of diversity, to include geographical, social and career backgrounds alongside the protected groups. This strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-2022-to-2025.
As set out in the Civil Service People Plan 2024 to 2027, we are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds, to create a modern Civil Service, now and for the future. This plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-people-plan-2024-2027/civil-service-people-plan-2024-2027-html#recruitment-retention--talent.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of school places in Great Yarmouth constituency (a) available and (b) requested in the next academic year.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the school capacity survey 2023, Norfolk local authority submitted to the department information on school capacity and forecast demand for school places. Forecasts are made for pupil place planning areas, which are not a standard geography and cannot be linked to parliamentary constituency. However, there is a Great Yarmouth planning area.
Using school capacity survey 2023 data, as well as information on centrally delivered programmes, the department estimated that in the 2025/26 academic year there would be 426 spare primary places and 323 spare secondary places in the Great Yarmouth planning area.
These estimates were made in 2023. These estimated spare places may or may not be available for pupil placements, as this depends on admission policies set by the individual admission authorities covering the Great Yarmouth planning area.
The department does not have information on the number of places requested for the 2025/26 academic year, as the national primary and secondary applications and offers rounds have not yet started.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the proportion of children that started secondary school who are (a) new to and (b) have early acquisition of English in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold data for children who have learnt English throughout their lifetime. Data for the proportion and number of children who are not known to have English as their first language can be found at school level in the school census publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. This measure is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, is she will make an estimate of the number of postgraduate students currently studying in UK universities that are (a) UK citizens and (b) non-UK citizens.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold citizenship data for higher education (HE) students. However, data on the domicile (permanent address) of HE students, is available via the Higher Education Statistics Agency, which can be accessed here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb269/figure-9. In the academic year 2022/23, there were 426,515 UK-domiciled postgraduate students and 455,780 non-UK-domiciled postgraduate students enrolled at UK HE providers. These figures include both postgraduate taught and research students.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children entered (a) primary and (b) secondary school in Great Yarmouth constituency in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department publishes the number of pupils in primary and secondary schools in the Great Yarmouth constituency. This data is available in the ’Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication, which is based on the January school census. The most recent figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
The publication webpage includes a school-level data file, listed under the dropdown heading ‘Additional supporting files’ as ‘School level underlying data - 2023/24 (csv, 22 Mb)’.
This file contains one row per school. The data can be filtered by school phase and constituency. Column GZ provides headcount of pupils.
Data from other academic years is available via the ‘Releases in this series’ on the publication webpage. Data on parliamentary constituencies use boundaries as they were when the statistics were published.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to prevent the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Compulsory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) should help pupils to understand that society consists of a diverse range of people. By the end of their secondary education, pupils are taught about equality and the law relating to protected characteristics, which includes sex and gender reassignment. It is important that the content schools teach is factual, age-appropriate and presents political issues in a balanced way.
The department is currently reviewing the RSHE statutory guidance. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of both the RSHE and gender questioning guidance for schools. The government is looking carefully at the public consultation responses for both sets of guidance and discussing with stakeholders. We will consider all the relevant evidence, including the Cass Review which has since been published, before setting out next steps.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers have had their employment terminated, broken down by reason, for each year in the last five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, accessible here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
The attached table provides details of the reported reason teacher contracts were terminated in the 2018/19 to 2022/23 academic years, which reflects the latest data available.
Teachers may have more than one contract, therefore individuals may be counted more than once. Figures for ‘Other reasons’ includes teachers who had a change of contract but remained at the school. Figures differ to the published number of teachers leaving service, which are based on the full-time equivalent number of qualified teachers who are not employed in a state-funded school the following year.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many complaints have been received by Ofsted from parents on teaching practices in schools in each of the last five years broken down by reason.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of children who are (a) irregular migrants and (b) were on school rolls on 4 December 2024 broken down by age.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested is not held centrally.
All children of compulsory school age living in England, including foreign national children, are required by law to receive a suitable full-time education. As such, the department does not collect, or hold, information on the migration status of school pupils.
Guidance on school access rights for foreign national students is published on GOV.UK and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/schools-admissions-applications-from-overseas-children.
The guidance sets out how local authorities and admissions authorities in England should process applications from families living outside of England and foreign national families.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many international (a) air miles and (b) flights have been completed by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials in their Department since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data on Ministers’ overseas travel and on senior civil servants’ business expenses is published on a quarterly basis. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-business-expenses-and-hospitality-for-senior-officials.