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Written Question
Children: Swimming
Tuesday 27th June 2023

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to educate pupils on the potential danger of open water swimming.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Water safety is a vital life skill, which is why swimming and water safety is a compulsory part of the PE and Sport National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. Pupils should be taught how to perform safe self rescue in a variety of water based situations, including open water.

Schools can also use the Personal, Social, Health and Economic curriculum to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge necessary to make safe and informed decisions, which is a vital part of water safety.​

​The Department is working in partnership with members of the National Water Safety Forum, in particular the Royal Life Saving Society UK, Swim England, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Together with the Department, these organisations are supporting more schools to teach primary and secondary pupils important aspects of water safety, such as cold water shock, rip tides and keeping safe near frozen water.​ New resources for pupils in Key Stages 1 to 3 have been provided by the National Water Safety Forum, supporting teachers to deliver water safety in a classroom environment.


Written Question
Schools: Bolton
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2022 to Question 37614 on Schools: Buildings, which schools had at least one construction element in condition grade (a) C and (b) D in (i) Bolton South East, (ii) Bolton West and (iii) Bolton North East constituencies when that data was collated; and which of those schools (A) have received and (B) expect to receive in the next two years funding from the School Rebuilding Programme.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.

The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.

Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The Department is still preparing the data and will publish it as soon as possible.

Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.

The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.

The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:

Parliamentary constituency

Schools selected for SRP

Bolton West

  • St James CofE Primary School, Daisy Hill (announced December 2022)
  • Rowan Tree Primary School (announced December 2022)

City of Durham

  • Framwellgate School Durham (announced July 2022)
  • St Leonard's Catholic School (announced July 2022)
  • Browney Primary Academy (announced December 2022)
  • Durham Community Business College for Technology and Enterprise (announced December 2022)
  • Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Primary School, Esh Winning (announced December 2022)

The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.

Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.


Written Question
Pupils: Assessments
Tuesday 26th July 2022

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that political and Ministerial changes at his Department do not affect the (a) smooth running of this year’s exams and (b) his Department's ability to address any issues arising from them.

Answered by Will Quince

The responsibility for maintaining standards in exams lies with Ofqual, the independent regulator of qualifications. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is assured that the exam boards and Ofqual have well established processes in place to manage any issues arising with the delivery of exams and awarding and are keeping the department informed. This is not affected by political or ministerial changes.


Written Question
University of Bolton: Expenditure
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much public funding the University of Bolton has received in each year between 2010 and 2022.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on the finances of higher education providers in the UK.

Income data by the source is available for each UK higher education provider in Table 7 of HESA’s Higher Education Provider Data: Finance pages for the academic years 2015/16 to 2019/20 are available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/table-7.


Written Question
Chidren: Afghanistan
Wednesday 20th October 2021

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure effective support for refugees arriving from Afghanistan, including the enrolment of school aged children.

Answered by Robin Walker

Work is underway across government departments, and with charities and local authorities, to ensure refugees arriving from Afghanistan are properly supported so they can rebuild their lives. Local authorities will receive a funding package to support the resettlement of these families.

We are prioritising making sure that children of all ages have access to education, including by working with local authorities and other networks to make sure this can happen as soon as possible.

We are providing at least £12 million in extra education funding, which prioritises additional school places for children and young people, but also covers school transport, extra English lessons, specialist teachers and more.


Written Question
Schools: Religion
Thursday 23rd September 2021

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that pupils in Bolton South East constituency have access to a secular or community-ethos school.

Answered by Robin Walker

The government is committed to offering parents and children a diverse education system consisting of a wide variety of schools and this includes faith schools. Within Bolton South East, 24 of the 47 primary and secondary schools are not designated as faith schools.

The vast majority of parents are offered a place at a school of their choice. For the Bolton local authority, in 2021, 97.6% of parents received an offer from one of their top three choices of primary school, while 94.4 % received an offer from one of their top three choices of secondary school.

Faith schools have played an important role in our education system for many years and are popular with parents. They have a strong track record of delivering excellent education and achieving high standards and, on average, perform better than non-faith schools. These schools, like all other schools, play a vital role in promoting integration and supporting pupils to understand different faiths and communities.

Although faith schools have greater freedom to maintain their religious ethos, they remain subject to the same obligations as other state funded schools to promote community cohesion and integration, and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.


Written Question
Sixth Form Education: Students
Tuesday 27th April 2021

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking to support sixth form students to recover from disruption to their education as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

We recognise that this has been a difficult period for sixth form students and so in this academic year we provided a £96 million 16-19 Tuition Fund for all providers of 16-19 education, including school sixth forms and sixth form colleges to provide catch up tuition for those most impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. We recently announced a £102 million extension of the Fund for the 2021/22 academic year to ensure that students can recover from the disruption and continue to progress in their education. We have also appointed Sir Kevan Collins, as Education Recovery Commissioner, to advise the government on the approach for education recovery and will be working with him to develop a full catch-up programme across the education sector around focusing on time, teaching and targeted interventions.


Written Question
Housing: Bolton
Thursday 25th March 2021

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to support victims of the July 2020 cladding-based fire in the Cube, Bolton.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The fire at The Cube, a privately owned hall of residence in Bolton, took place on 15 November 2019. The department was made aware of the fire and monitored the situation. The support for students following the fire was provided by the University of Bolton. Students were found alternative accommodation in the city. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, wrote to all university Vice Chancellors following the fire asking them to review their fire safety procedures in buildings they own and to seek assurances on fire safety from private owners of student residential blocks. All of the universities responded to this request.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Coronavirus
Wednesday 10th March 2021

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate the Government has made of the rate of transmission of covid-19 in SEND schools in England; what steps his Department is taking to support SEND schools in Bolton to reduce covid-19 transmission; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising SEND school staff in the covid-19 vaccination rollout.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department continues to work closely with other government departments throughout its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector. We continue to work to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, to continue to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’ and to understand the impact and effectiveness of these measures on staff, pupils and parents.

The Department has recently published updated guidance for special schools and other specialist settings, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings.

The Department has also published its evidence summary on COVID-19 – children, young people and education settings, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963639/DfE_Evidence_summary_COVID-19_-_children__young_people_and_education_settings.pdf

The system of control measures as outlined in our guidance create an environment for staff, children, and young people where the risk of transmission of the infection is substantially reduced. Schools, colleges and nurseries, therefore, need to continue to implement these controls to the fullest extent possible.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccine/s the UK should use and provide advice on who should be offered them. The JCVI have advised that the second phase of vaccine prioritisation should continue to be based on age. They advise that an age-based approach remains the most effective way of reducing death and hospitalisation from COVID-19 and will ensure more people are protected more quickly. The second phase of the vaccine rollout will begin from mid-April and will aim to offer every adult aged 18 and over a first dose of the vaccine by 31 July.


Written Question
Sixth Form Bolton: Coronavirus
Monday 1st March 2021

Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 on Students: Coronavirus, whether Bolton Sixth Form college will receive increased bursary funding.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

We are very grateful for all the work 16-19 providers are doing to support students through the COVID-19 outbreak. We are also keenly aware of the pressures being faced by those providers and the financial difficulties that some students have.

We have made available additional funding for colleges that have seen growth in the number of students attending this year, including Bolton Sixth Form College, which received an extra £19,000 for the 16-19 Bursary Fund and an extra £8,000 for free meals – these funds can be used together to help students in need.

Last year we enabled providers to apply for additional Bursary Fund to help them meet the cost of devices and connectivity. In December we also announced that 16-19 providers with students in receipt of free meals can apply for an allocation of equipment from our Get Help With Technology scheme. As of 17 February 2021, nearly 57,000 devices have been delivered or dispatched to further education providers. Bolton Sixth Form College ordered, and has received, 262 devices.

We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.