Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the dates on which he has met with ministers or officials from the (a) Department for Work and Pensions, and (b) Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy on the Opportunity Areas Programme in the last two years; and what the outcomes of each of those meetings were.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education met my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 27 March 2019 to discuss the progress of the Opportunity Areas programme, amongst other matters. Across our 12 Opportunity Areas, the department is enabling a range of partners including Local Enterprise Partnerships, through work with the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, job centres, and through work with the Department for Work and Pensions, to help teachers remove barriers to learning and boost aspiration, for the most disadvantaged pupils and parents.