Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she expects to set out her plans to implement the recommendations in Sir Adrian Smith's review of post-16 mathematics, published on 20 July 2017.

Professor Sir Adrian Smith’s review of post-16 mathematics concludes that Government, employers, schools and colleges must take greater action to encourage and support more young people to choose mathematics post-16.

My letter to Sir Adrian, published alongside the review on 20 July 2017, discussed a number of his recommendations against which we have been able to take immediate action. These include the development of a robust technical education system and our work with the Royal Society and British Academy to encourage universities and employers to better signal the value of level 3 mathematics qualifications.

We have also announced a new £16 million Level 3 Maths Support Programme, which will provide a wide range of targeted support, resources and expertise to students, teachers, schools and colleges, to continue to improve and increase the provision of post-16 mathematics.

The letter confirmed that the Government is considering the wide ranging recommendation in Sir Adrian’s report and that we will set out our plans across the range of recommendations in due course.