Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what (a) diplomatic and (b) military contribution the UK is making to the Global Coalition Against Daesh.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK remains committed to the Global Coalition Against Daesh and is the second largest contributor to Operation INHERENT RESOLVE.
As part of this military contribution, the UK provides support and funding for a range of initiatives across the region, including providing training, mentoring and professional military education to the Iraqi Security Forces. The UK has trained over 111,000 members of Iraqi Security forces, including over 21,000 of the Kurdish Peshmerga.
The UK also leads the Coalition’s counter-Daesh communications activity, working with Government and civil society partners.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce rates of conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK regularly engages with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), civil society and international partners on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). We welcome DRC recently formally joined the International Alliance on the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI). UK support is wide-ranging and includes vital support to CRSV survivors through our humanitarian programme. Through our partnership with the Global Survivors Fund, the UK has provided livelihood, education, medical, psychological and legal support to over a thousand survivors of CRSV, as part of broader holistic redress projects co-created with survivors to meet their needs. The UK also funds an access to justice project for CRSV survivors in eastern DRC. Working with TRIAL International, it provides legal support to survivors as well as training and mentoring to magistrates, lawyers and human rights defenders to help bring an end to the culture of impunity. We lobby the DRC Government to push for the imposition of sanctions, through the UN, against individuals who have committed human rights abuses, and on 19 June, announced new sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict, sending a clear signal that the UK will hold accountable those responsible for these crimes.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of levels of teacher (a) recruitment and (b) retention on the provision of (i) English, (ii) maths and (iii) functional skills in further education settings.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education (FE) sector. This funding will help colleges and other providers to address key priorities, including tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value technical, vocational, and academic provision which are of critical importance to our economic growth and prosperity.
The department is also delivering a programme to support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign, and strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education (teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each, tax free for 2023/24).
The department’s Taking Teaching Further programme has supported around 1,000 industry professionals to train as FE teachers since 2018. The latest round of Taking Teaching Further is live, supporting FE providers to recruit and support those with relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers. Taking Teaching Further covers the cost of a teaching qualification, as well as providing a reduced teaching timetable and mentoring support for new recruits.
To boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department will give early career teachers in key science, technology, engineering, mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers, and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
The department remains committed to supporting FE teachers and the vital work they do in improving achievement in English and mathematics. The department will continue investing in continuing professional development and research in 2023 and beyond, including supporting practitioners to test successful and transferable approaches to improving post-16 level 2 English and mathematics outcomes. The Essential Skills workforce grant is delivering professional development to enhance English and mathematics teaching in FE, supporting our policies and reforms. The department is investing up to £10 million to support teachers of English and mathematics re-sit learners. It will include training in mastery pedagogy for FE mathematics teachers.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what information his Department holds on the number of British citizens that have been kidnapped in Nigeria in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We are aware of low numbers of British nationals kidnapped in Nigeria over the past five years. It is difficult to provide a definitive figure because of differing recording practices across agencies and because not all kidnaps are reported to the Nigerian authorities or to the FCDO. Through the UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership, we are providing mentoring and capacity-building support to Nigerian Police Force units to improve their anti-kidnap capacity, help reduce harm to victims, and hold those responsible to account.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of disabled people entering into apprenticeships.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Apprenticeships are available for all people of all backgrounds, including people with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (LDD), allowing them to start, progress or to re-train in a variety of industries.
In recent years, the department has seen an improved representation of people who have declared LDD starting apprenticeships, and the department wants this to continue. The department has improved its Find an Apprenticeship service to allow people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities and ensuring apprenticeships are available to all.
In partnership with the Disability Rights UK, the department launched a Disabled Apprentice Network to provide insight and evidence on how to attract and retain disabled people into apprenticeships. Disability Rights UK published a report to support employers to improve the diversity of their apprenticeship programmes, whilst also highlighting the barriers people may face when undertaking an apprenticeship. In this report, the apprentices identified the opportunity to build confidence, skills and networks with people with different experiences and gain paid work experience as the key points which influenced them towards undertaking an apprenticeship.
To ensure that more people who declare LDD feel confident to undertake apprenticeships, the department has lowered the English and mathematics requirements to apprenticeships for a defined group of individuals with LDD. The department has also introduced British Sign Language (BSL) as an alternative to English Functional Skills for those who have BSL as their first language.
The department is conducting a pilot to consider the evidence used to determine eligibility for flexibilities to existing English and mathematics requirements for apprentices with an LDD. Through the pilot it is anticipated that the department will improve the process by which apprentices with an LDD who require the flexibilities are able to access these.
The department is also conducting a pilot to boost the mentoring offer of providers for apprentices with an LDD. This pilot will test whether offering expert support, advice and training to the people providing mentoring to LDD apprentices results in a positive impact on the cohort, both in terms of satisfaction, as well as broader areas such as retention and achievement for these apprentices.
Furthermore, the department makes £1,000 payments to employers and providers for taking on 16 to 18 year olds, or those aged 19 to 24 with an Education, Health and Care Plan, and also offers £150 per month to help providers make reasonable adjustments for eligible apprentices with special educational needs. Providers can claim additional funding if the cost of support exceeds this rate.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 September 2023 to Question 198491 on Asylum: Applications, how long the training lasts for newly recruited decision makers; who provides the training for newly recruited decision makers; and what steps she is taking to (a) provide support to new decision makers and (b) monitor the (i) quality and (ii) consistency of decision making.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Asylum Operations provides staff with specialist training through a comprehensive programme of classroom-based learning and a mentoring framework as part of our plan for a highly skilled workforce. This is delivered by a dedicated team of senior grade trainers and higher-grade technical experts, thereby helping to maintain case-working expertise and improve decision maker capability.
Work has been undertaken to review and redesign the training of Asylum decision makers. The focus of the project is to ensure that the right training is given at the right time. The expectation is that by moving to this model it will help decision makers become more productive in a quicker timeframe as the training will be more focused on the type of casework that they are assigned and the tasks they will need to undertake at that time.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the attainment gap between pupils from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils has been the focus of our education reforms since 2010. The attainment gap narrowed by 9% at secondary school level and by 13% at primary school level between 2011 and 2019.
For over a decade, the Department has consistently taken a range of steps to give priority support and deliver programmes that help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, and providing targeted support where needed. The Department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, which has widened the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. The Department will continue to work to reduce this gap, as it previously has.
At a national level, the Department delivers several core policies to support disadvantaged pupils. This includes free school meals, which support around 2 million children, as well as the Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF), which is receiving £200 million in funding a year for the next two years, The Department also supports 2,700 breakfast clubs and family hubs.
The National Funding Formula (NFF) continues to distribute funding fairly based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. In 2023/24, the Department has targeted a greater proportion of schools NFF funding towards deprived pupils than ever before. Over £4 billion (9.8%) of the formula has been allocated according to deprivation, while over £7 billion (17.4%), has been allocated to additional needs overall. As a result, schools with the highest levels of deprivation, on average, attract the largest per pupil funding increases. On top of this core funding, Pupil Premium funding rates have increased by 5% in the 2023/24 financial year to a total of almost £2.9 billion. This increase in funding is on top of £1 billion of recovery premium funding in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years, which was allocated to deliver evidence based approaches to support educational recovery for disadvantaged pupils, and over £300 million delivered in 2021/22.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funds schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, more than £1 billion has been made available to support tutoring. From November 2020 to the 2023/24 academic year, nearly 4 million tutoring courses have been started (up to July 2023).
At a regional level, the Department has identified 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) with the lowest attainment outcomes. In these areas, the Department is providing £86 million for Trust Capacity funding, up to £150 million for Connect the Classroom, and extra funding for Levelling Up Premium retention payments to support schools with two or more Requires Improvement inspection reports.
24 EIAs have been identified as Priority EIAs. These areas face low attainment at Key Stage 2 and high levels of disadvantage. They therefore receive additional funding, including £42 million of Local Needs Funding, £86 million for Connect the Classroom and over £2 million for attendance mentoring pilots.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help schools support children in disadvantaged circumstances in the North of England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils has been a Departmental priority underpinning all the Department’s education reforms since 2010. The attainment gap narrowed by 9% at secondary school level and by 13% at primary school level between 2011 and 2019.
For over a decade, the Department has consistently taken a range of steps to give priority support and deliver programmes that help disadvantaged pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, and providing targeted support where needed. The Department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The widened gap is not acceptable, and the Department is working to reduce this.
At a national level, the Department delivers a number of core policies to support disadvantaged pupils, such as free school meals (FSM) that support 1.9 million children, the Holiday Activities and Food Programme where the Department is investing over £200 million a year for the next 2 years and support for 2,500 breakfast clubs and family hubs. Additionally, the Department is also ensuring better targeting of deprivation factors through the National Funding Formula (over 9% of all funding), as well as record amounts of pupil premium funding, £2.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year and £2.9 billion in 2023/24.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funds schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, more than £1 billion has been made available to support tutoring. From November 2020 to the 2023/24 academic year nearly 4 million tutoring courses have been started (up to July 2023). By 2024, the Department will have embedded tutoring across schools in England. The Department expects tutoring to continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using their core budgets, including the Pupil Premium, to fund targeted support for those pupils who will benefit.
At a regional level, the Department has identified 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) with the lowest attainment outcomes, 27 of which are in the North. In these areas, the Department is providing £86 million for Trust Capacity funding, up to £150 million for Connect the Classroom, and extra funding for Levelling Up Premium retention payments and to support schools with two or more Requires Improvement inspection reports.
Furthermore, 24 EIAs have been identified as Priority Education Investment Areas, 13 of which are in the North. These areas face low attainment at Key Stage 2 and entrenched disadvantage. They receive additional investment including £42 million of Local Needs Funding, £86 million for Connect the Classroom and over £2 million for attendance mentoring pilots.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide additional funding to schools in the North to help them reach the attainment levels of children in London and the South.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Closing the attainment gap has been a departmental priority underpinning all our education reforms since 2010. Nevertheless, some regional disparities remain. The most recent Key Stage 2 data shows that in London, 65% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics. All other regions scored between 57% and 60%, with the North East being the second highest region after London. Similarly, in last year’s Key Stage 4 results, 57.5% of pupils in London achieved a 5 or above in English and Mathematics (2022). All other regions scored between 46% and 52%.
The Department’s mission to level up education across England, grounded in high standards and expectations for all children, no matter where they live, as set out in the 2022 Schools White Paper.
This year’s school funding for all regions across England will total over £57.7 billion. Factoring in the additional funding for teachers’ pay, as well as funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, this will be £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25 compared with 2023/24. The overall Core School Budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25.
To address regional disparities, the Department has identified 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) with the lowest attainment outcomes, 27 of which are in the North. In these areas, we are providing £86 million for Trust Capacity funding, up to £150 million for Connect the Classroom, as well as extra funding for Levelling Up Premium retention payments and to support schools with two or more Requires Improvement inspection reports.
Furthermore, 24 EIAs have been identified as Priority Education Investment Areas, 13 of which are in the North. These areas face low attainment at Key Stage 2 and entrenched disadvantage. They receive additional investment including £42 million of Local Needs Funding, £86 million for Connect the Classroom, and over £2 million for attendance mentoring pilots.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department is taking steps with heat network businesses to increase skills in local government for heat network zoning.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Zoning will transform the development of district heat networks in towns and cities across England, aiming to increase private sector investment in the sector significantly. The government is working with industry and local authorities – investing half a billion pounds in funds and programmes – to build the heat network pipeline and prepare for implementation of regulation and heat network zoning.
A joint project has just commenced with the Danish government and agencies to provide mentoring support to more local authorities. Heat networks have also been included in the £5 million Heat Training Grant to build capability in the sector. The Government will consider further proposals for how to ready local authorities for this responsibility as part of the consultation on heat network zoning planned for this Autumn.