Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had recent discussions with his Israeli counterpart on injuries received by (a) children and (b) civilian men of working age in Gaza hit by Israeli drone fire.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The British Government has underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza. We want to see Israel take greater care to limit its operations to military targets, avoid harming civilians, in particular children, and destroying homes. Too many civilians have been killed.

We are calling for an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.

The Foreign Secretary reiterated these points during his visit to Israel on 17 April, where he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had recent discussions with his Israeli counterpart on the potential merits of the resumption of the supply of fresh water in Gaza.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The situation in Gaza is desperate. Too many Palestinian civilians have been killed and there is an urgent need to get more aid to the people of Gaza to prevent a famine. Israel has made some progress in allowing more aid into Gaza, but more needs to be done.

The Foreign Secretary visited Israel on 17 April. During his visit he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Affairs Minister Katz and reiterated the need to maintain focus on getting more aid into Gaza and getting hostages out. He also stressed the need to see an expansion of the types of aid allowed into Gaza and the provision of electricity, water and telecommunications, to both the north and the south of Gaza.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many businesses can be involved in the provision of (a) a T Level industry placement and (b) flexi-job apprenticeships.

Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)

T Levels offer students a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 315 hours (approximately 45 days). Industry placements can be split across a maximum of two employers to help deliver a breadth of experience for the student, as well as creating opportunities within small to medium enterprises, in sectors such as creative, digital and construction, where short project-based work is common. Alternatively, a placement can be carried out across an employer’s supply chain or network, up to a maximum of two partners/sub-contractors, to enable students to experience an end-to-end process.

Over 16,000 students started a T Level course from September 2023, which is almost as many students as in the first three cohorts combined, and the department will be introducing new T Levels in September 2024. As the department scale up T Levels, we are keen to increase the numbers of employers offering industry placements. The department has recently published the T Level Action Plan, which sets out further measures the department is taking over the year ahead to support providers and employers to grow their T Level programmes and support even more young people across the country. This includes new resources from the Strategic Development Network to support easier engagement between providers and employers. The T Level action plan can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6627c087d29479e036a7e68e/T_Level_Action_Plan_2023_to_2024.pdf.

Flexi Job Apprenticeship Agencies (FJAAs) were introduced in 2022 to support sectors with short-term, project-based work to access apprenticeships. They allow apprentices to work with different host employers, and on a range of projects, to gain the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in their chosen field.

An organisation must be on the Register of FJAAs to operate as a Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agency. Any business can contact an agency to become a host employer. The department does not place a limit on how many host employers an agency can work with, it is for the agency to decide what is best for their delivery model.

FJAAs will arrange placements with one or more host employer to cover the duration of the apprenticeship. Placements must offer apprentices the chance and time to obtain and embed the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for their apprenticeship standard. There were 640 FJAA apprenticeship starts in the 2022/23 academic year and 570 starts have been reported from August to January in the 2023/24 academic year. More details on Flexi Job Apprenticeships can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flexi-job-apprenticeships.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how many girls have been supported by UK Official Development Assistance funding to (a) enter and (b) continue education.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

Girls' education is a UK international development priority. We champion the right of every girl to access 12 years of quality education. Since 2015, UK Official Development Assistance has supported over 10 million girls to gain a decent education. The FCDO supports girls to access education through a number of mechanisms. Our Girls' Education Challenge programme has enabled over 1.6 million of the most marginalised girls to access education. We have 18 bilateral education programmes globally, and we are one of the leading donors to the global funds for Education - the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait (ECW). Between 2017 and 2021, ECW supported over 6.9 million children (48 percent girls) to access education.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of UK Official Development Assistance spending on the resilience of primary and secondary school education in crisis-affected countries.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The FCDO supports resilient education systems through our investments through multilateral partners; bilateral programmes; and education policy influencing. This includes FCDO's position paper, 'Addressing the Climate, Environment, and Biodiversity Crises in and through Girls' Education' (2022), which provides a framework of priority actions to build resilient and climate smart school systems in the face of increasing extreme weather events. The UK recently pledged £80 million to Education Cannot Wait which supports education in crisis-affected countries, including those affected by natural and weather-related disasters. FCDO is also the second largest donor to the Global Partnership for Education, which spends over 60 percent of its funds in fragile and conflict-affected states.

20th anniversary of the Trinjan group

Found: Kate Hollern Sir Mark Hendrick Sarah Champion Lilian Greenwood Olivia Blake Kim Leadbeater Seema

Found: Coupland, Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education (IfATE), to Seema