Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of university undergraduate courses offer a placement year.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education sector. This data is shared with the department and includes a wide range of information on student courses.
The department only has placement data on courses that have students enrolled on. For the 2024/25 academic year, approximately 23.9% of undergraduate courses with students enrolled on had the option of taking a placement with a length of at least one year.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of secondary schools in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Data shows that a significant Attainment 8 gap between selective grammar schools in Gloucester and non-selective schools, with a 30+ point gap between the highest (Denmark Road, 72.9) and lowest scoring (Gloucester Academy, 36.6) schools. Grammar schools drive the locally authority average (50.3 compared to the national average of 46). Schools with lower attainment 8 scores serve more disadvantaged populations locally.
Overall secondary attendance trend in the Gloucester constituency is improving, increasing from 90.4% in 2023/24 to 90.9%, in 2024/25. Note the national average is 90.9% and local authority average is 91.5%.
Overall, Ofsted ratings demonstrate an improvement trend in schools in Gloucester. Holmleigh Park and Gloucester Academy have improved from an ‘Inadequate’ Ofsted judgement, to ‘Good’. The department continues to work closely with local partners to closely monitor this continuing trend of improvement.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of undergraduate students from Wales undertaking degree courses at universities in England.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education sector. These data are shared with the department and include a wide range of information on student courses.
Figure 7 of HESA’s ‘Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2024/25’ reports the number of enrolments for UK providers based on student permanent address prior to study. According to Figure 7, in the academic year 2024/25, there were 25,820 undergraduate student enrolments with a Welsh permanent address at Higher Education providers in England.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 12 February (HL14125), what is the breakdown of the students from England who participated in the Erasmus programme in 2020 by English region.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2020, the regional breakdown of higher education students from England who participated in the Erasmus+ programme was:
All Erasmus+ data is publicly available.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the extent, and (2) the impact, of the provision of arts and culture activities for children in schools by external organisations.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Participation in the arts brings a range of benefits for children and young people. In addition to the value of arts engagement in and of itself, the Education Endowment Fund’s teaching and learning toolkit, for example, reports positive impacts on academic outcomes in other curriculum areas, as well as benefits to children’s wellbeing and attitudes to learning.
There is a range of support available to schools from external organisations to help them provide arts and cultural activities. The government will be publishing a new enrichment framework this academic year, which will encourage partnership working and signpost to organisations, such as Arts Council England.
We are also committed to revitalising arts as part of the reformed national curriculum and qualifications, with high-quality support for teachers of these subjects through the new National Centre for Music and Arts, and our music hubs network.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce an auto-enrolment system for all children eligible for free school meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We want to make sure that every family that needs support can access it.
The government is introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026. This will make it easier for parents to know whether their children are entitled to receive free meals. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty and putting £500 per child back in families’ pockets.
We are also rolling out improvements to the Eligibility Checking System, the digital portal currently used by local authorities to verify if a child meets the eligibility criteria for free lunches. Giving parents and schools access will accelerate eligibility checks, making it easier to check if children are eligible for free meals.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prospective chairs of school governors and prospective school governors fail identity checks through Verifile as a percentage of the total who are required to use the Verifile service.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on maintained school governors or those on local governing bodies in academy trusts. The governing body for a maintained school and the academy trust for a trust local governing body are responsible for ensuring such checks are conducted.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what reasons have been identified for prospective chairs of school governors and prospective school governors failing identity checks when using the Verifile service.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on maintained school governors or those on local governing bodies in academy trusts. The governing body for a maintained school and the academy trust for a trust local governing body are responsible for ensuring such checks are conducted.
Asked by: Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prospective chairs of school governors and prospective school governors are required each year to carry out identity checks using Verifile.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold this data, as it does not carry out identity checks on maintained school governors or those on local governing bodies in academy trusts. The governing body for a maintained school and the academy trust for a trust local governing body are responsible for ensuring such checks are conducted.
Asked by: Lord Baker of Dorking (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) schools, (2) university technical colleges, and (3) colleges have achieved exceptional grades since November 2025; and which of them, if any, have achieved five or more exceptional grades.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the noble Lord directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.