Baroness Coussins

Whilst it is true that machine translation has applications across many sectors, the risks posed by machine translation will be driven by the context of where, how and why it is used.

Under our context specific approach, we recognise that our existing expert regulators are best placed to apply rules to the use of AI – including machine translation - in the contexts they know better than anyone else.

We are also committed to ensuring that regulators have the right expertise and resources to make proportionate and informed regulatory decisions about AI in their sectors.

In the 2024/25 academic year, over half of the £1.4 billion recurrent funding to higher education providers allocated through the Strategic Priorities Grant is supporting the provision of strategically important high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy and high-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, for example medicine and dentistry, science, engineering. This is in recognition of the higher costs of teaching those subjects.

The department will continue to work with the Office for Students (OfS) to ensure that costs of provision are assessed. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, will issue guidance to the OfS in due course setting out her funding priorities for 2025/26.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), now part of Jisc, collects and publishes data on student enrolments across all UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on full person equivalents enrolled in different subject areas, categorised using the HE coding of subjects system. Counts of enrolments across all subjects from 2019/20 to 2022/23 are published in Table 52 of HESA’s Student Data, which can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.

Table 52 can be used to determine that there were 34,840 entrants to a HE course in ‘language and area studies’ in the 2022/23 academic year and of these, 11,245 were studying a language or culture other than English, down by 12% from 2020/21. In the absence of a clear definition of ‘modern foreign languages’, all non-English languages have been included for completeness.

Analysing the HESA student record, the department estimates that there were 4,845 courses in ‘languages and area studies’, excluding English studies, with at least one enrolment in 2022/23, down from 5,590 in 2020/21. The HESA data only includes courses where students have enrolled, so it is not possible to quantify the number of courses being offered with no enrolments.

HE providers are autonomous and independent institutions. This means they are ultimately responsible for the decisions that they make with regards to which courses they choose to deliver.

High quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education and there are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. Nevertheless, the department knows that there is further to go to get more teachers into certain subjects, including modern foreign languages. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers and focus its support on subjects where it is needed most. The department will support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues.

The department already has in place a range of measures specifically for modern foreign languages. This includes bursaries of £25,000 and scholarships of £27,000 for French, Spanish and German. The total initial teacher training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.

The department reviews bursaries each year before deciding the offer for trainees starting ITT the following academic year. In doing this, the department takes account of several factors including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. The department will continue to review the way bursaries are allocated to ensure it is supporting teacher sufficiency and spending money where it is needed most.

As well as working to recruit the best languages graduates domestically, the department is supporting recruitment of skilled graduates from overseas. The department’s ITT bursaries and scholarships are available to all non-UK trainees in languages. This means that for the 2024/25 academic year, international language trainees are eligible for bursaries worth £25,000 and scholarships worth £27,000. An international relocation payment is also available for non-UK teachers of languages starting in the 2024/25 academic year and is worth up to £10,000.

The department is also committed to tackling retention and has made available a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. The department’s ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload. It also includes the education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out commitments from the government, Ofsted, schools, and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff so that teachers not only remain in the profession, but thrive in it.

High quality teaching is the factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education and there are now 468,693 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. Nevertheless, the department knows that there is further to go to get more teachers into certain subjects, including modern foreign languages. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers and focus its support on subjects where it is needed most. The department will support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues.

The department already has in place a range of measures specifically for modern foreign languages. This includes bursaries of £25,000 and scholarships of £27,000 for French, Spanish and German. The total initial teacher training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.

The department reviews bursaries each year before deciding the offer for trainees starting ITT the following academic year. In doing this, the department takes account of several factors including historic recruitment, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. The department will continue to review the way bursaries are allocated to ensure it is supporting teacher sufficiency and spending money where it is needed most.

As well as working to recruit the best languages graduates domestically, the department is supporting recruitment of skilled graduates from overseas. The department’s ITT bursaries and scholarships are available to all non-UK trainees in languages. This means that for the 2024/25 academic year, international language trainees are eligible for bursaries worth £25,000 and scholarships worth £27,000. An international relocation payment is also available for non-UK teachers of languages starting in the 2024/25 academic year and is worth up to £10,000.

The department is also committed to tackling retention and has made available a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. The department’s ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload. It also includes the education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out commitments from the government, Ofsted, schools, and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff so that teachers not only remain in the profession, but thrive in it.

The Secretary of State for Defra, The Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Nature), Mary Creagh CBE MP, will be taking part in the official High-Level Segment of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16) in Colombia. Minister Creagh is also scheduled to remain in Colombia after the conclusion of this segment to support the final negotiations. The UK will also be represented at CBD COP16 by a team of negotiators from Defra and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

On 21 October, we launched a national conversation on the future of the National Health Service, inviting views from across the country on how to reform the NHS and make it fit for the future. This includes the Change NHS portal, which is open to everyone, and is available on the change.NHS.UK website. Public service interpreters can respond to the surveys on the website, including on the dedicated workforce section. We want a wide range of health and care staff to share their views, irrespective of whether they are NHS employees. We would welcome public service interpreters sharing their experience. We have been in touch with the National Register of Public Service Interpreters to ensure interpreters are aware of the engagement exercise.

A review of the NHS Constitution was announced in October 2023. The standard consultation closed in June 2024, with the easy-read consultation on the NHS Constitution closing in July 2024. The Department acknowledges the limits of both publishing a consultation in online-only formats and solely in English.

The Department published an easy-read version, with the simplified language making the information more accessible for a broader audience, supporting those whose first language is not English to access and respond to the consultation.

The Department is committed to engagement with the public in the future and continuously improving our approach for future consultations and strategies. If any further review of the NHS Constitution takes place, ensuring communication through an accessible format for people, including those for whom English may not be their first language, will be considered.

As penholder on Colombia at the UN Security Council, the UK is continuing its long-term support to Colombian efforts to achieve a sustainable and long-lasting peace, via the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement and the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. The Government of Colombia has appointed its representatives to the talks with the Gulf Clan (AGC/Clan del Golfo). The UK is monitoring the progress of the talks and its impacts on communities, including in collaboration with the UN.

We are working with the Colombian Government and others on implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement, including the Ethnic Chapter. Through funding to civil society organisations and the OHCHR (UN Human Rights Office), the UK is supporting the protection of the Wiwa indigenous peoples in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta with strategic litigation and self-protection mechanisms. Embassy officials visited the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in October and raised their concern about the security situation with local authorities.

Supporting Colombia in its commitment to secure a lasting peace is an important priority of this Government. We continue to urge Colombia to take further steps to protect all vulnerable groups including indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities most affected by conflict. We remain concerned at the violence facing the Wiwa community. Through funding to civil society organisations and the UN Human Rights Office, the UK supports the protection of the Wiwa indigenous peoples with strategic litigation and self-protection mechanisms. In October, Embassy officials visited Wiwa communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and discussed the security situation with local authorities.

The UK supports Colombian efforts to achieve a sustainable and long-lasting peace, including the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement and the mandate of the UN Verification Mission. The government of Colombia has concluded the first round of dialogues with the Segunda Marquetalia, agreed on the model for the talks and the progressive implementation on the agreements reached. The UK continues to monitor and assess the progress of the talks in terms of the ceasefire, the security situation, and the impact on communities. The Foreign Secretary met with Foreign Minister Murillo in September, to reiterate the UK's commitment towards the peace processes in Colombia.

The UK supported the expansion of the UN Verification Mission to include the National Liberation Army (ELN). We are monitoring the impacts of the suspension of the ceasefire, with a particular focus on the impacts on communities. We call upon the ELN to work towards peace, re-commit to dialogue and re-establish a ceasefire. As penholder for Colombia at the UN Security Council, the UK had a key role coordinating international support in expanding the mandate of the UN Verification Mission to verify the ceasefire with the ELN.