Budget Statement

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Friday 12th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office and the Treasury (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)]

My Lords, the Budget that the Chancellor set out last week has three key elements. First, it protects jobs and livelihoods and provides additional support to get the British people and businesses through the pandemic. Secondly, it is clear and honest about the need to fix the public finances. Thirdly, it starts the work of building our future economy, including by providing opportunities to level up across the country.

The Budget announced additional measures worth £65 billion to support the economy through the pandemic this year and next. Added to last November’s spending review, the number is £352 billion and, taking into account measures from the spring Budget last year, the figure rises to £407 billion. The OBR now expects the UK economy to recover to its pre-crisis level six months earlier than originally expected—in the second rather than the fourth quarter of 2022.

Importantly, the Budget extends the furlough scheme until the end of September. Support for the self-employed will also continue until September, with an additional 600,000 people now potentially eligible to claim. The universal credit uplift of £20 a week will be maintained for a further six months and working tax credit claimants will receive equivalent support over the same timeframe.

Among other things, the Budget also reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to increase the national living wage to £8.91 an hour from April. It also announced a new restart grant in April to help businesses to reopen and get going again, as well as a new recovery loan scheme to replace our earlier bounce-back loans and coronavirus business interruption loans.

The Chancellor was also open about the longer-term fiscal challenge that we now face. The Budget does not raise the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT. Instead, it maintains personal tax thresholds on income tax, inheritance tax, the pensions lifetime allowance and the annual exempt amount in capital gains tax, with higher earners affected the most. It also announced an increase in corporation tax to 25% from 2023. Importantly, 25% is still the lowest corporation tax rate in the G7 and companies that make less than £50,000 profit annually will only be subject to a 19% tax rate. Given that the Government are providing businesses with over £100 billion of support to get through the current crisis, it is only right to ask them to contribute to our recovery.

The third component of the Budget is a series of initiatives and measures to support the investment-led recovery that the country needs. A new super deduction will, in some cases, allow companies to reduce their taxable profits by 130% of the cost of the investment that they make in plants and machinery, which is equivalent to a 25p tax cut for every pound that they invest. Worth £25 billion over the two years that it is in place, the super deduction represents the biggest business tax cut in modern British history.

The Budget also announced, among other things, the creation of the first ever UK infrastructure bank, headquartered in Leeds. Two new schemes—Help to Grow and Help to Grow: Digital—will help tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses to get world-class management training and help them to develop their digital skills. We are helping to ensure that we have access to the talent that we need through the reforms that we are making to our visa system.

Achieving an investment-led recovery means allowing investment to flow more freely, which is why we want to give the pensions industry more flexibility to unlock billions of pounds from pension funds into innovative new ventures. Alongside these measures, our commitment to levelling up across the United Kingdom is reflected in the £4.8 billion levelling-up fund; accelerated city and growth deals in places such as Ayrshire, Falkirk, north Wales and Swansea Bay; more than a £1 billion for 45 new towns deals; and a £150 million fund to help communities across the United Kingdom take ownership of pubs, theatres, shops or local sports clubs at risk of loss. This complements the inward investment that will be attracted through the announcement of eight new freeports in eight English regions.

The country has experienced the worst fall in GDP in three centuries—not the 1976 sterling crisis, not the Second World War, not the First World War, not the Napoleonic War; this has been harder financially than all those. In response, the Chancellor has presented a plan that will continue to protect jobs and livelihoods and to support British people and businesses through this moment of crisis. It will begin to fix the public finances and will start the work of building our future economy through investment-led recovery.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

My Lords, I should have added that the maiden speakers all have an extra minute and the welcomers an extra 30 seconds. I call the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell.

Customs Miscellaneous Non-fiscal Provisions and Amendments etc. (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 19th January 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

I thank noble Lords for their well-considered and insightful comments during this debate. As I said earlier, these measures are necessary to address specific arrangements pertaining to Northern Ireland now that the transition period has ended. I will try to address the questions put forward by noble Lords.

The noble Lord, Lord Liddle, was modest in saying that he did not understand these trade regulations in detail. He displayed enormous knowledge, to my mind, so I will try to answer his questions. The joint committee agreement protects unfettered access, by ensuring that there is no requirement for export checks or declarations for Northern Ireland businesses moving goods in free circulation directly from Northern Ireland to GB. There are some limited exceptions when businesses need to submit an export declaration for the movement of goods from Northern Ireland to GB. The Government have published comprehensive guidance on these exceptions online to ensure that businesses have a thorough understanding of when to submit the export declaration.

As outlined in the Government’s Command Paper, there are no plans for any new bespoke customs infrastructure in Northern Ireland. Agri-food movements from GB to NI will be carried out at existing facilities and designations at NI ports. Expanded infrastructure will be needed at some of these sites for agri-food checks and assurance. The Government have collaborated with Northern Irish ports to agree on the utilisation of existing space and capacity, until infrastructure expansion has been completed. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument, as an assessment was made of the impact of the then European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill in 2019 and the Northern Ireland protocol.

The Government recognise that the priority remains to have a regime in place that strongly focuses on the benefits of unfettered access for Northern Irish businesses, and ensures that they have a competitive advantage over traders elsewhere in Ireland. That is what the second phase of unfettered access will provide, in the second half of 2021. Once delivered, it will ensure that benefits are conferred to genuine Northern Irish traders only. Goods coming from the EU or outside the EU to Great Britain via Northern Ireland will be regarded as imports and subject to controls.

The noble Lord, Lord Dodds, asked about timing and what has happened since leaving—post the transition period. On timings, Royal Assent to the Taxation (Post-transition Period) Act 2020 was required before this instrument could be laid. Section 2 of that Act inserted Section 30C into the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018. This imposes a customs duty charge on the movement of goods from NI to GB if the goods are not qualifying Northern Ireland goods. It ensures that unfettered access is available only to appropriate NI traders and deters businesses from rerouting goods via Northern Ireland to avoid import formalities. The Taxation (Post-transition Period) Act received Royal Assent on 17 December last year; this instrument was then made on 21 December and laid on 22 December. The instrument came into force at the end of the transition period and has already taken effect, but still needs to be approved by both Houses.

No formal consultation on this specific instrument has taken place. However, the instrument, together with the Taxation (Post-transition Period) Act 2020, makes provisions in relation to the application of certain provisions in the protocol. Consultation on the practical implications of the protocol has taken place with businesses. Throughout the transition period, the NI stakeholder engagement team consulted a wide range of businesses and representative bodies who would be impacted. Consultation with businesses will continue.

Defining qualifying Northern Ireland goods is a matter for the UK, not for the joint committee. To this end, the Government laid a statutory instrument setting out the definition of qualifying Northern Ireland goods—statutory instrument 2020/1454. A qualifying Northern Ireland good is one that is eligible for unfettered access to Great Britain. Goods will be qualifying Northern Ireland goods from 1 January 2021 if they are in free circulation in Northern Ireland—that means not under a customs procedure or in an authorised temporary storage facility before they are moved from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. The Government will focus the benefits of unfettered access on Northern Irish businesses and ensure that we have a competitive advantage over traders elsewhere.

The Government have been unequivocal in our commitment to unfettered access for Northern Ireland goods moving to the rest of the UK market, and there will be only very limited exceptions to this. This instrument simply ensures that the requirement for entry summary declarations for non-qualifying goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain is retained. This is in line with the requirement for goods imported into Great Britain from the EU and outside the EU.

I was asked about paperwork and costs. In practice, safety and security declarations are made into the same system used for other goods arriving into GB that attract a safety and security requirement. The data required for an entry summary declaration includes fields such as mode of transport, description of the goods and routing information. Traders may use an intermediary to complete safety and security declarations for them. To avoid disruption and facilitate continuity, the Government have introduced a waiver for ENS requirements where such requirements would not have existed before the end of the transition period. This means that there is no requirement for entry summary declarations to be submitted for the movement of non-qualifying EU goods from Northern Ireland to Great Britain until 1 July 2021. This SI does not affect that waiver.

My noble friend Lady McIntosh asked similar questions about ENS: can they be made electronically? These declarations can and are being submitted digitally. They will be made into the safety and security GB system, the same system used for other goods. This instrument retains the requirement of an entry summary declaration for the movement of non-qualifying goods. She asked about training. HMRC and other departments have undertaken a significant programme of ongoing communication and engagement to inform traders of new requirements and to support preparedness. The two-hour time limit requires traders to submit their entry summary declaration a minimum of two hours before arrival to GB, but this two-hour period includes time taken on the journey, so, in practice, will not come about much before traders arrive at ports.

My noble friend is worried that this might provide a backdoor entry into GB for non-qualifying goods. To prevent traders seeking to abuse unfettered access in the first place, it is accompanied by anti-avoidance provisions which deter businesses rerouting goods via Northern Ireland if they do so in order to avoid UK import formalities. HMRC will be able to undertake spot checks when there is evidence that the qualifying goods regime is being abused. HMRC also has the power to prosecute anyone who tries wrongly to claim unfettered access for their goods. This will ensure that only businesses with a legitimate reason to route goods via NI can benefit from unfettered access.

My noble friend Lady McIntosh asked whether there will be two regimes: NI to GB and GB to NI. The Government recognise that the priority remains to have a regime in place that strongly focuses the benefits of unfettered access on Northern Ireland business and ensures that it has a competitive advantage over traders elsewhere in Ireland.

The noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, had similar questions, but I will deal with her particular emphasis on the preparations for the end of the grace period. A dedicated team in government is already working with supermarkets, the food industry and the Northern Ireland Executive to develop ways to streamline the movement of goods in accordance with the protocol, backed by significant UK funding. The Government will provide a major injection of new funding to support preparations for the end of the grace period for supermarkets and suppliers. Further details will be announced in due course.

The noble Baroness asked about the trade and co-operation agreement. The TCA governance requirements were set out clearly in the agreement and will be set up in due course. The agreement builds on multiple avenues of business representation and input and clear independent systems of dispute resolution outside the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The TCA provides a role for domestic advisory groups which will include business and employers organisations. They will be able to submit views and recommendations for consideration by the UK and the EU and may be consulted during consultations as part of the dispute resolution mechanism for the agreement. Businesses may also take part in the civil society forum provided in the TCA. It will meet at least once a year and provide a forum for independent civil society organisations from the UK and the EU to meet and discuss the implementation of the agreement. On the actual governance arrangements, the governance arrangements agreed under the withdrawal agreement will continue through the joint committee supported by the specialised committee on Ireland and Northern Ireland and, in due course, the joint consultative working group. Once established, the joint consultative working group will provide further opportunities for detailed engagement.

I would like to continue for a couple more minutes if the Deputy Chairman will allow it.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

We have time.

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

In addition to the questions asked by other noble Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, asked about penalties. They will be used where a person is found contravening a customs rule, such as failing to complete an entry summary declaration or not providing an EORI number. There is a maximum penalty of £1,000. HMRC may take mitigating factors into consideration, which could lead to a lower or nil penalty depending on the circumstances. While HMRC will penalise non-compliance, it will seek to support those who make genuine errors while trying to get it right. HMRC is planning a package of activities to support and educate traders on their obligations during this period. This includes promoting keeping good records, which will be crucial in minimising errors once supplementary declarations are made. Further tweaks of the regulations will be required, but the changes currently envisaged are improvements rather than corrections.

The noble Lord asked about a general update on the situation regarding trade between GB and NI. I think I can report on a good position over the last two and a half weeks. That has been largely supported by the Trader Support Service, which was set up just before the end of the transition. Some 29,500 businesses have now registered with the TSS and over 25,000 of those are marked as ready to trade. The TSS has handled over 75,000 declarations so far, and 99% of those have been processed within 15 minutes. The contact centre has over 700 staff to assist with trader queries. It handled some 7,000 inbound calls between 1 January and 17 January. Some 97% of those calls were answered within 30 seconds, and they have spare capacity which they have been using to do outbound dialling to other traders who have not yet reached ready-to-trade status. As of 18 January, HMRC had received 1,518 UK trader service applications.

The Government are committed to maintaining unfettered access to the rest of the UK market for Northern Ireland businesses, protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK customs territory and ensuring that Great Britain to Northern Ireland trade flows as smoothly as possible. I sum up by saying that these regulations, which are already in place, will help to ensure that goods can continue to move safely and effectively between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

Economic Update

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 12th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office and the Treasury (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, for his comments. I shall to try to address some of his points.

It is clear that the UK, along with the rest of the world, continues to face economic disruption in the wake of the Covid pandemic. No major economy has avoided a dramatic fall in its GDP in the past year. In the face of the significant and far-reaching impact of Covid, the Government’s priority has been to protect lives and livelihoods with a flexible and adaptable response. This response is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world, totalling more than £280 billion since March. The IMF judges the UK’s initial response as being aggressive, effective and an excellent example of well-co-ordinated action.

While we should expect the economy to get worse before it gets better, as my right honourable friend the Chancellor said yesterday, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic for the future. The peak of the unemployment rate is expected to be significantly lower than that estimated earlier in the crisis. The OBR has revised down its central scenario from 12% in July’s estimate to 7.5% in November’s estimate. The household savings ratio has reached its highest level since records began in 1963. The corporate sector cash buffers have improved, with large businesses making large net repayments every month since May. The furlough scheme has seen some 1.2 million employers and almost 10 million employees supported and has been extended until April to provide certainty during these difficult times. We have provided significant support to the creative industries through the £1.5 billion Culture Recovery Fund and to the hospitality industry, which I recognise has been severely impacted by the restrictions. It has also been supported by cash grants, loans, VAT reductions and deferrals, and business rate holidays.

The support for the self-employed has been unprecedented and among the most generous of schemes in the world. It has so far supported almost 3 million people at a cost of nearly £20 billion. As the Chancellor has said, sadly we are not able to save every job and business and, in recognition of this, have boosted the welfare system by £7.4 billion in 2021.

I thank the noble Lord for mentioning the vaccine, which represents a significant sign of hope and a path out of the coronavirus. Vaccine rollout is our most important economic lever and we have made available more than £6 billion to facilitate that. We have now administered more than 2.4 million vaccine doses across the UK. By 15 February, we aim to have offered a first vaccine dose to everyone in the top four priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

The road ahead remains tough, with significant uncertainties. The Chancellor and this Government will continue to work to support individuals, businesses and public services during this time. As the Chancellor said yesterday, he will provide an update on the next stage of our economic response to coronavirus and the economic outlook for the rest of the country in the Budget on 3 March.

On retaining the uplift in universal credit, referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, as with all responses so far in the crisis, we have tried to adapt to changing circumstances and this matter will be kept under continual review. In the same vein, we have extended furlough until April, it already having been extended from an earlier time, and we will continue to be alert to the state of the economy.

On the noble Baroness’s point about the self-employed and the Federation of Small Businesses, my right honourable friend the Chancellor said yesterday that he was considering the ideas put forward by the FSB.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

My Lords, we now come to the 30 minutes allocated for Back-Bench questions. I ask that questions and answers be brief so that I can call the maximum number of speakers.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con) [V]]

The noble Baroness will know that the Government are not in favour of a people’s QE. The QE that has happened this year has been more effective than the QE in the 2008-09 crisis; at least in this situation the money has gone directly into our economy to solve and help the problem, whereas in 2008-09, as far as anyone has ever been able to explain it to me, at least half the money left the country. We are learning, but there is a great deal of nervousness about something such as a people’s QE, because being able to print money without any comeback is almost too good to be true. Indeed, at the weekend, I bought a book by Ray Dalio on debt crises in history to try to understand more about this, because I feel we need to be very cautious about borrowing more and more money.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

My Lords, the time allowed for this Statement has now elapsed. I apologise to the noble Lords, Lord Walney and Lord Holmes of Richmond, that we did not have time for their questions.

Covid-19 Lockdown: Economic Support

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, my honourable friend the Economic Secretary is in constant dialogue with the banks on how all these schemes operate; he continues to try to help to improve them. If the noble Lord would like to write to me on the specific concern he mentioned, I will ensure that it gets the proper attention.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

My Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed. I apologise to the noble Baronesses, Lady Redfern and Lady Uddin, who were not able to put their questions.

Education Funding

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 3rd September 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. As he said, we are all delighted that more money is going into education, but like the noble Lord, Lord Watson, and my noble friend Lord Addington, I have reservations. Mine focus on the part of the Statement relating to colleges. As we know, our FE colleges are underfunded and unloved and have been for far too long, yet they often not only provide outstanding education but are a community resource and provide community cohesion. I want to ask the Minister about two matters. First, the Statement says:

“Colleges and further education providers will receive an extra £25 million to deliver T-levels”.


T-levels are totally untried and untested, whereas there are a raft of well-established and well-understood vocational qualifications—I declare an interest as a vice-president of City & Guilds—which could continue to do great things if they had better funding behind them. Why is this funding going only to T-levels, which are not yet tried and tested and about which we know very little, and not to all the work-based qualifications which provide the skills that the country desperately needs?

My second question repeats that of my noble friend Lord Addington, which I do not think the Minister replied to. It relates to the pernicious practice of trying to get youngsters repeatedly to resit GCSE English and maths, only for them to fail again and again. All one does is reinforce failure and leave people demoralised and thoroughly fed up about education. Nobody argues with the idea that young people need literacy and maths skills, but GCSE is not the right vehicle for that. Colleges spend an awful lot of time and resource trying to put youngsters through those wretched exams and watching them fail again and again. When will the Government rethink and bring in some functional literacy and maths tests which would be far more appropriate for the youngsters who have to resit?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

The noble Baroness raises important points. It may be worth summarising some of the specific funding coming into the FE sector, because I know that she is a passionate supporter of it, as am I. I am very pleased that, under my new Secretary of State, I will have greater involvement in the FE sector and look forward to discussing some of these issues personally with the noble Baroness.

We will invest an extra £400 million in colleges and school sixth forms; there is a 7% uplift of 16 to 19 funding, not including the increase in funding for pensions. The total includes protection of and an increase in the 16 to 19 base of £190 million, with £120 million for colleges and school sixth forms so that they can deliver on subjects which require perhaps more expensive teachers, such as engineering and so on. I hear the noble Baroness’s concerns about T-levels, but we are also adding another £10 million for the advanced maths premium. There will be an additional £20 million to help the sector continue to recruit and retain teachers, and there will be £35 million more for targeted interventions to support the area that the noble Baroness is concerned about; that is, resits. Some of that money will be used to look at different ways of trying to help children who perhaps do not learn in a traditional way. In 2019, more than 46,000 pupils successfully resat their English GCSEs, as did 35,500 maths pupils, to obtain a standard pass. All those children whose careers were blocked by not having maths and English have cleared that hurdle this year. I am one of seven children in my family; only two of us got maths O-level, so I know exactly the frustration faced by children who struggle with these subjects, but we are on the right course and I hope to use some of this additional money to see whether we can find better ways to reach them.

Multi-academy Trusts

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Wednesday 10th July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

I am not sure if the noble Baroness is worried about them being in post for too long or too short a period of time. Given that the programme has existed at scale for only about six years, perhaps she is worried about the short length of tenure. The department is fully geared up: all Companies House filings of retirements or new appointments to boards go through to the ESFA and where we see what we would call unusual actions—for example, a number of trustees retiring simultaneously—we will escalate that as a matter for review.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, is it the case that every academy in a multi-academy trust is audited? If not, why not? If so, what would the repercussions on the trust be if one of the academies failed the audit?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, an academy trust is a single legal entity, so the individual schools are part of that. But the noble Baroness is quite correct that there is a full external audit carried out on academy trusts every year. That is unlike local authority schools, where the average frequency of audit is about every four years, so I can assure her that the scrutiny is far higher than for local authority schools.

Apprenticeships

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Monday 13th May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

On the right reverend Prelate’s first point about universities, I encourage him to write to me and I will pass that to the Universities Minister. We have put a tremendous impetus behind the universities sector to engage particularly with areas of lower attainment. It now spends £800 million a year trying to reach areas where university access has previously been low. We now have 440 standards approved and another 50 in the pipeline.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

What steps are being taken to incentivise schools to encourage young people into apprenticeships? The league tables currently encourage GCSE and A-level results. Could schools not be given formal recognition for their young people who go into apprenticeships?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

I refer the noble Baroness partly to my earlier answer where I spoke about the surveys that we are carrying out with schools. For example, the Compass data encourage seven meaningful encounters with employers. The apprenticeship programme is very much part of that.

School Exclusion: Timpson Review

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 7th May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, to answer the noble Earl’s question on teacher training, we are increasing awareness of the training available on such things as having mental health leads in schools. We have also committed to a programme of training 200 psychiatrists and psychotherapists to go into the school system. We are very aware that we need to increase the skillsets available to schools to deal with the wide range of issues confronting them. I understand the noble Earl’s concerns about Ofsted as an institution. We are trying to create a cultural change here, but I am optimistic that the new framework will move some way to addressing his concerns. We have done a lot. For example, when my right honourable friend became the Secretary of State for Education, he did a joint video with the Chief Inspector of Schools to try to get the message through on issues such as workload and looking at data. It is a piece of work that we will have to continue.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome this report but might the matter of exclusions be a feature of the Government’s relentless concentration on the academic success of schools, which marginalises students with more technical and practical skills and, indeed, those who simply want to be good, rounded citizens? Can the Minister say what happened to the excellent work done by Charlie Taylor, the coalition Government’s expert on behaviour, some seven years ago? He had some great systems for enabling some of the worst offenders to change their ways. He talked about positive measures to improve attendance rather than the very negative message of stopping exclusions.

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, without sounding complacent, I think it is important to give some perspective to the current exclusion rate. It is about the same as it was 10 years ago; it improved but it has got worse in the last three years. I do not want to paint a picture of there being a crisis. I accept that we are concerned, and we are doing something about it, but it would be wrong to suggest that there is a crisis. Regarding attendance, we have made quite a lot of improvement. The persistent absence rates have dropped quite a lot. Looking again at a 10-year ranking, in 2006-07, 24.9% of secondary schools had persistent absence of more than 10%; that is now down to just under 14% of secondary schools, and that is while raising the bar to make it a harder judgment. So attendance is improving. I do not have the specific information on Charlie Taylor’s work; I am happy to write to the noble Baroness. The Tom Bennett review will be in a similar vein, showing schools best practice and how to manage children in these situations.

Multi-Academy Trusts: Salaries

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Thursday 14th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, I do not think the noble Lord understands the degree of scrutiny to which academy trusts are subjected. It is a far higher level of scrutiny than local authority schools receive. They have to submit audited accounts every year; a comparable school in the local authority sector is audited only every three or four years on average, and that information is not published or easily available. So I disagree fundamentally with the noble Lord’s point. Regarding comparable salaries in the two sectors, a head teacher of a secondary academy is on an average of about £92,000 per year compared with £88,000 for a maintained secondary head, but the heads of academy schools have more responsibilities. The noble Lord says that we do not have any leverage but, according to the results of a recent survey, the Kreston report, in the highest of six bands—schools with 5,000 to 10,000 pupils—salaries have fallen from £140,000 to £114,000.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, the noble Lord has just referred to the £140,000 salary, which the Minister described as reasonable. In the world of finance that he comes from, that might be a reasonable salary. In the world of education, which I come from, it is nothing short of obscene. At a time when teachers are experiencing real pay cuts and often having to subsidise teaching materials because there is nothing in the school budget to pay for them, how on earth can the Government justify this unacceptable face of education?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, the justification is very simple: you take the number of pupils in that trust, divide the senior management team costs by that number and look at the extraordinary results being achieved. These schools were failing; they had been abandoned by local authorities for decades. These children are now getting extraordinary life chances.

Education: English Baccalaureate

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Monday 21st January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, there has indeed been a decline in the proportion of pupils studying design and technology, but great changes have been made to the subject. As I mentioned in response to a Question last week, we have created a different and additional subject called food preparation and nutrition, which has attracted 46,000 entries. It was part of the old design and technology course. We have worked with the James Dyson Foundation, the Design and Technology Association and the Royal Academy of Engineering on the content of the design and technology curriculum. However, in the spirit of collaboration with the noble Lord, I shall quote an eminent left-wing academic on the sociology of education, Professor Michael Young of UCL, who says that social justice demands that children from low-income backgrounds have as much access to knowledge as their advantaged peers.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I will follow on from the question put by the noble Lord, Lord Black. Schools are currently rated and funded largely on academic criteria; that is, EBacc, GCSE, A-level and university entrance. However, the country is facing an acute shortage of people with creative and technical skills. What are the Government doing to incentivise schools to encourage not just their EBacc pupils but those who are technically and creatively skilled, to ensure that they fulfil their potential?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we have put great emphasis on the technical aspects of education through apprenticeships and T-levels. We have also carried out substantial reforms to technical education and the qualifications that go with it. In the past two years we have introduced technical award entries, which are designed to be more practical in their teaching, while in 2017-18 some 194,000 pupils entered for these vocational subjects. They include practical studies such as business, which had 29,000 applicants, while information communication technology had 51,000.

Special Educational Needs and Funding

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Thursday 6th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we have certainly kept this matter under continual review. I mentioned some sums of money a moment ago and, as I said, the amount of overall funding for the high-needs block has increased by £1 billion in the last five years. However, we also accept that early interventions can have a very advantageous impact on young people with disabilities. For example, having a clear focus on literacy is helping children with dyslexia, and we are improving initial teacher training and continuing professional development to raise awareness.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, how do the Government intend to address the training needs of staff in education and the capacity for improvement, as identified in the report, given that over half of teachers say that they have received no training on dyslexia?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we are introducing more training on SEND issues in the initial teacher training modules. For example, we are including the subject of mental health generally as a voluntary rollout from September next year and it will become compulsory the following year. We have also provided funding to the British Dyslexia Association to deliver training to teachers to support the early identification of learning difficulties.

Further Education Bodies (Insolvency) Regulations 2018

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 30th October 2018 Grand Committee

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

There is no objection to the fact that young people are helped by being able to read, write and add up. The point is that GCSEs are very academically focused and the content of those syllabuses is completely inappropriate for many people who have technical skills and could happily do a functional test paper but not the academic papers of GCSE; it is the GCSE exam that is the bugbear, not the fact that people need to be able to read, write and add up.

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

I will certainly take the noble Baroness’s views back to the department and reiterate them; I understand exactly what she is staying. She also raised a question about providing guidance to governors. We are committed to providing clear guidance, particularly on their duties and liabilities under insolvency law. The general College Governance guide, last published in 2014, will be updated. Both sets of guidance have been drafted and are being developed with the stakeholders—the Insolvency Service, the Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form Colleges Association—ready for publication in, we hope, the next few weeks.

The noble Lord, Lord Jones, asked whether I have any specific examples of colleges that have become insolvent. The short answer is no, as they have so far resolved their issues. In 2016 we created the restructuring facility, a fund from which some £330 million has been drawn across the sector. That has been used specifically to help them carry out the restructurings and some of the mergers to which other noble Lords referred, so there has been a period of consolidation over the last two years.

The noble Lord also asked about sixth-form colleges. There is a provision—this also addresses the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Garden—for sixth-form colleges to convert to academy status. If they do that, they get the benefit of VAT recovery. The question was: why cannot everybody do that? The reason is that it is a complicated process. It is an option that we have offered to sixth-form colleges but not all of them have taken it up.

Further Education: Teachers’ Pay

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 16th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)]

My Lords, all teachers are equally important to us. However, further education providers, including sixth-form colleges, are private sector institutions, independent of government. It is for individual FE employers to agree local pay structures, with unions, based on local needs. We are currently considering the efficiency and resilience of the FE sector, and assessing how far existing funding and regulatory structures meet the costs of delivering quality further education, ahead of the spending review.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

But, my Lords, the Government do have an input into this. This is Colleges Week and we should acknowledge the part which further education colleges play in education and English education, with apprenticeships, with further technical and academic qualifications, and with adult learning. They have been lumbered with the wretched GCSE and maths resits, which really are an abomination that the Government need to reconsider. Can the Minister say why, in the last 10 years, college funding has been cut by around 30% and the value of staff pay has fallen by 25%? Why has the recently ring-fenced teachers’ pay grant for schools not been extended to FE colleges? The Government after all do have a part to play in this.

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, to reiterate our acknowledgment of the great role FE colleges play, more than eight out of 10 are judged “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted and, in the most recent data, 58% of pupils leaving go on to jobs and 22% go on into further learning. We absolutely recognise that. There are a couple of figures that might interest the noble Baroness. According to the ONS earnings data—which is, of course, only a survey—when accounting for inflation, FE teacher pay in England has remained stable since 2013. The other point—to pull on some of the broader strands that the noble Baroness mentioned—is that, by 2020, funding available to support adult FE participation, including the adult education budget, the 19-plus apprenticeship funding and advanced learner loans, is planned to be higher than at any time in our recent history.

Education and Training

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Monday 15th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, has the Minister had any further thoughts about giving more support to careers education, so that young people are more fully aware of the range of work opportunities in the world of tomorrow?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

Again, the noble Baroness asks a very important question. We have our careers strategy, underpinned by the Gatsby benchmarks, which among other things help students to learn from the career and labour market information available. The curriculum should be linked to careers, for example by bringing STEM subjects to life, and young people should have real engagement with employers and receive personal guidance. The performance of 3,000 schools and colleges has now been diagnosed against the Gatsby benchmarks, and awareness in schools is increasing all the time.

Primary School Children

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Wednesday 18th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to increase knowledge of work skills, careers and jobs amongst primary school children.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)]

My Lords, it is crucial that we inspire children about the opportunities ahead from an early age. The Government have allocated £2 million in the careers strategy to test new approaches to careers provision in primary schools. Our aim is to learn more about what works so that children can develop positive attitudes about work by meeting employers and learning about different career options. We will share the results widely so that other schools can benefit and build their own expertise.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, the National Association of Head Teachers, to which about 98% of primary head teachers belong, has over the past five years developed a brilliant programme, Primary Futures, which has attracted international recognition—it even gets a mention in the DfE’s careers strategy. It gets volunteers from the world of work to go in to schools to inspire and motivate children and open opportunities for them. The noble Lord has mentioned the £2 million, but why have the Government given it to the Careers & Enterprise Company to replicate this work, instead of ensuring that the NAHT’s brilliant programme is rolled out across primary schools in the country?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, the noble Baroness is correct about the wonderful work that the Primary Futures programme is achieving. More than 3,000 primary schools are registered, and there are 37,000 volunteers and 10,000 employers. The reason we have allocated the money to the Careers & Enterprise Company is simply to broaden the research base for careers training, or at least awareness in primary schools, which is very important. When I ran into the noble Baroness in the corridor last week ahead of this Question, she said, “I do hope you will come up with something useful in your Answer”. What I can say today is that we are now extending the Gatsby benchmark programme—research that has wide support—to take it into primary schools. In January next year, a pilot involving some 70 primaries will translate these benchmarks for use at that stage.

Children: Missed Education

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Thursday 15th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, some groups particularly at risk of missing education include disabled children, those with special educational needs, young offenders and children in care. Surely these young people should be known to social services, the police, doctors or other authorities. Will the Minister tell us what the Government are doing to encourage these authorities to liaise with the education authority to ensure that these children get the education that they need and deserve for a better life?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, it is already a requirement following the issue of our guidelines in 2016 that, for any child registered as SEN, permission must be sought from the local authority to move them to home education. We are strengthening that guidance, as announced yesterday, and have indicated that we will carry out an exclusion review, which will of course begin with these vulnerable children.

Schools: Indoctrination

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, between January 2016 and August 2017, with additional funding from us, Ofsted identified 125 unregistered schools. It visited 38 of those, 34 of which have now closed. Two more have closed since they were investigated and two are still under investigation. We have appointed I think 36 Prevent officers at the last count to support local authorities in areas of concern to provide advice to schools on exactly these areas. I am concerned about this. I am the department’s Minister with responsibility for extremism, so it is one of my main briefs. I believe we are doing a lot, and we continue to be alert to where more needs to be done.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, could the Minister say what support the Government can offer to head teachers who face difficulties when they come across extremism and indoctrination in their schools? There have been cases of intimidation and heads being prevented from doing their jobs. Could a support network and a hotline perhaps be set up to help them?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, in April 2015 we established a counterextremism helpline to avoid exactly the situation that the noble Baroness raises. Teachers can contact it for confidential advice. We have had more than 450 uses of this helpline from educationists and other members of the public.

Apprenticeships: Disabled Students

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Monday 15th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, there seems to be some inconsistency between the theory of the Minister’s replies and the practice that we are hearing about from those who work with these people. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, said, many who find English and maths difficult have the practical skills that we really need in apprenticeships, and the country has an acute skills shortage. Will the Minister say what is being done by the Government to address the inconsistencies in support for these people across the country?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we are very conscious that many able people struggle with maths and English. I come from a family of seven children; only two of us managed maths O-level, so I am very sympathetic on that. But we have made available additional skills training. There are individual courses where additional funding of up to £471 a course is available. As I mentioned earlier, there is the facility to have extra time in exams. Through some of the areas of support that I referred to in response to the supplementary question of the noble Lord, Lord Addington, there is additional funding for things such as equipment needed for British Sign Language, for example, or more technical equipment for other disabled apprentices.

Dyslexia: Disabled Students’ Allowance

Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Agnew of Oulton

Monday 13th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

I will need to write to my noble friend on that.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, there is proof that students who use computer assistive technology do better than those who are eligible for it but do not, but it appears that the additional charge of £200 is having a detrimental effect on take-up. What measures are the Government taking to ensure that all those who need it have access to it, regardless of their means?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, once an assessment has been carried out, and there are 180 assessment centres in the country, they will produce a package that is relevant for the individual sufferer of the condition. There are four bands of assistance graded by the assessor when they meet the person needing the help.