Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to be able to inform EU students who wish to study in the UK from the 2021/22 academic year whether they will be liable for (1) UK, or (2) overseas, fees.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We recognise how important it is that higher education students and institutions have information on eligibility for student support before applications open for university courses.
Applications for courses starting in the academic year 2021/22 do not open until September 2020. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective EU students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in the future.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the most vulnerable children whose education is being disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic will be able to catch up with their peers in due course.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department will do whatever it can to make sure no child, whatever their background or location, falls behind as a result of coronavirus.
Schools remain open for the children of critical workers and vulnerable children, who are encouraged to attend where it is appropriate for them to do so. Where vulnerable children are not attending an educational setting, we have asked local authorities, schools and colleges to continue to keep in touch with these children and young people during this period.
Schools are continuing to receive additional funding in the form of the pupil premium – worth around £2.4 billion annually – to help them support their disadvantaged pupils.
The government has also committed over £100 million to support children learn at home during this crisis and is considering, with a range of partner organisations, how best to support all pupils who have been affected by school closures. We are working at pace with experts, including the Education Endowment Foundation, to understand and address the immediate and longer-term impacts of school closures. This includes considering the benefits and challenges of a targeted online tutoring offer and the feasibility of some support over the summer.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the announcement on 19 April that they will provide laptops, tablets and 4G routers to vulnerable children across the UK, how many children at primary and secondary schools have received these items; and what percentage that number constitutes of the total number of those in need.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Government has committed over £100 million to support remote education, including by providing laptops, tablets and 4G routers to vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England to access educational resources and social services.
We are providing laptops and tablets to disadvantaged children and families who would otherwise not have access and are receiving support from a social worker, including pre-school children and families; are a care leaver; or are preparing for examination in Year 10.
Where care leavers, children and families with a social worker at secondary school and children in Year 10 do not have internet connections, we will be providing 4G routers.
The Department has allocated devices to Responsible Bodies based on its estimates of the number of eligible children that do not have a device. Local authorities, academy trusts and other relevant organisations overseeing schools have been given guidance on how to request and order devices. We believe that local authorities and academy trusts are best placed to identify and prioritise children and young people who need devices.
We are working to provide these devices in the shortest possible timeframe.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of employees (1) taking, and (2) being required to take, annual leave whilst on furlough.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a vital element of the Government’s efforts to protect the economy during COVID-19. Employees continue to accrue holiday while on furlough, as per their employment contract, unless the employer and employee agree to vary this as part of the furlough agreement. It remains the case in employment law that an employer may ask employees to take holiday in the period of furlough. This would be a negotiation between employer and employee, and Working Time Regulations require holiday pay to be paid at an employee’s normal rate of pay. In order to provide extra flexibility, where it is not reasonably practical for an employee to take some, or all, of the holiday to which they are entitled due to Covid-19, holiday can now be carried over into the next two leave years.
During this unprecedented time, the Government is keeping the policy on holiday pay under review.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 6 November 2018 (HL10959), whether they are now in a position to ensure that higher education providers have access to free school meals data at the start of the undergraduate admissions cycle as part of measures to widen access to higher education.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Everyone with the talent and capability to succeed in higher education should have the opportunity to benefit from a high-quality university education, regardless of age, background or where they grew up.
So that providers are identifying talent in areas of disadvantage, they need to use good-quality and meaningful data. We encourage higher education providers to use a range of measures including individual-level indicators, area data (such as Participation of Local Areas, Index of Multiple Deprivation or postcode classification from ACORN), school data, intersectional data such as Universities and Colleges Admissions Service’s (UCAS) Multiple Equality Measure, and participation in outreach activities.
We are actively considering how we can make available free school meals data, taking in to account relevant data protection legislation, and will continue to work closely with UCAS and the Office for Students to this end. In general, we are looking to make data as illuminating as possible.
The government believes that every young person with the potential should have the opportunity to access higher education, if it is right for them. A person’s background or start in life should not determine their future.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to add colleges and universities to the list of institutions set out in Regulation 22 of the Human Medicines (No. 2) Regulations 2014 so that those institutions may obtain, without a prescription, adrenaline auto-injector devices for use in emergencies.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have no current plans to add colleges and universities to the list of institutions set out in Regulation 22 of the Human Medicines (No. 2) Regulations 2014.
In the Regulations, ‘Schools’ are defined in accordance with Education Acts. It is the Department’s understanding that educational establishments so defined would not immediately extend to all colleges and universities. However, the provisions within the current legislation may offer scope for some higher education institutions to be included. We will consider if we can provide a more definitive – and easily understood - list of educational establishments that would fall within the scope of the present legislation.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve access to information about sources of public funding in the UK to support international research collaboration and the mobility of researchers in the early stages of their careers.
Answered by Lord Henley
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed to supporting international collaboration and promoting opportunities for doing so. The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the Newton Fund and the Fund for International Collaboration (FIC) are all specific avenues for UK researchers and innovators to develop international partnerships.
Information about funding available for international collaboration is available on the UKRI website, as well as on individual Research Council websites. Information about funded research and innovation is available through Gateway to Research, including projects funded through the GCRF, the Newton Fund and the FIC. Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, additionally allow UKRI to advertise opportunities for funding.
UKRI works closely with the Research Organisation Consultation Group to disseminate funding information through UK research organisations. The UK Science and Innovation Network (operated as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), and Universities UK International are also well placed to promote these opportunities.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
This Government is clear that no-one should be criminalised simply for having nowhere to live and sleeping rough. The cross-Government Rough Sleeping Strategy, which was published in August, committed to reviewing homelessness and rough sleeping legislation, including the Vagrancy Act 1824. The Government believes that review of the 1824 Act, rather than immediate wholesale repeal, is the right course of action to ensure the consequences of repeal are fully understood. My policy officials are currently developing the terms of reference for the review.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to prevent any funding shortfall for UK universities by introducing domestic funding to replace research income from the European Research Council and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions in the event of no withdrawal agreement being reached between the UK and EU.
Answered by Lord Henley
If there is a deal, and the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, the UK will continue to be able to participate in Horizon 2020 until the end of the programme. This includes access to funding for UK researchers from the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).
In the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario, the Government has committed to underwrite all successful UK bids submitted to Horizon 2020 before EU exit, including ERC and MSCA funded projects. Through the extension to the guarantee, the Government has also committed to fund all UK participants’ funding in all Horizon 2020 calls open to third country participants from the date of exit. This would cover the lifetime of projects, even if they last beyond 2020.
We are very conscious, though, that third country participation is not possible for nearly all ERC and some MSCA grants. The Government is considering what other measures may be necessary to support UK research and innovation in the event that the guarantee and the extension are required. We are working with stakeholders to identify appropriate measures that could be put in place in the period immediately after EU Exit, if needed.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they will use to measure the effectiveness of the mechanisms for meeting the new access and participation targets proposed by the Office for Students.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office for Students (OfS), as the new independent regulator for higher education, has recently consulted the sector on a new approach to regulating higher education (HE) providers’ progress on widening access and successful participation in HE. The OfS is expected to respond to the consultation later this year.
We would expect the OfS to keep any new approach under review, to assess its effectivenes in achieving our goals for improved access and participation in HE by under-represented groups.
The OfS brings together the levers of both funding and the arrangements for agreeing and monitoring Higher Education providers’ Access and Participation plans to seek continuous improvement in this area. OfS also now has access to a range of sanctions to address concerns about a lack of progress on access and participation.