Lord Haselhurst

As set out in our White Paper, “Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice” we plan to implement the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in stages.

• In Year One all providers with satisfactory quality assessments will automatically achieve a rating of ‘Meets Expectations’.
• Year Two will be a trial year for the full assessment process at provider level. Year Three in will be the first full year of assessments at provider level, and we will also carry out a number of pilots at disciplinary level.
• Year Four will be the first year of disciplinary level assessments and the first year in which post-graduate taught provision may be included.

Further detail on the timeline for Year Two is set out in the TEF Technical Consultation.

Very Light Rail in Coventry is an emerging technology being researched and developed by Coventry City Council (CCC) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Local proposals to develop this technology include building a demonstrator route in Coventry City Centre.

WMCA has included the development of Very Light Rail within its £1.05 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) programme agreed with Government. Investment decisions on the Very Light Rail programme are subject to approval by the Department for Transport.

The Department’s officials have reviewed the Strategic Outline Business Case for the VLRRP, which is now being progressed through bespoke governance as a Research and Development project to reflect the novel nature of the Very Light Rail prototype.

Our policy is for franchising in the Greater Anglia region and nationally to support economic growth and deliver improvements for passengers.

We held a public consultation on the future of franchising in the East Anglia region and the results of this will be taken into account in the requirements for the current franchise competition.

We expect bidders to exceed these requirements. The Invitation To Tender will be provided to bidders in August and we will announce a winner in July 2016.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 8 January (HCWS176) the findings of the report are expected to be laid in the libraries of both Houses later this month, and published on line shortly after that.

This overarching Review builds on the work of the two previous Triennial reviews, into Commonwealth and Marshall scholarships, including their public consultations. It focuses on whether there are synergies for better efficiencies between the three schemes.

I expect to bring forward proposals to establish a Joint Committee on Restoration and Renewal before the House rises for the summer recess.