Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to encourage students to take up STEM subjects.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels to ensure people have access to high quality teaching and can access career opportunities in STEM related sectors. The Department is working with other Government Departments through the UK Science & Technology Framework to deliver talent and skills for critical technologies.
The Department funds several programmes to encourage young people into STEM, including:
The Department also supports the STEM ambassadors programme, which inspires young people from underrepresented backgrounds to engage with STEM subjects. Secondary schools are also expected to provide pupils with at least one meaningful interaction with employers per pupil per year, with a focus on STEM employers.
The Department is harnessing expertise through the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce to increase the number of people taking digital and computing qualifications and to attract a diverse range of individuals into digital jobs. The Department is also investing over £100 million in the National Centre for Computing Education to improve the teaching of computing and to increase participation in computer science at GCSE and A level.
The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths works with a network of 40 maths hubs to help local schools improve the quality of their teaching. In April, the Prime Minister announced that every young person will study some form of mathematics up to the age of 18, and that the Department will expand and extend the work of maths hubs.
The Prime Minister also recently announced plans to develop a new baccalaureate-style qualification called the Advanced British Standard (ABS) for 16 to 19 year-olds, which will bring together the best of A levels and T Levels into a single qualification, and ensure students continue with some form of mathematics and English study until they are 18.
The Department is making a £600 million downpayment for the ABS, focused on recruiting and retaining teachers in key STEM and technical shortage subjects, ensuring better attainment in mathematics and English, and providing better resources for teachers and pupils. As part of this, it is investing around £100 million a year to give early career STEM teachers, working in disadvantaged schools and all further education colleges up to £6,000 tax free annually on top of their pay, and an additional £60 million over two years to improve mathematics education. This will help to ensure our young people receive high quality specialist teaching to equip them with the mathematics and science skills the UK needs.
The Department also funds the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme which delivers high quality teacher professional development as well as focused support and enrichment for students and institutions to improve participation and provision in level 3 mathematics.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to encourage people to become mathematics teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.
The Department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects, including mathematics. This is why the Department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to teach mathematics, as well as physics, chemistry and computing. The initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, a £15 million increase on the last cycle.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to publish a dental recovery plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are currently working on a plan for dentistry, to be published shortly, to improve access to dental care across England. There are several fronts where we need to take further action to support and recover activity in National Health Service dentistry, to improve access to care for all ages.
Our plan for dentistry will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value, and the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which committed to increasing dentistry training places by 40% so that there are over 1,100 places by 2031/32.
Our plan will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to provide support for people with (a) Corticobasal Degeneration and (b) Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
Answered by Helen Whately
While the Department is not taking steps to ensure early diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy specifically, the 2021 UK Rare Diseases Framework aims to improve the awareness of all rare diseases which includes these conditions. England’s second Rare Diseases Action Plan, published in February 2023, reports on progress made to help patients get a final diagnosis faster and outlines new actions such as commissioning research on how best to measure the diagnostic odyssey.
An individual with Corticobasal Degeneration and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy can be affected in many ways, therefore support available will depend on individual need. Patients with these conditions would typically be supported through the usual range of commissioned health and social care services, including neurology services. There is not a separately commissioned service for this diagnosis.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure early diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
Answered by Helen Whately
While the Department is not taking steps to ensure early diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy specifically, the 2021 UK Rare Diseases Framework aims to improve the awareness of all rare diseases which includes these conditions. England’s second Rare Diseases Action Plan, published in February 2023, reports on progress made to help patients get a final diagnosis faster and outlines new actions such as commissioning research on how best to measure the diagnostic odyssey.
An individual with Corticobasal Degeneration and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy can be affected in many ways, therefore support available will depend on individual need. Patients with these conditions would typically be supported through the usual range of commissioned health and social care services, including neurology services. There is not a separately commissioned service for this diagnosis.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is in place for people with psychosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
It is for individual integrated care boards to commission mental health services, including those for people with psychosis, in order to meet the needs of their local population.
We have introduced waiting times standards for early intervention in psychosis services and are expanding and transforming National Health Service mental health services, backed by additional investment of £2.3 billion a year by March 2024 to enable an extra 2 million people in England to access NHS funded mental health support.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to provide financial support for the hospitality sector.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake
The Government recognises that the hospitality sector is facing financial pressures.
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) will provide all eligible UK businesses and other non-domestic energy users with a discount on high energy bills from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.
The Government has also announced business rates support measures worth £13.6 billion over the next 5 years.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with (a) representatives and (b) trade bodies from the hospitality sector on potential challenges facing the hospitality sector.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake
We meet regularly with representatives and trade bodies from the hospitality sector and have convened a Hospitality Sector Council to deliver the 2021 Hospitality Strategy, with the aim of building the sector’s long-term resilience. A Delivery Report showing progress made was published in March. The Council is scheduled to meet next in July.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made f the impact of the level of VAT on the hospitality sector.
Answered by Victoria Atkins
Since the start of the pandemic, over £37 billion has been provided to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.
VAT is the UK's third largest tax forecast to raise £161 billion in 2023/2024, helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS, education and defence. The previous VAT relief for tourism and hospitality cost over £8 billion and reintroducing it would come at a significant further cost.
While there are no plans to reduce the rate of VAT paid by hospitality businesses, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent comparative assessment his Department has made of the impact of the level of VAT rates on the hospitality sector in (a) the UK and (b) the EU.
Answered by Victoria Atkins
Since the start of the pandemic, over £37 billion has been provided to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.
At £85,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU Member State and the second highest in the OECD, which keeps the majority of UK businesses out of VAT. VAT reliefs in the UK are among the highest in the OECD and mean that 45 per cent of economic activity is not subject to VAT.