Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging education employers to promote membership of a credit union to teachers and non-teaching staff.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government is a strong supporter of the mutual sector, including credit unions. The department is not the employer of any school staff, and it would therefore be inappropriate to encourage or recommend membership to specific financial products or institutions.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with exam boards on offering GCSEs in Tamil.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE in England are taken by four independent awarding organisations – AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC – rather than by central government. These organisations have the freedom to create a Tamil GCSE based on the subject content for modern foreign languages set by the department. This decision would be informed by several factors, including the level of demand from schools and the proportion of the population in the UK speaking the language.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the funding per student in English further education colleges in 2010, 2024 and 2025-26.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The table below uses the published 16 to 19 funding allocations to derive the average total programme funding per student in general further education (FE) colleges, for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years. The figures are not available for 2010 to 2011.
Average funding per student in general FE colleges | |
2024/25 | £6,753 |
2025/26 | £7,419 |
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what programmes are available to encourage businesses to provide industrial secondments to university lecturers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Economic growth is the central mission of this government and is vital to give the next generation the opportunities to thrive.
The government encourages work experience through various initiatives spanning various departments. The Department for Business and Trade published the UK’s Industrial, Trade and Small Business Strategies, which were developed in partnership with business, with positive feedback from leading business organisations. For example, the Industrial Strategy will provide an additional £1.2 billion of investment in the skills system by 2028/29.
Higher education providers are autonomous institutions and are responsible for designing and delivering their own courses. This includes decisions on whether to offer internships, work placements or industrial secondments.
It is for individual universities to work with businesses to develop and manage these opportunities in ways that best meet the needs of their students, employers and academic staff.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assistance is being provided to businesses to help them offer work placements to undergraduates.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Economic growth is the central mission of this government and is vital to give the next generation the opportunities to thrive.
The government encourages work experience through various initiatives spanning various departments. The Department for Business and Trade published the UK’s Industrial, Trade and Small Business Strategies, which were developed in partnership with business, with positive feedback from leading business organisations. For example, the Industrial Strategy will provide an additional £1.2 billion of investment in the skills system by 2028/29.
Higher education providers are autonomous institutions and are responsible for designing and delivering their own courses. This includes decisions on whether to offer internships, work placements or industrial secondments.
It is for individual universities to work with businesses to develop and manage these opportunities in ways that best meet the needs of their students, employers and academic staff.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether they will require their department and agencies to offer payroll deductions to all employees to enable them to join a credit union.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s financial wellbeing offer for its workforce includes access to a variety of advances including rental deposits and season ticket loans and budgeting advice. We have no current plans to introduce payroll deductions for Credit Union membership. Decisions for Arm’s Length Bodies are up to each organisation.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with exam boards on introducing a GCSE in Romanian.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE in England are taken by four independent awarding organisations – AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC – rather than by central government. These organisations have the freedom to create a Somali and/or Romanian GCSE based on the subject content for modern foreign languages set by the department. This decision would be informed by several factors, including the level of demand from schools and the proportion of the population in the UK speaking the language.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with exam boards on introducing a GCSE in Somali.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE in England are taken by four independent awarding organisations – AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC – rather than by central government. These organisations have the freedom to create a Somali and/or Romanian GCSE based on the subject content for modern foreign languages set by the department. This decision would be informed by several factors, including the level of demand from schools and the proportion of the population in the UK speaking the language.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will make an estimate of how many education employers offer their employees the opportunity to join a credit union via payroll deduction.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether British students will be able to take part in the Erasmus+ exchange programme by January 2027.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As set out at the UK-EU Summit in May, the UK agreed to work towards association to the Erasmus+ programme on mutually agreed financial terms.
Negotiations are ongoing, and the timelines for any association are subject to ongoing discussion. We are open to associating to Erasmus+ for 2027 in principle, but only if we can reach agreement on financial terms, which should ensure a fair balance as regards the contributions of and benefits to the UK.