Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of levels of school funding on the provision of (a) physical education, (b) extracurricular sporting activities and (c) sporting facilities in secondary schools in England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises the important role of PE, school sport and physical activity in supporting children and young people’s health, wellbeing and attainment.
Curriculum PE is funded through schools’ core budgets, which schools can allocate according to pupils’ needs. The government is investing over £1 billion in PE and school sport over the next three years, including £530 million for the new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network and almost £200 million to improve sporting facilities. The network will support primary and secondary schools through universal and targeted provision, including coaching, swimming and stronger links with extracurricular sport and local clubs.
The £22.5 million Enrichment Expansion Programme will support over 400 schools in the most deprived areas of England to meet the Enrichment Framework benchmarks. In addition, the ‘Every Child Can’ programme will provide £132.5 million from dormant assets for enrichment activities in schools, communities, weekends and holidays.
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
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.