Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the details of any contract his Department has entered into with (a) Nuffield or (b) one of Nuffield associated companies that may allow the harvesting of personal data by those companies from families with children in schools in pursuing the completion of those contracts; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Department for Education commercial records system has been checked and there are no records that show Nuffield Hospital as a supplier of goods or services to the department.
All Department for Education contracts with an award value of £20,000 or greater are listed on Contracts Finder. Contracts Finder can be accessed here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has had any (a) financial contract and (b) meetings with (i) Clifford Chance LLP, (ii) FTI Consulting and (iii) Fenchurch Advisory Partners in the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
Officials searched the Department for Education commercial record system and I can confirm that no contracts have been recorded with suppliers (i) Clifford Chance LLP, (ii) FTI Consulting and (iii) Fenchurch Advisory Partners.
Details of Government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.
Officials are unable to check all electronic diaries across the department for meeting with (i) Clifford Chance LLP, (ii) FTI Consulting and (iii) Fenchurch Advisory Partner.
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the time taken to deliver face masks to secondary schools in (a) Harrow West constituency and (b) England; what steps his Department is taking to ensure that deliveries are made in time to meet demand; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robin Walker
To support the temporary measures recently introduced, the department has worked with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to deliver a contingency supply of face coverings to education providers. These face coverings have been provided by DHSC at no cost to education providers.
We would expect most staff, pupils and students already have access to face coverings. However, we recognise that some individuals may not have access or might forget their face covering. We hope that this extra supply will mean all students, pupils and staff are able to access a face covering when needed.
We delivered the majority of face coverings to secondary schools before the Christmas break, with the remaining deliveries completed in early January, including to those schools in Harrow West.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department is providing to ensure that schools and other relevant agencies are working with all children and young people to ensure that (a) misogyny and sexism are challenged and (b) such attitudes, actions and behaviours are not normalised or trivialised within schools; what steps his Department is taking to ensure that progress in both those areas is monitored; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Robin Walker
The new statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which came into force in September 2020, emphasises that schools should be alive to issues such as everyday sexism, misogyny, homophobia and gender stereotypes, and take positive action to build a culture where these are not tolerated, and any occurrences are identified and tackled. The guidance states that schools should make clear that sexual violence and sexual harassment are not acceptable, will never be tolerated and are not an inevitable part of growing up.
Following Ofsted’s review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, the department has committed to developing additional support to help teachers deliver statutory RSHE effectively and confidently. The government’s October 2021 ‘Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy’ emphasises the importance of educational interventions to change harmful attitudes. To ensure consistency of approach, the department will develop non-statutory guidance, monitor and evaluate teacher confidence to deliver these difficult topics, and continue to build a programme of support that meets teachers’ needs.
The department has also recently published revised statutory guidance, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, which has been strengthened to better support schools and colleges to prevent abuse, identify abuse, and respond appropriately where abuse is reported. The department will be launching a consultation later this year on the non-statutory behaviour and discipline guidance which will provide more practical advice to schools about how to encourage good behaviour and respond effectively to incidents of poor behaviour, including advice on how to create a safe and respectful school culture in which sexual harassment and violence are not tolerated.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the reporting to education professionals of sexual harassment via (a) social media and (b) other means is fit for purpose; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Following Ofsted’s review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, the department considered the effectiveness of reporting mechanisms. Amended statutory safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges, Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), came into force on 1 September 2021, alongside revised departmental advice on sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges. The guidance has been strengthened and updated following a public consultation and considering the findings from the Ofsted Review.
KCSIE provides detailed advice on how schools and colleges, generally led by their designated safeguarding lead, should respond to any report of sexual violence or sexual harassment. It sets out the importance of reporting systems that are well promoted, easily understood and easily accessible for children to confidently report abuse, knowing their concerns will be treated seriously. KCSIE and the departmental advice remain under constant review.
Ofsted inspectors will always report on whether arrangements for safeguarding children are effective.
The ‘Reporting Abuse in Education’ helpline was set up on 1 April and is available for those who may not be comfortable reporting abuse via their school or college.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2021 to Question 168825 on Languages: GCE A-level and GCSE and with reference to the data in provided in the Other modern languages category for each of the years from 2015-16 to 2019-20, how many entries there were for pupils studying (a) Arabic, (b) Bengali, (c) Chinese, (d) Gujarati, (e) Japanese, (f) Punjabi, (g) Persian and (h) Urdu at A-level; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The number of A level entries1 by students in England aged 16 to 182 in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Japanese, Punjabi, Persian and Urdu between 2015/16 – 2019/20 are provided in the table below:
| Subject entries5 |
| |||||
2015/163 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/204 |
| ||
Arabic | 460 | 485 | 504 | 615 | 276 |
| |
Bengali | 34 | 38 | 23 | 28 | 7 |
| |
Chinese | 2445 | 2517 | 2816 | 1924 | 1402 |
| |
Gujarati | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 6 |
| |
Japanese | 179 | 170 | 202 | 177 | 78 |
| |
Persian | 129 | 121 | 137 | 150 | 51 |
| |
Punjabi | 87 | 91 | 106 | 97 | 59 |
| |
Urdu | 317 | 325 | 341 | 339 | 188 |
| |
1. Covers A level examination results for the academic year specified in England in all schools and colleges. |
| ||||||
2. Covers students aged 16, 17 or 18 at the start of the relevant academic year, i.e. 31 August. | |||||||
3. Final data; data for all other years is revised data except 2019/20 | |||||||
4. Provisional data; data for all other years is revised data except 2015/16 | |||||||
5. Where more than one A level is taken by a student in the same subject ‘discounting’ rules have been applied to ensure performance measures only give credit once for teaching a single course of study. | |||||||
Note: the number of A level entries is influenced by the overall population of students at the end of 16 to 18 study, which was around 16,000 fewer in 2019/20 than 2018/19, or a decrease of 2.6%.