Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department provided to Stonewall in 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department has not funded any Stonewall programmes in 2023.
The Standards and Testing Agency (STA), an executive agency of the department, paid a total of £2,160 to Stonewall in 2023. The contract the payment relates to has now expired and STA has confirmed it has no new contracts with Stonewall.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much has been spent on translation services in schools from English to (a) Polish, (b) Arabic, (c) Urdu, (d) Panjabi and (e) Romanian in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for South Holland and The Deepings, to the answer of 30 January 2024 to questions 10704 and 10705.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of antisemitism incidents there have been on higher education campuses since 7 October 2023.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Departmental officials have assessed evidence of antisemitism and racial hatred linked to incidents at English universities. Where concerns have arisen, officials have reached out to relevant universities to understand what actions they have taken, including reporting issues to the police where appropriate. The department also continually reminds providers of their obligations under the Prevent duty, where they should be working to prevent people from being drawn into or supporting terrorism. There is an online "Reporting Extremism" form where members of the public can raise concerns to the department directly.
The department also regularly meets with the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors and reports on antisemitism in the UK. CST’s latest report indicates that there were 154 antisemitic incidents in higher education (HE) between 7 October 2023 and 13 December 2023.
This unprecedented level of antisemitism on campus is deeply concerning. On 5 November 2023, the department published a five-point plan detailing concerted action to protect Jewish students in HE. The plan involves:
In the 22 November 2023 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £7 million of funding over three years for a comprehensive package of measures to tackle antisemitism in schools, colleges and universities. The department will issue an invitation to tender shortly for organisations interested in delivering this package.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the cost to the public purse for the translation of school materials into languages other than English in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
School funding is distributed by the department fairly, based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. It is then for school heads and governors to decide how this money is spent, in line with their school’s context.
The department does not hold the cost and spending for translating school materials into non-English languages or providing language translators in schools. Such professional services are procured by individual schools and local authorities. Local authorities can ‘de-delegate’ funding from maintained schools in their area to meet the costs to improve the performance of underperforming pupils from ethnic minority groups and meeting the specific needs of bilingual pupils, and local authorities submit data on this spending as part of their annual returns to the department. ‘De-delegated’ funding is spent centrally by local authorities to meet costs faced by maintained schools in their area.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds information on the number of children that have identified as transgender in schools in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold information regarding the number of children that have identified as transgender in schools.
The NHS has published annual statistics on the number of referrals to gender identity development services, including for under-18s. These statistics can be accessed at: https://gids.nhs.uk/about-us/number-of-referrals/.
On 19 December 2023, the department published draft guidance for consultation in relation to children who are questioning their gender. The consultation will run for 12 weeks and will close at 11:59pm on 12 March 2024. This is accessible at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/equalities-political-impartiality-anti-bullying-team/gender-questioning-children-proposed-guidance/consultation/subpage.2023-12-19.3445648010/.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the cost to the public purse was for providing language translators in schools in each year since 2013.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
School funding is distributed by the department fairly, based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. It is then for school heads and governors to decide how this money is spent, in line with their school’s context.
The department does not hold the cost and spending for translating school materials into non-English languages or providing language translators in schools. Such professional services are procured by individual schools and local authorities. Local authorities can ‘de-delegate’ funding from maintained schools in their area to meet the costs to improve the performance of underperforming pupils from ethnic minority groups and meeting the specific needs of bilingual pupils, and local authorities submit data on this spending as part of their annual returns to the department. ‘De-delegated’ funding is spent centrally by local authorities to meet costs faced by maintained schools in their area.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in each year since 2019.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is able to provide the schools National Funding Formula (NFF) allocations for schools in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency from the 2020/21 financial year. This covers mainstream schools funding only. The schools NFF determines school revenue funding for all mainstream schools in England, although schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ local funding formulae. Constituency figures are based on an aggregate of schools’ NFF allocations.
Pupil premium provides additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils. Allocations are calculated based on the number of eligible pupils in each school, and so, are also available at constituency level.
South Holland and the Deepings’ NFF and pupil premium allocations can be found in the attached spreadsheet.
Other funding allocations are not available broken down to the level of individual constituencies.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average funding allocation per pupil was in mainstream schools in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in the 2023-24 financial year; and what the projected funding allocation per pupil in such schools is for the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Through the schools national funding formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated up at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s dedicated school grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
In 2023/24, through the DSG and Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG) combined, the average per-pupil funding for mainstream schools in Lincolnshire is £5,778. In 2024/25, through the DSG, the average per-pupil funding for Lincolnshire will be £5,904, a 2.2% increase from this current financial year. These are actual funding allocations.
In 2024/25, based on the notional NFF allocations, South Holland and The Deepings’ average per-pupil funding will be £5,874, which is a 1.9% increase from the £5,766 they attracted through the NFF and MSAG combined in 2023/24. However, final allocations for South Holland and The Deepings will depend on the local authority’s local formula.
The figures above do not include the additional funding the department is providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant, which is being provided on top of the DSG in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, or through other grants, such as the Pupil Premium.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the contribution to the economy of (a) foreign students at UK universities and (b) their dependents.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government recognises the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector.
According to a report from the HE Policy Institute report in 2023, a cohort of first-year international students enrolled at UK universities in the 2021/22 academic year had an estimated net economic impact of £37.4 billion across the duration of their studies. The net economic impact per student was estimated to be £98,000 per ‘typical’ international student in the 2021/22 cohort. This means that every 10 international students generate around £1 million worth of net economic impact for the UK economy over the duration of their studies. This report highlights the significant economic benefit international students have on the UK economy.
The department does not hold any data on the economic contribution of dependants of international students who study at UK universities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many international students were enrolled in UK universities in the 2022-23 academic year.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Statistics on enrolments and qualifications obtained at UK higher education providers are collected and published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Latest statistics refer to the 2021/22 academic year, and information specifically referring to students’ location of domicile prior to study is available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from.
Statistics for 2022/23 will be published in 2024.