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 assessment she has made of the level of teaching of the canon of English literature in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The national curriculum for English aims to ensure an appreciate of our rich and varied literary heritage. It encourages pupils to read a range of books, poems, and plays to foster the development of a lifelong love of literature.
Maintained schools must follow the English programmes of study, and once passed, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will extend this requirement to academies.
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 Ofsted has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Janet Daby
This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
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 Ofqual has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Janet Daby
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sir Ian Bauckham, to write to the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
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 the Teaching Regulation Agency has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Janet Daby
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) adheres to the departmental policy of providing workplace adjustments where appropriate. The cost of providing equipment for use at home to facilitate workplace adjustments for TRA staff is shown below:
Financial Year | Cost |
2022/23 | £0 |
2023/24 | £0 |
2024/25 | £316.99 |
Heads of departments have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.
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 the Education and Skills Funding Agency spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department and its executive agencies, including the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), only provide equipment for home working in the case of a workplace adjustment related to a disability and which the Equality Act requires us to support.
Departmental spend over the last three years, which includes ESFA spend, on equipment which exceeded £500:
Financial Year | Total spend on equipment exceeding £500 |
2022/23 | £28,103.73 |
2023/24 | £53,675.59 |
2024/25 | £46,576 |
To obtain comprehensive data which includes spending on equipment below £500 for each of the last three years, it would be necessary to contact individual teams across the department and agencies, which would not be possible within the timeframe for responding to a PQ, and would incur a disproportionate cost.
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 the Standards and Testing Agency has spent on equipment to enable staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Janet Daby
The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is an executive agency of the department and follows our policies on hybrid working and the purchase of equipment for use at home.
The department has set an expectation that colleagues spend at least 60% of their working time in the office or another work setting. Employees who work from home as part of a flexible arrangement, and not as part of a contractual arrangement, are expected to have access to a suitable workspace and equipment at their own cost. The exception to this would be equipment recommended as a part of a reasonable adjustment following an occupational health assessment, but such equipment would be charged to a central departmental budget rather than to STA.
STA has no recorded expenditure on equipment to enable staff to work from home in any of the last three financial years.
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 plans to increase the level of support available to help schools meet the needs of pupils with learning disabilities in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department wants to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to achieve and thrive in mainstream settings through early identification, effective support, high-quality teaching and effective allocation of resources.
We are engaging extensively with stakeholders, including our Expert Advisory Group for Inclusion, on the best ways to drive inclusive practice and how to improve mainstream education outcomes and experiences for children and young people with SEND.
Details of the government's intended approach to SEND reform will be set out in a Schools White Paper in the autumn.
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 fines that were issued to parents for unauthorised school absence in (a) South Holland District Council and (b) South Kesteven District Council in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The information is not held by the department at local authority district level.
Information on penalty notices for unauthorised absence is collected at local authority level. The latest available data, covering the 2023/24 academic year, is available in the parental responsibility measures statistical release, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/parental-responsibility-measures/2023-24.
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 her Department spent on equipment for civil servants to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department does not hold a complete central record of all spending on equipment to support home working. Information is only centrally recorded where the individual costs exceed £500.
The department spent the following over the last three years on equipment which exceeded £500:
Financial year | Total spend on equipment exceeding £500 |
2022/23 | £28,103.73 |
2023/24 | £53,675.59 |
2024/25 | £46,576 |
To obtain comprehensive data which included spend on equipment below £500 for each of the last three years, it would be necessary to contact individual teams across the department, which would not be possible within the timeframe for responding to a Written Parliamentary Question, and would incur a disproportionate cost.
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 steps she is taking to support the introduction of more vocational education pathways for students in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Janet Daby
As announced in the Spending Review, the department is making over £1 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/29.
This will support and grow the wide range of technical routes and work-based training available for people of all ages, across the country including in Cambridgeshire. This includes:
We have also strengthened legislation to ensure all secondary pupils have multiple opportunities for meaningful encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships.