Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of state-funded faith schools are non-Christian.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
There are 85 non-Christian state-funded faith schools, which represents 1.2% of all state-funded faith schools. This data is derived from Table 2c in Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics, 2016, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2016
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) how many parents were prosecuted for truancy, (b) how many of those people were found guilty, (c) how many of those convicted were (i) fined and (ii) imprisoned, (d) what the (iii) highest, (iv) lowest and (v) average level of fine imposed was for those who received fines and (e) what the (vi) longest, (vii) shortest and (viii) average length of custodial sentence was for those people who received one.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Statistics on truancy are published by the Ministry of Justice in the “Criminal justice statistics outcomes by offence data tool”, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2015.
The number of defendants proceeded at court for the offences of truancy (parent failure to secure attendance of child) was 20,808 in England and Wales in 2015. The number of offenders found guilty was 15,649. Similarly, the number of offenders sentenced was 15,649; out of these, 12,095 offenders were sentenced to a court fine, and 8 offenders were given an immediate custody sentence.
The average level of fine for truancy was £184 in 2015. The lowest fine was up to £25, and the highest fine was over £750 and up to £1,000.
The average custodial sentence length for truancy was 1.3 months in 2015, and all custodial sentences given were for 3 months or less.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria the Government will use to determine eligibility for free school meals once universal credit has been rolled out.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and other government departments to consider new criteria for determining entitlement to benefits-related free school meals as the rollout of Universal Credit progresses. We will communicate our proposals in due course. There are no plans to change the criteria for determining eligibility for pupil premium.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether any change to the criteria which determine eligibility for pupil premium funding will result from the roll-out of universal credit.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and other government departments to consider new criteria for determining entitlement to benefits-related free school meals as the rollout of Universal Credit progresses. We will communicate our proposals in due course. There are no plans to change the criteria for determining eligibility for pupil premium.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of potential change to the number of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding once universal credit has been rolled out.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and other government departments to consider new criteria for determining entitlement to benefits-related free school meals as the rollout of Universal Credit progresses. We will communicate our proposals in due course. There are no plans to change the criteria for determining eligibility for pupil premium.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which academies have been transferred between which academy trusts since May 2015; and what the cost of each such transfer was.
Answered by Edward Timpson
From May 2015 to January 2017 as part of our strategy to increase further the number of pupils being taught in good or outstanding schools we rebrokered the attached list of academies to new trusts. We are committed to publishing the costs of individual rebrokerages cases on gov.uk in due course.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to evaluate the effectiveness of her Department's policy on the value of reorganised qualifications in apprenticeship standards.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Qualifications should not generally be needed within an apprenticeship as the end-point assessment will provide definitive evidence of whether the apprentice has acquired full occupational competence. Not mandating qualifications in standards unless absolutely necessary ensures that individual employers have the freedom to choose the most appropriate training to enable their apprentices to achieve this.
Qualifications can only be specified in the standard if they are either a legal requirement, needed for professional registration or where an apprentice would be at a significant disadvantage as they try to progress in their career without it.
The Institute for Apprenticeships will take over responsibility for ensuring the quality of Apprenticeships standards from April 2017 and will advise the Government on policy implications or trends emerging through the standards approvals process.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Trailblazer groups developing new apprenticeship standards have been advised that their draft Trailblazer Standard should not include a qualification because it does not meet her Department's rules.
Answered by Robert Halfon
All approved apprenticeship standards, including those that do not contain mandated qualifications, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/apprenticeship-standards.
Qualifications can only be specified in the standard if they are either a legal requirement, needed for professional registration or where an apprentice would be at a significant disadvantage as they try to progress in their career without them. The rationale for restricting the inclusion of qualifications is that the end-point assessment will provide definitive evidence of whether the apprentice has acquired full occupational competence thus negating the need for on-programme qualifications. Not mandating qualifications in standards unless absolutely necessary also ensures that individual employers have the freedom to choose the most appropriate training to enable their apprentices to achieve full competence.
This means that Trailblazers that would like qualifications in their standards but can’t meet one of the criteria are advised not to include them, and Trailblazers that submit standards including qualifications without providing the evidence that their inclusion meets one of the criteria are either rejected or approved subject to the removal of the qualifications.
However, with over 215 Trailblazers having developed or developing nearly 500 standards, we do not hold information about the number of times this kind of advice has been provided.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Trailblazer groups developing new apprenticeship standards have had their draft Trailblazer Standard rejected because it includes a qualification which does not meet her Department's rules.
Answered by Robert Halfon
All approved apprenticeship standards, including those that do not contain mandated qualifications, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/apprenticeship-standards.
Qualifications can only be specified in the standard if they are either a legal requirement, needed for professional registration or where an apprentice would be at a significant disadvantage as they try to progress in their career without them. The rationale for restricting the inclusion of qualifications is that the end-point assessment will provide definitive evidence of whether the apprentice has acquired full occupational competence thus negating the need for on-programme qualifications. Not mandating qualifications in standards unless absolutely necessary also ensures that individual employers have the freedom to choose the most appropriate training to enable their apprentices to achieve full competence.
This means that Trailblazers that would like qualifications in their standards but can’t meet one of the criteria are advised not to include them, and Trailblazers that submit standards including qualifications without providing the evidence that their inclusion meets one of the criteria are either rejected or approved subject to the removal of the qualifications.
However, with over 215 Trailblazers having developed or developing nearly 500 standards, we do not hold information about the number of times this kind of advice has been provided.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list the approved apprenticeship Trailblazer Standards which do not include recognised qualifications.
Answered by Robert Halfon
All approved apprenticeship standards, including those that do not contain mandated qualifications, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/apprenticeship-standards.
Qualifications can only be specified in the standard if they are either a legal requirement, needed for professional registration or where an apprentice would be at a significant disadvantage as they try to progress in their career without them. The rationale for restricting the inclusion of qualifications is that the end-point assessment will provide definitive evidence of whether the apprentice has acquired full occupational competence thus negating the need for on-programme qualifications. Not mandating qualifications in standards unless absolutely necessary also ensures that individual employers have the freedom to choose the most appropriate training to enable their apprentices to achieve full competence.
This means that Trailblazers that would like qualifications in their standards but can’t meet one of the criteria are advised not to include them, and Trailblazers that submit standards including qualifications without providing the evidence that their inclusion meets one of the criteria are either rejected or approved subject to the removal of the qualifications.
However, with over 215 Trailblazers having developed or developing nearly 500 standards, we do not hold information about the number of times this kind of advice has been provided.