Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government who approved the vetting of the social media profiles of speakers due to speak at events run by the Department for Education; and what was the purpose of such vetting.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the costs to date of the (1) resources, and (2) staff, spent on education experts' social media accounts vetting at the Department for Education.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many local authorities no longer have fostering placements in their area.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children in each of the last three years had an Education, Health and Care Plan and were permanently excluded from school.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total number of pupils (1) excluded, and (2) permanently excluded, from (a) primary, and (b) secondary, schools in each of the past three years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Information on permanent exclusions and suspensions is published in the annual Permanent Exclusions and Suspensions in England national statistics, with the latest available data being from summer term 2021/22: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england.
Suspensions and permanent exclusions in state-funded primary and state-funded secondary schools in England 2018/19 to 2021/22
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | |
State-funded primary | Permanent exclusions | 1,067 | 739 | 392 | 758 |
Permanent exclusions (rate) | 0.02 | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.02 | |
Suspensions | 66,463 | 47,261 | 46,203 | 66,203 | |
Suspension (rate) | 1.41 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 1.42 | |
Pupil enrolments with one or more suspension | 29,771 | 23,726 | 24,418 | 31,437 | |
Pupil enrolments with one or more suspension (rate) | 0.63 | 0.50 | 0.52 | 0.68 | |
State-funded secondary | Permanent exclusions | 6,753 | 4,269 | 3,492 | 5,658 |
Permanent exclusions (rate) | 0.20 | 0.13 | 0.10 | 0.16 | |
Suspensions | 357,715 | 253,307 | 296,224 | 498,120 | |
Suspension (rate) | 10.75 | 7.43 | 8.48 | 13.96 | |
Pupil enrolments with one or more suspension | 164,214 | 125,816 | 153,006 | 214,650 | |
Pupil enrolments with one or more suspension (rate) | 4.93 | 3.69 | 4.38 | 6.02 | |
(1) For 2019/20 and 2020/21, while suspensions and permanent exclusions were possible throughout the academic year, pandemic restrictions will have had an impact on the numbers presented and caution should be taken when comparing across years. 2018/19 has been included to give the pre-pandemic year figures.
Source: School Census. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/27c1ed1a-73aa-4909-acfd-08dbb395de42
(2) Exclusion rates are the number of permanent exclusions/suspensions/pupil enrolments with one or more suspensions as a percentage of the number of sole and dual main registered pupils on roll on January school census day.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total amount of apprenticeship levy unspent and returned to the Treasury in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy is an important part of the government’s reforms to create a high-quality, employer-led apprenticeships system, and it supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training.
The government, via HM Revenue and Customs, collects the apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with a payroll of more than £3 million. From this, HM Treasury (HMT) sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department. The apprenticeships levy is UK wide, and income from the levy also supports the devolved administrations to invest in their skills programmes.
The department’s apprenticeships budget is used to fund training and assessment for new apprenticeship starts in all employers, levy and non-levy paying employers alike, across England, and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers and providers. This means that levy payers’ unspent funds are used to support additional costs and apprenticeships in smaller employers
The table below shows the department’s ring-fenced apprenticeships budget and spend together with budget underspends for the last five financial years (FY).
(£ million) | FY 18/19 | FY 19/20 | FY 20/21 | FY 21/22 | FY 22/23 |
DfE Ring-fence Apprenticeships Budget | £2,321m | £2,469m | £2,467m | £2,466m | £2,554m |
Total Ring-fence Apprenticeship Spend | £1,738m | £1,919m | £1,863 | £2,455 | £2,458m |
Underspends against Ring-fenced Apprenticeships Budget | £493m | £550m | £604m | £11m | £96m |
In the last two financial years, on average, 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent.
Any underspends in overall departmental budgets by the end of the FY are first returned to HMT, as per the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance. As employers choose which apprenticeships they offer and when, annual spend of the apprenticeship budget is subject to employer demand.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of graduates have not reached the salary level to start repaying their student loan.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The exact information is not readily available or held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The department can provide the following information, which was published on 15 June 2023, in the Student Loans in England (for financial year 2022/23) publication available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2022-to-2023/student-loans-in-england-financial-year-2022-23.
The figures below classify borrowers with income contingent loans by their known status as of 30 April 2023. Until their loan balance is fully repaid or cancelled, borrowers can move into and out of any of the statuses.
As of 30 April 2023, of those who reached their repayment date between financial years 2000/01 to and including 2021/22, with at least one tax year processed, 18.8% are UK residents in live employment and not required to pay and 1.2% are residents outside of the UK and have not reached the repayment threshold for that country.
From those remaining, 25.3% have fully paid off their loans and 41.9% are repaying. A further 0.8% and 2.1% are currently in the UK tax system and marked as currently having no live employment at HMRC for fewer than 90 days or 90 days or longer, respectively, and 0.4% are awaiting first year tax return to determine if they earn above the threshold. A further 7% are known to be in the UK but not in the UK tax system and their status does not require repayment at this point. A further 1.5% reside outside of the UK and either have no details of income or are not currently repaying and their repayment status is being sought. Finally, 1% are not resident in the UK and have defaulted in arrears. This information is available via the attachment.
The figures included can be found in Table 3A(i)(ii) of the release is available via the attachment.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the strikes relating to marking of university exams and essays on students awaiting end of year grades.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department understands that the vast majority of students will remain unaffected by the industrial action and, in most cases, will receive their full results on time and progress and/or graduate as normal. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has published research findings which surveyed 49% of higher education (HE) institutions in the New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff. These institutions provided updated feedback on the impact of the marking and assessment boycott on students at their institutions:
A link to these research findings can be found here: https://www.ucea.ac.uk/news-releases/23june23/.
On 22 June 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, met with Universities UK (UUK), the Russell Group and UCEA to better understand the impact that this boycott will have on students and the mitigating actions their members are taking to protect students’ interests.
The Minister also wrote to the Russell Group and UUK, encouraging them to continue to do everything within their powers to protect the interests of students during this phase of industrial action. On 27 June 2023, the Minister met with a number of HE representative groups to discuss the marking and assessment boycott, including the mitigating actions HE institutions are taking to protect their students’ interests.
HE institutions are working on minimising the disruption to their students in a variety of ways, including reallocating marking to other staff members and hiring external markers. Moreover, many HE institutions can award degrees when they have enough evidence of a student’s prior attainment to do so. Others will be able to assign provisional grades to students to allow them to progress and, once all papers have been marked, degree classifications will either remain as provisionally assigned or be uplifted to reflect the student’s achievements.
The government believes students should be at the heart of the HE system. This is why the Office for Students (OfS) has been set up, to regulate the HE sector in England, protect student rights and ensure the sector is delivering real value for money. The OfS has published guidance to students on their rights during industrial action, available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-rights-and-welfare/student-guide-to-industrial-action/.
On 12 June 2023, the OfS wrote to institutions affected by the boycott to reiterate its expectations in relation to its conditions of registration. The OfS will continue to monitor this ongoing situation through their normal regulatory mechanisms.
Students who have complaints about their HE experience should contact their provider in the first instance. Students in England and Wales may also raise a complaint with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, which was set up to provide an alternative to the courts and is free of charge to students. Further information is available at: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.
The department will continue to engage with the HE sector over the coming weeks to help better understand the boycott’s impact on students and the mitigating actions HE institutions are taking to protect their students’ interests.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of children with special needs completed the education healthcare plan within 20 weeks in each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department collects data on the timeliness of new Education, Health and Care plans. This is published in the ‘Education, health and care plans’ statistics release, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.
Data covering the last three years is available in the attached document.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of staff working in the Department for Education have a teaching qualification.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The information requested is not held centrally for staff at the department.