Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of foster carers and support workers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have received the training on caring for those children that was commissioned to be delivered by ECPAT(UK) and the Refugee Council since 2016 in each local authority area.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Between November 2016 and February 2019, ECPAT(UK) and the Refugee Council have trained 2,086 foster carers and support workers on caring for the specialist safeguarding needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The training is equipping these carers with the skills they need to identify when a child is at risk of going missing to be onwards trafficked, of being exploited for economic, sexual, and criminal exploitation or of being exposed to radicalisation.
The information requested on the number of foster carers or support workers is not held centrally so we are unable to provide this as a proportion of the total foster carers and support workers.
Since 2016, recipients of the training have generally reported high levels of satisfaction with its quality. For the current tranche of training, 99% of those trained who provided feedback rated the training ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the training given to foster carers and support workers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children by ECPAT(UK) and the Refugee Council on preventing unaccompanied children from going missing.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Between November 2016 and February 2019, ECPAT(UK) and the Refugee Council have trained 2,086 foster carers and support workers on caring for the specialist safeguarding needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The training is equipping these carers with the skills they need to identify when a child is at risk of going missing to be onwards trafficked, of being exploited for economic, sexual, and criminal exploitation or of being exposed to radicalisation.
The information requested on the number of foster carers or support workers is not held centrally so we are unable to provide this as a proportion of the total foster carers and support workers.
Since 2016, recipients of the training have generally reported high levels of satisfaction with its quality. For the current tranche of training, 99% of those trained who provided feedback rated the training ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will introduce a mid-life career review for people over 50 years old to help them update their skills and re-train where appropriate.
Answered by Anne Milton
There are currently no plans to introduce a formal mid-life career review.
However, the National Careers Service helps individuals make informed choices about their career options by providing free and impartial advice on careers, skills and the Labour Market in England. All adults aged 19 years and over (or 18 and over if the individual is in custody or out of work and on benefits) are eligibgle for local advice over the phone or face-to-face, tailored to their individual circumstances.
The National Careers Service is working with the Department for Work and Pensions and local enterprise partnerships to pilot careers advice for employed older people via their employer, to engage them with training and retain them within the labour market.
We are in the process of re-procuring the local, area-based National Careers Service contracts. As part of these contracts, we have specified that those who are over 50 and unemployed or at risk of redundancy should be a priority group for face-to-face advice in the service.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has for the allocation of funds raised by the Immigration Skills charge.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Immigration Skills Charge is intended to address skills gaps in the workforce. The Home Office collect the Immigration Skills Charge as part of the visa sponsorship process and transfer it to the Exchequer, less an amount to cover the costs of collecting it. The population percentages underlying the Barnett formula are used by HM Treasury to determine the split of funding raised by the Immigration Skills Charge between the department and each of the devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to businesses in Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency of the Immigration Skills charge for the current financial year.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Immigration Skills Charge was introduced on 6 April 2017. It is a charge on UK employers who sponsor workers from outside the European Economic Area through the Tier 2 skilled worker route.
We have not modelled the cost of the Immigration Skills Charge on any individual business. The cost will depend on whether employers choose to use the Tier 2 route and will vary depending on the number of Certificates of Sponsorship employers choose to assign, whether they pay the standard or reduced rate, and the length of time an employer chooses to employ a worker for.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of manual processing on paper that it carries out and to make such processing digital.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The government continues to encourage more people to go online, so they can access the guidance and services they need – as well as reducing the cost of public services. The department has continued to reduce its paper consumption. This has been achieved through better print facilities and a continuing programme of IT improvements, such as the Digital Apprenticeship Service, which are helping to decrease our reliance on paper
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for universities of the Universities UK report, entitled The economic impact of international students, published in March 2017.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government values the contribution that international students make to higher education, research, and the UK, both economically and culturally. That is why we have no plans to introduce a cap on the number of genuine international students who can come here to study, or to limit the numbers that individual higher education institutions can recruit. The reforms the Government is introducing through the Higher Education and Research Bill recognise the importance of the sector to the economy and will help to ensure that it continues to be one of the most sought after places for global talent to study.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that the UK continues to attract international students to study at its universities.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government values the significant contribution that international students make to the UK’s universities. We welcome genuine students, and we have no plans to introduce a cap on intake for study. The Government also recognises the benefit that education exports bring to the UK and we want to maximise the opportunities for UK providers in this area. As such, we promote study in the UK through the ‘Britain is GREAT’ marketing campaign and also through the British Council, which promotes UK education in over 100 countries, connecting millions of people with the United Kingdom. The UK continues to punch above its weight in terms of market share of international students, attracting the highest numbers after the USA.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much milk is purchased by (a) nursery and (b) primary schools each year.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We do not collect information on how much milk nursery or primary schools purchase. However, both the EU School Milk Subsidy Scheme and Nursery Milk Scheme reimburse schools and nurseries against the costs of providing milk to eligible children. In academic year 2014/15, the School Milk Scheme provided subsidies towards 14,125.250kl of milk in England and the Nursery Milk Scheme reimbursed the cost of providing 92,977,223 pints of milk to children in nursery and reception classes. This is the latest year for which comparable figures are available for both schemes.
Further information about these schemes is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eligibility-for-the-school-milk-subsidy-scheme
https://www.nurserymilk.co.uk/how-to-claim-for-nursery-milk
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much milk is consumed in (a) nursery and (b) primary schools.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We do not collect information on the consumption of milk either at nursery or primary schools.