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 make an assessment of the potential merits of updating information sharing requirements for academies in line with requirements for local authority maintained schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Academies are held to a high level of accountability and transparency.
Academies are required to follow the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2014 as they are independent schools. Under these regulations the proprietor of an academy must ensure that an annual written report of each registered pupil’s progress and attainment in the main subject areas taught is provided to the parents of that registered pupil, except that no report need be sent where the parent has agreed otherwise. Academy trusts enter into Funding Agreement with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, which contains a clause concerning information sharing requirements relating to assessments. It provides that the academy trust must report on assessments as the Secretary of State requires, or provide any information on assessments, on the same basis that maintained schools are required to provide the information.
The department has no plans to change these arrangements.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many of those receiving State Pension paid tax in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, and (c) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This information is published in Table 2.1 Number of individual Income Tax payers.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the UK's departure from the EU on the effectiveness of processes for working with French authorities to prosecute (a) small boat gangs and (b) other people traffickers.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Since the UK left the EU in January 2020, we have strengthened our bilateral relationship with France on migration. This included establishing, in July 2020, the UK-France Joint Intelligence Cell (JIC) which is located in France and has co-located UK and French officers working together to support the prosecution of small boat gangs. Since it was established, the work of the JIC has led to the dismantling of 24 organised crime groups involved in small boat crossings, with 12 of these groups being dismantled in 2023 alone.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies on arms exports to Israel of protests by university students.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The UK has one of the most robust and transparent export licensing systems in the world, enshrined in law through the Export Control Act and implemented through our Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.
This informs our approach to export licensing – both for our extant licences and for new licence applications for exports to Israel. All decisions are assessed on a case-by-case basis against our licensing criteria.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had discussions with his US counterpart on the (a) handling of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses and (b) potential impact of disbanding those protests on (i) free speech and (ii) the right to assembly in that country.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The handling of protests in the US is a matter for US authorities. The Deputy Foreign Secretary has not had any discussions with his US counterpart on the handling of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses or the potential impact of disbanding these protests.
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 recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the requirement for Academy schools to provide parents with an annual report of their child's progress.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department has not made any recent assessment of this requirement. The requirements on academies in relation to reporting on pupils’ progress to parents are set out in paragraph 32(1)(f) of the Schedule to The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 These regulations can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3283/made.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will have discussions with his Israeli counterpart on the (a) effectiveness of command and control within the Israeli Defence Forces and (b) reports that a senior commander who was dismissed in connection with the strike that killed international aid workers in Gaza had expressed personal views on aid to Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary visited Israel on 17 April and held high-level talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog and Foreign Minister Katz. He reiterated the need for an immediate pause in the fighting in Gaza to get aid in and hostages out.
The UK is pushing as hard as we can to get aid to Palestinian civilians. Israel must fulfil its commitments to enable a flood of aid, including by guaranteeing deconfliction for aid workers.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the highest value overpayment has been for Carer’s Allowance in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award.
Where overpayments do occur due to not being entitled to the benefit, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents just 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below. To avoid potentially disclosing personal information, we have bucketed the values requested.
Highest Value Carer’s Allowance Overpayment | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Total | £60-70k | £30-40k | £40-50k |
The data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Note that the values represent the original overpayment amount when raised on Debt Manager. As the year relates to when the overpayment was raised as a debt for recovery, it does not necessarily relate to the period as to when benefit was overpaid. The overpayments above all span periods of many years.
Note that the data provided is for all categories of overpayment. It is not necessarily the case that these overpayments arose due to claimants breaching the earnings limit.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of removing the 21 hour study rule from the eligibility criteria for Carer’s Allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government recognises and appreciates the vital contribution made by informal carers. With respect to full-time education, the Government believes that this should be supported by the educational maintenance system. That is why, as a general principle, full-time students are precluded from entitlement to income-related and income-maintenance benefits, including Carer’s Allowance.
Educational institutions decide which young people receive bursaries or other support and determine the level of financial support they receive. They develop their own eligibility criteria for access to the discretionary bursary fund, including setting a household income threshold appropriate to their area, and must publish this information for their students. Arrangements may differ across the United Kingdom.
In England, for example, over £160 million of bursary funding has been allocated in the 2023/24 academic year to institutions to help disadvantaged 16- to 19-year-olds with the costs of taking part in education. This is nearly 12% higher than published allocations for last year. The Department for Education has also made available £20 million each year in England specifically to support students in defined vulnerable groups.
Carer’s Allowance is a devolved benefit in Scotland.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 April 2024 to Question 20473 on State Retirement Pensions: Women, what his expected timetable is to respond to the PHSO report.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.