Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much was spent in (a) cash and (b) real terms on Ofsted in each year since 1995.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was allocated to Ofsted in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each year since 1995.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Single Unique Identifier that the Government are piloting is the NHS number; what the (a) locations, (b) timing and (c) size of the pilot is; and how families have been informed.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is currently exploring the suitability of using the NHS number as a single unique identifier with Wigan local authority. This process will take several months. This first phase of work will explore whether success rates of linking children’s records can be improved within a local authority by using the NHS number provided by the NHS Personal Demographic Service. This work will inform future tests and pilots.

The department anticipates several rounds of piloting the different aspects of implementation to establish where it can have the right impact, and to understand the system costs and business process changes associated with its usage.

We will be working with NHS England and local authorities as part of the piloting process, to ensure that the data processed as part of the pilot is secure and meets legal requirements around the data subject's rights to be informed about how their information is processed. One way children and families are informed about how their personal information is used, is via privacy notices. Wigan’s privacy notices that are relevant in this context can be accessed at: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Council/DataProtection-FOI-Stats/Privacy-notices/Privacy-Notices-for-all-services.aspx.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which higher education institutions have been made subject by the Office for Students to (a) enhanced monitoring, (b) investigation, (c) a quality assessment report and (d) other quality related interventions; and when these interventions took place.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Office for Students (OfS) is the non-departmental public body responsible for higher education in England. It is independent of government.

In 2022/23, the OfS opened investigations into the quality of business and management courses at eight providers and of computing courses at three providers. It also opened investigations into grade inflation concerns at three providers and opened a further 12 investigations into potential non-compliance with condition B3, which sets minimum thresholds for student outcomes. Quality assessments are conducted as part of the quality investigations.

The OfS began publishing the subject-based investigation case reports in September 2023. Details of these, including decisions about any regulatory action, can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/about/how-we-are-run/key-performance-measures/kpm-11-efficient-regulation/.

The OfS also publishes information about enhanced monitoring of providers. The OfS does not tell the department which providers are subject to enhanced monitoring, but where that enhanced monitoring follows an investigation, it is included in the case reports. The published case reports show that the OfS has decided to conduct enhanced monitoring of the University of Bolton (the OfS has since approved a change of name for the University of Bolton to the University of Greater Manchester) and the University of Bedfordshire, until such a point at which it judges the risk of non-compliance with its quality conditions to have been acceptably minimised.

The OfS began publishing the B3 investigation case reports in July 2023. Details of these can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-providers/quality-and-standards/how-we-regulate-student-outcomes/assessment-reports/.

The case reports for the investigations into grade inflation concerns have not yet been published.

The OfS does not share details about open ongoing investigations with the department.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) general practices and (b) GP premises there were in each integrated care board area in each month since June 2024.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

A table showing the number of general practices and premises in each current integrated care board (ICB) area in England, each month since June 2024, is attached.

Opening and closing dates for both practices and branches were identified using data from the NHS Organisation Data Service. Locations have been mapped to current ICB boundaries. The locations sheet in the attached document includes both main and branch practices.

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