Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2023 to Question 189864 on Public Lavatories: Men, when the Health and Safety Executive plans to review its guidance on the disposal of sanitary dressings in toilets for men; and whether there will be a public consultation on this matter.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HSE is the workplace regulator therefore the legislation and guidance will apply to toilets used by workers in workplaces made available to them as a place of work.
HSE have begun a review of the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and guidance for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations. They currently estimate they will be in a position to carry out a public consultation in summer 2024.
However, in the meantime, HSE have updated their web guidance to ensure it is clear that provision must be made for any worker with a disability to enable them to have access to facilities which are adjusted to their use if necessary.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish draft guidance for public consultation on the teaching of relationship, health, and sex education in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has brought forward the review of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance, including an independent expert advisory panel, which will advise the Secretary of State on the introduction of age limits for certain subjects. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/terms-of-reference-for-review-panel-on-rshe.
The work of the expert panel will inform the public consultation, which will be published in the autumn, prior to publishing revised guidance in 2024.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish draft guidance for schools on sex and gender.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has engaged with a number of stakeholders in relation to developing the guidance for schools and colleges on gender questioning children.
The Department will be undertaking a full public consultation on the draft guidance prior to publication and will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders throughout this process.
It is vital that the guidance published gives clarity for schools and colleges, and reassurance for parents. The Department is taking the necessary time to ensure that it reflects the best possible advice before publishing the draft.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with Arts Council England on steps to promote freedom of speech and conscience in that organisation.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Ministers and officials regularly meet the leadership of Arts Council England (ACE) to discuss a range of matters. As an arm’s-length body of the Department, ACE is operationally independent and, like all the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's arm’s-length bodies, is responsible for complying with legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, under which religion or belief is a protected characteristic.
Darren Henley, Arts Council England’s Chief Executive, was clear to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on 8 December 2022 about Arts Council England’s commitment to respecting and protecting all those with protected characteristics. Arts Council England has a number of policies in place that protect freedom of conscience within the organisation.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 10 July 2023 to Question 192826 on Public Lavatories: Men, how her Department encourages local authorities to consider the provision of sanitary bins in public toilets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are best placed to determine bin provision locally. Our Binfrastructure guidance sets out a strategic approach local authorities can take to tailor their bin provision to the characteristics of the area and the community they serve. I am committed to working across government to explore where potential improvements can be made.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2023 to Question 189737 Primary Education: Boys, whether her Department has produced research on interventions at Key Stage 1 and 2 that have closed attainment gaps in (a) literacy and (b) phonics between boys and girls.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards for all pupils, regardless of gender. English is fundamental to education and provides the skills and knowledge pupils need to communicate with others, both in school and in the wider world. Language in the early years is also associated with long-term employment outcomes. Children with poor vocabulary at age five are more than twice as likely to be unemployed at age 34 as children with good vocabulary, according to research which is available at: https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/20.500.12289/1057/eResearch_1057.pdf?sequence=1.
By ensuring high quality systematic synthetic phonics teaching, the Government wants to improve literacy levels to give all children a solid base upon which to build as they progress through school, and help children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Sutton Trust are, together, the Government-designated What Works Centre for Education. The EEF has carried out a comprehensive review of robust studies on the effects of phonics. They found that phonics is more effective on average than other approaches for early reading, when embedded in a rich literacy environment. Phonics approaches have been consistently found to be effective in supporting younger readers to master the basics of reading, with an average impact of an additional four months’ progress.
Since 2010, the Government has accelerated the effective teaching of phonics, by placing it at the heart of the curriculum and introducing the annual phonics screening check in 2012 for pupils at the end of Year 1.
The recent publication of the international literacy study, Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021, showed England was among the top scoring countries, coming fourth out of the 43 countries that tested children of the same age. The performance of England’s pupils in PIRLS 2021 remained stable after significant improvements in 2011 and 2016. As well as the overall success, both the gender gap and the gap between the highest and lowest achievers have continued to narrow, driven in the long term by the improvement of the scores of boys and the lowest attainers. Researchers have found that the Phonics Screening Checks (PSC) score was the most significant predictor of PIRLS performance.
In 2018, the Department also launched the £60 million English Hubs Programme to improve the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs have delivered intensive support to 1,700 schools to date. Departmental analysis shows that partner schools supported by the English Hubs Programme outperformed other schools by around seven percentage points in their PSC.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure that blind and partially-sighted people continue to have access to ticket offices at railway stations.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of disabled passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. We would also expect operators to consider all equality related needs and make this clear in their consultation.
Together with the industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.
Station staff will still provide face-to-face services on the railways, which assists those who need additional support, and cannot or do not want to use contactless or mobile tickets. All staff in customer facing roles or with managed responsibilities undertake enhanced disability awareness training and TOCs are already required to provide this. These reforms will not affect these arrangements.
The Department recently hosted roundtable discussions with industry and accessibility and transport groups to discuss this matter and ensure their views are understood. We continue to engage with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee through the process.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that users of mobile phones without internet access will continue to have access to telephone networks when (a) 2G and (b) 3G networks are switched off.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We have set out our expectation that all mobile network operators should have switched off their 2G and 3G networks by 2033. This will free up spectrum for 5G and beyond and is an important part of the UK’s strategy to increase diversity in the telecoms supply chain, contributing to the nation’s security and resilience.
The Government’s Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, published in April 2023, outlined our unwavering commitment to extending 4G coverage to 95% of the UK’s landmass, alongside setting out our ambition for the UK to have nationwide coverage of standalone 5G to all populated areas by 2030.
We welcome the fact that some operators have indicated they are likely to decommission their 2G/3G networks, particularly their 3G networks, earlier than 2033. We will continue to work with network operators to ensure a smooth transition that meets the needs of business users, ensuring that consumers, including vulnerable groups, are treated fairly and can continue to access the services they need.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has provided guidance to schools on whether they should enter into formal partnerships with Stonewall.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Both the Relationships Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance and the Department’s ‘Political impartiality in schools’ guidance are clear that schools should assess external agencies thoroughly before agreeing to any work with them. This can include challenging or asking for evidence of claims made by external agencies about their work and how this interacts with schools’ legal duties on political impartiality.
All schools should consult with parents on what is to be covered and ensure that they provide examples of the resources that they plan to use. This will give parents an opportunity to understand what will be taught and when, and to clarify how the resources being used will support delivery of the different aspects of the RSHE curriculum. This is particularly important where schools plan to work with external organisation and/or use their materials.
On 31 March, the Secretary of State wrote to all schools to set out that, under current arrangements, schools can and should share curriculum materials with parents. The Department will consider, as part of the review of the RSHE statutory guidance, whether any further changes are needed to reinforce the need for transparency around RSHE materials.
In May, the Secretary of State announced the details of the independent expert advisory panel who will advise on the review of the RSHE curriculum. The panel will provide expert advice to the Secretary of State on what is appropriate to be taught in RSHE and at what age.
It will remain important that schools take full responsibility for ensuring lessons and materials are age appropriate, suitable, and politically impartial, particularly when using materials produced by external organisations.
Oak National Academy, the independent provider of freely available online curriculum and lesson resources, will develop curriculum materials to make sure every school can access high quality, compliant RSHE resources.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has produced research on improving learning for boys at primary school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to improving outcomes and raising attainment for all pupils no matter their gender.
Attainment in the phonics screening check increased significantly for boys and girls between its introduction in 2012 and the last assessments before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. In 2019, 78% of boys and 85% of girls met the expected standard by Year 1 compared to 54% of boys and 62% of girls in 2012. In 2022, following the pandemic, attainment in the phonics screening check was down by 6% for both boys and girls. 72% of boys met the expected standard compared to 79% of girls.
At Key Stage 2, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths increased between 2016 and the last assessments before the pandemic in 2019. 65% of pupils met the expected standard in all three subjects in 2019 including 60% of boys and 70% of girls, compared to 53% in 2016 including 50% of boys and 56% of girls. In 2022, following the pandemic, attainment fell among both girls and boys in all subjects except reading; the fall was slightly larger for girls. Girls continue to outperform boys in all subjects except maths.
Outcomes, as measured by international comparison studies, show improvements in key subjects like reading and maths. Most recently, England came fourth out of the 43 countries that tested children of the same age, in the Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS), with an average score of 558.
The Department funds and supports research into improving attainment through the Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF), which aims to build a high quality evidence base on ‘what works’ in education practice, as well as supporting schools, colleges and nurseries to access and effectively mobilise this evidence to raise the attainment of disadvantaged two to nineteen year olds. The Department recently re-endowed the EEF with £137 million in 2022 to continue to build the evidence base until at least 2032. This funding will cement the EEF’s role as a central, long term feature of the education landscape for at least the next decade.
The Department also continues to invest in programmes that contribute to primary pupils’ education attainment:
- In 2018, the Department launched its English Hubs Programme to improve the teaching of reading with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure.
- The Government has also transformed the way maths is taught in schools based on the best available international evidence, including approaches from the highest performing countries in the world. Reform of the mathematics curriculum was accompanied by the introduction of a National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, which is now working with a network of 40 maths hubs to help local schools improve the quality of their teaching through the £100 million Teaching for Mastery programme.