Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who is responsible for digitisation in his Department; and what mechanisms the person with responsibility for digitisation uses to champion digitisation.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Emma Stace, is responsible for leading Digital Delivery across the Department for Education (DfE).
The DfE Transformation Aims involve promoting user-centred, end-to-end service design and delivery across the whole department.
The CDO and policy directors have jointly sponsored scoping work to identify opportunities for the development of digital services to deliver better outcomes for our users and continue the transformation of DfE into a service delivery department.
The Digital, Data and Technology (DDT) Directorates within DfE are supporting the government-wide focus on the development of “digital maturity”, developing the department’s processes, tools, infrastructure and capabilities. In support of this, the CDO is promoting the development of the community of service owners, sharing experience and best practice and identifying how the DfE can continue to develop to better support the development and delivery of digital services. This includes work to grow and develop DDT capability across the department, including through improving recruitment, training and procurement.
The DfE works with the Government Digital Service to provide assurance against the Government Service Standards, to ensure that the services being delivered are high quality, user centred, and delivering value to users.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ban the physical punishment of children.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department collects information on the public’s view of corporal punishment of children.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of smacking as a form of punishment on children’s mental health.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department collects data on the prevalence of the use of smacking by parents as a form of punishment in (a) Norfolk and (b) other counties.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many meetings he had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser from 1 June to 31 August 2019.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had any meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) between 1 June to 31 August 2019. The CSA’s staff regularly attend meetings as required. The CSA regularly provides written advice to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many meetings he held with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
Answered by Anne Milton
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had any meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019. The CSA’s staff regularly attend meetings as required. The CSA regularly provides written advice to my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2019 to Question 239199, whether HIV PrEP will be taught as a method of HIV prevention in the new Relationships and Sex Education courses in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
From September 2020, the Department expects schools to teach the new content in the relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance. The required teaching content covers sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDs, and teaching on prevention and the importance of testing and how and where to access advice and treatment. In teaching about sexually transmitted infections, schools may choose to include information about HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in the context of HIV prevention. The guidance is clear that schools should draw on medically accurate information and set this in the broader context of the subjects as a whole.
Schools will be supported to deliver high quality teaching of relationships education, RSE and health education. This will include making training, good practice and high-quality resources available to schools.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to take steps to ensure that testing, treatment and prevention will be covered thoroughly enough in Relationships and Sex Education to reduce Sexually Transmitted Infections in young people; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Pupils need to know how to protect their own mental and physical health, they need to know what activities, behaviours and circumstances can risk these and they need to know when and how to seek help both for themselves and others.
At secondary school, by introducing health education alongside relationships and sex education (RSE), the Government will ensure that pupils are taught age appropriate knowledge about sexual health. In health education, this includes the benefits of regular self-examination and screening, and the facts and science relating to immunisation and vaccination. This is complemented by content in RSE about how sexually transmitted infections are passed on and treated, how risks can be reduced, the importance of and facts about testing and prevalence and the impact sexually transmitted infections can have on those who contract them. This will be set in the context of how to get further advice, including how and where to access advice and treatment.
The Department is committed to supporting schools to deliver high quality teaching of relationships education, RSE and health education. A budget of £6 million has been allocated in 2019/20 financial year to develop a programme of support for schools. Further funding beyond the next financial year is a matter of the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) all children and (b) children eligible for free school meals reached a Good Level of Development at age five in North Norfolk in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The requested data is shown in the attached tables.