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Written Question
Turing Scheme: Industry
Monday 27th June 2022

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Turing Scheme will commit the same proportion of investment to industrial symbiosis as the Erasmus scheme did previously.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Turing Scheme is demand-led, and as such, the scheme does not commit to specific levels of funding for single areas or industries, including industrial symbiosis.

Universities are independent, autonomous bodies, and consequently, responsible for forging their own partnerships, including those with industries.


Written Question
Turing Scheme: Finance
Wednesday 23rd March 2022

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will introduce funding for staff exchange opportunities as part of the Turing Scheme.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The UK’s international mobility programme, the Turing Scheme, is funded by a budget of £110 million for the 2021/22 academic year. Education providers successfully applied for funding for over 41,000 individual placements for their students to study and work around the world. The government has also confirmed funding for the continuation of the Turing Scheme for the next 3 years, including £110 million for the 2022/23 academic year.

The UK is not participating in the 2021 to 2027 Erasmus+ programme. A direct comparison with overall funding for the Turing Scheme and the 2014 to 2020 Erasmus+ programme cannot be made as both programmes cover different activities and types of mobilities.

However, in terms of grant funding the Turing Scheme provides rates for providers and students that are broadly consistent with what would have been received under the 2014 to 2020 Erasmus+ Programme. To support levelling up, the Turing Scheme also goes further in some areas to provide additional support for disadvantaged students and students with special educational needs and disabilities.

Unlike Erasmus+, which was mainly EU focused, the Turing Scheme is also a truly global programme with every country in the world eligible to partner with UK education settings subject to government travel advice. For the 2021/22 academic year, providers successfully applied for mobilities to over 150 destinations worldwide.

In considering what elements to include under the Turing Scheme, the department prioritised pupils, students, and learners over staff placements to ensure that as many students as possible can benefit. This includes a focus on widening access for disadvantaged students.


Written Question
Erasmus+ Programme: Turing Scheme
Wednesday 23rd March 2022

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to bring funding levels in the Turing Scheme to an equivalent level with Erasmus+.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The UK’s international mobility programme, the Turing Scheme, is funded by a budget of £110 million for the 2021/22 academic year. Education providers successfully applied for funding for over 41,000 individual placements for their students to study and work around the world. The government has also confirmed funding for the continuation of the Turing Scheme for the next 3 years, including £110 million for the 2022/23 academic year.

The UK is not participating in the 2021 to 2027 Erasmus+ programme. A direct comparison with overall funding for the Turing Scheme and the 2014 to 2020 Erasmus+ programme cannot be made as both programmes cover different activities and types of mobilities.

However, in terms of grant funding the Turing Scheme provides rates for providers and students that are broadly consistent with what would have been received under the 2014 to 2020 Erasmus+ Programme. To support levelling up, the Turing Scheme also goes further in some areas to provide additional support for disadvantaged students and students with special educational needs and disabilities.

Unlike Erasmus+, which was mainly EU focused, the Turing Scheme is also a truly global programme with every country in the world eligible to partner with UK education settings subject to government travel advice. For the 2021/22 academic year, providers successfully applied for mobilities to over 150 destinations worldwide.

In considering what elements to include under the Turing Scheme, the department prioritised pupils, students, and learners over staff placements to ensure that as many students as possible can benefit. This includes a focus on widening access for disadvantaged students.


Written Question
Department for Education: Meetings
Tuesday 30th November 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department takes to ensure that at least one official from his Department is present during all (a) meetings and (b) phone calls relating to Government business between Ministers and third parties.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

Ministers are bound by the Ministerial Code, which states in paragraph 8.14:

“Ministers meet many people and organisations and consider a wide range of views as part of the formulation of Government policy. Meetings on official business should normally be arranged through Ministers’ departments. A private secretary or official should be present for all discussions relating to Government business. If a Minister meets an external organisation or individual and finds themselves discussing official business without an official present – for example at a social occasion or on holiday – any significant content should be passed back to the department as soon as possible after the event. Departments will publish quarterly, details of Ministers’ external meetings. Meetings with newspaper and other media proprietors, editors and senior executives will be published on a quarterly basis regardless of the purpose of the meeting.”

Every effort is made to accompany Ministers to planned meetings. Where Ministers are unexpectedly asked about government business without officials, they feed this information back to their private office, who make a note.


Written Question
Department for Education: Meetings
Thursday 25th November 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department’s process is for (a) recording and (b) keeping minutes of all meetings relating to Government business.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

In the Department for Education formal structured meetings are usually minuted, however, not all meetings need to be minuted.

Specific procedures are in place for external meetings involving ministers. These are publicly available and can be found in the 'Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers', available here: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/popapersguidance2009.pdf.

In instances where minutes are taken, and to adhere to the obligation in the Civil Service Code to keep accurate official records, the department has in place a retention schedule that advises that minutes of internal operational meetings should be retained for 5 years.

There is a further option to retain minutes, such as those involving external stakeholders and policy development, for up to 20 years, at which point they may be selected for transfer to The National Archives.


Written Question
British Students Abroad: Brexit
Tuesday 6th July 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the financial effect on UK students studying abroad of the UK leaving the EU.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The department, with colleagues from other government departments, continues to monitor the impact of the UK leaving the EU on UK students studying in the EU including those studying their whole course at an EU university, those on a “Year Abroad” as part of their UK course and those on the Erasmus+ scheme and, in the future, the Turing scheme.

Grants available through the Turing Scheme are comparable with those available through Erasmus+, but in the Turing Scheme additional support is available for disadvantaged students and students with special educational needs and disabilities.


Written Question
CITB: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Thursday 11th February 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Construction Industry Training Board was able to access support under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme during the first national covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

The Construction Industry Training Board was able to access support under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme during the first national COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.


Written Question
Department for Education: Marketing
Friday 5th February 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing in (i) the UK, (ii) England, (iii) Northern Ireland, (iv) Scotland and (v) Wales in each month from August 2020 to December 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb

From 1 August to 31 December 2020, the Department for Education spent £7.46 million on paid-for communications and campaigns activity, including spend on creative, production, agency fees and paid-for media. Of this, a total of £5.37 million was spent specifically on advertising media buying. It is not possible to break down spend separately by a) communications or c) marketing as these definitions include several areas of overlapping activity. These figures are for spend in England only. The Department does not spend any money on communications, advertising or marketing activity in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Broken down monthly, the spend was:

Month

Communications and campaigns

Advertising media buying

August 2020

£1,440,000

£941,000

September 2020

£392,000

£51,000

October 2020

£2,800,000

£2,380,000

November 2020

£1,900,000

£1,200,000

December 2020

£933,000

£787,000

This activity includes vital work to recruit 30,000 teachers a year and drive the uptake of the new T Level qualification. All our paid-for campaigns are approved and regularly assessed by the Cabinet Office to ensure effectiveness.


Written Question
CITB and CITB Northern Ireland: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) the Construction Industry Training Board and (b) the Construction Industry Training Board Northern Ireland are able to access furlough funding.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ guidance (updated 26 January 2021) regarding the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme states: ‘Organisations can use the scheme if they are not fully funded by public grants and they should contact their sponsor department or respective administration for further guidance.’

The construction levy is regarded as public funding by Her Majesty’s Treasury. However, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) also raises other income via commercial activity. Therefore, in some cases, it may be deemed appropriate for the CITB to request specific staff be ‘furloughed’. Any requests are referred to the CITB’s sponsor team in the Department for Education in the first instance.

The Construction Industry Training Board Northern Ireland is a matter for the Department for Economy (Northern Ireland).


Written Question
Turing Scheme
Friday 15th January 2021

Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on higher education of the Turing Scheme not providing funding for incoming foreign students.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

In deciding to launch the Turing scheme as an alternative to Erasmus+, the Government carefully considered the benefits of Erasmus+ and a domestic alternative scheme including cost and our ambitions for a global scheme that supports social mobility. On cost, Erasmus+ participation would have entailed a net cost in the region of £2 billion more than we received from the programme in funding over the seven-year period and an annual gross contribution of £600 million. As such we do not consider Erasmus+ participation to be value-for-money and in the interests of the UK taxpayer.

The design of the Turing scheme will be driven by our ambition for a truly global UK-wide scheme that promotes social mobility and provides excellent value for money for the taxpayer. These principles underpin the decision-making on the design of the scheme, including the decision not to fund inward mobility.

The Government has carefully considered whether to fund inward mobility as part of the scheme design, including through discussions with the sector, and is confident that students will continue to want to study in the UK. The UK is a world-leading destination for study and research, with four universities in the world’s top 10 and 18 in the top 100. The UK is currently second only to the USA as a destination for international HE students with approximately 486,000 students from abroad and has been one of the most popular destinations within Erasmus+.

It is clear that we have considerable appeal as a destination and partner in international mobilities and exchanges. We will harness this to deliver an international education exchange programme that has a genuinely global reach, establishing new relationships with academic institutions across Europe and the rest of the world.

In terms of direct income to higher education providers, we expect tuition fees to be waived for Turing scheme participants consistent with the arrangements for Erasmus+.

More generally, the International Education Strategy update, will respond to the COVID-19 context, challenges, and opportunities setting out how the Government will support the whole of the UK’s education sector in the recovery of its international activity in pursuit of the original IES ambitions to increase the value of our education exports to £35 billion per year, and to increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year, both by 2030.​