Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many consultants his Department has hired in each year since 2016; and at what cost to the public purse.
Answered by Anne Milton
Information regarding the number of consultants that the department has hired in each year since 2016 is not held centrally. This is because it is a decentralised process and numbers are not collected.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many consultations by his Department (a) are open, (b) are closed awaiting a Government response and (c) have been initiated since 2016.
Answered by Anne Milton
This department currently has 3 open consultations and 7 closed consultations awaiting publication of a government response. It has initiated (published) 106 consultations since January 2016.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimates his Department has made of the comparable costs of the (a) recommendations of the School Teachers’ Pay Review Body that all pay and allowance ranges for teachers and school leaders are uplifted by 3.5% from September 2018 and (b) his Department's pay package introduced following the that School Teachers’ Pay Review Body report.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In July 2018, the Department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Pay Review Body (STRB) recommendation for a 3.5% uplift to the minima and maxima of the main pay range. As a result, classroom teachers will see starting salaries increasing by between £803 and £1,004. The Department also announced a substantial uplift to pay ranges for leaders and higher-paid teachers: 2% on the upper pay range and 1.5% on the leadership pay range.
This was supported by a new Teachers’ Pay Grant of £508 million over two years, covering the difference between these awards and the 1% award that schools would have anticipated under the previous public sector pay cap. This was funded using existing Department for Education resources, recognising that the pay award would have a significant impact on school budgets.
Providing an equivalent Teachers’ Pay Grant to cover the difference between a 3.5% award for all pay ranges and the previous public sector pay cap would have cost over £900m across two years.
In line with the overall government approach to pay review body recommendations across the public sector, the Department needs to balance the importance of rewarding teachers with ensuring awards are affordable and fair to the taxpayer.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average length of time has been for monthly salary deductions collected by HMRC to be reconciled with individual accounts held by the Student Loans Company in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Student Loans Company (SLC) exchange information about salary deductions after the end of each tax year. SLC does not apply interest to accounts until the information about repayments is received from HMRC. This means that borrowers are not disadvantaged by the time taken to exchange the data between HMRC and SLC.
The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 set out that the total amount a borrower has repaid over the last tax year should be treated as having been paid in equal instalments throughout the year, and interest is applied on this basis.
SLC begins to process repayments data as soon as it is received from HMRC after the end of the relevant tax year. HMRC’s current target is to pass 92% of End of Year PAYE returns to SLC by 31 July 2018. SLC aims to have processed these returns by 31 August 2018. Last year, HMRC exceeded their target and passed 96% of End of Year PAYE returns to SLC by 31 July 2017.
The government is taking steps to develop systems to allow the sharing of student loan repayment information more frequently between HMRC and SLC from April 2019 . This will allow for repayments to be credited and for interest calculations to be undertaken regularly throughout the year.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much debt interest accrued on student loans for which salary deductions have already been made by HMRC in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Student Loans Company (SLC) exchange information about salary deductions after the end of each tax year. SLC does not apply interest to accounts until the information about repayments is received from HMRC. This means that borrowers are not disadvantaged by the time taken to exchange the data between HMRC and SLC.
The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 set out that the total amount a borrower has repaid over the last tax year should be treated as having been paid in equal instalments throughout the year, and interest is applied on this basis.
SLC begins to process repayments data as soon as it is received from HMRC after the end of the relevant tax year. HMRC’s current target is to pass 92% of End of Year PAYE returns to SLC by 31 July 2018. SLC aims to have processed these returns by 31 August 2018. Last year, HMRC exceeded their target and passed 96% of End of Year PAYE returns to SLC by 31 July 2017.
The government is taking steps to develop systems to allow the sharing of student loan repayment information more frequently between HMRC and SLC from April 2019 . This will allow for repayments to be credited and for interest calculations to be undertaken regularly throughout the year.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether debt interest is paid on portions of student loans for which salary deductions have already been made by HMRC.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Student Loans Company (SLC) exchange information about salary deductions after the end of each tax year. SLC does not apply interest to accounts until the information about repayments is received from HMRC. This means that borrowers are not disadvantaged by the time taken to exchange the data between HMRC and SLC.
The Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 set out that the total amount a borrower has repaid over the last tax year should be treated as having been paid in equal instalments throughout the year, and interest is applied on this basis.
SLC begins to process repayments data as soon as it is received from HMRC after the end of the relevant tax year. HMRC’s current target is to pass 92% of End of Year PAYE returns to SLC by 31 July 2018. SLC aims to have processed these returns by 31 August 2018. Last year, HMRC exceeded their target and passed 96% of End of Year PAYE returns to SLC by 31 July 2017.
The government is taking steps to develop systems to allow the sharing of student loan repayment information more frequently between HMRC and SLC from April 2019 . This will allow for repayments to be credited and for interest calculations to be undertaken regularly throughout the year.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the value is of student loan debt assets sold to the private sector since 2010.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The value of student loan debt assets sold to the private sector since 2010 was £0.16 billion as of November 2013 and £1.7 billion as of December 2017.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2018 to Question 131183, if he will provide a breakdown of the advisory and transaction costs in the sale of the student loan book.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The advisory and transaction costs from 2013/14 to the closing of the sale in December 2017 are broken down in the attached table.
The cost against the proceeds of the sale (£1.7 billion) is less than 1 per cent and the preparation and execution spanned five years.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money his Department has raised from the sale of (a) assets, (b) land and (c) buildings in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department has raised the following income from the sale of assets over the last seven financial years.
Financial year | Amount (£) |
|
|
2016-17 | 14,316,264.38 |
2015-16 | 1,131,818.04 |
2014-15 | 0.00 |
2013-14 | 410.53 |
2012-13 | 395.89 |
2011-12 | 669.17 |
2010-11 | 0.00 |
The department does not split the data between the different categories requested, and we have yet to come to the end of the 2017-18 financial year so no monies for the current financial year have been reported in this reply.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent from the public purse on grants and loans to academies and free schools since 2015.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As of January 2018, 3.76 million pupils were being taught in academies, including free schools – 47% of the English school population. The department’s spend and loans to academies and free schools in the last two full Financial Years, is as detailed in the table attached.
We are in the process of making a routine update to the data that we hold on pre and post-opening grant allocations for free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools, following the opening of new schools in September. We will be publishing the latest data on GOV.UK in due course.
Further information can be found in the Department's Consolidated annual report and accounts, for the year ended 31 March 2017, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports and in the National Audit Office report on Converting maintained schools to academies, Feb 2018, which can be found at: https://www.nao.org.uk.