Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the cost of providing education to people who crossed the English Channel in small boats and were found to be children in each of the last three years.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
All children in the UK are entitled to access a school-based education in England, and this includes all refugee and asylum-seeker children. The department does not collect data on whether children attending schools in England crossed the English Channel in a small boat.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding his Department has made available through (a) education investment areas and (b) education opportunity areas to support young people in Blackpool.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Blackpool benefited from over £10 million of funding through the Opportunity Areas programme between 2017 and July 2022. Blackpool will continue to benefit from continued support as a Priority Education Investment Area (PEIA).
In all 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs), the Department will be taking steps to support underperforming schools to make necessary improvements, build trust capacity and improve digital connectivity. Over the next 3 years, up to £86 million in trust capacity funding and £150 million for extending the Connect the Classroom programme are being prioritised in EIAs, with all schools in Blackpool receiving the offer of Connect the Classroom funding. In EIAs, the Department is also offering the Levelling Up premium, worth up to £3,000 tax free, to eligible teachers.
In each of the 24 PEIAs, the Department will offer further investment in addition to the significant support available to all EIAs. PEIAs will receive a share of around £40 million of funding to address local needs, and priority access to a number of other programmes offered by the Department.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital resources his Department has made available since December 2019 to support schools and colleges in Blackpool.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Blackpool local authority receives an annual School Condition Allocation (SCA) to spend on improving the condition of its maintained schools. The SCA funding allocated to Blackpool local authority since the financial year 2019/2020 is set out below. For the financial year 2020/21, the figure includes an extra £166,210 as part of an additional £560 million committed to schools in that year.
Financial year | SCA funding for Blackpool LA |
2019-2020 | £357,830 |
2020-2021 | £524,097 |
2021-2022 | £574,864 |
2022-2023 | £579,194 |
There have been three annual bidding rounds for the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) since December 2019 and, over these rounds, CIF-eligible schools in Blackpool have received a total of £2.1 million in funding.
The Department also provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient mainstream school places, based on their own forecast data. The total funding Blackpool has been allocated between 2019 and 2025 is just over £1.4 million.
Blackpool has also received just over £2.4 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations between 2021 and 2024 to create new places and improve existing provision for children and young with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision. It also received just under £850,000 between 2018 and 2021 through the Special Provision Capital Fund to help create new places for pupils with education, health, and care plans.
In addition, there has been a total of £5,304,205 in capital funding allocated to colleges in Blackpool since December 2019.
Capital funding secured through the free schools programme has also led to the opening of Lotus Special School in September 2020 and the completion of all works on the permanent site for the new Armfield Academy in February 2021.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the school travel sector on options for the safe resumption of school visits during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department continues to work with representatives of the tour industry, devolved administrations, trade unions as well as other Government Departments.
The guidance for full school opening enables schools to resume educational day visits but continues to advise against UK overnight educational residential visits. This advice will remain under review and will be updated in line with guidance from Public Health England, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the number of vocational training places available to young people who wish to acquire practical and trade qualifications.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We are introducing new T Levels from this September – high quality, practical courses designed by employers that will provide a credible alternative to A levels and prepare students for skilled work or further study.
We are currently reforming and simplifying the qualifications system so that learners can easily find high-quality qualifications that give them the skills they need. With our proposals, any qualification, including existing ones, can be approved if they provide learners with the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need.
We have also been working across Government to build a package of support measures to boost skills among those who will be hardest hit by the labour market impacts of COVID-19. On 8 July the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced measures across a range of targeted work-based training offers to support people to build the skills they need to get into work. This amounts to investment of £1.6 billion in employment support schemes which will substantially expand existing provision. This includes:
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to encourage people to take part in adult literacy programmes in (a) Blackpool and (b) England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The adult education budget (AEB) fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 years and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. This includes fully funded courses in English and maths, for adults aged 19 years and above who need to improve their literacy and numeracy, and fully funded first full level 2 or level 3, or both, for learners aged 19 to 23 years.
From the 2019/20 academic year, approximately 50% of the AEB has been devolved to six mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) and the Mayor of London, acting where appropriate through the Greater London Authority (GLA). These authorities are now responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the AEB to providers. The Education and Skills Funding Agency will continue to be responsible for the remaining AEB in non-devolved areas, including Blackpool.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the ineligibility for student loans of students at private higher education institutions on the (a) financial viability of those institutions and (b) their ability to attract students.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Under the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act, a higher education provider in England that wishes to access public grant funding and/or student support funding, is required to register with the Office for Students. This applies to those previously known as a ‘private’ or ‘alternative’ provider, as well as to existing publicly funded institutions.
Registered providers are regulated by the Office for Students and must meet regulatory requirements, which include conditions surrounding quality and financial viability. Once registered, providers are able to submit to the Student Loans Company the courses they wish to attract student support.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to support private higher education providers in (a) attracting students to their courses and (b) improving (i) their viability and (ii) the diversity of courses on offer to the higher education sector; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Under the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act, a higher education provider in England that wishes to access public grant funding and/or student support funding, is required to register with the Office for Students. This applies to those previously known as a ‘private’ or ‘alternative’ provider, as well as to existing publicly funded institutions.
Registered providers are regulated by the Office for Students and must meet regulatory requirements, which include conditions surrounding quality and financial viability. Once registered, providers are able to submit to the Student Loans Company the courses they wish to attract student support.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of university students from British Overseas Territories studying in the UK.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government fully recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education sector, including those from the British Overseas Territories, both economically and culturally.
We have set out our ambition to increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year by 2030, within the International Education Strategy.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes statistics on students studying at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by domicile. The latest available data is from 2018/19, published in January 2020.
In 2018/19, HESA estimated there to be 2,130 British Overseas Territory domiciled students enrolled at UK HEIs at all levels of study. The table below shows the breakdown by domicile.
Table: Student enrolments by country of domicile, UK HEIs, 2018/19
Domicile[1][2][3] | 2018/19 |
Anguilla | 55 |
Bermuda | 500 |
British Virgin Islands | 180 |
Cayman Islands | 315 |
Falkland Islands | 50 |
Gibraltar | 900 |
Montserrat | 15 |
Pitcairn Islands | 0 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | 0 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | 25 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 95 |
British Overseas Territories Total | 2,130 |
British and EU nationals residing in British Overseas Territories or in other Member States’ overseas territories are currently eligible for Home Fee Status if they are studying at either undergraduate or postgraduate level at English HEIs and have been living in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the overseas territories for the three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course. They will remain eligible for home fee status for the duration of courses starting in the 2020/21 academic year or before. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in future.
The Department for Education (DfE) funds Commonwealth scholarships for five or six PhD scholarships from non-ODA Commonwealth countries. DfE funding for the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships means there will be 150 new scholarships awarded by 2025, all of which are open to British citizens from overseas territories.
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to totals.
[2] Domicile refers to country of student’s permanent address prior to entry.
British Antarctic Territories and British Indian Ocean Territories are omitted from this analysis as HESA defines them as having ‘no settled inhabitants’. HESA defines 'no settled inhabitants' as no inhabitants apart from military and scientific personnel, staff of contractors and seasonal residents (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/a/domicile).
[3] Source: DfE analysis of the HESA student record https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-28.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the number of university students studying in the UK from the British Overseas Territories of charging those students the same level of tuition fees as British students.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government fully recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education sector, including those from the British Overseas Territories, both economically and culturally.
We have set out our ambition to increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year by 2030, within the International Education Strategy.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes statistics on students studying at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by domicile. The latest available data is from 2018/19, published in January 2020.
In 2018/19, HESA estimated there to be 2,130 British Overseas Territory domiciled students enrolled at UK HEIs at all levels of study. The table below shows the breakdown by domicile.
Table: Student enrolments by country of domicile, UK HEIs, 2018/19
Domicile[1][2][3] | 2018/19 |
Anguilla | 55 |
Bermuda | 500 |
British Virgin Islands | 180 |
Cayman Islands | 315 |
Falkland Islands | 50 |
Gibraltar | 900 |
Montserrat | 15 |
Pitcairn Islands | 0 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | 0 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | 25 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 95 |
British Overseas Territories Total | 2,130 |
British and EU nationals residing in British Overseas Territories or in other Member States’ overseas territories are currently eligible for Home Fee Status if they are studying at either undergraduate or postgraduate level at English HEIs and have been living in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the overseas territories for the three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course. They will remain eligible for home fee status for the duration of courses starting in the 2020/21 academic year or before. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in future.
The Department for Education (DfE) funds Commonwealth scholarships for five or six PhD scholarships from non-ODA Commonwealth countries. DfE funding for the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships means there will be 150 new scholarships awarded by 2025, all of which are open to British citizens from overseas territories.
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to totals.
[2] Domicile refers to country of student’s permanent address prior to entry.
British Antarctic Territories and British Indian Ocean Territories are omitted from this analysis as HESA defines them as having ‘no settled inhabitants’. HESA defines 'no settled inhabitants' as no inhabitants apart from military and scientific personnel, staff of contractors and seasonal residents (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/a/domicile).
[3] Source: DfE analysis of the HESA student record https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-28.