Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential role of catholic schools in levelling up.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports schools with a religious character. They add to the diversity of the school system, they are popular with parents both with and without a faith, and they typically deliver high standards of education for their pupils. They also have an important role to play in supporting levelling up, by providing high quality school places throughout the country.
The Department recognises that some groups, including the Catholic Church, feel unable to participate in the free schools programme because of the 50% cap on faith admissions.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all providers of schools with a religious character remain able to open new schools once all schools are in academy trusts and, as such, will continue to keep the 50% cap under review. The Department regularly discusses the matter with groups who provide schools with a religious character, including the Catholic Church.
There are two mainstream Catholic schools in the Rother Valley Constituency, 296 in London and 1,955 in England.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with (a) faith schools, (b) faith leaders and (c) Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of removing the 50 per cent rule.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports schools with a religious character. They add to the diversity of the school system, they are popular with parents both with and without a faith, and they typically deliver high standards of education for their pupils. They also have an important role to play in supporting levelling up, by providing high quality school places throughout the country.
The Department recognises that some groups, including the Catholic Church, feel unable to participate in the free schools programme because of the 50% cap on faith admissions.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all providers of schools with a religious character remain able to open new schools once all schools are in academy trusts and, as such, will continue to keep the 50% cap under review. The Department regularly discusses the matter with groups who provide schools with a religious character, including the Catholic Church.
There are two mainstream Catholic schools in the Rother Valley Constituency, 296 in London and 1,955 in England.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many catholic schools there are in (a) Rother Valley constituency, (b) London and (c) England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports schools with a religious character. They add to the diversity of the school system, they are popular with parents both with and without a faith, and they typically deliver high standards of education for their pupils. They also have an important role to play in supporting levelling up, by providing high quality school places throughout the country.
The Department recognises that some groups, including the Catholic Church, feel unable to participate in the free schools programme because of the 50% cap on faith admissions.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all providers of schools with a religious character remain able to open new schools once all schools are in academy trusts and, as such, will continue to keep the 50% cap under review. The Department regularly discusses the matter with groups who provide schools with a religious character, including the Catholic Church.
There are two mainstream Catholic schools in the Rother Valley Constituency, 296 in London and 1,955 in England.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of faith-based education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports schools with a religious character. They add to the diversity of the school system, they are popular with parents both with and without a faith, and they typically deliver high standards of education for their pupils. They also have an important role to play in supporting levelling up, by providing high quality school places throughout the country.
The Department recognises that some groups, including the Catholic Church, feel unable to participate in the free schools programme because of the 50% cap on faith admissions.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all providers of schools with a religious character remain able to open new schools once all schools are in academy trusts and, as such, will continue to keep the 50% cap under review. The Department regularly discusses the matter with groups who provide schools with a religious character, including the Catholic Church.
There are two mainstream Catholic schools in the Rother Valley Constituency, 296 in London and 1,955 in England.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential role of faith schools in levelling up.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports schools with a religious character. They add to the diversity of the school system, they are popular with parents both with and without a faith, and they typically deliver high standards of education for their pupils. They also have an important role to play in supporting levelling up, by providing high quality school places throughout the country.
The Department recognises that some groups, including the Catholic Church, feel unable to participate in the free schools programme because of the 50% cap on faith admissions.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all providers of schools with a religious character remain able to open new schools once all schools are in academy trusts and, as such, will continue to keep the 50% cap under review. The Department regularly discusses the matter with groups who provide schools with a religious character, including the Catholic Church.
There are two mainstream Catholic schools in the Rother Valley Constituency, 296 in London and 1,955 in England.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help secure school places for children without guardians.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Children without guardians are among the most vulnerable in our society. The department knows that the vast majority of children taken into local authority care have experienced abuse or neglect and therefore require additional support. Wherever possible, they should be admitted to the school which is best able to meet their needs.
For this reason, school admission authorities have been required to give looked after children highest priority in their admission arrangements since 2007, and these children should be placed in good or outstanding schools.
The School Admissions Code also requires each local authority to have a Fair Access Protocol in place to ensure that any unplaced and vulnerable children are allocated a school place as quickly as possible. It also gives local authorities the power to direct the admission authority for any maintained school in England (other than a school for which they are the admissions authority) to admit a child who is looked after by the local authority, even when the school is full.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of academy trusts admissions policies and oversubscription criteria on the ability of local authorities to ensure school places for all children following periods of population growth.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2022, the Government published research by Isos Partnership looking at how Local Authorities are ensuring sufficient places and supporting vulnerable children. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-provision-for-school-places-and-support-for-vulnerable-children.
Local Authorities have a statutory duty, under Section 14 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure that there are sufficient primary and secondary school places for all children living in their area. The Department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support Local Authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, based on their own forecast data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.
Trusts are expected to work collaboratively with Local Authorities, dioceses and other schools in the area, to ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach to place planning and delivery and support Local authorities to meet their legal duty by providing additional places where they are needed. The Department engages with Local Authorities on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When Local Authorities are experiencing difficulties, the Department will provide support and advice.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2023 to Question 117444 on Medicine: Education, for what reason his Department does not monitor the number of medical students currently training in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department monitors a number of points across the medical training pipeline for England. This includes, the numbers of applicants, acceptances and entrants. The Department also monitors those entering foundation training in the National Health Service following completion of medical degrees through statistics drawn from the Electronic Staff Record and published by NHS Digital.
However, there is not a single indicator that shows how many medical students are studying in the United Kingdom across all years and all medical schools at a given point in time. To obtain such information it would require each medical school across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take on a significant and more detailed reporting burden. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements for managing their education and training pipelines.
However, the following table shows medical courses applicants, acceptances in England and entrants in the UK from 2011 to 2022.
Academic year | Unique applicants to undergraduate medical courses in England | Acceptances to undergraduate medical courses in England | Entrants to undergraduate medical courses in the United Kingdom |
2011 | 21,825 | 6,090 | N/A |
2012 | 21,060 | 6,225 | 7,810 |
2013 | 21,430 | 5,915 | 7,560 |
2014 | 21,965 | 6,085 | 7,640 |
2015 | 19,820 | 6,095 | 7,515 |
2016 | 19,545 | 6,185 | 7,560 |
2017 | 18,520 | 6,175 | 7,765 |
2018 | 19,870 | 6,720 | 8,615 |
2019 | 21,585 | 7,660 | 9,450 |
2020 | 22,665 | 8,385 | 10,460 |
2021 | 27,460 | 8,610 | 10,540 |
2022 | N/A | N/A | 10,655 |
Source:
University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) end of cycle 2021 and Office for Students Medical Dental Students Survey (2012-2022), Office for Students
Note:
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to issue guidance to schools and sixth forms on the use of artificial intelligence software in admissions for higher education courses.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government is mindful of the rapid technological change in this area. The Office for Artificial Intelligence (AI) is developing an agile and adaptable regulatory framework for AI, which will use a test-and-learn approach to ensure their regulatory approach remains flexible and relevant.
The department works with the Office for AI and all those involved in the higher education (HE) admissions system to ensure that it remains fair, as well as to build an understanding of the potential risks posed to admissions by assistive tools such as Chat GPT and other forms of AI software.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) maintains confidence in the HE admissions system. One element of this is the operation of a dedicated verification team tasked with the prevention and detection of fraud in applications and similarity in personal statements.
UCAS has a responsibility to applicants, HE providers, and stakeholders to screen applications for false, missing and/or misleading information, check personal statements for patterns of similarity, and to report their findings in accordance with established processes. UCAS’ aim is to avoid anyone gaining from an unfair advantage and securing a place in a HE by deception.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the 11-plus tests at grammar schools are moderated; and whether this moderation is carried out independently.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect data on which schools, permitted by law, select pupils by aptitude or ability via a written test.
Selection tests can lawfully form part of any selective school’s admission arrangements. The School Admissions Code requires tests to ‘be clear, objective, and [to] give an accurate reflection of the child’s ability or aptitude, irrespective of sex, race, or disability’, but it does not require them to be independently moderated. The School Admissions Code can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2.
In many cases, tests will be purchased from commercial providers and will be marked by them, although that is not a legal requirement.