Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her correspondence with teachers of 29 March 2023, if she will make an assessment of the affordability of the proposed pay award for teachers at schools that signed fixed-term energy contracts at peak prices that will expire after 31 March 2024.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government’s recent pay offer was fully funded, nationally, as set out in the Department’s recent Education Hub post, which can be found here: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/28/teacher-strikes-latest-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-teacher-pay-offer/.
Following the rejection of this offer, final decisions on teachers’ pay for 2023/24 will now be made following recommendations on pay rises by the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).
The Autumn Statement announced additional funding of £2 billion in each of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years, over and above totals announced at the 2021 Spending Review. This means funding for both mainstream schools and high needs is £3.5 billion higher in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23.
Total funding for both mainstream schools and high needs will total £58.8 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil. After accounting for the new pay offers in 2023, the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimate that school funding is still growing faster than school costs.
The Government provides these annual increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead, including teacher pay increases. England’s funding system, using a national formula, is designed so that schools seeing the largest pressures typically attract the largest funding increases, but it does not match each individual school’s precise costs, as schools have autonomy over their own spending. The Government’s judgement of the affordability of teacher pay increases is based on national figures, which equate to the position for an average school.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the use of existing weirs to generate renewable energy.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Hydropower accounts for approximately 2% of total electricity generation in the UK. Most current deployment is in a small run of river projects which tend to be relatively expensive.
Studies in Scotland, England and Wales indicate that there is a maximum remaining technical potential of around 1.5GW for small-scale hydro, including existing weirs.
Economic and environmental constraints mean that in practice the viable remaining resource is less than 1GW, which represents less than 1% of total generation capacity, so is not a significant contributor to the Government's future generation plans
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much funding his Department has allocated to the Track 2 Carbon Capture Usage and Storage clusters.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government launched Track-2 of the CCUS Cluster Sequencing Process in March to identify two additional clusters, contributing to the Government's ambition to capture 20-30 million tonnes CO2 per year across the economy by 2030.
The Government has supported industrial clusters (including potential Track 2 clusters) since 2019 to develop their Front End and Engineering Design (FEED) studies for the deployment of CCUS and other decarbonisation infrastructure, by providing £171 million of funding via the UKRI-led Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC).
On 15 March 2023, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an unprecedented £20 billion investment in the early development of CCUS to help meet the Government’s climate commitments. This funding is not currently allocated to specific projects or tracks.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what money has been allocated to the (a) Acorn, (b) Hynet and (c) East Coast carbon capture scheme cluster.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is supporting industrial clusters to develop their Front End and Engineering Design (FEED) studies, for the deployment of CCUS and other decarbonisation infrastructure, through the provision of £171 million of funding via the UKRI-led Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC). This includes:
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of public opinion on (a) installation and (b) capacity of onshore wind.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department conducts regular public opinion research into a range of energy technologies, including onshore wind. The full results of these studies are published on our website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-attitudes-tracking-survey.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made on developing a domestic supply of medical isotopes as part of the Medical Radionuclide Innovation Programme.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is delivering the up to £6 million Medical Radionuclide Innovation Programme (MRIP) which aims to identify technology and policy options that could support domestic supply of medical radionuclides in the future.
MRIP launched in December 2022 and will run until March 2025.
The programme will deliver an assessment of the UK supply and demand landscape, building on existing research. It will test data against potential future scenarios to inform policy development and future Government decision-making. Officials are currently finalising Phase I of the Landscape Assessment, with Phase II commencing next financial year to focus on modelling future supply and demand scenarios.
In parallel, several feasibility studies are ongoing by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to assess whether the retrieval of radionuclides from legacy material is possible, and whether this material might be useful in supporting domestic supply and research.
The Innovation Project Call aims to spark innovation in the field and the competitive call will commence later this year. The call aims to spark innovation across the supply chain, to develop new radionuclide production capability in the UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) pay rises for staff and (b) increases in energy costs without additional funding on the financial viability of schools for children with special educational needs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has been taking careful account of the effect of pay awards for teachers and other staff, energy costs, and other inflationary pressures on school budgets. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Statement last November announced £2 billion in additional funding for schools.
Taking the Dedicated Schools Grant allocations and the additional funding announced in the Autumn Statement together, core schools funding (which includes funding for both mainstream schools and special schools) is increasing by £3.5 billion in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23. The core schools budget will total £57.3 billion in 2023/24 and £58.8 billion in 2024/25.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies have said that this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024 and will take spending per pupil back to at least 2010 levels in real terms. This means 2024/25 will be the highest ever level of spending on schools in real terms per pupil.
The additional funding following the Autumn Statement will be allocated to mainstream schools through the new Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG) in 2023/24, which will be on top of schools’ core funding allocations. A typical primary school with 200 pupils will receive approximately £35,000 in additional funding through the MSAG, and a typical secondary school with 900 pupils approximately £200,000.
The Autumn Statement funding will also mean that special schools will receive increases in funding of 3.4%, similar to the average level of increase for mainstream schools, through their local authority. Schools will have flexibility over how they use the additional funding to support their pupils. It will help schools to manage higher costs, including pay awards and higher energy bills.
With regard to energy costs, a new energy scheme for businesses, charities, and the public sector was also confirmed on 9 January, ahead of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme ending in March. The new scheme will mean all eligible UK businesses and other non-domestic energy users, including schools, will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024. This is on top of the additional investment in core schools funding announced in the Autumn Statement.
The Department knows that every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority in the case of maintained schools or the Education and Skills Funding Agency if they are an academy.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what support his Department provides for the development of British based nuclear (a) small and (b) advanced modular reactors.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed up to £385m to an Advanced Nuclear Fund. Of this, £210m has been awarded to support development of the Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design, potentially capable of deployment in the UK in the early 2030s. The Rolls-Royce SMR entered the Generic Design Assessment process in March becoming the first SMR to begin UK nuclear regulation. The Advanced Nuclear Fund also supports AMRs. Phase B of the open AMR R&D competition launched in December 2022 to provide up to £55 million to fund up to two different projects to develop detailed FEED+ studies.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of phasing out animal experiments in science.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The carefully regulated use of animals in scientific research remains necessary to protect humans and the wider environment. The Government's current approach is to ensure that the UK has a robust regulatory system for licensing animal studies and enforcing legal standards and to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs). This is achieved primarily through funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs). Since the NC3Rs was launched in 2004, it has committed £100 million in research to develop 3Rs technologies.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of real-terms changes in school budgets due to the impact of inflation.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The 2022 Autumn Statement announced significant additional investment in schools. The core schools budget will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. This is over and above totals announced at Spending Review 2021. This year, schools' funding is £4 billion higher than last year, rising by another £3.5 billion in 2023. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies have said that this additional funding will fully cover expected increases in school costs up to 2024, and will take per pupil spending back to at least 2010 levels in real terms.
The additional funding will enable head teachers to continue to concentrate funding in the areas that the Department knows has a positive effect on educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most, as well as help schools to manage higher costs, including higher energy bills and staff pay awards
The Department also provides a range of school resource management tools, designed to help schools get the best value from their resources, and help direct funding towards improving outcomes for their pupils.
The Department understands that each school’s circumstances are different. Where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their Local Authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.