Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what (a) diplomatic and (b) military contribution the UK is making to the Global Coalition Against Daesh.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK remains committed to the Global Coalition Against Daesh and is the second largest contributor to Operation INHERENT RESOLVE.
As part of this military contribution, the UK provides support and funding for a range of initiatives across the region, including providing training, mentoring and professional military education to the Iraqi Security Forces. The UK has trained over 111,000 members of Iraqi Security forces, including over 21,000 of the Kurdish Peshmerga.
The UK also leads the Coalition’s counter-Daesh communications activity, working with Government and civil society partners.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mobilise funding to support the education of refugees in low and middle income host countries.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As set out in the recent Development White Paper, the UK continues to support education for refugee children through our work in emergencies and protracted crises, with our support through Education Cannot Wait and the Global Partnership for Education. This includes support for the implementation of the UNHCR-UNICEF Blueprint for Joint Action for Refugee Children. Working with a number of partners, we will also be announcing further support for inclusive refugee education at the Global Refugee Forum.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help prevent children taking part in anti-Israel demonstrations during school times.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
While the department wants all want young people to be engaged in the issues that affect them and the wider world, the government is crystal clear that missing school for political activism is unacceptable and should not be condoned.
The department has been monitoring events closely and has written to all schools and local authorities supporting headteachers and teachers in taking firm action. Schools and local authorities should set clear expectations to parents on attendance, confirming that absence for this kind of activity should be treated as unauthorised. The department has been clear that school leaders and local authorities should be enforcing attendance policies, and they should take immediate action where these policies have been breached. In the most egregious cases this can mean fines or prosecution. The department has shared this communication with Ofsted to ensure all inspectors are clear on the position.
This does not mean shutting down appropriate and sensitive discussions about these issues. It is important that children are taught about global events and that they are encouraged to think about how these events affect them and their communities. Schools offer children the opportunity to do that in a safe and controlled environment, but the law is clear that schools must remain politically impartial. Schools must not promote partisan political views and should ensure the balanced treatment of political issues. The department has published clear and comprehensive guidance which should help those working with and in schools to better understand legal duties on political impartiality. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce rates of conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK regularly engages with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), civil society and international partners on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). We welcome DRC recently formally joined the International Alliance on the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI). UK support is wide-ranging and includes vital support to CRSV survivors through our humanitarian programme. Through our partnership with the Global Survivors Fund, the UK has provided livelihood, education, medical, psychological and legal support to over a thousand survivors of CRSV, as part of broader holistic redress projects co-created with survivors to meet their needs. The UK also funds an access to justice project for CRSV survivors in eastern DRC. Working with TRIAL International, it provides legal support to survivors as well as training and mentoring to magistrates, lawyers and human rights defenders to help bring an end to the culture of impunity. We lobby the DRC Government to push for the imposition of sanctions, through the UN, against individuals who have committed human rights abuses, and on 19 June, announced new sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict, sending a clear signal that the UK will hold accountable those responsible for these crimes.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to support disabled children abroad.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's ambition is for all children with disabilities to realise their right to education, equipped with the foundational skills and knowledge to lead fulfilling lives, and to learn in an environment that is inclusive, accessible, safe from all forms of violence, and free from discrimination.
Through the FCDO's Disability Inclusion and Rights Strategy and Girls' Education Action Plan, we have committed to prioritise interventions that tackle the barriers that children with disabilities experience in accessing quality education.
The Girls' Education Challenge has supported 154,386 girls with disabilities to attend school and the programme has provided over 5,000 assistive devices to learners who need them and addressed stigma and discrimination at community and school level to make it easier for children with disabilities to access schools.
Our Disability Inclusive Development programme is testing 'what works' in providing children with disabilities quality inclusive education in Nepal, Nigeria and Tanzania. The programme has already supported the education of 1,684 children with disabilities and the lessons learnt are being shared across FCDO's network of education programmes as well as being published as a global public good.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an estimate of the total value spent by his Department supporting educational opportunities worldwide in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is one of the most generous global aid donors, spending nearly £12.8 billion in aid in 2022. Education is an important international development priority. From 2018 to 2022, the FCDO (including former DfID) is estimated to have spent £2.5 billion in bilateral education ODA. The UK is estimated to have spent £906 million in multilateral education ODA from 2018 to 2021. UK support to education also extends beyond financing, to include country partnerships; influential research and expertise; and encouraging global financing from other partners.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the education system remains globally competitive.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is dedicated to improving the education system to improve outcomes for children and young people, and this will help maintain its global competitiveness.
A key part of this is our relentless focus on driving up education standards to deliver better outcomes. In 2023, primary aged children in England came 4th out of 43 countries which tested pupils of the same age, in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, making them the best in the western world at reading. In 2019, primary aged pupils in England achieved their highest ever score in mathematics in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a significant improvement compared to 2015.
At secondary level, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 results showed that 15-year-olds in England performed above the OECD averages for reading, mathematics, and science. Since 2009, 15-year-olds in England have climbed 10 places in reading and mathematics.
This government is committed to creating a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality, and fit for the future. Our reforms are strengthening higher and further education to help more people get good jobs and upskill and retrain throughout their lives; and to improve national productivity. This includes increasing opportunities for people to develop higher technical skills through T Levels, Apprenticeship Standards, Skills Bootcamps, or Higher Technical Qualifications. All of which have been developed hand in glove with thousands of employers and introduced under this government.
From 2025, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will transform access to further and higher education, offering all adults the equivalent of four years’ worth of student loans to use flexibly on quality education training over their lifetime. The department will introduce the Advanced British Standard (ABS) for 16-19 year-olds, a new Baccalaureate-style qualification that takes the best of A levels and T Levels and brings them together into a single qualification.
The ABS will increase the number of taught hours by an extra 15% for most 16-19 students, increasing the average number of subjects students take and ensuring that all students continue to study mathematics and English. This will give students greater breadth of knowledge and bring us more in line with other countries. The department will make an initial downpayment now to support the ABS, which will focus on recruiting and retaining teachers in shortage subjects and providing better resources for teachers and pupils.
Since 2010, the department has driven up standards in education, and created more opportunities to gain new skills that businesses truly value. So whatever age or stage of life people are at they can access high-quality opportunities to get ahead in their chosen career.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the number of international academics and students coming to the UK; and what assessment she has made of the impact of those trends on university funding in the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 academic year.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK is home to some of the world’s top universities, who benefit from strong international ties, so much so that 55 current and recent world leaders have received their education from the UK and four out of the top 10 universities globally are in the UK.
The government recognises the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector and their positive impact on our society as a whole.
The government has been successful in delivering the International Education Strategy ambition of hosting at least 600,000 students per year by 2030 for the last two years. The department aims to continue to attract students from around the world to benefit from British HE.
The changes to student visas announced on 23 May 2023 strike the right balance between acting decisively on migration while protecting the UK’s position as a world-leader in higher education. The changes are available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-05-23/HCWS800. The offer to international students remains very competitive and the department is committed to ensuring the UK remains a destination of choice for international students from across the globe. That is why, on 23 May 2023, the department reaffirmed its commitment to the International Education Strategy, which is vital for ensuring that the UK remains competitive in the global HE market.
The UK is expected to remain an attractive destination for students and academics from overseas in the future.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she made of the impact of changes to student visas on international students coming to the UK.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK is home to some of the world’s top universities, who benefit from strong international ties, so much so that 55 current and recent world leaders have received their education from the UK and four out of the top 10 universities globally are in the UK.
The government recognises the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector and their positive impact on our society as a whole.
The government has been successful in delivering the International Education Strategy ambition of hosting at least 600,000 students per year by 2030 for the last two years. The department aims to continue to attract students from around the world to benefit from British HE.
The changes to student visas announced on 23 May 2023 strike the right balance between acting decisively on migration while protecting the UK’s position as a world-leader in higher education. The changes are available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-05-23/HCWS800. The offer to international students remains very competitive and the department is committed to ensuring the UK remains a destination of choice for international students from across the globe. That is why, on 23 May 2023, the department reaffirmed its commitment to the International Education Strategy, which is vital for ensuring that the UK remains competitive in the global HE market.
The UK is expected to remain an attractive destination for students and academics from overseas in the future.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on antimicrobial resistance awareness, prevention and education goals ahead of the UN General Assembly high-level meeting in September 2024.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
I attended and spoke at the UN General Assembly last month during which I discussed multiple global health challenges, including Antimicrobial Resistance, with my international counterparts.