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1399870

registered interest
date	05/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Ventilation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many air cleaning units have been provided to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) City of Durham constituency and (ii) County Durham as at 4 January 2022.
tabling member constituency	City of Durham
tabling member printed	Mary Kelly Foy
uin	98435
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>During the autumn term, we provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding.</p><p>We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the Autumn term. Feedback suggests that schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in most schools, colleges and nurseries, existing ventilation measures are sufficient.</p><p>The department will also make up to 8,000 air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded education providers, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.</p><p>Deliveries will start from next week to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision schools, colleges, and nurseries. These were allocated in the first application round announced in November 2021.</p><p>The second round of applications is open until 9am on 17 January 2022. All state funded schools, colleges and nurseries can apply.<strong>  </strong>Special and alternative provision providers that were not successful or did not apply in the first round are also eligible to apply in this round. Once applications have closed, all applications will be assessed against strict criteria and allocated to providers based on need. Schools, colleges and nurseries with successful applications will be contacted individually to arrange delivery, with deliveries expected from February 2022.</p><p>For those providers that are not eligible for funded units, the online marketplace provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. Further information is available here: <a href="https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning" target="_blank">https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning</a>.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker grouped question UIN 98436 question first answered 10/01/2022 14:27:42 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4753 label Biography information for Mary Kelly Foy

1399871

registered interest
date	05/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Ventilation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in the City of Durham are yet to receive air cleaning units.
tabling member constituency	City of Durham
tabling member printed	Mary Kelly Foy
uin	98436
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>During the autumn term, we provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including early years, schools, and further education providers, backed by £25 million in government funding.</p><p>We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the Autumn term. Feedback suggests that schools are finding the monitors helpful to manage ventilation and, in most schools, colleges and nurseries, existing ventilation measures are sufficient.</p><p>The department will also make up to 8,000 air cleaning units available for poorly ventilated teaching spaces in state-funded education providers, where quick fixes to improve ventilation are not possible.</p><p>Deliveries will start from next week to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision schools, colleges, and nurseries. These were allocated in the first application round announced in November 2021.</p><p>The second round of applications is open until 9am on 17 January 2022. All state funded schools, colleges and nurseries can apply.<strong>  </strong>Special and alternative provision providers that were not successful or did not apply in the first round are also eligible to apply in this round. Once applications have closed, all applications will be assessed against strict criteria and allocated to providers based on need. Schools, colleges and nurseries with successful applications will be contacted individually to arrange delivery, with deliveries expected from February 2022.</p><p>For those providers that are not eligible for funded units, the online marketplace provides a route to purchasing air cleaning units directly from suppliers at a suitable specification and competitive price. Further information is available here: <a href="https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning" target="_blank">https://s107t01-webapp-v2-01.azurewebsites.net/list/air-cleaning</a>.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker grouped question UIN 98435 question first answered 10/01/2022 14:27:42 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4753 label Biography information for Mary Kelly Foy

1399182

registered interest
date	04/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing targeted financial assistance to schools in response to the omicron covid-19 variant to support the (a) implementation of additional covid-19 safety measures on their premises and (b) purchase of air filtration devices where natural ventilation is limited due to design and capacity of buildings.
tabling member constituency	Erith and Thamesmead
tabling member printed	Abena Oppong-Asare
uin	97172
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>The measures in place day-to-day in schools, colleges and nurseries to tackle COVID-19 are based on the latest scientific advice and strike a balance between managing transmission risk and reducing disruption to children and young people’s education.</p><p>The priority is for schools, colleges and nurseries to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all children, pupils and students. The evidence is clear that being out of education causes significant harm to educational attainment, life chances, and mental and physical health. To manage COVID-19 transmission, education providers continue to ensure good hygiene for everyone, maintain appropriate cleaning regimes, keep occupied spaces well ventilated and follow public health advice on testing, self-isolation, face coverings and managing confirmed cases of COVID-19.</p><p>To support schools with these measures, the department provided carbon dioxide monitors to all state-funded education providers, including nurseries, schools and further education colleges, backed by £25 million in government funding. We have now delivered on our public commitment with over 353,000 monitors delivered in the autumn term. Feedback following this roll out shows that in most schools, colleges and nurseries existing ventilation measures are sufficient.</p><p>For the very few cases where maintaining good ventilation is not possible, the department is supplying up to 7,000 air purifiers cleaning units. This is on top of the 1,000 funded units for special educational needs and disabilities and alternative provision providers that we announced in November. We have also made over £100 million of funding available to secondary schools, colleges, and specialist providers to support them with the workforce costs associated with delivering on-site testing, and continue to do so, in line with departmental testing policy.</p><p>This should also be seen in the wider context of funding for schools. Overall, core schools funding will increase by £4 billion in financial year 2022/23 compared to 2021/22, a 5% real terms per pupil boost. This includes an additional £1.2 billion for schools in the new school supplementary grant for financial year 2022/23. This funding boost will rapidly give schools the resources they need to rise to the challenges of COVID-19 response and recovery, increase teacher pay, and meet the cost of the Health and Social Care Levy, while continuing their work to raise attainment and educational outcomes for all children and young people.</p><p>The vast majority of schools are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit. The latest published figures show that the percentage of both academy trusts and local authority maintained schools in surplus or breaking even increased compared to the previous reporting year. At the end of financial year 2020/21, 92% of local authority maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. At the end of the 2019/20 academic year, 96% of academy trusts were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 94% the previous year.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 10/01/2022 15:11:02 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4820 label Biography information for Abena Oppong-Asare

1399384

registered interest
date	04/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Israel: Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the teaching and learning about Israel in UK schools.
tabling member constituency	Chipping Barnet
tabling member printed	Theresa Villiers
uin	96809
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>Schools can teach pupils about Israel as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, including in history and geography. For example, at key stage 3, history encompasses the study of Britain, Europe and the wider world from 1901 to the present day, and must include the Holocaust. At key stage 4, there are GCSE specifications that include Israel, in the context of the study of the Middle East. However, we do not specify how schools should teach the curriculum and we trust teachers to use their professional judgement and understanding of their pupils to develop the right teaching approach for them.</p><p>We are aware of unfortunate issues around bias and imbalance in teaching about Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On 28 May 2021, my colleague and the former Secretary of State for Education, wrote to all schools to reiterate that they are subject to legal duties on political impartiality which are relevant to teaching about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This intervention was a clear message that this government is committed to upholding the principle of political impartiality in our schools and will act where necessary to do so. The department is also developing further guidance on political impartiality in schools, and we continue to work with the sector and others across government to ensure schools are adequately supported in this area. We hope this guidance will offer clarity to the sector and support teachers to cover sensitive political issues and topics in an appropriate manner.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 10/01/2022 14:41:56 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	1500 label Biography information for Theresa Villiers

1399409

registered interest
date	04/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Supply Teachers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have signed up to a supply teaching agency in response to his appeal of 16 December 2021 to date.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	97031
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>We are extremely grateful to all the teachers who are responding to our call to return temporarily to the classroom to support our schools whilst cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant continue to rise.</p><p>We are in close contact with supply agencies to monitor the interest they receive to help schools during this time. However, supply agencies are private employment businesses operating independently of the department. Therefore, the department is not able to provide data on the numbers of supply teachers or which agencies they are working with. The department does not hold the information requested regarding pre-employment checks since the Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker grouped question UIN 97032 97033 question first answered 10/01/2022 14:14:46 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1399410

registered interest
date	04/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Supply Teachers: Vetting
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applicants to supply teaching agencies have applied for a Disclosure and Barring Service check in each of the last six months.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	97032
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>We are extremely grateful to all the teachers who are responding to our call to return temporarily to the classroom to support our schools whilst cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant continue to rise.</p><p>We are in close contact with supply agencies to monitor the interest they receive to help schools during this time. However, supply agencies are private employment businesses operating independently of the department. Therefore, the department is not able to provide data on the numbers of supply teachers or which agencies they are working with. The department does not hold the information requested regarding pre-employment checks since the Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker grouped question UIN 97031 97033 question first answered 10/01/2022 14:14:46 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1399411

registered interest
date	04/01/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Supply Teachers: Vetting
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applicants to supply teaching agencies have received a successful Disclosure and Barring Service check in each of the last six months.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	97033
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/01/2022 answer text <p>We are extremely grateful to all the teachers who are responding to our call to return temporarily to the classroom to support our schools whilst cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant continue to rise.</p><p>We are in close contact with supply agencies to monitor the interest they receive to help schools during this time. However, supply agencies are private employment businesses operating independently of the department. Therefore, the department is not able to provide data on the numbers of supply teachers or which agencies they are working with. The department does not hold the information requested regarding pre-employment checks since the Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker grouped question UIN 97031 97032 question first answered 10/01/2022 14:14:46 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1388810

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Air Conditioning
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will set out the procurement and selection processes used to approve products for the classroom filtration device marketplace.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	94337
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>To procure air filtration devices the department ran a competitive process on the Crown Commercial Services Framework RM6157 Lot 3. The bids submitted by suppliers were evaluated and moderated anonymously. The bids were evaluated on price, quality, and social value to give a supplier an overall score. The suppliers that met the department’s requirements had their products made available on the marketplace.</p><p>The selection process to add products to the marketplace was based on the department’s technical specification created by leading industry experts, including the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), and multiple iterations to ensure relevance to schools.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 05/01/2022 14:39:51 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1388812

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Air Conditioning
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there was a (a) high priority lane or (b) recommended supplier scheme giving (i) preferential or (ii) more rapid access to approval for inclusion in the classroom filtration device marketplace to which schools have been directed.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	94338
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>There was no high priority lane or recommended supplier scheme giving preferential or rapid access to any suppliers during the procurement of air filtration devices for the marketplace. The procurement was carried out following the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Department for Education’s procurement processes.</p><p><strong><br> </strong></p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 05/01/2022 14:20:53 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1388816

registered interest
date	16/12/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made on trends in the level of school financial reserves between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2021, for (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools; and (i) academies, (ii) all other forms of school governance.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	94339
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>The department trust schools to manage their own budgets. The majority of schools are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit. The latest published figures show that the percentage of both academy trusts and local authority maintained schools in surplus or breaking even increased compared to the previous reporting year.</p><p>Local authority maintained schools report their finances on a financial year basis, and the latest available data is from the end of March 2021 (covering the 2020/21 financial year). Academy trusts report their finances on an academic year basis, and the latest available data is from the end of August 2020 (covering the 2019/20 academic year).</p><p>At the end of 2020/21 financial year 92% of local authority maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. Of primary maintained schools, 93% were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 90% the previous year. Of secondary maintained schools, 81% were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 73% the previous year.</p><p>It is important to note that a large majority of secondary schools are academies. At the end of the 2019/20 academic year 96% of academy trusts were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 94% the previous year. Academy trusts may contain both primary and secondary provision, so there is no breakdown between primaries and secondaries in relation to academies.</p><p>The latest published figures show 2,604 academy trusts and 11,600 maintained schools in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 112 academy trusts and 1,055 maintained schools in deficit, with an overall cumulative surplus of £5.4 billion, compared to a cumulative deficit of £280 million.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 05/01/2022 14:54:39 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson