Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1178909

registered interest
date	21/02/2020
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Apprentices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to promote apprenticeships to young people in (a) Harlow and (b) the UK.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	18383
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2020 answer text <p>We have introduced a wide range of reforms to improve the quality of apprenticeships and to encourage employers across England to create more high-quality apprenticeship opportunities.</p><p> </p><p>Since May 2010, there have been 4,392,000 apprenticeship starts in England. Of these, 7,200 apprenticeships starts have been in the Harlow parliamentary constituency.</p><p> </p><p>From August 2020, all starts will be on the new apprenticeship standards which are replacing existing frameworks. These are designed and driven by industry to create apprenticeships that are high-quality providing employers in Harlow, and across England, with the skills they need. Over 510 standards have already been approved for delivery to apprentices.</p><p> </p><p>We are working hard to encourage take up of our apprenticeship programme. The third phase of the Fire it Up campaign launched in January 2020 with a planned media investment for this phase of £2.9 million. It is targeting certain groups to widen participation in apprenticeships. Our 13<sup>th</sup> annual National Apprenticeship Week took place in February 2020. Nearly 900 events were held across the country, aiming to change perceptions of apprenticeships.</p><p>In January 2018, we introduced a legal requirement for schools to give training providers the chance to talk to pupils about technical qualifications and apprenticeships, so that young people hear about the alternatives to academic routes.</p><p> </p><p>We also offer a free service to schools through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge for Schools and Colleges (ASK) programme to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and support to enable them to promote apprenticeships to their students. In the last academic year, ASK reached over 300,000 students throughout England. In Harlow, ASK has worked with 8 schools and colleges and has engaged with 840 students in the last three academic years.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2019-20 financial year, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is over £2.5 billion – double what was spent in 2010. This is supporting employers of all sizes, across England, to provide high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds. We are moving smaller employers onto our award-winning apprenticeship service to give them a greater choice of training providers. They can also benefit from transferred funds from levy payers. Levy transfers can help to support new starts in supply chains and address local skills needs.</p><p> </p><p>Essex County Council and the South East Local Enterprise Partnership are members of the East of England Apprenticeship Ambassador Network. They are working with local employers to take advantage of transfers to support more small- and medium-sized employers in the area to offer apprenticeships.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan question first answered 02/03/2020 16:53:52 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1179321

registered interest
date	21/02/2020
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Apprentices: Prisoners
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to introduce prison apprenticeships with the same standards as other apprenticeships.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	18578
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2020 answer text <p>Apprenticeships are paid jobs which include high-quality on-the-job and off-the-job training. All apprentices must hold a contract of employment, which means they are not currently available to prisoners.</p><p>The government recognises how important it is that those in custody are given the support, training, and routes into employment that best meets the needs of individuals, and their future employers. The department’s apprenticeship programme is supporting this by working with the Department for Work and Pensions, Youth Offending teams and local employers, to consider pilot schemes which promote and encourage apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities to ex-offenders and those at risk of offending aged 16-24.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice also supports a wider range of provision to support prisoners into employment on release and governors can now commission specific provision aimed at meeting the needs of their prisoners and local labour markets. This includes the New Futures Network, created in 2018 to broker partnerships between prisons and employers, helping businesses fill skills gaps and prisoners to find employment on release. Information, advice and guidance services are also available in prisons to help prisoners identify career aims and work towards achieving these.</p><p>The Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice are at the early stages of exploring the potential costs and benefits of the various options for a potential future prison apprenticeships programme to complement existing schemes. We would expect that a prison apprenticeship programme will need to use the same standards and frameworks as all apprenticeships.</p><p>At this time, we have not made any estimates of the time required to develop models of delivery for prison apprenticeships. We will consider any discussions with employers and Cabinet colleagues once we have first established the practicalities and value of a potential prison apprenticeship programme.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan grouped question UIN 18579 18580 18751 18754 18755 question first answered 02/03/2020 17:54:05 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1179322

registered interest
date	21/02/2020
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Apprentices: Prisoners
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 (a) developing, (b) overseeing and (c) monitoring a prison apprenticeship programme.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	18579
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2020 answer text <p>Apprenticeships are paid jobs which include high-quality on-the-job and off-the-job training. All apprentices must hold a contract of employment, which means they are not currently available to prisoners.</p><p>The government recognises how important it is that those in custody are given the support, training, and routes into employment that best meets the needs of individuals, and their future employers. The department’s apprenticeship programme is supporting this by working with the Department for Work and Pensions, Youth Offending teams and local employers, to consider pilot schemes which promote and encourage apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities to ex-offenders and those at risk of offending aged 16-24.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice also supports a wider range of provision to support prisoners into employment on release and governors can now commission specific provision aimed at meeting the needs of their prisoners and local labour markets. This includes the New Futures Network, created in 2018 to broker partnerships between prisons and employers, helping businesses fill skills gaps and prisoners to find employment on release. Information, advice and guidance services are also available in prisons to help prisoners identify career aims and work towards achieving these.</p><p>The Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice are at the early stages of exploring the potential costs and benefits of the various options for a potential future prison apprenticeships programme to complement existing schemes. We would expect that a prison apprenticeship programme will need to use the same standards and frameworks as all apprenticeships.</p><p>At this time, we have not made any estimates of the time required to develop models of delivery for prison apprenticeships. We will consider any discussions with employers and Cabinet colleagues once we have first established the practicalities and value of a potential prison apprenticeship programme.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan grouped question UIN 18578 18580 18751 18754 18755 question first answered 02/03/2020 17:54:05 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1179331

registered interest
date	21/02/2020
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 steps he plans to take to ensure adequate funding for schools.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	18756
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2020 answer text <p>The Department is giving schools the largest cash boost in a decade, investing a total of £14 billion additional funding for schools over the next three years. This will allow school funding to increase by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, followed by increases of £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively, compared to 2019-20.</p><p>We will continue to distribute funding through the National Funding Formula (NFF), which ensures that funding is based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. This will ensure that per-pupil funding for every school can rise at least in line with inflation next year; and faster than inflation for most. On average schools are attracting 4.2% more per pupil.</p><p>We have also recently laid regulations in Parliament which give legal force to the new minimum per pupil funding levels. This will allow us to aid the lowest funded schools to ensure that every secondary school attracts at least £5,000 per pupil next year, and every primary school at least £3,750 – on the path to receiving at least £4,000 per pupil the following year.</p><p>Finally, we have removed the gains cap in the NFF for 2020-21, so that all schools will attract their full allocations under the formula. This means that we can deliver the greatest gains to areas historically underfunded to ensure that they have the right investment to deliver an outstanding education.</p><p>The Department will continue to move towards a ‘hard’ national formula as soon as possible, meaning a single national formula will determine every school’s final budget, rather than it being set independently by each local authority. We will work closely with local authorities and the sector in making this transition carefully.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 18791 question first answered 28/02/2020 17:05:38 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1179432

registered interest
date	21/02/2020
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 steps he is taking to ensure adequate funding for schools.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	18791
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2020 answer text <p>The Department is giving schools the largest cash boost in a decade, investing a total of £14 billion additional funding for schools over the next three years. This will allow school funding to increase by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, followed by increases of £4.8 billion and £7.1 billion in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively, compared to 2019-20.</p><p>We will continue to distribute funding through the National Funding Formula (NFF), which ensures that funding is based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics. This will ensure that per-pupil funding for every school can rise at least in line with inflation next year; and faster than inflation for most. On average schools are attracting 4.2% more per pupil.</p><p>We have also recently laid regulations in Parliament which give legal force to the new minimum per pupil funding levels. This will allow us to aid the lowest funded schools to ensure that every secondary school attracts at least £5,000 per pupil next year, and every primary school at least £3,750 – on the path to receiving at least £4,000 per pupil the following year.</p><p>Finally, we have removed the gains cap in the NFF for 2020-21, so that all schools will attract their full allocations under the formula. This means that we can deliver the greatest gains to areas historically underfunded to ensure that they have the right investment to deliver an outstanding education.</p><p>The Department will continue to move towards a ‘hard’ national formula as soon as possible, meaning a single national formula will determine every school’s final budget, rather than it being set independently by each local authority. We will work closely with local authorities and the sector in making this transition carefully.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 18756 question first answered 28/02/2020 17:05:38 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1173515

registered interest
date	27/01/2020
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Further Education: Teachers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to attract further education college teachers in subject areas where there are skill deficits.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	8243
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2020 answer text <p>Since 2013-14, we have invested over £140 million in further education (FE) teachers and leaders, including for workforce development, through the independent Education and Training Foundation.</p><p>In the 2 years to March 2020, we will have invested up to £20 million to support providers as they prepare for the introduction of T levels. This investment includes £5 million for Taking Teaching Further, a national programme that tests how best to attract experienced industry professionals into teaching in FE and how best to support an ongoing exchange between FE and industry. The programme focusses on supporting priority sectors, including the technical routes that will be taught first.</p><p>As part of our £400 million 16-19 funding increase in the 2020-21 financial year, we are investing a further £20 million in FE workforce development to help boost teacher recruitment and retention, for which we will announce more details soon.</p> answering member constituency Chippenham answering member printed Michelle Donelan question first answered 04/02/2020 15:40:59 answering member 4530 label Biography information for Michelle Donelan
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1173517

registered interest
date	27/01/2020
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Further Education: Special Educational Needs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the £780 million of funding allocated to special educational needs in 2020-21 will be provided to further education colleges to help them support students with those needs.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	8244
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2020 answer text <p>Next year, we are providing a cash increase of £780 million in the high needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant, an increase of 12% compared to this year, bringing the total amount for supporting those with the most complex special educational needs to £7.2 billion.</p><p> </p><p>Although the Department for Education allocates a small amount of this funding directly to further education colleges, the vast majority of this funding is allocated to local authorities. Local authorities are then responsible for securing appropriate support for children and young people with complex special education needs, including support provided in further education colleges. In 2021 local authorities will report information about their spending on high needs in 2020-21, including how much they provided to further education colleges.</p><p> </p><p>The latest available actual expenditure data reported by local authorities, for 2018-19, shows that they spent £373 million on special educational needs provision in further education.</p> answering member constituency Chippenham answering member printed Michelle Donelan question first answered 04/02/2020 17:24:50 answering member 4530 label Biography information for Michelle Donelan
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1130384

registered interest
date	06/06/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Apprentices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the effect on the impartiality of Ofsted of that organisation being responsible for the inspection of the quality of apprenticeships.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	261188
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2019 answer text <p>Ofsted is a non-ministerial department, which reports directly to Parliament. It inspects services providing education and skills for learners of all ages and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people. Its role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training and care services in England for children and students do so to a high standard. Ofsted inspects a range of provider types and different types of provision, including apprenticeships. It does so impartially, as an independent body.</p><p>For more information on how Ofsted inspects apprenticeships, please see the current Further Education and Skills Inspection Handbook here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-inspection-handbook" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-inspection-handbook</a> An updated version of the Handbook, released under the new Education Inspection Framework, is due to take effect from September 2019 and can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-inspection-handbook-eif" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-and-skills-inspection-handbook-eif</a></p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 13/06/2019 13:17:14 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1086795

registered interest
date	11/03/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Selective Schools Expansion Fund
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, from which of his Department's budgets the Selective School Expansion Fund will be funded.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	230852
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2019 answer text <p>The Selective School Expansion Fund is one of the programmes funded from within the department’s capital budget. New capital funding to support this programme was announced at Autumn Statement 2016.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 19/03/2019 17:35:09 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon

1086798

registered interest
date	11/03/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Alternative Education: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has diverted any funds that had been allocated to the improvement and expansion of alternative provision to other policy areas in the past 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Harlow
tabling member printed	Robert Halfon
uin	230854
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to reforming alternative provision and published the plan ‘Creating opportunity for all: Our vision for alternative provision’ in March 2018. In August the projects funded by the Department’s £4 million alternative provision (AP) Innovation Fund began. The Department also commissioned external research into the AP market and AP practice which was published in October 2018. On 11 March 2019, the Department launched competitions for 2 new AP free schools, having assessed bids from local authorities who had worked in partnership with local schools in their area. The document ‘Creating opportunity for all’ can be found here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/713665/Creating_opportunity_for_all_-_AP_roadmap.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/713665/Creating_opportunity_for_all_-_AP_roadmap.pdf</a>.</p><p> </p><p>As alternative provision is predominately funded through the high needs funding block of local authorities’ dedicated schools grant, the sector will benefit from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State’s December announcement that an extra £250 million would be allocated for high needs funding. This was on top of the increases already promised, across the current and next financial year, bringing the total to £6.1 billion in 2018/19, and £6.3 billion in 2019/20.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 19/03/2019 17:26:01 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon