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1140386

registered interest
date	18/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	National Retraining Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the get help to retrain scheme, whether the digital service will include the assessment of adults' (a) qualifications and (b) skills.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	278909
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2019 answer text <p>Get Help to Retrain is the first of a series of products that will make up the full National Retraining Scheme (NRS). We are expecting the NRS to evolve and grow as we learn better what best works.</p><p>With support from qualified National Careers Service advisers, the service will support adults to understand which skills they have from their current role and which further skills would be required for a potential new, better job.</p><p>In addition, the service helps people to find training opportunities that may help the user to bridge the skills gap to a new role, initially consisting of training currently available and later including more bespoke offerings. It will also direct users to local job opportunities that could be within their reach.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 23/07/2019 07:27:21 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1140393

registered interest
date	18/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	National Retraining Scheme
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 of the cost to the public purse of the roll-out of the Get Help to Retrain scheme (a) in the Liverpool City Region and (b) to all eligible adults in England by 2020.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	278911
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2019 answer text <p>In October 2018, the government announced a £100 million initial commitment to continue to test, learn and develop the National Retraining Scheme. This has allowed us to start delivering the first parts of the scheme in the Liverpool City Region. Get Help to Retrain will be expanded to more people and more areas throughout the testing phase before being made available to all eligible adults in England in 2020. In addition to this, we are continuing to develop new products in parallel to the testing of Get Help to Retrain, which will collectively make up the complete service.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 23/07/2019 07:29:51 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138393

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the article in the Guardian entitled A demeaning environment: stories of racism in UK universities, published 5 July 2019, if he will hold discussions with the Office for Students on their assessment of the scale and nature of racism in UK universities.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	276161
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>There is no place in our society, including within higher education (HE) for hatred or any form of harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely with the Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in HE, including implementation of UUK’s Sexual Violence and Harassment Taskforce’s recommendations.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers and officials in the department meet regularly with the OfS, stakeholders and representative bodies about a range of student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment in HE. This includes specific quarterly meetings with the OfS to discuss how to tackle harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector.</p><p> </p><p>In its ministerial guidance, the government has asked the OfS to support this work and to make campuses places of tolerance for all students, and over £2 million has been invested in projects addressing hatred and harassment in HE.</p><p>The government will continue to work closely with the OfS to prioritise tackling of all forms of harassment and hate crime in higher education.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 16/07/2019 10:19:29 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138215

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of reports of racism against students and staff in UK universities in the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	275679
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The government takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or for any form of harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely with Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in higher education, including the implementation of UUK’s Taskforce recommendations. The government has also tasked the OfS to support this work, and over £2 million has been invested in projects tackling hatred and harassment.</p><p> </p><p>The department regularly meets stakeholders and representative bodies about student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment. Officials hold quarterly meetings with the OfS and UUK to discuss how to make progress on harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector. In addition, I have recently held meetings with the Union of Jewish Students and Jewish student representatives about antisemitism on campus.</p><p> </p><p>The government expects providers to keep records of incidents disclosed to them and to act swiftly to investigate and address them. It is important to recognise that under-reporting is common. Higher education providers should look at how they can continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite of the potential for it to lead to spikes in disclosures, and to make sure that students and staff feel safe and able to disclose racist incidents.</p><p> </p><p>Evaluation to date has shown that progress has been made but that there is still more to do. On 7 January 2019; I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to welcome their Inquiry into Racial Harassment in Higher Education Institutions. I look forward to the new evidence that this inquiry will bring and will review its findings carefully.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore grouped question UIN 275680 question first answered 15/07/2019 12:42:13 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138218

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Universities: Racial Discrimination
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have had with representatives from (i) Universities UK, (ii) other education sector bodies, (iii) trades unions representing staff, (iv) student unions and (v) NUS on the effect of incidences of racism directed at their members in the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	275680
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The government takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or for any form of harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely with Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in higher education, including the implementation of UUK’s Taskforce recommendations. The government has also tasked the OfS to support this work, and over £2 million has been invested in projects tackling hatred and harassment.</p><p> </p><p>The department regularly meets stakeholders and representative bodies about student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment. Officials hold quarterly meetings with the OfS and UUK to discuss how to make progress on harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector. In addition, I have recently held meetings with the Union of Jewish Students and Jewish student representatives about antisemitism on campus.</p><p> </p><p>The government expects providers to keep records of incidents disclosed to them and to act swiftly to investigate and address them. It is important to recognise that under-reporting is common. Higher education providers should look at how they can continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite of the potential for it to lead to spikes in disclosures, and to make sure that students and staff feel safe and able to disclose racist incidents.</p><p> </p><p>Evaluation to date has shown that progress has been made but that there is still more to do. On 7 January 2019; I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to welcome their Inquiry into Racial Harassment in Higher Education Institutions. I look forward to the new evidence that this inquiry will bring and will review its findings carefully.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore grouped question UIN 275679 question first answered 15/07/2019 12:42:13 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138222

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Higher Education: Equality
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of equality and diversity training provided by higher education institutions; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making that training mandatory.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	275681
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The government is committed to tackling inequalities. That is why, in October 2018, my right. hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, launched measures to tackle barriers facing ethnic minorities in the workplace, including a new Race at Work Charter and a consultation on ethnicity pay reporting.</p><p>Like all employers, higher education providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) in relation to their staff. The government expects providers to comply fully with their obligations. As autonomous and independent institutions, it is for individual providers to ensure that the training they provide is appropriate.</p><p>The Equality Challenge Unit (part of Advance HE) has published guidance for higher education providers on embedding equality and diversity into HR policies. The Race Equality Charter also helps higher education providers to identify and address institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of minority ethnic staff and students. The Athena SWAN Charter recognises work undertaken to address gender equality.</p><p>The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), and its predecessor, have provided over £4.7 million in funding for projects tackling sexual harassment, online harassment and hate-based harassment. This includes projects with a focus on developing and providing training for both staff and students on matters such as bystander intervention and handling of reports and disclosures.</p><p>In guidance to the OfS, the government has asked the regulator to positively engage with work to counter harassment and hate-crime and to make campuses places of tolerance for all students, and work with providers on equalities issues.</p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 15/07/2019 12:23:39 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1138223

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Universities: Ethnic Groups
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) terms and conditions for, (b) recruitment and (c) career advancement of BAME members of staff at UK universities.
tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
uin	275682
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Despite recent progress in staff representation and progression, for example improvements in the number of women in leadership positions in higher education (HE), there is more to be done to create a HE workforce that is representative of British society.</p><p>On 1 February 2019, the government announced measures to tackle inequalities and improve outcomes for underrepresented groups in HE. These measures include asking the HE sector to take action to eliminate ethnic disparities in their workforce and support better outcomes for ethnic minority staff. UK Research and Innovation will also be commissioning a review to understand and address equality and diversity disparities in research and innovation funding.</p><p> </p><p>HE providers are independent, autonomous bodies and are responsible for decisions about who they employ and the terms and conditions of employment they offer. Like every employer they must meet their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and give due consideration to the way their recruitment, retention and promotion practises affect different sections of their communities and staff at different stages of their career.</p><p> </p><p>The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers states that ‘diversity and equality must be promoted in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of researchers’. We expect to see this commitment reinforced as a revised Concordat is published in Autumn 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The Race Equality Charter also helps HE providers to identify and address institutional and cultural barriers that may be impacting on minority ethnic staff and students. By improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff within HE we can ensure that everyone who has the potential to thrive at university, both as a student and as a member of staff, does so.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 15/07/2019 13:44:41 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden