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  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what conditions they would refer an incident or a series of incidents of suspected mass killings or alleged human rights abuses to the UN Security Council for a determination on whether genocide was occurring as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Government believes that recognition of genocides should be a matter for international courts, not political bodies. It should be a legal, rather than political determination, decided by international judges after consideration of all the evidence available in the context of a credible international judicial process.

  • Chris White – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Chris White – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris White on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures her Department has implemented to support children who are permanently excluded from school.

    Edward Timpson

    Exclusion from school is not the end of a pupil’s education. Where a pupil has been permanently excluded, the Local Authority must arrange suitable full-time education for them to begin no later than the sixth school day following the exclusion.

    In the White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ we announced reforms to the system of alternative provision which will strengthen the accountability of schools when permanently excluding pupils. Under these changes schools will remain accountable for the education of pupils in alternative provision and will be responsible for commissioning high quality provision. In addition to this, the reforms include a number of measures to raise the standards of alternative provision providers so that every child is given the best possible opportunity to fulfil their potential. The full text of the Educational Excellence Everywhere White Paper can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere.

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  • Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to require all primary and secondary schools to become academies.

    Nick Gibb

    Two-thirds of secondary schools and one-third of primary schools are already academies. All schools yet to convert have six years to work with their local authority and Diocese to plan effectively for a sustainable future.

    We expect many will choose to partner with other schools and form or join new, local partnerships. However, no school has to rush into an arrangement that is not right for them and they will be supported throughout this process.

  • Victoria Atkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Victoria Atkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Victoria Atkins on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department is making on ensuring that funding is distributed fairly across schools.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The fair distribution of funding is a priority for this Government. A National Funding Formula will ensure that every school is allocated funding fairly and transparently according to need. The first stage of a two part consultation closed last week and we are currently considering the responses. It is important that we get such a significant change right and so we will publish our response to the first stage, and second consultation, later this year.

  • James Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    James Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Morris on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to support the most vulnerable children and families.

    Edward Timpson

    It is a fundamental priority for this Government to keep children safe from harm and improve their life chances. We are reforming children’s social care, putting practice excellence and achieving more for children at its heart. We have made significant progress, reducing bureaucracy and recently announced a further £200m to support innovative new ways of working that focus on the needs of children and families.

  • Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what future plans she has for the role of parents in the running of their children’s school.

    Nick Gibb

    There is a long standing tradition of parents’ involvement in the running of their child’s school, including a valuable role in governance, and we want that to continue. Academy boards will always be free to appoint parents for their skills and knowledge to govern in the best interests of all pupils. Academies will be required to engage with all parents to listen to their views and feedback particularly on key decisions about the school.

  • Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to assist teachers in managing their workload.

    Nick Gibb

    We are continuing our extensive work with the profession to remove unnecessary workload so that teachers can concentrate on teaching and not bureaucracy and paperwork.

    This includes establishing three review groups to tackle the top issues raised by teachers in the Government’s Workload Challenge in 2014: marking, lesson planning, and data management.

    The reports from these review groups were published on 26 March 2016. We have accepted all their recommendations for Government.

    As the reports make clear, it is for everybody involved in education to act on the principles and recommendations in these reports so teachers can focus on what really matters – inspiring their pupils to achieve their full potential.

    We will continue to work with the teaching profession to make sure they have the ongoing support they need. We have recently conducted the first biennial Teacher Workload Survey, a commitment which will allow us to track teacher workload over the coming years. The results of the first survey will be published later this year.

  • Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to require all primary and secondary schools to become academies.

    Nick Gibb

    Ensuring that all schools are academies by 2022 gives schools and local authorities six years notice to plan and make the right decisions for their pupils and communities.

    This is a fully funded policy with over £500 million available this Parliament to build capacity, in support of a high-quality, fully academised school system.

  • David Warburton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    David Warburton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Warburton on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to meet demand for school places in Somerton and Frome constituency.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Supporting local authorities to ensure sufficient school places continues to be one of the Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021, which, along with our investment in the free schools programme, we expect to deliver 600,000 new places. Somerset received £14.6 million of basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create almost 3,000 new places between 2010 and 2015. It has also been allocated a further £24.5 million to create the places needed by 2019.

  • Kelly Tolhurst – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Kelly Tolhurst – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelly Tolhurst on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to improve the performance of schools in parts of the country where there has been persistent underperformance.

    Nick Gibb

    Our reforms are delivering much needed improvement to our education system. Ofsted inspection data shows that sponsored academies are transforming the life chances ‎of over 350,000 pupils by raising standards in their schools. But there are too many areas of the country where, for too long, children have not had the Education they deserve.

    Our strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas will tackle entrenched underperformance in areas where low school standards have been allowed for too long. We look forward to working with the first areas from this autumn.