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  • Lord Quirk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Quirk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Quirk on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Building Skills for all: A Review of England, published in January, in respect of the report’s findings that (1) seven per cent of university graduates in England under the age of 35 have numeracy skills below level 2, and that 3.4 per cent have literacy skills below level 2; (2) competition between universities in England for the ablest students has intensified to the point that less successful universities have lowered their admission demands to attract applicants; and (3) with a record number of students now entering for degree courses, money should be diverted from universities and deployed to enhance basic school education.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Government agrees it is critical that all students acquire the essential literacy and numeracy skills they need to make the most of their courses and progress into a fulfilling career.

    Alongside the reforms to raise standards in schools and increase the number and quality of apprenticeships, our Higher Education Green Paper sets out further measures to ensure all students benefit from high-quality teaching.

    Decisions about which students to admit is ultimately a matter for individual institutions, but by lifting the cap on student numbers we are ensuring that more students can benefit from higher education than ever before.

  • Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many breaches of the School Admissions Code there have been as a consequence of groups and organisations being able to object to schools’ admission arrangements.

    Lord Nash

    The Schools Adjudicator reports annually to the Secretary of State on fair access, and this report includes information on the objections referred to the Schools Adjudicator and the outcomes of those objections. The Department is carefully considering the findings contained in the report and will take these into account, along with other relevant information, as part of the current review of the School Admissions Code.

  • Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of objections submitted to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator by secularist campaign groups were upheld in the period from 2012 to 2015.

    Lord Nash

    Since 2012, 87% of all objections submitted to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator by secularist campaign groups were upheld or partially upheld. The Office of the Schools Adjudicator Annual Report contains data about the objections referred to the OSA and the outcome of those objections.

  • Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the level of compliance with the School Admissions Code across all schools, especially in the light of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association, An Unholy Mess, that claimed a widespread failure to comply among religiously selective schools in England.

    Lord Nash

    The Department will be conducting a full public consultation in due course and will give careful consideration to all the views expressed in that consultation as part of the current review of the School Admissions Code. In addition, the Schools Adjudicator reports annually to the Secretary of State on fair access. The Department is therefore also taking account of the Adjudicator’s report for the 2014 -2015 school year.

  • Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact that preventing groups and organisations from objecting to school admissions arrangements will have on overall levels of compliance with the School Admissions Code.

    Lord Nash

    The Government’s proposed changes are intended to ensure that the Adjudicator is able to focus on any concerns which parents may have about the fairness of the admission arrangements of their local school, and that adjudications are not delayed by the need to consider large numbers of objections referred by interest groups from outside the area.

    The Department does not believe that preventing other organisations from submitting objections will have a detrimental impact. The Government will be conducting a full public consultation in due course and will give careful consideration to all the views expressed in that consultation.

  • Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of comments be the Chief Executive of Mumsnet stating that the Department for Education’s proposal to prevent organisations from objecting to the admission arrangements of schools will add to parental dissatisfaction”.”

    Lord Nash

    The Government’s proposed changes are designed to make sure that the Schools Adjudicator can concentrate on parental complaints. We want to ensure that the Adjudicator is able to focus on any concerns which parents may have about the fairness of the admission arrangements of their local school and that the Adjudicator is not held up by the need to consider objections referred by interest groups from outside the area.

    The changes are still subject to a full public consultation and the Department will give careful consideration to all the views expressed in that consultation.

  • Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Baroness Meacher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they define vexatious” in relation to the objections submitted to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator by secularist campaigning groups over the last two years.”

    Lord Nash

    On 25 January 2016, the Secretary of State announced changes to the school admissions code, in order to give parents more of a say in the school admissions process so they can be confident the system works for them.

    The Government proposes that only local parents and local authorities should be able to refer objections about a school’s admissions arrangements to the Schools Adjudicator. The Government wants to ensure that the Adjudicator is able to focus on any concerns which parents may have about the fairness of the admission arrangements of their local school, and that adjudications are not held up by the need to consider large numbers of objections referred by interest groups from outside the area.

    The Department will conduct a full public consultation in due course and will give careful consideration to all the views expressed in that consultation.

  • Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what specific steps they will take to ensure that the review of the statutory scheme for branded medicines takes into account the specificities of medicines derived from human blood plasma, in the light of the Council of Europe resolution on principles concerning human normal immunoglobulin therapies for immunodeficiency and other diseases (CM/RES(2015)2).

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    We are continuing to consider carefully all the consultation responses including those that refer to blood plasma products. It is important we get these changes right for patients, the National Health Service and industry. We want to look in particular at the impact on small and medium sized businesses, while securing the medicines patients need at a cost which the NHS can afford.

  • Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kinnock on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the net migration to the UK in the year to March 2013.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kinnock on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of all (1) in-work, and (2) out-of-work, benefits paid in the UK as at March 2013 was received by recent EU migrants.

    Lord Freud

    I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for Employment (Ms. Esther McVey) in the House of Commons on 20 November 2014 to Question number 211618 as below:

    While the Government checks the immigration status of benefit claimants to ensure the benefit is paid properly and to prevent fraud, traditionally that information has not been collected as part of the payment administrative systems.

    However, the Government is looking at ways to reform the current administrative system under Universal Credit so that it will systematically record nationality and immigration status of migrants who make a claim.

    The Government has made a radical series of changes over the last year to restrict the access by non-UK citizens from the European Economic Area to UK benefits and tax credits. This is in order to protect the UK’s benefit system and discourage people who have no established connection with the UK from moving here, unless they have a job or a genuine prospect of work, or have savings to support themselves until they do.