Tag: Lord Storey

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-05-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to ensure that greenbelt land is only built on in exceptional circumstances.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that development in the Green Belt should not be permitted except in very special circumstances. A Green Belt boundary may be adjusted by local planning authorities in exceptional circumstances, using the Local Plan process involving consultation with local people and rigorous examination by the Planning Inspector. Planning guidance is clear that constraints such as Green Belt may limit the ability of a local planning authority to meet its full housing needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many county councils have closed down their children’s centres.

Lord Nash

Local authorities have a duty under the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient children’s centres to meet the needs of local families. Local authorities must also consult fully before any significant changes are made to children’s centre services.

All 27 county councils in England have children’s centre sites open to families and children providing children’s centre services as part of a network.

According to data supplied to the department by local authorities, at end May 2016, eight county councils had closed some sites within their children’s centre networks.

An independent survey carried out by the national children’s charity, 4Children (published October 2015) estimated more than a million children and families were using children’s centres.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-07-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the total immigration figures for each of the last five years from (1) the EU, and (2) outside the EU; and of which nationalities were immigrants from outside the EU in each of those years.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that regular updates of the list of Tier 4 visa sponsors are published when sponsors are found not to be compliant with government requirements.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The register of licensed Tier 4 sponsors is published daily and will continue to be. Sponsors that lose their licence as a result of non-compliance are removed from the published list of sponsors.

No information is routinely published regarding sponsors found not to be compliant. In January 2015 data was published showing Tier 4 sponsors whose status appeared as revoked from 2010 to 2014. This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tier-4-sponsors-whose-status-appeared-as-revoked-from-2010-to-2014

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-12-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the appointment process for Regional School Commissioners.

Lord Nash

The eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) take decisions in the name of the Secretary of State in relation to schools and academies (including free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools). The RSCs were appointed through open competition, with successful candidates being appointed for their outstanding leadership skills and track record. The process was overseen by the Civil Service Commissioner. RSCs are line managed by the national Schools Commissioner.

The responsibilities of RSCs include:

a) monitoring the performance of the academies, free schools, UTCs and studio schools in their area;

b) taking action when an academy, free school, UTC or studio school is underperforming;

c) approving the conversion of maintained schools to academies and making the decision on the sponsor for new academies in areas where the local authority has identified a need for additional school places;

d) making recommendations to ministers about free school applications and advising on whether approved free school projects are ready to open;

e) encouraging organisations to become academy sponsors or to establish free schools, approving applications to become sponsors and helping to build the capacity and capability of existing sponsors within their area;

f) approving changes to open academies, for example: changes to age ranges, mergers between academies, and changes to MAT arrangements;

g) addressing underperformance in local authority maintained schools through sponsored academy arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether universities keep and make available statistics regarding the number of students who are caught having someone else write their work for them, broken down by academic year.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism.

There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations.

Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism.

The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what powers local authorities have to intervene regarding safeguarding concerns at an academy school.

Lord Nash

Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people within their area by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs. This is regardless of the type of educational provision.

Section 47 of the same act requires the local authority to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015) and Keeping children safe in education (2014) clarifies the core legal requirements for individuals and organisations to keep children safe. The guidance applies in its entirety to all schools. Schools have responsibilities to notify the local authority if there are safeguarding concerns about individual children or recruitment issues linked to individual staff. Statutory guidance also sets out how all schools are expected to cooperate with the local safeguarding children board to ensure that safeguarding practice across the area is joined up and robust.

If a local authority has concerns about the general adequacy of statutory safeguarding arrangements in place in a particular academy, they may notify the academies regulator, i.e. the Education Funding Agency (EFA), which can seek compliance, or Ofsted, which has powers to inspect safeguarding arrangements. In such circumstances, the EFA will take appropriate action to check that the academy’s arrangements are compliant with its statutory responsibilities. The EFA may also notify Ofsted of any concerns or evidence it has about an academy’s apparent failure to operate adequate safeguarding arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have had any discussions with relevant bodies about National Museums Liverpool coming under the control of the combined authorities, and what assessment they have made, if any, of such a move.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

As part of the Liverpool City Region Devolution Agreement, the Department is engaging with Liverpool City Combined Authority and National Museums Liverpool to explore options around a sustainable and viable business model for National Museums Liverpool.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 February (HL5629), what steps they are taking to increase the number of discounts available to post-16 students travelling to their nearest further education or sixth form college in (1) rural areas, and (2) urban areas.

Lord Nash

The statutory responsibility for financial support for transport to education and training for post-16 students, including discounts, rests with local authorities. It is therefore for local authorities, along with local transport providers and schools or colleges, to decide what discounts and concessions to provide. These decisions are best made locally in light of local needs, the resources available, and other local circumstances.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what penalties are in place for higher education institutions that knowingly accept UK student fee status for students who hold British passports, but whose parents have not paid tax in the UK for past five years, and whose education is shown to have taken place overseas.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Higher education institutions have discretion to charge a student who is not eligible for home fee status whatever fee they deem appropriate, including the same fee as they charge students who have home fee status.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) allocates funding to HE institutions, to cover some of the teaching costs of students who are eligible for home fees status and studying high cost subjects. The Council monitors the student number data of all institutions, to ensure they receive only the funding to which they are entitled. HEFCE has powers to withhold funding from any institution which has received funding for which it is not eligible.

Student Finance England is responsible for assessing students’ eligibility for financial support. It can only award support to students who satisfy the eligibility criteria in full. The fee a student is paying is not considered in this assessment.