The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-10-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to bring sixth form colleges in line with sixth form college academies in not having to pay VAT.
Lord Young of Cookham
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave on 25th October 2016 (Question HL2214).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-11-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current level of per capita funding for students in (1) school sixth forms in schools, (2) sixth form colleges, and (3) further education colleges.
Lord Nash
Funding for all 16-19 institutions comes from the same national funding formula. The national base rate for 16-19 year olds in full time education is £4,000 per student. Weightings related to disadvantage, programme costs and area costs are added to the base rate funding, to reflect additional costs faced by different institutions.
The overall average units of funding for the 2015/16 academic year are:
|
Schools and Academy Sixth Forms |
£4,567 |
|
Sixth Form Colleges |
£4,670 |
|
General Further Education and Specialist Colleges |
£4,973 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-12-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) which UK terrestrial broadcasters produce annual original homemade content for children, and (2) how much those broadcasters spend annually on such content.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Ofcom’s 2015 report into the future of public service broadcasting included an assessment of the amount of UK originated Children’s television programming by the public service broadcasting channels.
In 2014, the BBC spent £84 million on children’s television programming. The combined spend of ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 was £3 million.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they make available for stand-alone academies facing budget deficits and the possibility of becoming bankrupt.
Lord Nash
Academy trusts are required to set balanced budgets each year, and it is the trustees’ responsibility to manage the funding for their school effectively and appropriately.
Where stand-alone academy trusts are facing genuine financial difficulties, there are a number of ways they can access support to help them return to financial stability. These include:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have guidelines for local authorities about charging for responses to Freedom of Information requests.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government has not published guidance for local authorities about charging for Freedom of Information requests.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to ensure that every academy has its own governing body.
Lord Nash
Under the Academies Act 2010 an academy is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is therefore required under the Companies Act 2006 to have members and a board of trustees/ directors.
In a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), individual academies do not have a separate legal identity and are all under the control of the trust board. Whether the board establishes local governing boards for each academy or local governing bodies to oversee groups of academies, and the range of functions delegated to any such boards, are both a matter for the board to determine – but in all cases the board remains accountable for all the academies in the MAT.
Fewer, higher quality and more highly skilled boards overseeing groups of schools is central to the Government’s strategy for improving the quality of governance. It is also the key to schools realising a wide range of other financial and educational benefits. While every academy may not therefore have its own governing body, our guidance in the Governance Handbook makes clear that boards should have meaningful and effective arrangements in place for engaging with and listening to the views and needs of parents, staff and the wider local community.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-03-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that schools comply with their admission policies, and what action they take when a school is found to be admitting pupils in contravention of their admission policy.
Lord Nash
All state funded schools are required to comply with the statutory School Admissions Code when setting and applying their admission arrangements. Once admission arrangements have been determined, anyone who believes they are unfair or unlawful may make an objection to the Schools Adjudicator.
When allocating places, admission authorities must ensure they do so strictly in accordance with their published admissions criteria.
Any parent who is refused a place at a school for which they have applied has the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel. If the panel finds that the school’s admission arrangements were unlawful and had not been applied properly in the individual’s case, the appeal must be upheld and the admission authority must admit the child.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-05-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 May (HL7985), in the light of their policy of not cutting the education budget of individual schools, what extra funding they are providing to schools to support the increase in the on-costs on teachers’ salaries in the last three years.
Lord Nash
At the Spending Review we announced we would protect the core schools budget in real terms during this Parliament. Schools are expected to manage within their individual budgets, including taking account of national insurance and pension contributions. From 2017 we have committed to introduce a national funding formula so that we can allocate funding more fairly, based on schools’ individual needs and the characteristics of their pupils. That will mean schools are better placed to manage cost pressures and to make informed decisions about their spending over a longer term.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many LGBTIQ people applied for refugee status in the UK on the basis of homophobic, biphobic or transphobic laws in their home countries in the last five years, and what was the percentage success rate of those applications.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Further to the response provided to Lord Scriven on 25 March 2015, (HL5725) the process of quality assuring the data held on the Home Office’s Case Information Database, relating to sexuality based asylum claims is currently being undertaken by Home Office officials.
As such, the Home Office has not yet reached a point where it can provide an accurate picture of the number of asylum claims based on sexuality and no statistical data on this subject has hitherto been published.
Information where the detail of the asylum claim basis relates to gender identity issues is not routinely recorded on Home Office databases in a way that can be easily aggregated. No published data exists relating to gender identity based asylum claims.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to cover any shortfall in university research funding as a result of the UK leaving the EU if a satisfactory negotiated alternative cannot be achieved.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The future of UK access to European research and innovation funding will be a matter for the new Prime Minister and government to discuss. The government is determined to ensure that the UK continues to play a leading role in European and international research and innovation.