Tag: Lord Storey

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 who line manages 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 what strategies are in place to assist universities to monitor companies providing paid essay-writing services.

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 are the legal requirements to have a governing body for (1) a maintained school, and (2) an academy school, and whether a school of either kind can abolish its governing body.

Lord Nash

Section 19 of the Education Act 2002 requires every maintained school to have a governing body, constituted in accordance with regulations.

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 or directors.

It is not possible for a maintained school to abolish its governing body or an academy trust to abolish its board of trustees, however, it is possible for a group of schools to be governed by one governing body or academy trust.

When two or more maintained schools federate they operate under a single governing body, but each school remains a separate legal identity. 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, 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 the academies in the MAT.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which 10 local authorities have (1) the most, and (2) the least, pupil funding.

Lord Nash

Local authorities (LAs) are funded for their schools through the dedicated schools grant (DSG). This currently comprises three blocks, namely schools, early years and high needs. Each LA has its own school block unit of funding (SBUF), and the 10 highest and lowest 10 SBUFs for financial year 2016 to 2017 are shown below:

10 highest funded LAs	2016-2017 SBUF	10 lowest funded LAs	2016-2017 SBUF
City of London	8,587	Leicestershire	4,238
Tower Hamlets	6,982	Dorset	4,232
Hackney	6,858	Stockport	4,229
Lambeth	6,486	Trafford	4,227
Southwark	6,463	South Gloucestershire	4,214
Hammersmith and Fulham	6,351	Cheshire East	4,206
Camden	6,233	York	4,202
Islington	6,221	West Sussex	4,198
Newham	6,127	Poole	4,187
Westminster	6,020	Wokingham	4,167

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.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the site selection and assessment process of the Education Funding Agency, and how much weight is given to local public opinion during that process.

Lord Nash

The Education Funding Agency makes a value for money assessment of each site identified for a new free school. This takes into account factors such as the demand for places in the area and the suitability of the site, including any concerns from local residents.

Local consultations should take place during the selection of the site and the views of residents are factored in at several stages of the process.