‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE) is statutory guidance to which all schools and colleges must have regard to when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.

Part 1 of KCSIE, which all staff should receive at induction, sets out what peer on peer abuse looks like, with detailed information covering child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment for staff who work directly with children. All staff should receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training which is regularly updated.

Part 5 of KCSIE sets out how schools and colleges should respond to reports of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment.

We also provide detailed advice to support schools and colleges to understand what sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges looks like, how to prevent it, how to respond to reports of it, and on how to support victims. This advice is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sexual-violence-and-sexual-harassment-between-children-in-schools-and-colleges.

The guidance is very clear that all school staff should know what to do if a child tells them they are being abused or neglected.

The guidance is also very clear that concerns about a child should be responded to immediately and referrals (generally led by the designated safeguarding lead) made to children’s social care and the police.

The Government currently applies a zero rate of VAT on clothing and footwear which is designed for children under the age of 14. This is the maximum relief allowed under EU law.

While there may be more flexibility in the future, introducing a VAT relief for all school uniforms and PE clothing would come at a cost to the Exchequer, and that cost would have to be balanced by increased taxes elsewhere, or reductions in government spending.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It is for the governing body of a school, or in the case of academies, the academy trust, to decide rules relating to appearance including whether there should be a school uniform, what it will be and how it should be sourced.

No school uniform should be so expensive as to leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend, a school of their choice. The Department’s best-practice guidance advises schools that they should give the highest priority to cost considerations and achieving value for money for parents.

The Department intends to put the school uniform guidance on a statutory footing when a suitable opportunity arises and the guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.

Information from the programme is still being collected and data on funding at local authority level is not available at this stage. We will review the effectiveness of the programme once it has fully concluded.

The information requested is not held centrally. The Department does not collect information relating to the published admissions numbers of individual schools.

All school admission authorities must set a published admissions number (PAN). This is the number of pupils the school will admit at their normal point of entry, for example, to the reception year of a primary school.

Admission authorities are not required to consult before increasing their PAN. They must, however, notify the local authority of any intention to do so.

Since 2015, the Department has allocated £6 billion to those responsible for school buildings and for essential maintenance and improvements, including removing or encapsulating asbestos when it is the safest course of action to do so. In addition, through the Priority School Building Programme, the Department is rebuilding or refurbishing buildings in the worst condition in over 500 schools across the country. Asbestos was a factor in selecting buildings for the programme.

Advice from the Health and Safety Executive is clear that if asbestos is unlikely to be damaged or disturbed, then it is best managed in situ. Although, the Department is also clear that when asbestos does pose a risk to safety and cannot be effectively managed in situ, then it should be removed. Schools and those responsible for school buildings receive building condition funding through different routes depending on their size and type and this should be used to address asbestos issues if materials cannot be safely managed in situ.

The Department published ‘Asbestos Management in Schools’ guidance in February 2017 to help local authorities, governing bodies and academy trusts to meet their legal duties and manage asbestos effectively. The Department also launched the Asbestos Management Assurance Process in March 2018 to help develop a more comprehensive understanding of asbestos management in the school estate.

It is for the governing body of a school to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and if so, what that should be.

In England, some local authorities (LAs) already provide discretionary grants to help with buying school uniforms. LAs that offer these grants set their own criteria for eligibility. Further, schools can also choose to use the pupil premium funding that they are allocated to help support their disadvantaged pupils to offer subsidies or grants for school uniform; this would be a decision for the school to make.

The cost of uniform should not act as a barrier to obtaining a good school place. All children should be able to attend a school of their parents’ choice wherever possible. No school uniform should be so expensive as to leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend, a school of their choice.

The Department’s best-practice guidance advises schools that, in setting their school uniform policy, they should give the highest priority to cost considerations and achieving value for money for parents. The guidance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.

The Department intends to put the school uniform guidance on a statutory footing when a suitable legislative opportunity arises. No education bill was announced in the most recent Queen’s speech, which set out the proposed legislative programme for this session of Parliament.

A list of state-funded schools which had a decrease in the attainment gap between white males who were and were not eligible for free school meals (FSM) between 2014/15 and 2016/17 can be found in the attachment. The attainment measure used is achievement of A*-C/9-4 English and maths. The Education Endowment Foundation, funded by the Department of Education with £137 million to research and promote the most effective ways of improving the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils, is working in hundreds of English schools to show how all schools can make a difference to their disadvantaged pupils’ futures.

There were reforms to GCSE qualifications and associated attainment measures between 2015 and 2017 that mean the published figures for attainment of English and maths are not directly comparable. The analysis for this response accounts for this by applying the 2015 measure to the 2017 data. On this consistent basis, the attainment gap between FSM and non-FSM eligible pupils increased by 1 percentage point overall between 2015 and 2017. The attainment gap that these schools represent is not equal to the one calculated from published figures[1].

[1] Includes pupils eligible to be included in school level results, rather than national level results – this leads to small differences in the cohort compared to the published figures. Schools are included where they have at least six white male pupils who are eligible for FSM and six who are not; this is to protect the confidentiality of pupils in line with the department’s confidentiality policy (attached). Schools also must have a valid cohort in both years in order for the attainment gap change to be calculated – this mainly affects schools that closed or opened after 2014/15. Caution should be taken when looking at the change in attainment at school level due to the relatively small cohort sizes at some schools. The effect of a few low/high attaining pupils may greatly influence the overall change in attainment at a school with a small cohort; whilst some schools appear to have significant swings in the attainment gap, in many cases this will be a function of the changing cohort in the school over time.

The right hon. Gentleman makes some interesting points and I will take advice on his suggestions, but I must say that we have guaranteed the pupil premium to the end of this Parliament: it is over £1,300 for every pupil eligible for free school meals attending a primary school, and nearly £1,000 for every disadvantaged child attending a secondary school.

The Department is currently assessing applications from round 3 of the Strategic School Improvement Fund, which closed on 20 April. It is expected that applicants will be informed of the outcome in July. An announcement will be made later in the year on our future plans.

The department’s best practice guidance makes clear that schools should give the highest priority to the consideration of cost when setting their uniform policy. We expect schools to consult with parents and pupils and take into account their views when setting their uniform policy.

Disputes about school uniforms should be resolved locally in accordance with the school’s complaints policy. In law, governing bodies must have a complaints procedure in place to deal with issues such as a complaint about school uniform. Parents should be able to lodge their complaints and/or objections with the school easily. We expect the governing body to work closely with parents to arrive at a mutually acceptable outcome.

The guidance can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.

We intend to put this guidance on a statutory footing when a suitable legislative opportunity arises.

The Departmental regions were reconfigured in 2014 with the appointment of Regional Schools Commissioners. The Lancashire and West Yorkshire region covers much of what was previously recognised as the North West.

One local authority in the Lancashire and West Yorkshire region is a lead applicant in a successful Round 1 application to the Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF). This is Blackburn with Darwen and the bid is worth approximately £195,000.

Schools in a further 12 local authorities in the Lancashire and West Yorkshire region will receive funding from Round 1 of the SSIF, either as named providers, or because there are successful applications supporting schools in their areas. The sum total of this additional support is approximately £4 million.

In addition to the SSIF, the School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering Grant of £50 million per year is being provided to local authorities to allow them to continue to monitor performance of maintained schools, broker school improvement provision, and intervene as appropriate. Approximately £5.25 million has been paid to local authorities in the Lancashire and West Yorkshire region from the first allocation of this grant, covering the period from September 2017 to March 2018.

School playing fields are protected by Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Schools and local authorities must obtain the Secretary of State’s approval before they can dispose of their land. Applications to dispose of school playing fields are considered by the school playing fields advisory panel, and are approved only when it is demonstrated that the application meets published criteria. I am aware of an application by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council to seek approval to dispose of part of the playing fields at the closed Rock Ferry High School. The application is currently being processed by officials at the Education Funding Agency, who have sought further detail from the council about the proposal. The application can only be considered when sufficient information is available to enable the panel and the Secretary of State to assess where the capital receipt of the sale of the land will be spent and whether a local Residents’ Association will manage the remaining field for local use. The Secretary of State will consider the recommendation of the panel before making her final decision.

The Department publishes school application and offer data annually and this is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-applications.

Supporting local authorities to create sufficient school places is one of the Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which, when added to our investment in the free schools programme, will help to create 600,000 new places.

The Department does not hold the information requested.