Social mobility is a top priority, and the department is taking action to remove barriers to opportunity at every stage of the education system. The department has set out a 10 year ambition to boost children’s early reading and communication skills. We have invested more than £15 billion in the pupil premium to support the most disadvantaged pupils and we are reforming technical education. The evidence shows we are closing the educational attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and others, as measured by the disadvantage gap index, by around 13 % at key stage 2 and 9.5 % at key stage 4 since 2011. As well as increasing the proportion of disadvantaged 18 year olds entering full-time higher education from 13.3% in 2009 to 20.2% in 2018.

The department has invested over £137 million in the Education Endowment Foundation to help schools use the pupil premium in ways that are proven to have a positive impact.

We are committed to tackling the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and we are making good progress. Nationally, there are now over a million fewer workless households, and around 665,000 fewer children living in such households compared with 2010.

The exact information requested is not held centrally by the Home Office. UKVI transparency data provides details of refusal, curtailments and removal decisions on those linked to the abuse of secure English language testing. A link to the most recent available data is provided here;
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-and-permanent-migration-data-february-2017

The table in SELT_02 is the closest match to the information requested.

The data was last published in February 2017 and only contains data to the last quarter (December 2016). ETS data is no longer published after this date.

Carrying on the youth justice reforms from 2017, we are providing funding for every Prison Officer in the Youth Custody Service to undertake a youth justice qualification and, on completion, transition into a new youth justice specialist role on promotion and at a higher pay-grade. Over 400 frontline staff are currently enrolled on this qualification.

To better support young people in custody, we are rolling out the Custody Support Plan (CuSP) and implementing the use of Promoting Risk Intervention by Situational Management (PRISM). CuSP will provide each young person with a personal officer to work with in order to build trust and consistency. PRISM is an evidence-based process specifically designed and tested for use within custodial institutions. It provides a comprehensive framework for reviewing features of an environment that are known to contribute to the likelihood and emergence of violence.

As well as this we are working closely with the NHS on ‘Secure Stairs’, which is a new integrated approach to strengthen the provision of health care to address the needs of young people holistically and co-ordinates services through a coherent, joined up approach. In addition, we are increasing psychology staff and support, and opening Enhanced Support Units for young people with the most complex needs.

Following positive feedback on the proposal made in the 2017 primary assessment consultation, we committed to introducing the reception baseline assessment (RBA) at the beginning of the reception year to form the baseline for primary school progress measures. The consultation received 4,165 responses including representations from headteachers, teachers, teaching unions and sector experts. A majority of responses demonstrated clear support for moving the baseline assessment to reception. It is important to note the RBA is not a test - it is a short, teacher-led assessment and it will provide practitioners with valuable one-to-one time with their pupils within the first few weeks of reception. The full consultation response is attached and can also be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/644871/Primary_assessment_consultation_response.pdf.

The reception baseline assessment (RBA) will enable us to create school-level progress measures for primary schools which show the progress pupils make from reception until the end of key stage 2. Progress is an important measure - it will give schools credit for the important work they do with their pupils between reception and year 2 and will give parents better information about which schools may help their children to make the most progress. The RBA is not a test - it is a short, teacher-led assessment and it will provide practitioners with valuable one-to-one time with their pupils within the first few weeks of reception.

We have worked closely with early years practitioners, schools and other education experts to develop the RBA, and continue to do so. All aspects of the assessment’s development have been informed by an extensive evidence base of early years research.

Contracts are never awarded lightly; each has an agreed and robust process. Government has always been compliant with public procurement regulations and follows these diligently when assessing the suitability of suppliers to deliver a particular contract

The various contracting authorities, such as individual Government Departments, manage their contracts with Interserve and monitor performance against each contract. I am unable to comment on specifics as this information remains commercially sensitive

The Cabinet Office also monitors the overall financial health and performance of all of our strategic suppliers, including Interserve, and has regular discussions with the company’s management.

The decision to fund local youth services lies with Local Authorities, not with central government. NCS is a universal offer funded by central government, that is accessible to all young people and is designed to support, and not cut across other services. It is delivered via a network of over 100 local delivery partners, many of which are local youth organisations. As such, we have made no specific assessment of the impact of the creation of NCS on the funding available for youth services.

Government recognises that the causes of youth crime are complex and are often tied to local factors. Local authorities allocate funding and deliver youth services in line with local need. The Government has made over £200bn available to local authorities to spend on local services over this Spending Review.

The Government is committed to making sure young people have opportunities to develop their skills and benefit from youth services, which are an important partner in the strategy to tackle the root causes of serious violence.

My department will continue to work closely with the Home Office on the implementation of the Serious Violence Strategy.

NCS is a programme that successfully reaches young people from all backgrounds. We have made no specific assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of NCS in meeting the needs of vulnerable young people in disadvantaged communities, but we do know that participants from vulnerable and minority groups are overrepresented on the programme. In 2018, 16% of participants were eligible for Free School Meals, 31% were from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and 5% had Special Educational Needs* compared to 12%, 25% and 2% of the comparative population respectively.

Work is ongoing to reach the most marginalised young people. The NCS Trust has established strong links with Local Authorities to support the hardest to reach young people in accessing the programme; provide specialist support during the programme; and help young people access opportunities after NCS. The NCS Trust has also introduced a central inclusion fund, so that its network partners can apply for funding to support young people with additional needs to access the NCS programme.

* The final 2018 participation figures are still subject to ongoing compliance checks.

Outsourcing is an important component in a “mixed economy” of government service provision which includes in-house and the voluntary sector. Research commissioned by the previous government has shown that outsourcing can deliver savings of some twenty to thirty percent.

Decisions on whether to outsource any particular service are made on a case by case basis according to Treasury guidance and the newly published Outsourcing Playbook. This guidance aims to ensure government makes well evidenced assessments when deciding whether to outsource a public service and helps government and industry work better together to deliver high quality public services.

The law is clear that a pupil’s name can only be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended.

State-funded schools can exclude pupils, either permanently or for a fixed period, for disciplinary reasons, and the department supports schools in using exclusion where this is warranted. Exclusion on any grounds other than discipline is unlawful. Where a pupil is asked to leave the school, the formal exclusions process set out in the school exclusion guidance must be followed. Schools may not exclude pupils because of their academic attainment or ability.

Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils, and for other pupils who – because of illness or other reasons – would not receive suitable education without such provision. Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), like all schools and colleges, have a legal duty to safeguard children. Ofsted inspects PRUs under the same inspection framework as mainstream state-funded schools.

Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) play an important role in preventing offending and reoffending by children. The funding for YOTs provided through the Youth Justice Board’s annual grant has reduced by around a half since 2009/10 from £145m to £71.6m in 2018/19. Alongside this, the numbers of first time entrants (FTEs) into the youth justice system has decreased by 77% between 2009/10 and 2017/18 and 86% in the last decade, and while FTEs declined by 14% between 2016/17 and 2017/18 the YOT grant was maintained at the same level as the previous year. The YOT grant on average makes up just less than a third of the funding YOTs receive, with the majority coming from local authorities and partner agencies based on their local assessment of the needs of their area.

Where a young person has been convicted of a knife crime YOTs will assess their needs and put in place a plan to prevent further offending. However, it is key for all agencies to work together to tackle knife crime. Last week the Chancellor announced that further funding of £100 million would be immediately available to police forces to address knife and violent crime in the worst affected areas in England and Wales. This new funding will enable police forces to have more officers available build capacity to prevent and respond to knife crime or patrol in communities. This is addition to the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund announced by the Home Secretary last October which will be delivered over the next 10 years, targeting those children most at risk of becoming involved in serious violence and focussing on early intervention and prevention.

The Home Office engages closely with Local Authorities, through Strategic Migration Partnerships, on a regular basis to assess the effectiveness of asylum dispersal and discuss issues such as local cohesion. In addition, accommodation Providers must consult on every property that is to be used for asylum dispersal with Local Authorities who will assess its viability in relation to social cohesion, as well as a number of other factors.

A governance structure has been established to facilitate a joint review into asylum dispersal which will be co-designed and co-produced by Local Authorities and the Home Office.

The Government is committed to a fair and humane immigration policy which welcomes and celebrates people here legally, and which distinguishes effectively between those with lawful status and those here illegally.

In common with other comparable countries, the UK has in place a framework of laws, policies and administrative arrangements, ensuring access to work benefits and services is permitted for those with the right access to them. The term “hostile environment” is not used to describe these policies and does not reflect our values. Key measures were the subject of public consultations and/or impact assessments before they were introduced. These policies already incorporate important safeguards, including the ability to exercise discretion where there are genuine barriers to persons leaving the UK or there are exceptional compassionate factors.

We are considering further options to evaluate the impact of controls on work, benefits and services.

My Rt hon Friend, the Home Secretary has already announced that he will review the structures and processes of the immigration system to ensure that we can deliver a future system in a way that is fair and humane.
We are considering the form and timing of the review, but it will need to build on the lessons learnt from the Lessons Learned review, which is be-ing led by Wendy Williams and is seeking to establish how members of the Windrush generation became entangled with immigration measures designed to tackle illegal immigration.

The Government response to the (1) the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee The Windrush Generation (HC 990), published on 3 July 2018 is published at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmhaff/1545/1545.pdf and (2) the Joint Committee on Human Rights Windrush Generation Detention (HL Paper 160), published on 29 June 2018 is at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201719/jtselect/jtrights/1633/1633.pdf. Furthermore, we will be responding to the Public Accounts Committee report of 6 March 2019 in due course.

The Government continues to provide regular updates to the Home Affairs Select Committee on actions taken in response to the issues faced by the Windrush Generation. The Home Secretary has said that the details of the Windrush Compensation Scheme will be published soon, and we look forward to receiving and responding to the report of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review being led by Wendy Williams.

The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, includes our analysis of the factors driving increases in serious violence. This highlighted a range of possible factors and that a major factor was changes in the drugs market.

The Government is also clear that prevention and early intervention, alongside tough enforcement, are critical to achieving sustainable reductions in knife crime and serious violence.

This is why the Government is providing the police with new powers through the Offensive Weapons Bill, promoting a major media campaign #knife free, we are investing £22 million into the prevention of serious violence through the Early Intervention Youth Fund, in addition to the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund which will provide support over the next 10 years for those young people most at risk of serious violence. We will also be shortly consulting on a new statutory duty to underpin the multi-agency approach to tackling violence and we have an established an independent review of drug misuse.

Tackling county lines and gang related child criminal exploitation is a priority for the Government.

Our Serious Violence Strategy, published last April, sets out a strong focus on early intervention and prevention, and is delivering a number of commitments to support children who are vulnerable to or caught up in gang activity. This includes supporting 29 projects in England and Wales through the £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund to deliver interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.

The Government has provided £3.6m to establish the new National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) to enhance our cross border intelligence and activity on county lines and to better safeguard and protect victims of county lines. Work is ongoing to protect the exploited and target the offenders, and in two separate weeks of operational intensification coordinated by the NCLCC there have been over 1,100 arrests and over 1,300 individuals safeguarded.
In addition, in October 2018 the Home Secretary also announced a new £200 million youth endowment fund to be delivered over 10 years which will support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence.

We already work closely with organisations such as Redthread and the St Giles Trust, who intervene with young people at the “teachable moment” and we have provided funding to enable Redthread to carry out their youth violence interventions in London, Nottingham and Birmingham.

Tackling serious violence and protecting those vulnerable to it requires a multi-agency response. That is why we will shortly consult on a new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach which will make preventing and tackling serous violence a top priority for key partners.

The Home Office is also working closely with the Department for Education to support young people excluded from school who are at risk of involvement in serious violence. In addition, the Department for Education are providing £2m for a new national response unit to be established and operate between 2019 and 2022. The new unit will provide bespoke support to local areas to help vulnerable children at risk of exploitation by criminal gangs.

Pre-charge bail, including the use of conditions to protect domestic abuse and other victims, continues to be available where it is necessary and proportionate. Decisions on pre-charge bail are operational matters for individual police forces, however the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has developed further operational guidance for officers concerning the reforms to pre-charge bail. We will continue to monitor the impact on victims of domestic abuse through the National Oversight Group on domestic abuse, chaired by the Home Secretary and work with the police to provide further clarity as appropriate.

Our landmark draft Domestic Abuse Bill and consultation response published in January includes further measures to help the police tackle domestic abuse, including the creation of a Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Order and training for police.

The Government disagrees with the High Court’s findings and has been granted permission to appeal the judgment on all grounds.
In the meantime, the provisions passed by this House in 2014 remain in force. There are no immediate changes to the operation of the policy. Landlords and letting agents are still obliged to conduct Right to Rent checks as required in legislation.

The law is absolutely clear that landlords should not discriminate when carrying out right to rent checks in compliance with the 2014 Act.

We are looking at options for a further evaluation of the operation of the scheme. As part of this, we will look to develop further mechanisms to monitor the operation of the Scheme to provide ongoing assurance about its impact.

The Home Secretary has written to the independent adviser on lessons learned from Windrush, Wendy Williams, to draw her attention to the High Court’s findings.

The Right to Rent Consultative Panel will meet again next month to look at the operation of the Scheme and the guidance provided to landlords and lettings agents.