Peers to probe Ministers on inaction over citizenship education and civic engagement
Tuesday 8 February 2022
Ministers from the Department for Levelling Up, Department for Education and the Home Office are to be questioned by a Lords Select Committee at a public session on Thursday 10 February 2022. They will be probed on inaction over civic engagement and citizenship education, the Life in the UK test and their views on opportunities arising from the Levelling Up Agenda now that the White Paper has been published.
This follows the Lords Citizenship and Civic Engagement Committee’s 2018 report into the state of civic engagement and citizenship education, which called on the government to appoint a Minister to champion a cross-government strategy in that area. They also called for Ofsted to review citizenship education provision after years of poor delivery.
The Ministers will appear at 4pm and will follow a panel of experts including Chris Russell, National Director for Education at Ofsted and Mark Gifford, Chief Executive of the National Citizens Service. Committee members including Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbots, Lord Blunkett, Baroness Barker and Baroness Eaton will also hear views on the current state of citizenship from representatives at Policy Exchange, the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) and charity Young Citizens in a panel starting at 2.10pm.
Chair of the former Committee Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbots said:
“Technological developments in social media, together with tumultuous events in politics, (first with Brexit and then Covid) have undoubtedly increased the strain on the relationship between citizens and the state.
“To prevent that relationship from breaking down, we need to build a strong and confident democracy. This needs to start with citizenship education so that everybody learns about their responsibilities as well as their rights, so they learn what it means to be a citizen of the United Kingdom. The Government have shown signs of commitment to that agenda in the Levelling Up White Paper published last week, however, more needs to be done to follow through on those commitments.
“In 2018, the committee were unanimous in concluding that issues surrounding citizenship should be given much greater sustained emphasis by government, with greater investment and prioritisation for citizenship education. However, our calls for action went largely ignored. We look forward to hearing from Ministers and civil society with their response to our ongoing concerns.”
Witnesses as follows (Please note, there is no access for the public at this time, but the session will be available to live stream)
Panel 1 - 2.10pm
- David Goodhart, Head of Demography, Immigration & Integration, Policy Exchange
- Ashley Hodges, CEO, Young Citizens
- Liz Moorse, Chief Executive, Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT)
Panel 2 - 3pm
- Chris Russell, National Director for Education, Ofsted
- Mark Gifford, Chief Executive, National Citizens Service (NCS)
Panel 3 - 4pm
- Eddie Hughes MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing), Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
- Kevin Foster MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Safe and Legal Migration) Home Office
- Robin Walker MP, Minister of State for School Standards, Department for Education
