News

Five Conservative MPs, five Labour MPs and one Scottish National Party MP will serve alongside chair Robert Halfon, the former Skills Minister, on the new Education Committee, it has been announced. The Education Committee is responsible for holding the Government and  regulators, such as Ofsted and Ofqual, to account in areas including policy and spending.

Throughout the years the Education Committee has held inquiries into a number of education areas, such as multi-academy trusts, regional commissioners, primary testing, school funding and the supply of teachers.

Representations by SCHOOLS NorthEast on behalf of schools in the region have been repeatedly quoted by members of the Committee in evidence sessions on funding and exam board performance.

Labour was the first party to announce which of their MPs would sit on the committee, having announced before the summer that former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell would join longstanding committee member and Gateshead MP Ian Mearns and new members Emma Hardy, Thelma Walker and James Frith.

The Conservatives, however, took longer than the other parties to announce their Education Committee members, with some critics suggesting that this was a move to hold up the committees work.

Conservatives Lucy Allan, Michele Donelan and former teacher William Wragg, who served on the last committee, will return to the fold in this parliamentary session.

They are joined by Trudy Harrison, the Conservative MP for Copeland.

Marion Fellows, the committee’s sole SNP MP in the last session, will also serve again.

Education committee membership – full list

Chair – Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, former skills minister

Lucy Allan, Conservative MP for Telford, former committee member

Michele Donelan, Conservative MP for Chippenham, former committee member

Marion Fellows, SNP MP for Motherwell and Wishaw, former committee member

James Frith, Labour MP for Bury North

Emma Hardy, Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle, former teacher, NUT activist and Schools Week contributor

Trudy Harrison, Conservative MP for Copeland

Ian Mearns, Labour MP for Gateshead, former committee member

Lucy Powell, Labour MP for Manchester Central, former shadow education secretary

Thelma Walker, Labour MP for Colne Valley, former Head Teacher

William Wragg, Conservative MP for Hazel Grove, former teacher