Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to local authorities of the provisions in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill on visiting home educated children, including travel time.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will empower local authorities to request to see a child in any of the homes in which the child lives within 15 days of the local authority recording the child’s home address(es) on their Children Not in School (CNIS) registers. The 15-day timeframe applies, irrespective of school holidays. After this point, the Bill also empowers local authorities to request a home visit for the purpose of determining whether to serve a preliminary notice or School Attendance Order (SAO).
If the parent on whom the request was made refuses the home visit, the local authority must take this into account when deciding whether to issue a preliminary notice or a SAO. As is the case now, parents of children subject to a SAO would only be subject to sanctions, such as fines, if found guilty in court of the offence of breaching the order. Parents may be found guilty if they do not enrol their child at the named school and are unable to demonstrate that they are providing a suitable education for their child and/or, where relevant, that education outside of a school is in their child’s best interests.
The department does not currently collect data on the number of home visits carried out by local authorities in relation to home educated children, nor on the living arrangements or family dynamics of those children.
However, we will provide local authorities with additional funding to support them to carry out their new duties. The amount of funding will be determined via a new burdens assessment.
We will also provide statutory guidance, which will be publicly consulted on, and a training package to support parents and local authorities to understand how the CNIS measures should work in practice, including how the measures apply in situations where children live across more than one household.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the resident parent will be subject to sanctions if the non-resident parent refuses a visit request under provisions in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill for local authorities to visit home educated children at more than one home.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will empower local authorities to request to see a child in any of the homes in which the child lives within 15 days of the local authority recording the child’s home address(es) on their Children Not in School (CNIS) registers. The 15-day timeframe applies, irrespective of school holidays. After this point, the Bill also empowers local authorities to request a home visit for the purpose of determining whether to serve a preliminary notice or School Attendance Order (SAO).
If the parent on whom the request was made refuses the home visit, the local authority must take this into account when deciding whether to issue a preliminary notice or a SAO. As is the case now, parents of children subject to a SAO would only be subject to sanctions, such as fines, if found guilty in court of the offence of breaching the order. Parents may be found guilty if they do not enrol their child at the named school and are unable to demonstrate that they are providing a suitable education for their child and/or, where relevant, that education outside of a school is in their child’s best interests.
The department does not currently collect data on the number of home visits carried out by local authorities in relation to home educated children, nor on the living arrangements or family dynamics of those children.
However, we will provide local authorities with additional funding to support them to carry out their new duties. The amount of funding will be determined via a new burdens assessment.
We will also provide statutory guidance, which will be publicly consulted on, and a training package to support parents and local authorities to understand how the CNIS measures should work in practice, including how the measures apply in situations where children live across more than one household.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds information on the number of home educated children with separated parents living at different addresses.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will empower local authorities to request to see a child in any of the homes in which the child lives within 15 days of the local authority recording the child’s home address(es) on their Children Not in School (CNIS) registers. The 15-day timeframe applies, irrespective of school holidays. After this point, the Bill also empowers local authorities to request a home visit for the purpose of determining whether to serve a preliminary notice or School Attendance Order (SAO).
If the parent on whom the request was made refuses the home visit, the local authority must take this into account when deciding whether to issue a preliminary notice or a SAO. As is the case now, parents of children subject to a SAO would only be subject to sanctions, such as fines, if found guilty in court of the offence of breaching the order. Parents may be found guilty if they do not enrol their child at the named school and are unable to demonstrate that they are providing a suitable education for their child and/or, where relevant, that education outside of a school is in their child’s best interests.
The department does not currently collect data on the number of home visits carried out by local authorities in relation to home educated children, nor on the living arrangements or family dynamics of those children.
However, we will provide local authorities with additional funding to support them to carry out their new duties. The amount of funding will be determined via a new burdens assessment.
We will also provide statutory guidance, which will be publicly consulted on, and a training package to support parents and local authorities to understand how the CNIS measures should work in practice, including how the measures apply in situations where children live across more than one household.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds information on the number of visits carried out by local authorities to home educated children.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will empower local authorities to request to see a child in any of the homes in which the child lives within 15 days of the local authority recording the child’s home address(es) on their Children Not in School (CNIS) registers. The 15-day timeframe applies, irrespective of school holidays. After this point, the Bill also empowers local authorities to request a home visit for the purpose of determining whether to serve a preliminary notice or School Attendance Order (SAO).
If the parent on whom the request was made refuses the home visit, the local authority must take this into account when deciding whether to issue a preliminary notice or a SAO. As is the case now, parents of children subject to a SAO would only be subject to sanctions, such as fines, if found guilty in court of the offence of breaching the order. Parents may be found guilty if they do not enrol their child at the named school and are unable to demonstrate that they are providing a suitable education for their child and/or, where relevant, that education outside of a school is in their child’s best interests.
The department does not currently collect data on the number of home visits carried out by local authorities in relation to home educated children, nor on the living arrangements or family dynamics of those children.
However, we will provide local authorities with additional funding to support them to carry out their new duties. The amount of funding will be determined via a new burdens assessment.
We will also provide statutory guidance, which will be publicly consulted on, and a training package to support parents and local authorities to understand how the CNIS measures should work in practice, including how the measures apply in situations where children live across more than one household.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for maintenance loans administered by the Student Loans Company for students studying weekend or non-traditional attendance higher education courses; and what steps she is taking to ensure that students who have already commenced such courses and received funding are not required to repay maintenance support following a change in classification of their study mode.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has considered revising student finance regulations so that only the income of a student’s biological or legally responsible parents is taken into account when determining maintenance loan entitlement.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the fairness of including the income of a non-biological step-parent in household income calculations for student finance eligibility.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2025 to Question 77988 on Department for Education: Social Media, how much has been spend on influences in aggregate since 4 July 2024; and on which campaigns and programmes it was spent.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the cost of overpayments by the Student Loans Company to students; the reasons for the overpayments being made; and the cost of the overpayment per reason.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is the cost of (a) overpayments per academic year by the Student Loans Company to students and (b) reclaimed overpayments per academic year by the Student Loans Company since 2000.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.