Asked by: Claire Young (Liberal Democrat - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on the use of prosecutions for school non-attendance in cases where a pupil’s absence is related to special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises that pupils with additional needs, such as special educational needs and disabilities, may face more complex barriers to school attendance, and our statutory guidance is clear that schools should take a sensitive, “support first” approach to supporting their attendance. The ’Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance emphasises that schools and local authorities should be working with children and their families to remove any barriers to attendance and building strong and trusting relationships. It makes clear that legal intervention should only be considered when support has been exhausted, not engaged with, or in the cases such as term time holidays, not appropriate.
While some pupils may face additional challenges, we expect schools to have the same attendance ambitions for all pupils, and to put support in place where required.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of further and higher education funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has increased investment in 16-19 education by £400 million in the 2025/26 financial year. From the Spending Review, we will invest nearly £800 million extra in 2026/27, including and fully consolidating the £190 million boost to 2025/26 funding provided in May.
The department is investing in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), spending £1.4 billion in the 2025/26 academic year. The ASF fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.
To support long‑term stability in higher education, the department is increasing maximum tuition fees in line with inflation, by 2.71% in 2026/27 and 2.68% in 2027/28, in addition to the 3.1% increase delivered for the current academic year. The government provides £1.31 billion in Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) funding for the 2025/26 academic year to support teaching, high‑cost subjects and disadvantaged students, and we are working with the Office for Students to reform the SPG to better target priority skills needs and access and participation.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration she has given to linking Plan 2 student loan interest rates to inflation only.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Plan 2 student loans were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.
Plan 2 loans interest rates are applied at the Retail Price Index (RPI) only, then variable up to RPI +3% depending on earnings. Interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by student loan borrowers, which stay at a constant rate of 9% above an earnings threshold to protect lower earners. If a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same. Any outstanding loan and interest is written off at the end of the loan term, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.
Asked by: Claire Young (Liberal Democrat - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of parents who have been prosecuted for their child's non-attendance at school have a child that has (a) Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and (b) special educational needs and does not have a EHCP in each quarter of the last five years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Data for prosecution of offences in England, including offences for non-attendance, is collected by the Ministry of Justice. The Department for Education does not collect data on the protected characteristics of the children of individuals who have been prosecuted for an offence related to their child’s non-attendance at school.
Nevertheless, we recognise that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities may face more complex barriers to school attendance and guidance requires schools to take a ’support first’ approach to tackling non-attendance for these pupils.
Our guidance makes clear that legal intervention, including prosecution, should only be considered where support has been exhausted, not engaged with or, in the cases of term-time holidays, not appropriate. We expect schools to work with these children and their families to remove any barriers to attendance and building strong and trusting relationships.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to include one or more representatives of providers of home-to-school transport for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities on the SEND Ministerial Development Group.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) ministerial development group brings together voices from across the SEND sector. This group considers a range of perspectives and tests potential solutions to the key challenges the SEND system faces to ensure that policy proposals are informed by the knowledge and experiences of children, their families and those working in the system.
Additional participants are invited on a rolling basis according to the topics under discussion. This approach allows the group to include expertise relevant to specific areas as appropriate.
Outside of the group, the department already holds bi-monthly forums to which all local authority home to school travel teams are invited to enable to them to share best practice and so that we understand the challenges they face.
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 potential impact of Plan 2 student loan repayments and interest rates on graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Plan 2 student loans were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.
Plan 2 loans interest rates are applied at the Retail Price Index (RPI) only, then variable up to RPI +3% depending on earnings. Interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by student loan borrowers, which stay at a constant rate of 9% above an earnings threshold to protect lower earners. If a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same. Any outstanding loan and interest is written off at the end of the loan term, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.
Asked by: Calum Miller (Liberal Democrat - Bicester and Woodstock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of freezing student loan repayment thresholds and interest rates from 2027 on the total amount repaid over the lifetime of a loan, broken down by graduate income decile.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It was announced at the Autumn Budget that the repayment and interest thresholds for Plan 2 student loans will be frozen from the 2026/27 financial year until April 2030, when they will increase annually by inflation.
The department produced the following analysis regarding the impact of freezing the repayment and interest thresholds:
Average lifetime repayments (2024/25 financial year prices) | |||||
Baseline (£) | Post- policy (£) | Impact | |||
£ | % | ||||
Entire cohort | 27,000 | 28,300 | 1,300 | 5 | |
Average | |||||
Lifetime graduate earnings decile | 1 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 4,300 | 4,700 | 400 | 9 | |
3 | 7,700 | 8,100 | 400 | 5 | |
4 | 11,600 | 13,000 | 1,400 | 12 | |
5 | 16,900 | 18,500 | 1,600 | 9 | |
6 | 23,100 | 25,200 | 2,100 | 9 | |
7 | 31,300 | 33,600 | 2,300 | 7 | |
8 | 41,200 | 43,500 | 2,300 | 6 | |
9 | 54,500 | 56,100 | 1,600 | 3 | |
10 | 59,100 | 59,500 | 400 | 1 | |
No freeze has been announced relating to interest rates.
The department will release an equalities impact assessment, including the impact on lifetime repayments, alongside other borrower impacts for the Plan 2 repayment threshold and interest threshold freeze announced at the Autumn Budget. Published results may differ from those provided due to model and data updates.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people started apprenticeships who were aged a) 16, b) 17, c) 18, d) 19, e) 20, f) 21, g) 22, h) 23, i) 24 in each year since 2017-18.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeship starts in England for the individual ages requested are available in the accompanying file.
Further information on apprenticeship starts can be found in the department’s apprenticeships statistics publication, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will give an update on her progress of appointment of an expert advisory group for the development of CCTV guidance for the early years sector.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The ‘Early years foundation stage’ statutory framework requires early years providers to have safeguarding policies that address the use of mobile phones, cameras, and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities. Decisions about installing and using CCTV are for individual providers, subject to safeguarding and data protection requirements.
As part of the department’s ongoing review of safeguarding requirements in early years settings, an expert advisory panel will be appointed to inform sector guidance on the safe and effective use of digital devices and CCTV within safeguarding. This guidance will consider whether CCTV should be mandated and will set out best practice, technical advice and clear expectations.
The department is working at pace to establish the expert advisory panel and ensure we have the most suitable experts and groups represented to ensure that the guidance is high quality and evidence informed. We will provide more details in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues to local Government on safeguarding procedures for drivers transporting pupils to and from school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home-to-school travel for eligible children. The department publishes statutory guidance to assist local authorities in meeting their duties.
The statutory guidance makes clear that local authorities must ensure the arrangements they make are suitable for the needs of the children concerned. They should ensure drivers and passenger assistants have undergone an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check with a check of the children’s barred list, and that they have received training in safeguarding and any other training they need to meet the specific needs of the children travelling.
In addition, health and safety law requires local authorities to assess risk and put in place reasonably practicable control measures to protect their employers and others, including the children for whom they arrange travel, from harm.