Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to improve the (a) HR and (b) strategy support provided by her Department to SMEs to help take on apprentices.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is continuing to cut red tape and simplify the apprenticeships system so that employers, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), can focus on supporting apprentices.
The government has already introduced a range of system improvements in response to employer and learner needs, including a more streamlined and timely approach to apprenticeship assessment that is being rolled out. The department has also redesigned the digital apprenticeship service to make access to apprenticeships a one-click process. This reduces the time employers have to spend entering information and approving digital apprentice records, removing significant administrative burdens on SMEs.
The department is also improving the apprenticeships payments system to reduce the actions required by employers. From August 2025, we will allow training providers to add new apprenticeships on the apprenticeship service. Employers will still have ownership and need to approve all new apprenticeships added.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of schools reported finding students in possession of illegal drugs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect such information centrally.
The Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance emphasises the importance of the school’s duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils. Searching can play a critical role in ensuring that schools are safe environments. Authorised members of school staff have the statutory power to search a pupil when they have reasonable grounds to suspect them to be in possession of prohibited items, such as illegal drugs. At all times, schools must ensure they continue to adhere to their statutory safeguarding duties as outlined in the Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance documents.
The relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance states that, in both primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including drug-taking. To support schools to deliver this content, the department has published a suite of teacher training modules, including one on drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on the Mainstream Schools Review; and when she expects to announce the outcome.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The review has focused on ensuring that government funding is targeted where it is most needed. In the past, a significant proportion of spending on free schools has created surplus capacity, resulting in subsequent closure of new schools. Some of that funding could have been put to better use by improving the deteriorating condition of our existing schools and colleges.
The department understands that trusts and local authorities want to have certainty about their projects as soon as possible. We will provide an update on next steps to trusts and local authorities in due course.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more young people to undertake vocational training to become (a) plumbers and (b) electricians.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department continues to make available education and training opportunities in electrical and plumbing sectors, including:
The department continues to raise awareness amongst young people of the vocational training that is available. Secondary schools have legal requirements to provide independent careers guidance, including at least six opportunities for providers of technical education or apprenticeships to speak to all pupils. Our government-funded network of Careers Hubs, coordinated by the Careers and Enterprise Company, supports schools and colleges to maximise these opportunities.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of drop-outs from vocational courses; and what steps she is taking to increase course completion rates.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department's Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) include official statistics on levels of achievement for a range of qualifications, including vocational learning. Latest published statistics show overall achievement rates within the 19+ education and training cohort have increased from 86.8% in 2022/23 to 87.4% in 2023/24, an increase of 0.6 percentage points. Compared with 2021/22, they are up by 1.2 percentage points. Links to QAR data from current and previous years is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/introduction-to-qualification-achievement-rates-qars.
Retention rates are also improving at ages 16 to 18. The retained and assessed rate for students who finished their T Level across 16 subjects in summer 2024 was up five percentage points from the previous year in over 10 subjects. The rate for large Vocational Technical Qualifications was up three percentage points. Further details on provisional T Level results for the 2023/24 academic year are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/provisional-t-level-results/2023-24.
Alongside T Levels, the department continues to develop and improve qualifications to ensure that they meet the needs of learners. Newly reformed qualifications will become available for delivery at levels 2 and 3 at the start of the next academic year, and we are in the process of approving new level 3 qualifications for delivery from August 2026. These are high-quality, aligned to occupational standards in technical routes, and offer learners clear routes to higher education or skilled employment.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the updated school food standards will include measures to increase the intake of UK-grown (a) fruit, (b) vegetables and (c) pulses in school meals.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is engaging with stakeholders on revising the School Food Standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history. The current Standards state one or more portions of vegetables as an accompaniment and one or more portions of fruit must be provided every day and at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. Schools are responsible for their school meals service and how and where they choose to buy their produce. Schools can voluntarily follow the government buying standards.
Additionally, the National Procurement Policy Statement, published in February 2025, underscores the government's commitment to increasing the procurement of food that meets higher environmental standards and upholding ethical sourcing practises across public sector contracts, which we believe our high quality British producers are well-placed to meet.
Alongside this, the department’s Food Strategy will deliver clear long-term outcomes that create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system, boosting food security, improving health, ensuring economic growth, and delivering environmental sustainability.
As with all aspects of the School Food Standards review, the department will consider our approaches to procurement of UK-grown produce.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure bachelors degree courses represent value for money.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Students and the taxpayer rightly expect a good return on their significant investment in higher education (HE). However, the Student Academic Experience Survey report 2025, published this month by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE, shows that only 37% of students think they are getting ‘good’ or ‘very good’ value for money.
Value for money is also about ensuring graduates contribute to the economy and society through the skills they acquire, and we know from the September 2024 report from Skills England, ‘Driving Growth and Widening Opportunities’, that many of England’s businesses are dependent on graduate skills. Yet the latest release of the Graduate Labour Market Statistics shows that only 67.9% of working age graduates are in high skilled employment.
This government is determined to change this and to ensure that our HE system delivers value for money. Sir David Behan’s Independent Review of the Office for Students (OfS) recommended that the OfS refocus its work on four key priorities: the quality of HE, the financial sustainability of HE providers, acting in the student interest, and protecting how public money is spent. The government has accepted the Review’s recommendations and will continue to work with the OfS to hold providers to account for the quality of students’ experiences and the outcomes they achieve.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Oxford (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will carry out an impact assessment of the adoption and special guardianship support fund changes; and if so, when they will publish that impact assessment.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The new criteria for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund will enable as many children and families as possible to access the available funding. The department always assesses the impact of changes on vulnerable children. This includes reviewing the equalities impact assessment, which will be made available in the House Libraries in due course.
The department routinely monitors data on adoptive and kinship placement disruption, as well as on adopter recruitment. The department is working closely with Adoption England to improve its monitoring of placement disruption and is funding them to deliver specific projects designed to improve adopter recruitment and family support.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of risk assessments for Students' Union activities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Camborne and Redruth to the answer of 13 June 2025 to Question 57705.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the contribution of (a) Bournemouth University, (b) Health Sciences University and (c) other higher education institutions in tackling skills gaps in the Dorset economy.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Dorset Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), led by Dorset Chamber, identified specific skills needs across the following key sectors: health and social care, advanced manufacturing and engineering, defence and marine; construction; digital technology and creative; agriculture, agricultural biotechnology and aquaculture. It also identified cross-cutting skills needed by employers in all sectors of the local economy.
Higher education providers in the area are engaging in the LSIP process and responding to the area’s identified needs in a number of ways, including by establishing new provision. As set out in the recently published LSIP Progress Report, Bournemouth University is creating five new degree apprenticeships in identified skills needs in digital marketing, accounting finance management, biomedical science, social work and midwifery to begin in September 2025. The Health Sciences University is developing four new level six apprenticeships in the areas of diagnostic radiographer, occupational therapist, podiatrist and speech and language therapist.
The government wants higher education providers across the country to be fully engaged in the LSIP process and in meeting local skills needs. The updated LSIP statutory guidance, which is due for publication this autumn, will encourage designated employer representative bodies leading LSIPs to work closely with the higher education providers in their area to agree the different ways in which they can engage and support the development of the LSIP and delivery of the priorities identified within it.