Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has considered including sun-safety lessons in the national curriculum.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 23 October 2025 to Question 81731.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has considered providing sun-safety education in schools.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 23 October 2025 to Question 81731.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending ring-fenced support for (a) nutritious meals and (b) food education to all early years settings.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. Our landmark Child Poverty Strategy tackles the root causes of poverty by cutting the cost of essentials, boosting family incomes and improving local services so that every child can have the best start in life.

Removing the two-child limit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures, such as expanding free school meals to all children in households receiving Universal Credit from September 2026.

This will deliver the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began and will also apply to children in school-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools.

Under the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, any meals, snacks and drinks provided must be healthy, balanced and nutritious. The department has published new EYFS nutrition guidance, and the ‘Help for early years providers’ website offers resources on food activities and sensory food education. The EYFS guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6839b752210698b3364e86fc/Early_years_foundation_stage_nutrition_guidance.pdf.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what processes are in place to ensure accountability and transparency when GCSE examination scripts are lost by exam boards.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sir Ian Bauckham, to write to my hon. Friend, the Member for Worthing West and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many incidents of lost exam scripts have been reported to the Department and Ofqual in each of the last two academic years.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sir Ian Bauckham, to write to my hon. Friend, the Member for Worthing West and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a new right to kinship care leave.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government has launched a review of the parental leave system, which represents a much-needed opportunity to consider the department’s approach to the system of parental leave and pay. This will consider whether the support available meets the needs of working families, such as kinship carers.

In 2023, the department published ‘Kinship Carers in the Workplace: Guidance for Employers’, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/kinship-carers-in-the-workplace-guidance-for-employers. This sets out best practice for supporting kinship carers at work, including how to adapt internal policies, signpost existing entitlements and create a culture of support to meet the needs of kinship carers. The department has since implemented our own Kinship Leave and Pay offer and we encourage all organisations to review their guidance and explore what changes they can make.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Act 2025 – Report on exercise of the Secretary of State’s functions, published on 27 November, what the role of Ofqual will be in the development of V levels, and what transitional arrangements they have made to maintain level 3 options for 16 to 19 year olds prior to the introduction of the new qualifications.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Ofqual will set the design rules for V Level structure, assessment and grading which each V Level must meet. In addition to the General Conditions of Recognition, these V Level specific conditions will be used to regulate awarding organisations’ design and delivery of every V Level, in the same way that each A level is regulated.

Ofqual will consider the regulatory approach that best meets the policy intent for V Levels and will consult on their plans in due course.

The department will work with Ofqual and awarding organisations on the approach to development and roll-out to ensure providers have as much time as possible to prepare for the delivery of V Levels.

In our consultation, we outlined plans to transition to V Levels while maintaining Level 3 options for 16 to19-year-olds. The government response will confirm the route order, implementation timetable, and priority subjects for first teaching in 2027.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they intend to take in response to the estimate published by the BBC that during the last five years the adoption arrangements of more than 1,000 children have resulted in those children being returned to local authority care.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Providing support for families at an earlier stage, before needs escalate to crisis point, is critical and we are working with Adoption England to achieve this.

Adoption England are working with their local authority partner safeguarding teams to improve the support adopted families receive when they are in crisis. This includes developing a national protocol which can be used for all adoption support services teams in regional adoption agencies and local authority front door safeguarding services.

We have provided funding of £8.8 million to Adoption England to improve adoption services, including support to adoptive families This includes implementing a new framework for an early support core offer which covers the first 12 to 18 months after placement.

This financial year the department has also invested £50 million into the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund to ensure that adopted children can access therapeutic services which help stabilise placements and address complex needs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of young people who have been off-rolled by schools and colleges while awaiting Education, Health and Care Plans in England.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department does not hold data on the number of children or young people who have been off-rolled while waiting for an education, health and care plan assessment.

This government is clear that off-rolling in any form is unacceptable, and we will continue to work closely with Ofsted to tackle it.

Pupils may leave a school roll for many reasons, including permanent exclusion, transfer to another school, or change of circumstances. All schools are legally required to notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is removed from the admissions register.

The law is clear that a pupil’s name can only be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in Regulation 9 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024.

Our ambition is that all children with special educational needs (SEN) receive the right support to succeed. We are committed to strengthening the accountability system and to providing earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with SEN.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will set out the reasons for the reduction in the Fair Access Limit for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund from £5,000 to £3,000 from April 2025; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of this reduction on the provision of therapeutic support for adoptive families and special guardians.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The new criteria for the adoption and special guardianship support fund will enable as many children and families as possible to access support. So far this year, nearly 14,000 applications have been approved. The department continues to monitor and assess the impact of the changes and is engaging with stakeholders.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of early years SEND support capacity in North East Lincolnshire; and what support her Department is providing to ensure early identification and intervention for children aged under five.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We aim to set up every child, in every local authority, to have the best start in life and this includes delivering access to high quality early education and childcare for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

On 7 July, we published our commitment to Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life. This means a stronger focus on early identification, inclusive access to early years education, and tailored family support. We also will increase the funding available to early years providers to support children with SEND.

On 4 December, we announced access to early SEND support across the country through Best Start Family Hubs. In every local authority next year, councils are being tasked with recruiting a dedicated SEND practitioner for every Hub to provide direct, family-facing support. The new offer will help parents understand their child’s development, identify emerging needs sooner, and support vital join-up between early years settings, health visitors and SEND teams.

We have also invested in the Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) programme, and the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) supporting children in the early years with their speech and language.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the price of school uniforms.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The cost of school uniform, particularly of branded items, remains a key concern for parents. Parentkind recently found that more than a quarter of parents will go without heating or eating to be able to afford school uniform. Whilst uniforms play a valuable role in creating a sense of common identity among pupils and reducing visible inequalities, too many schools still require high numbers of branded uniform items despite statutory guidance stating branded items should be kept to a minimum.

This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require, to bring down costs and remove barriers to accessing sport and other school activities. This will allow parents greater flexibility to make spending decisions that suit them. The department intends to introduce this limit from September 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of local authority compliance with the national legislation establishing the threshold of (a) 10 sessions of unauthorised absence and (b) a rolling 10-school-week period for issuing fixed penalty notices.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The National Framework for Penalty Notices, which was designed to embed our support-first approach and improve consistency and fairness across the country, was introduced in August 2024.

Every local authority must draw up, and is expected to publish, a local code of conduct, which must be adhered to by all parties issuing a penalty notice. Amongst other things, each code is expected to include details of the national threshold and local arrangements for determining if the support provided has been sufficient. Further details are listed in paragraph 197 of our statutory attendance guidance, which is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf#page=60.

Local authorities are also expected to supply details related to the use of penalty notices in their area as part of the parental responsibility measures census, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/parental-responsibility-measures-statistics-guide.

Data is collected annually for the previous academic year. The department expects the first set of data related to after the introduction of the National Framework to be published in January 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of pupils suspended or sent home for not wearing the required school uniform and (b) lost school days as a result for the most recent year the data is available.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department does not hold the requested information. While statistics on suspension are collected by reason category, ‘not wearing the required school uniform’ is not included as a separate category.

The department publishes data on suspensions and permanent exclusions in state-funded schools in England. The most recent full academic year release, covering 2023/24, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england/2023-24. This has been available since 10 July 2025.

The department’s position is clear that it is for the headteacher to determine how to address breaches of the school’s uniform and appearance, in line with the school’s behaviour policy. We expect schools to respond to non-compliance, such as uniform breaches in a proportionate and fair way. Where a school imposes a sanction such as a suspension the formal exclusion process must be followed.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support is available to schools to tackle the challenges faced by pupils living in poverty, including access to (a) free school meals, (b) mental health services and (c) after-school programmes in the North East.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

​​We are supporting schools to tackle the challenges faced by pupils in poverty. As part of this support, schools will receive pupil premium funding worth over £3 billion in the 2025/26 financial year to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils.

​

​The removal of the two-child limit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures announced this year, including the expansion of free school meals, which will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament and put £500 back in families’ pockets. Further, we are delivering on our pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children.

​

​We are also providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams (MHSTs). As of April 2025, 57% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in the North East region were covered by an MHST.

​

​The department will also publish an Enrichment Framework, providing advice for schools on delivering a high-quality enrichment offer, including extra-curricular activities after school.

​

​Since September 2024, the department has invested over £180 million in the National Wraparound Programme, which has created over 50,000 additional childcare places.

​

​Support with costs for wraparound childcare is also available for eligible parents through the Tax-Free Childcare and the childcare element of Universal Credit.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children who are attending the early adopters breakfast clubs.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The free breakfast clubs early adopter phase has been a huge success, with data showing that over 5 million breakfasts have been served so far. We continue to receive excellent feedback from schools, parents and pupils on the positive impact that the free breakfast clubs are already having. For example, schools are reporting improved punctuality, attendance and behaviour.

We want every school, every child, and every family to have the chance of those benefits and that is why we’re committed to rolling out free breakfast clubs in every school with primary age children in England.

Following the success of the early adopter phase, we are investing a further £80 million into the programme to onboard approximately 2000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around 500,000 thousand more children.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of early language intervention on educational outcomes for deaf children.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Every child deserves the best start in life, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Early language skills at age five strongly predict future academic success, and timely access to specialist support is critical.

From April 2026, funding for home learning environment and parenting support within Best Start Family Hubs will focus on evidence-based interventions for 3-4-year-olds, including Auditory Verbal Therapy, for children who are deaf or use hearing technology.

The department funds proven programmes like the Nuffield Early Language Intervention which improves oral language and literacy. Independent evaluation found children made four months’ additional progress, rising to seven months for those eligible for free school meals. Whilst not a substitute for specialist therapy, many children benefit from such interventions, including some deaf children. We have also updated the early years foundation stage profile handbook, ensuring children can use their preferred mode of communication, such as signing, across all early learning goals.

Alongside this, the Early Language Support for Every Child programme trials new approaches to identify and support speech, language, and communication needs, with evaluation due autumn 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the proportion of food served in state schools in England that is sourced from British (a) farms and (b) other food producers.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Schools are responsible for their school meals service and how and where they choose to buy their produce. We encourage schools to provide a wide range of foods using fresh, sustainable locally sourced, seasonal ingredients including produce from the school vegetable garden where possible.

Alongside this, we encourage schools to follow the Government Buying Standard for food and catering, which includes advice around procurement and sustainable sourcing of produce.

We aim to revise the School Food Standards and are engaging with stakeholders to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history and will be consulting publicly in due course. As part of this work, we will review our guidance on sourcing good quality produce.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with relevant stakeholders on the inclusion of targets for child poverty reduction in Hexham constituency within the forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

Our recently published landmark Child Poverty Strategy is set to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030.

The publication sets out how we intend to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the Strategy, including understanding how this varies across the UK and for different groups. The publication also sets out how we will measure the experience of children in the most severe and acute forms of poverty.

The Child Poverty Taskforce and Unit engaged extensively with stakeholders in the North East throughout the development of the Strategy. This includes engagement with the North East Poverty Commission and attendance at the North East Child Poverty Summit. Furthermore, Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East Combined Authority, attended a Taskforce meeting in September 2024 to discuss the experience of poverty in local communities and approaches to tackling child poverty.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with relevant stakeholders on the inclusion of targets for child poverty reduction in the Northumberland within the forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

Our recently published landmark Child Poverty Strategy is set to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030.

The publication sets out how we intend to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the Strategy, including understanding how this varies across the UK and for different groups. The publication also sets out how we will measure the experience of children in the most severe and acute forms of poverty.

The Child Poverty Taskforce and Unit engaged extensively with stakeholders in the North East throughout the development of the Strategy. This includes engagement with the North East Poverty Commission and attendance at the North East Child Poverty Summit. Furthermore, Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East Combined Authority, attended a Taskforce meeting in September 2024 to discuss the experience of poverty in local communities and approaches to tackling child poverty.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with relevant stakeholders on the inclusion of targets for child poverty reduction in the North East within the forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

Our recently published landmark Child Poverty Strategy is set to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030.

The publication sets out how we intend to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the Strategy, including understanding how this varies across the UK and for different groups. The publication also sets out how we will measure the experience of children in the most severe and acute forms of poverty.

The Child Poverty Taskforce and Unit engaged extensively with stakeholders in the North East throughout the development of the Strategy. This includes engagement with the North East Poverty Commission and attendance at the North East Child Poverty Summit. Furthermore, Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East Combined Authority, attended a Taskforce meeting in September 2024 to discuss the experience of poverty in local communities and approaches to tackling child poverty.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment she has made of disparities in AI training and support between (a) state and private schools, and (b) high-performing and underperforming schools; and what steps she is taking to address these inequalities.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department does not publish comparative assessments of artificial intelligence (AI) training between school types, but we monitor sector capability through the Technology in Schools Survey, which informs our programmes. Earlier this year we published online support materials to help teachers and leaders use AI safely and effectively, developed with sector experts. Our approach benefits all schools and reduces disparities in access and capability.

Following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report on 5 November, we will update the national curriculum to prepare young people for life and work in a changing world. Refreshed programmes of study will include AI, including issues like bias, in addition to digital and media literacy.

To ensure consistency, we are legislating so that academies will be required to teach the refreshed national curriculum alongside maintained schools. Content will be shaped through expert engagement, with a public consultation on draft proposals next year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to make education more inclusive of disabled children in Surrey Heath constituency.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

We want to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting all children and young people in every part of the country to achieve and thrive in education, through early identification of need, access to the right support at the right time, high quality adaptive teaching and effective allocation of resources.

On 12 December, the government announced a £3 billion investment to deliver around 50,000 specialist places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The funding will be distributed to local authorities for them to spend on new places in mainstream settings (including SEN units), on adaptations to mainstream settings to make them more inclusive, or on special schools where required. This investment will help to make education inclusive by design, so every child, in every corner of the country can have their needs met where they live.

We will bring forward our full vision for an inclusive education system in the Schools White Paper in the new year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in her Department in the last year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

For the last financial year, the total cost to the department of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in annual report and accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide advice and support for headteachers to transition to a smartphone free school.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Mobile phones have no place in schools.

The department’s guidance on mobile phones in schools, published in February 2024, is clear that schools should prohibit the use of devices with smart technology throughout the school day, including during lessons, transitions and breaks.

Alongside the guidance, the department has published a series of case studies showcasing good practice to support schools in prohibiting the use of mobile phones.

Schools also have access to a toolkit on communicating their policy with parents. This provides practical guidance to help schools gain parental support for their mobile phone policies.

Research from the Children’s Commissioner published in April 2025, with responses from nearly all schools and colleges in England, shows that the overwhelming majority of schools already have policies in place that limit or restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of early interventions in speech and language support.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The potential merits of focusing on early intervention in providing speech and language support are clear. That is why we have invested in the Early Language Support for Every Child programme, and the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, both of which support children with their speech and language.

We are funding Family Hubs to train practitioners to support families with the home learning environment to help parents support children’s speech and communication.

We will fund local early language leads to provide training to early years settings. Reception staff will also be able to access early language and literacy support.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling voluntary controlled schools to apply for urgent capital support funding.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.

The majority of capital funding for improving the school estate is provided through annual School Condition Allocations for large responsible bodies, such as local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies, to decide how to invest based on local knowledge of need. Small or stand-alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges instead bid for funding through the Condition Improvement Fund. The amount of funding available through each route is calculated using the same funding methodology.

In 2025/26, Norfolk Council were allocated almost £5.5 million to invest across its maintained schools, including voluntary controlled schools in South Norfolk constituency.

In addition, the government is investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme from 2025/26 through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding with a further 250 schools to be selected within two years.

The department provides additional advice and support on a case-by-case basis, where there are urgent safety issues with a building that cannot be managed independently by bodies responsible for school buildings.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling voluntary controlled schools to apply for the condition improvement fund.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.

The majority of capital funding for improving the school estate is provided through annual School Condition Allocations for large responsible bodies, such as local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies, to decide how to invest based on local knowledge of need. Small or stand-alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges instead bid for funding through the Condition Improvement Fund. The amount of funding available through each route is calculated using the same funding methodology.

In 2025/26, Norfolk Council were allocated almost £5.5 million to invest across its maintained schools, including voluntary controlled schools in South Norfolk constituency.

In addition, the government is investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme from 2025/26 through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding with a further 250 schools to be selected within two years.

The department provides additional advice and support on a case-by-case basis, where there are urgent safety issues with a building that cannot be managed independently by bodies responsible for school buildings.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support school condition allocations-funded schools with urgent school estate upgrades.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.

The majority of capital funding for improving the school estate is provided through annual School Condition Allocations for large responsible bodies, such as local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies, to decide how to invest based on local knowledge of need. Small or stand-alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges instead bid for funding through the Condition Improvement Fund. The amount of funding available through each route is calculated using the same funding methodology.

In 2025/26, Norfolk Council were allocated almost £5.5 million to invest across its maintained schools, including voluntary controlled schools in South Norfolk constituency.

In addition, the government is investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme from 2025/26 through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding with a further 250 schools to be selected within two years.

The department provides additional advice and support on a case-by-case basis, where there are urgent safety issues with a building that cannot be managed independently by bodies responsible for school buildings.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to adoptive families when attempting to return a child to care.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Returning a child to care should only ever be a last resort. We recognise the significant emotional and practical strain adoptive parents can face, particularly when managing complex needs and trauma. Our priority is to keep families together wherever possible by providing timely tailored support for parents in crisis.

We are investing £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund this year to provide therapeutic services to support children with complex needs to help prevent families reaching crisis. In addition, we have provided Adoption England with £8.8 million so that families can access high quality support provision at all stages of their adoption journey.

When a child must return to care, adoption agencies should maintain a non-judgemental approach and remain actively involved to ensure the process is handled with sensitivity and support. This includes working closely with the adoptive parents to understand the circumstances, providing emotional and practical assistance, and facilitating access to therapeutic services when appropriate.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will establish a cross-government protocol with the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care setting out roles, referral routes and timescales between schools, police forces and health services when responding to allegations of child-on-child sexual abuse.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is taking the strongest action to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. This includes setting up a new national inquiry, with which government departments will cooperate fully, to ensure we are tackling this vile crime and supporting victims and survivors.

Working Together is the national multi-agency statutory guidance for all practitioners working with children and their families. Local safeguarding partners (local authorities, police and health) already have a statutory duty to set out in their threshold document and local protocols the process for referrals, assessments, support and services for children who need help or protection. This guidance underpins Ofsted’s Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services framework.

We are also delivering the biggest reform to children’s social care in a generation, investing £2.4 billion in the Families First Partnership programme, introducing multi-agency child protection teams through our landmark Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill and establishing a national Child Protection Authority.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department monitors local authority compliance with their duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide suitable education without delay for children who are out of school following incidents of child-on-child sexual abuse; and whether she plans to introduce statutory timescales for such provision.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, local authorities must arrange suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, would not otherwise receive it. This education should be full-time, or as close to full-time as is appropriate for the child’s needs.

Ofsted monitors local authorities’ arrangements for the sufficiency and commissioning of alternative provision through Area special educational needs and disabilities inspections.

The department also issues statutory guidance on planning and commissioning alternative provision, which sets out principles for timely, safe, and high quality education. The guidance was last updated in January 2025 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alternative-provision.

The government is committed to an inclusive education system that identifies additional needs early and delivers the right support at the right time, helping children remain in and succeed within mainstream education wherever possible.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support adoptive families from being subject to legal action when attempting to return a child to care.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department knows that some adoptive families do not get the support they need when in crisis. Rather than being supported, they experience blame and criticism of their parenting approach.

Adoption England are working with their local authority partner safeguarding teams to improve the support families receive when they are in crisis. The aim of this work is to develop a national protocol which can be used for all adoption support service teams and local authority front door safeguarding services. This will help ensure that parents are supported when they need it most.

We are also investing £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund this year to provide therapeutic services to support children with complex needs to help prevent families reaching crisis, and £8.8 million into Adoption England so that families can access high quality support provision at all stages of their adoption journey.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support small village primary schools with low pupil numbers to remain financially stable.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises the essential role that small schools play in their communities, many of which are in rural areas. The schools national funding formula (NFF) accounts for challenges faced by small schools in rural areas through the lump sum and sparsity factor.

In the 2026/27 financial year, the sparsity factor provides eligible primary schools up to £58,600, and all other eligible schools up to £85,200. This funding recognises that some schools are necessarily small because they are remote and do not have the same opportunities to grow or make efficiency savings as other schools.

In addition to the sparsity factor, all small schools will benefit from the increase to core factors in the NFF in 2026/27, including the NFF lump sum set at £152,700. This provides a fixed amount of funding that is particularly beneficial to small schools, as it is not affected by pupil numbers.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding arrangements for village primary schools with low pupil numbers.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises the essential role that small schools play in their communities, many of which are in rural areas. The schools national funding formula (NFF) accounts for challenges faced by small schools in rural areas through the lump sum and sparsity factor.

In the 2026/27 financial year, the sparsity factor provides eligible primary schools up to £58,600, and all other eligible schools up to £85,200. This funding recognises that some schools are necessarily small because they are remote and do not have the same opportunities to grow or make efficiency savings as other schools.

In addition to the sparsity factor, all small schools will benefit from the increase to core factors in the NFF in 2026/27, including the NFF lump sum set at £152,700. This provides a fixed amount of funding that is particularly beneficial to small schools, as it is not affected by pupil numbers.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve (a) universal, (b) targeted and (c) specialist speech, language and communication support for children in schools.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. This includes extending the Early Language Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings and primary schools.

We are also continuing to grow the pipeline. In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is now in its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to align her Department’s work on enrichment, including the Enrichment Framework, the Enrichment Expansion Programme, the forthcoming Schools White Paper and the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, with the design and scope of the Dormant Assets Fund.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to help ensure all children and young people can access a broad range of enrichment activities. The next tranche of Dormant Assets funding for the Youth Cause will increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability. It will be delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund.

The government is working with them to design the specific programmes to be delivered, ensuring they align with ministerial priorities, including the Enrichment Framework and Schools White Paper, while ensuring the additionality principle is upheld. Further details will be announced in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the National Lottery Community Fund on the design and scope of the Dormant Assets Fund.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to help ensure all children and young people can access a broad range of enrichment activities. The next tranche of Dormant Assets funding for the Youth Cause will increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability. It will be delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund.

The government is working with them to design the specific programmes to be delivered, ensuring they align with ministerial priorities, including the Enrichment Framework and Schools White Paper, while ensuring the additionality principle is upheld. Further details will be announced in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for the total spend on (i) LinkedIn membership fees (ii) other subscriptions by her Department in the last financial year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

​​During the period of 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, the department spent £0.00 on LinkedIn membership fees.

​During the same period, the department and its executive agencies spent £274,988.24 on services that fit the broad description of ‘subscription’.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reintroducing a milk strategy for schools.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only

Milk is an excellent food for children’s growth and development. As part of the School Food Standards, lower fat milk or lactose reduced milk must be available to children who want it for drinking at least once a day during school hours. It is a legislative requirement that milk is provided free of charge to pupils who meet the free school milk criteria, and schools may charge all other pupils.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads the School Milk Scheme Strategy, which supports the provision of milk in schools. The strategy aims to support the consumption of dairy products by children from an early age to promote healthy eating habits and good nutritional health, and support efforts to tackle child obesity by part subsidising, or reimburse in full where relevant, the cost of a daily portion of dairy in line with national guidance. The Strategy also sets out who the support is targeted at and the eligible products that can be supported.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce (a) free and (b) subsidised meal provision in (i) private, (ii) voluntary and (iii) independent early years settings for children from low-income households.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have introduced the Best Start in Life strategy, and the Child Poverty strategy was published on 5 December 2025.

The department is extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026.

This significant extension of support will also apply to children attending school-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools.

Whilst children attending a private nursery do not currently receive free school meals, the department has tightened statutory guidance to make clear that while providers can charge parents who are accessing entitlement hours for certain optional extras, including food, these charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing their entitlements. If parents do not wish to purchase these from their provider, they should discuss with their provider what alternative options are available, including potentially supplying their own food and consumables.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration her Department has given to including milk in government-funded breakfast clubs without reducing funding for existing milk provision schemes.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department funds schools taking part in the free breakfast clubs programme to buy breakfast foods and drinks, as well as to cover staffing and delivery costs.

Schools are required to provide a breakfast adhering to the school food standards, which could include a glass of lower fat milk. However, it is up to schools to decide what they serve in line with the standards. Where schools provide milk, they can also choose whether to participate in the national school milk subsidy scheme which can be used to reduce the cost of the milk

Additionally, the Nursery Milk Scheme is operated and funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and provides free milk to children under five at participating schools and childcare settings.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the need for a dedicated senior official to lead on (a) coordination of policy to support state boarding schools, (b) securing sustainable funding for state boarding provision, and (c) cross-departmental engagement with the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Health and Social Care; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure state boarding schools remain a viable option for Armed Forces and mobile families.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The Ministry of Defence oversees the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) for eligible service personnel, which provides clearly defined financial support to ensure that the need for frequent mobility does not interfere with a child’s education. This includes supporting parents with the option of using a state boarding school. Further information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61684e30e90e07197867eb2b/20211007-DCS_CEAS_INFO_02-CEA_AND_BOARDING_SCHOOL_CONSIDERATIONS_INFORMATION_V4.pdf.

Senior officials maintain oversight of state boarding school policy and coordinate, as appropriate, with relevant teams across the department and other government departments on matters such as the national minimum standards for boarding and day pupil fees.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of state boarding schools in supporting the education of children from Armed Forces families and other mobile families as an affordable alternative to independent boarding provision.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The Ministry of Defence oversees the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) for eligible service personnel, which provides clearly defined financial support to ensure that the need for frequent mobility does not interfere with a child’s education. This includes supporting parents with the option of using a state boarding school. Further information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61684e30e90e07197867eb2b/20211007-DCS_CEAS_INFO_02-CEA_AND_BOARDING_SCHOOL_CONSIDERATIONS_INFORMATION_V4.pdf.

Senior officials maintain oversight of state boarding school policy and coordinate, as appropriate, with relevant teams across the department and other government departments on matters such as the national minimum standards for boarding and day pupil fees.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of managing and attending healthcare appointments on children's school attendance.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

In the 2024/25 academic year, over 4 million days of school were lost due to time off for a medical or dental appointment. For children to achieve and thrive, they need to be in school. The national absence codes include a code for leave of absence for the purpose of attending a medical or dental appointment, meaning, when monitoring pupils’ attendance, schools will be able to take into consideration any absences due to this.

Parents are encouraged to make appointments out of school hours, but we acknowledge that children with medical needs may need to attend medical appointments during the school day and the school attendance framework allows for such absences to be granted by the school. Parents should get the school’s agreement in advance, and the pupil should only be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary for the appointment.

The department has also worked in conjunction with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Nursing who endorsed a statement on supporting school attendance, which included suggestions for clinics to support pupils returning to school after medical appointments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review (1) the application of compound interest, (2) the length of repayment periods, and (3) the overall operation of the student loans system.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government keeps the student finance system under continuous review to ensure that it delivers good value for both students and taxpayers. We set out our plan for higher education (HE) reform through the Post-16 education and skills white paper, published on 29 September.

We are determined that the HE funding system should deliver for our economy, for universities and for students and the government is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support small and specialist universities who receive a high proportion of their total income from charitable sources and operate at a deficit due to low levels of cost recovery on that income.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Higher education (HE) providers are independent from government and are responsible for ensuring their business models provide long-term sustainability.

The Office for Students (OfS) has statutory duties regarding the sector's financial sustainability, but the department has a clear interest in understanding the sector's level of risk. We work closely with the OfS to understand the sector’s changing financial landscape.

This government is committed to creating a secure future for our world leading HE sector, demonstrated by our decision to increase tuition fee caps in line with forecast inflation and our refocusing of the OfS on monitoring the sector’s financial health.

Moreover, the government provides annual funding through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), supporting the teaching of high-cost subjects such as science and promotes access and participation for students from under-represented groups. For 2025-26, the recurrent SPG allocation for world-leading small and specialist providers will be maintained at £57.4 million.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press notice of 15 December 2025 entitled Ofqual fines Pearson £2 million for rule breaches affecting thousands of students, how many students were affected by each of the three cases for which Ofqual fined Pearson, broken down by qualification and year.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sir Ian Bauckham, to write to the hon. Member for Fylde directly, and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who will no longer have transitional protection funding for free school meals by ethnicity after the 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover the cost of additional free meals, after taking into account the removal of protections. The action we are taking will ensure that over 500,000 additional children and pupils will receive a free and nutritious lunchtime meal.

Transitional protections have been in place since 2018 to ensure no one who gained free school meals (FSM) eligibility would lose it while Universal Credit was rolled out. The department intends to bring transitional protections to an end once the new eligibility is introduced. We have not yet carried out analysis by cohort characteristics to understand which pupils may no longer be eligible.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who will no longer have transitional protection funding for free school meals by location after the 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover the cost of additional free meals, after taking into account the removal of protections. The action we are taking will ensure that over 500,000 additional children and pupils will receive a free and nutritious lunchtime meal.

Transitional protections have been in place since 2018 to ensure no one who gained free school meals (FSM) eligibility would lose it while Universal Credit was rolled out. The department intends to bring transitional protections to an end once the new eligibility is introduced. We have not yet carried out analysis by cohort characteristics to understand which pupils may no longer be eligible.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of children with SEND who will no longer have transitional protection funding for free school meals after the 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover the cost of additional free meals, after taking into account the removal of protections. The action we are taking will ensure that over 500,000 additional children and pupils will receive a free and nutritious lunchtime meal.

Transitional protections have been in place since 2018 to ensure no one who gained free school meals (FSM) eligibility would lose it while Universal Credit was rolled out. The department intends to bring transitional protections to an end once the new eligibility is introduced. We have not yet carried out analysis by cohort characteristics to understand which pupils may no longer be eligible.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of children in (a) rural and (b) urban areas who will no longer have transitional protection funding for free school meals after the 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover the cost of additional free meals, after taking into account the removal of protections. The action we are taking will ensure that over 500,000 additional children and pupils will receive a free and nutritious lunchtime meal.

Transitional protections have been in place since 2018 to ensure no one who gained free school meals (FSM) eligibility would lose it while Universal Credit was rolled out. The department intends to bring transitional protections to an end once the new eligibility is introduced. We have not yet carried out analysis by cohort characteristics to understand which pupils may no longer be eligible.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children will lose transitional protection funding for free school meals by each key stage group in 2025.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover the cost of additional free meals, after taking into account the removal of protections. The action we are taking will ensure that over 500,000 additional children and pupils will receive a free and nutritious lunchtime meal.

Transitional protections have been in place since 2018 to ensure no one who gained free school meals (FSM) eligibility would lose it while Universal Credit was rolled out. The department intends to bring transitional protections to an end once the new eligibility is introduced. We have not yet carried out analysis by cohort characteristics to understand which pupils may no longer be eligible.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which metrics were used to decide which of the previously-approved free schools went ahead.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Mainstream projects were evaluated against consistent criteria on the need for places, value for money, and whether they would provide a distinctive or innovative education offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of multiagency responses to bullying in schools, online and through messaging platforms which disrupt the learning of young people and cause distress and harm.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Bullying is unacceptable and must be tackled to ensure schools are supportive environments where pupils can thrive. We know that evidence suggests that cyberbullying is often linked to face-to-face bullying.

All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. It is for schools to decide when to involve external agencies. Schools should contact the police where they believe an offence may have been committed.

The government is providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams.

To support schools further with preventing and tackling bullying, the department has recently launched procurement for an expert, evidence-led review of anti-bullying best practice to inform a practical resource for schools.

Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence Attendance and Behaviour Hubs will focus on supporting senior leaders in schools to develop cultures with high expectations for attendance and behaviour, with robust processes for following up poor behaviour.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to support schools and colleges in Newbury in the transition to V Levels.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is currently consulting on post-16 pathways, including the introduction of V Levels. The consultation closes on 12 January 2026.

All schools and colleges, including those in Newbury, will be supported through the transition to V Levels by access to a comprehensive package of guidance and resources. Dedicated online information will provide timely updates and practical materials to help providers prepare for delivery. Clear guidance will set out the structure and requirements of the new qualifications, supporting staff understanding and effective implementation. Exemplar pathway documents will assist providers in planning learner routes, while study programme guidance will explain how V Levels can be used to develop meaningful programmes of study.

In addition, we expect awarding organisations to supply specifications, sample assessments and training materials to support accurate delivery and assessment. Together, these measures will provide schools and colleges with the clarity and confidence needed for the successful implementation of V Levels.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish her internal Departmental assessments of the potential impact of screentime on children in schools.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Mobile phones have no place in school. Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance, published in 2024 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mobile-phones-in-schools. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

There are no current assessments the department intends to publish.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish her internal Departmental assessments of the potential impact of smartphones on children in schools.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Mobile phones have no place in school. Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance, published in 2024 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mobile-phones-in-schools. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

There are no current assessments the department intends to publish.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children (i) in Fylde and (ii) across Lancashire are expected to benefit from the increased Early Years Pupil Premium.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

On the 15 December we announced the local authority funding rates for 2026/2027. From April 2026, the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) will be increased by an additional 15% to £1.15 an hour, equivalent to up to £655 a year. Statistics at a parliamentary constituency level are not readily available, but in January 2025 there were 3,149 children in Lancashire who received EYPP. Figures for children in receipt of the early years pupil premium in Lancashire from 2018 to 2025 can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/dd3e2106-cef2-4e89-49e4-08de398c3998.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to publish data on school swimming attainment.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is processing the information gathered on school swimming attainment, which was received through the physical education and sport premium digital expenditure reporting return. We will publish a summary of quality assured data in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the (a) age and (b) quality of school buildings in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings to the answer of 31 October 2025 to Question 83935.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to meet to meet the ambition for kinship care set out by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Following the Care Review, the government appointed the first ever National Kinship Care Ambassador and updated the Kinship Care Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/670d3ed5e84ae1fd8592f2fa/Kinship_Care_-_statutory_guidance_for_local_authorities__October_2024.pdf.

The government has also extended both the delivery of over 140 kinship carer peer support groups across England and the virtual school head role (on a non-statutory basis) to include championing the education, attendance, and attainment of children in kinship care.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we will mandate all local authorities in England to publish their local kinship offer and offer Family Group Decision Making at pre-proceedings where that is in the child’s best interests.

The department will soon launch a Kinship Allowance Pilot to support eligible kinship carers with the costs of raising a child, which will support up to 4,500 children in kinship care in pilot local authorities. Any wider rollout of this will be informed by findings of the evaluation.

Kinship leave is also in scope of government’s parental leave review, which will recommend improvements to the current parental leave system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to deliver accessible training and support services for kinship carers.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Following the Care Review, the government appointed the first ever National Kinship Care Ambassador and updated the Kinship Care Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/670d3ed5e84ae1fd8592f2fa/Kinship_Care_-_statutory_guidance_for_local_authorities__October_2024.pdf.

The government has also extended both the delivery of over 140 kinship carer peer support groups across England and the virtual school head role (on a non-statutory basis) to include championing the education, attendance, and attainment of children in kinship care.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we will mandate all local authorities in England to publish their local kinship offer and offer Family Group Decision Making at pre-proceedings where that is in the child’s best interests.

The department will soon launch a Kinship Allowance Pilot to support eligible kinship carers with the costs of raising a child, which will support up to 4,500 children in kinship care in pilot local authorities. Any wider rollout of this will be informed by findings of the evaluation.

Kinship leave is also in scope of government’s parental leave review, which will recommend improvements to the current parental leave system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to extend the Kinship Allowance programme to all eligible local authorities.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Following the Care Review, the government appointed the first ever National Kinship Care Ambassador and updated the Kinship Care Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/670d3ed5e84ae1fd8592f2fa/Kinship_Care_-_statutory_guidance_for_local_authorities__October_2024.pdf.

The government has also extended both the delivery of over 140 kinship carer peer support groups across England and the virtual school head role (on a non-statutory basis) to include championing the education, attendance, and attainment of children in kinship care.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we will mandate all local authorities in England to publish their local kinship offer and offer Family Group Decision Making at pre-proceedings where that is in the child’s best interests.

The department will soon launch a Kinship Allowance Pilot to support eligible kinship carers with the costs of raising a child, which will support up to 4,500 children in kinship care in pilot local authorities. Any wider rollout of this will be informed by findings of the evaluation.

Kinship leave is also in scope of government’s parental leave review, which will recommend improvements to the current parental leave system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to financially support kinship carers.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Following the Care Review, the government appointed the first ever National Kinship Care Ambassador and updated the Kinship Care Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/670d3ed5e84ae1fd8592f2fa/Kinship_Care_-_statutory_guidance_for_local_authorities__October_2024.pdf.

The government has also extended both the delivery of over 140 kinship carer peer support groups across England and the virtual school head role (on a non-statutory basis) to include championing the education, attendance, and attainment of children in kinship care.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we will mandate all local authorities in England to publish their local kinship offer and offer Family Group Decision Making at pre-proceedings where that is in the child’s best interests.

The department will soon launch a Kinship Allowance Pilot to support eligible kinship carers with the costs of raising a child, which will support up to 4,500 children in kinship care in pilot local authorities. Any wider rollout of this will be informed by findings of the evaluation.

Kinship leave is also in scope of government’s parental leave review, which will recommend improvements to the current parental leave system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what specialist support is available to adoptive parents of children with experience of trauma.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This financial year, the department has invested £50 million in the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, giving adopted and kinship children access to therapeutic services that stabilise placements and offer specialist support to both adoptive children and parents.

The department has approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments.

In addition, the department is providing £3 million this year to Adoption England to develop more multidisciplinary teams in Regional Adoption Agencies. These joint teams, working with local health partners, enable families to receive holistic and high quality support.

Adoption England is also working with Adoption Support and Local Authority Children’s ‘front door services’ to develop a much more joined-up approach to how services engage with families. The aim is to agree a protocol on collaboration so that families receive a far stronger range of support.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to local authorities to help ensure they have a sufficient number of foster carers to meet local demand.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Foster care is one of my top priorities as Minister. The department is already investing £25 million of transformation funding for foster care, which is additional to the £15 million announced at the Autumn Budget covering the 2025/26 financial year. We are already working with over 60% of local authorities in England to transform the way they recruit and retain foster carers. The Spending Review also set aside funding for renovating and extending foster care homes.

However, we know we need to go further and faster with recruiting and retaining more carers and we will set out more detail on our planned investments and reforms for fostering in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of toilet provision at primary schools in North Shropshire constituency.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Under the School Premises Regulations 2012 or The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, for maintained schools and academies respectively, each school’s responsible body must ensure that schools are maintained so that pupils’ health, safety and welfare is ensured.

The same regulations require that Responsible Bodies provide suitable toilets for pupils, which means they must consider factors such as the number, age and special requirements of pupils using the toilets.

The full set of the first Condition Data Collection (CDC1) data is presented at school or regional level in the House of Commons library here: https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2285521/details. A summary of the CDC1 data can be accessed in the CDC1 key findings report here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-data-collection-2-cdc2-programme.

CDC1 ran from 2017 and 2019 and includes all government funded schools in England. The successor programme, CDC2, reviews and refreshes CDC1 data. It does not yet cover all schools in scope and is due to complete in 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of primary schools without indoor toilets.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Under the School Premises Regulations 2012 or The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, for maintained schools and academies respectively, each school’s responsible body must ensure that schools are maintained so that pupils’ health, safety and welfare is ensured.

The same regulations require that Responsible Bodies provide suitable toilets for pupils, which means they must consider factors such as the number, age and special requirements of pupils using the toilets.

The full set of the first Condition Data Collection (CDC1) data is presented at school or regional level in the House of Commons library here: https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2285521/details. A summary of the CDC1 data can be accessed in the CDC1 key findings report here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-data-collection-2-cdc2-programme.

CDC1 ran from 2017 and 2019 and includes all government funded schools in England. The successor programme, CDC2, reviews and refreshes CDC1 data. It does not yet cover all schools in scope and is due to complete in 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging the use of school grounds by communities to increase access to sports; and what plans she has to provide funding for upgrades to facilities.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

On 4 December, the department launched a new programme, ‘Maximising Value for Pupils’, which will support schools and trusts maximise value from the investment in the school system, so every pound is delivering for children. A key pillar of the programme will be to make the most of financial and physical assets and we have committed to engage schools and trusts to understand how we can best support them to do so.

Many schools and trusts are already using their assets for community benefit, which may include making school grounds and facilities available for local sports clubs. We want to ensure this social value is maintained while also supporting opportunities to maximise value from their assets. We are investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of school and college buildings and grounds, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.

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 the decision to reduce the therapy limit for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children using that fund.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government made the difficult decision to cut the fair access limit in April to ensure that the fund remained financially sustainable and available to help as many children and their families as possible. As a result, this year the department has helped 14,000 children. This financial year we have invested £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund. We have approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April, for both therapy and specialist assessments. We continue to review the impact of the changes to funding made in April 2025.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided for programmes that support the mental health of teachers and school staff in the last 12 months.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is funding the charity, Education Support, to deliver free mental health and wellbeing support to school and college leaders. Professional supervision enables leaders to work with qualified and experienced supervisors to develop strategies to support their mental wellbeing.

A new three-year contract was awarded to Education Support to deliver this support from April 2024 to March 2027 at a value of up to £1.5 million with the aim of supporting approximately 2,500 leaders. Over 1,300 leaders have been supported since April 2024.

Funding figures for the last 12 months are not available. For the 2025/26 financial year, approximately £500,000 is expected to be spent.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with Derbyshire County Council on the adequacy of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Bolsover constituency.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

A joint local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection was undertaken by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in September 2024, which found widespread and systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND.

An improvement notice was issued on 14 January 2025. Ofsted and the CQC approved the priority action plan submitted by the local area partnership (LAP), and a monthly, independently chaired, assurance board monitor’s progress.

The department has put in place systems to track outcomes against the LAPs plan. This includes commissioning a SEND adviser to work collaboratively with an NHS England adviser to challenge, support and monitor progress. Additional support is provided through an intervention support fund, and training through a consortium led by the Council for Disabled Children. Council leaders have written to the department setting out their progress and confirming their commitment to making the improvements necessary.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures will be put in place to prevent any widening of attainment gaps between students with differing levels of access to digital technology when on-screen assessments are introduced.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Ofqual is consulting on a controlled approach to any further adoption of on-screen assessment that protects standards, fairness and teachers’ ability to prepare students effectively. Under its proposals, most GCSEs, AS and A levels will continue to be assessed with pen and paper. Each exam board would be limited to introducing a maximum of two new on-screen specifications, but not in the most popular subjects.

It will be entirely optional for schools and colleges to offer on-screen assessments if they are confident in their ability to deliver them fairly. To support fairness, Ofqual is proposing that exam boards must offer separate specifications for paper-based and on-screen qualifications and maintain standards to ensure that it is no easier or harder to achieve a given grade, regardless of which specification is taken.

Students will not be permitted to use their own laptops for exams to prevent unfairness arising from differences in device quality or access. Ofqual has published an equality impact assessment alongside the consultation and will refine it following analysis of consultation responses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of compliance of Multi Academy Trusts with statutory guidance on charging for school-time activities, including WOW days, curriculum-required trips and transport to compulsory swimming lessons.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The Education Act 1996 prohibits schools from charging for education provided during school hours, subject to very limited exceptions. The department publishes guidance to assist schools to comply with the law on charging for school activities. Parents who have concerns about their school’s charging policy should raise this with the school. They may be able to complain to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, if they remain unsatisfied once they have exhausted the school’s complaints procedure.

The department has a strong policy presumption against the disposal of school playing fields and has a set of criteria used to assess applications for consent. These include assessing whether the school can continue to meet its curriculum needs. The department gives consent only if the criteria are met, and where the proceeds from sales are to be reinvested in improvements to sports and education facilities.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the average waiting time for SEND assessments in each local authority in England.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Information on the number and percentage of education, health and care (EHC) plans issued within the statutory 20 week deadline, with and without statutory exceptions to that deadline applying, is part of the latest statistical release published on 26 June 2025 at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025.

The table linked below shows the number and proportion of plans issued within, and over, the statutory 20-week deadline, excluding where statutory exceptions to that deadline apply, for each local authority in England during the 2024 calendar year: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/adbf152d-5d22-42d2-c78b-08de38576300.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the incidence of academy trusts undertaking new capital projects on school playing fields while requesting parental contributions for curriculum activities that schools are not permitted to charge for.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The Education Act 1996 prohibits schools from charging for education provided during school hours, subject to very limited exceptions. The department publishes guidance to assist schools to comply with the law on charging for school activities. Parents who have concerns about their school’s charging policy should raise this with the school. They may be able to complain to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, if they remain unsatisfied once they have exhausted the school’s complaints procedure.

The department has a strong policy presumption against the disposal of school playing fields and has a set of criteria used to assess applications for consent. These include assessing whether the school can continue to meet its curriculum needs. The department gives consent only if the criteria are met, and where the proceeds from sales are to be reinvested in improvements to sports and education facilities.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative data her Department holds on the proportion of 16-24 year olds not in education, employment or training (a) who were previously eligible for free school meals and (b) overall.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department publishes statistics on those aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the Labour Force Survey (LFS): NEET age 16 to 24, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2024.

At the end of 2024, the proportion of the 16 to 24 population who were NEET was estimated to be 13.6%. Data is not available for those NEET who attended state schools nor who were previously eligible for free school meals, as this is not collected in the LFS.

Official statistics for 16 to 18 destination measures show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16 to 18 study, that is 6 months of continual activity. The latest publication includes destinations in 2023/24 by characteristics breakdown, for those finishing 16 to 18 study in 2022/23. Data on those who were not recorded as continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination is available for state-funded mainstream schools and colleges, and by free school meals eligibility here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9e5bf7ed-27f0-49f3-b1bd-08de39895a0e.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that all pupils are able to purse vocational education pathways in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, published on 20 October, set out our vision for a world-leading skills system which breaks down barriers to opportunity, meets student and employers’ needs, widens access to high quality education and training, supports innovation, research, and development and improves people’s lives.

It sets out our plans to introduce V Levels, which will sit alongside A levels and T Levels, and will become the pathway for vocational qualifications at level 3 for 16 to 19 year olds, sitting alongside the academic and technical pathways. We will also introduce two clear post-16 pathways at level 2 for further study and for occupations. We have launched a consultation on these measures, which will close on 12 January 2026. Full details are accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/post-16-level-3-and-below-pathways.

Skills England has also been established to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evaluation has been undertaken of access to specialist educational provision for children with acquired brain injuries; and whether additional support is planned for emerging specialist schools such as those in Stockton-on-Tees.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Children who have had a brain injury can be affected in different ways. Some brain injuries will result in a special educational need (SEN) or a medical need, whilst others may affect a child in other ways. In whatever way a brain injury manifests, it is essential that the pupil’s individual needs are identified and supported appropriately.

Schools must make arrangements to support their pupils with medical conditions and must make reasonable adjustments to their practices, procedures and policies and not discriminate against their disabled pupils.

The governing body should ensure that sufficient staff have received suitable training and are competent before they take on responsibility to support children with medical conditions. They should also ensure that any members of school staff who provide support to pupils with medical conditions, or those with SEN, are able to access information and other teaching support materials as needed.

Mainstream schools must use their best endeavours to meet the special educational needs of their pupils, which includes those with acquired brain injury. Where needs are more complex the school may request the local authority to conduct an education, health and care needs assessment.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to improve early identification of cognitive, behavioural, and emotional needs arising from acquired brain injury in children, particularly within school settings.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Children who have had a brain injury can be affected in different ways. Some brain injuries will result in a special educational need (SEN) or a medical need, whilst others may affect a child in other ways. In whatever way a brain injury manifests, it is essential that the pupil’s individual needs are identified and supported appropriately.

Schools must make arrangements to support their pupils with medical conditions and must make reasonable adjustments to their practices, procedures and policies and not discriminate against their disabled pupils.

The governing body should ensure that sufficient staff have received suitable training and are competent before they take on responsibility to support children with medical conditions. They should also ensure that any members of school staff who provide support to pupils with medical conditions, or those with SEN, are able to access information and other teaching support materials as needed.

Mainstream schools must use their best endeavours to meet the special educational needs of their pupils, which includes those with acquired brain injury. Where needs are more complex the school may request the local authority to conduct an education, health and care needs assessment.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of training for teachers and education support staff on recognising and supporting pupils with acquired brain injuries.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Children who have had a brain injury can be affected in different ways. Some brain injuries will result in a special educational need (SEN) or a medical need, whilst others may affect a child in other ways. In whatever way a brain injury manifests, it is essential that the pupil’s individual needs are identified and supported appropriately.

Schools must make arrangements to support their pupils with medical conditions and must make reasonable adjustments to their practices, procedures and policies and not discriminate against their disabled pupils.

The governing body should ensure that sufficient staff have received suitable training and are competent before they take on responsibility to support children with medical conditions. They should also ensure that any members of school staff who provide support to pupils with medical conditions, or those with SEN, are able to access information and other teaching support materials as needed.

Mainstream schools must use their best endeavours to meet the special educational needs of their pupils, which includes those with acquired brain injury. Where needs are more complex the school may request the local authority to conduct an education, health and care needs assessment.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support students with dyslexia in the context of the Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report and the SEND white paper.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government is committed to ensuring that all pupils receive the support they need to achieve and thrive, including those with dyslexia. The Curriculum and Assessment Review emphasised inclusion and high standards for all, recommending evidence-led resources to help teachers adapt curricula for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We know that effective early identification and intervention is critical to improving the outcomes for children and young people with SEND. We are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings. This includes recently published evidence reviews from University College London which highlight the most effective tools, strategies and approaches to identify and support different types of needs

The department also recently announced new government-backed research into SEND identification, which will aim to develop and test effective approaches to help the early identification of children needing tailored educational support.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2025 to Question 95257 on Children: Data protection, if she will publish a Data Privacy Impact Assessment on the entire Bill.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

A single Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) cannot be conducted on the entire Bill. DPIAs are intended to evaluate specific data processing activities that may present high risks to individuals’ data protection rights, rather than entire pieces of legislation. The department has ensured that all Bill provisions involving personal data comply with data protection legislation by consulting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under Article 36 of UK GDPR.

We continue to engage with the ICO key measures, such as the Consistent Identifier and Children Not in School (CNIS) measures, to identify and mitigate any data protection risks. In line with our commitment to transparency, we will publish summaries of these DPIAs to provide assurance that children’s data will be processed lawfully and securely once the measures become operational.

Found: The Environment Agency worked with the Department for Education, the Geographical Association and Science

Found: theory, it could be the Department for Business and Trade on parental leave, or even the Department for Education

Found: DFE cannot direct public health or NHS officials to do something that DFE wants to do, but the Health

Found: We are in good discussions with the Department for Education.

Found: specific-sub-groups/children-with- care-experience/ 35 https://researchingreform.net/2016/01/13/department-for-education-social-workers-are-poorly-trained-not-ready-for-practice

Found: Q56 Chair: Oli, do you think the Department for Education should contribute?

Found: Recommend the Home Office take steps, in concert with other government departments (such as the Department for Education

Found: An analysis of child deaths between 2018 and 2020, obtained from the Department for Education by Article

Found: Department for Education guidance on child protection when working with foreign authorities is over

Found: CDC has been a Strategic Reform Partner of the Department for Education since 2013 and is part of a

Found: National Protocol on reducing unnecessary criminalisation in care developed jointly by the Department for Education

Found: (2024) Children looked after in England including adoptions 2 Department for Education (2024

Found: Q56 Chair: Oli, do you think the Department for Education should contribute?

Found: Letter from the Director General for Schools Group at the Department for Education relating to a follow-up

Found: and messy, people just do not understand it at all, including, I should say, within the Department for Education

Found: people who are good at checking whether schools are working properly, who are not in the Department for Education

Found: We have the Department for Education, with all the students in science and particularly STEM subjects

Found: There is further to go with the DHSC, the Department for Education and the Department for Work and

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what internal discussions her Department has had on the allocation of funding for the mathematical sciences within the 2026-27 Strategic Priorities Grant.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The allocation of funding for mathematical sciences within the 2026-27 Strategic Priorities Grant is the responsibility of the Department for Education (DfE). As such, there has been no specific internal discussion within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on this issue.

For this Academic Year 2025-26, more than two thirds of the £1.3 billion Strategic Priorities Grant budget allocated to providers will support the provision of high-cost subjects, for example medicine, dentistry; science, engineering and technology. DfE is reviewing the high-cost subject funding to ensure that this best aligns with the Government’s Growth Mission and is targeted effectively towards provision that supports the industrial strategy and future skills needs. DfE will issue guidance to the Office for Student (OfS) in due course setting out funding priorities for 2026/27.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much has been spent on training UK medical students in each of the last five years, and how many of those publicly-funded graduates did not secure Foundation or speciality training places in the NHS.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following table sets out the total costs incurred by NHS England in providing medical education in England between 2021/22 and 2025/26, split by placement costs and bursaries:

Source: NHS England

Notes:

1. The Department of Health and Social Care does not have the information requested for the last five full financial years, so the accompanying table incorporates the forecast spend for 2025/26.
2. The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold information on the costs incurred by the Department for Education or by bodies that the Department for Education sponsors, such as the Student Loans Company or the Office for Students. These areas of DfE provision will include tuition and maintenance loans as well as the Strategic Priorities grant which supports high cost STEM subjects.

The United Kingdom Foundation Programme Office has sought to allocate Foundation Programme places to all eligible applicants in each of the past five years.

The General Medical Council (GMC) publishes data on the proportion of doctors completing foundation year two who have subsequently entered the specialty training pipeline in each subsequent year. The data does not differentiate between the place of undergraduate study of doctors but given over 90% of doctors completing foundation year two are United Kingdom graduates, the data provides a good proxy for progression on to specialty training. This data is available as part of the GMC’s National Training Survey at the following link:

https://edt.gmc-uk.org/progression-reports/recruitment-from-f2

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to develop a cross-department strategy on the use of artificial intelligence for children; and what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK leads in the use of safe and socially positive artificial intelligence by young people.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

DSIT engages with departments across government to ensure a coordinated approach to AI, including on child safety.

Generative AI services that allow users to share content with one another or that search live websites to provide search results are regulated under the Online Safety Act. These services must protect all users from illegal content and protect children from harmful content.

The Department for Education has also introduced the Generative AI Product Safety Expectations framework for educational settings.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of his Department's progress on increasing the processing capacity of the court system.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government has made significant progress in increasing the processing capacity of the courts and tribunals system and remains committed to reducing backlog.

In the Crown Court for this financial year, we have allocated 111,250 sitting days - the highest number of sitting days on record and over 5,000 more than the previous Government funded for the last financial year.

In the Family Courts, reforms are already delivering results. Courts operating under the private law Pathfinder model are achieving some of the lowest case durations nationally, in South East Wales, for example, average duration fell from 37 weeks to 12 weeks on average. In addition, the Department for Education invested £10 million in 2024/25 to fund pilots aimed at reducing delays in family proceedings, with evaluation due to conclude in 2026.

Across the tribunals system, we are taking a comprehensive approach to improve productivity. Sitting day capacity has been set at or close to the maximum deliverable level. We are also promoting early dispute resolution to reduce unnecessary demand, including judicial Alternative Dispute Resolution pilots in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue discussions on allocation for 2025-26 and we will say more in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing training to mental health teams on adapting their support to children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can now also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is going into its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.

In partnership with NHS England, the Department for Education has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs in early years settings and primary schools.

At the Spending Review, we confirmed that we will deliver on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, roll out mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and expand NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes.

We have also already started piloting Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres. These pilots aim to provide open access care for anyone with a severe mental illness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our aim is to have one Neighbourhood Health Centre in each community that brings together National Health Service, local authority and voluntary sector services in one building to help create a holistic offer that meets the needs of local populations including children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing training to mental health teams on support to children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can now also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is going into its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.

In partnership with NHS England, the Department for Education has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs in early years settings and primary schools.

At the Spending Review, we confirmed that we will deliver on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, roll out mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and expand NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes.

We have also already started piloting Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres. These pilots aim to provide open access care for anyone with a severe mental illness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our aim is to have one Neighbourhood Health Centre in each community that brings together National Health Service, local authority and voluntary sector services in one building to help create a holistic offer that meets the needs of local populations including children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce youth economic inactivity in rural communities.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This Government is investing in all young people’s futures irrespective of where they live in Great Britain. At Budget, we announced more than £1.5 billion of investment over the next three years, funding £820 million for the Youth Guarantee to support young people to earn or learn, and an additional £725 million for the Growth and Skills Levy. Through the expanded Youth Guarantee, young people aged 16-24 across Great Britain are set to benefit from further support into employment and learning, including:

Support to find a job: For young people on Universal Credit who are looking for work, we are introducing a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, which over the next three years will offer nearly 900,000 16–24-year-olds a dedicated session, followed by four weeks of additional intensive support with a Work Coach. This new support will identify specific work, training, or learning opportunities locally for each young person and ensure they are supported to take those up. This support could be delivered at a Youth Hub.

Further expansion of Youth Hubs: We are expanding our network of Youth Hubs to over 360 locations so that all young people – including those not on benefits – can access opportunities and wider support in every local area of Great Britain. Youth Hubs will bring together partners from health, skills and the voluntary sector, working closely with Mayors and local authorities to deliver joined-up community-based support.

c300,000 additional opportunities for workplace experience and training: For young people on Universal Credit who are looking for work, we will create up to 150,000 additional work experience placements and up to 145,000 additional bespoke training opportunities designed in partnership with employers – Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs). At the end of each SWAP, employers offer a guaranteed job interview to participants.

The Youth Guarantee ensures paid work for eligible 18–21-year-olds in Great Britain who have been on Universal Credit and seeking work for 18 months. Through the Jobs Guarantee scheme, participants get six months of government-funded employment at minimum wage for 25 hours weekly, plus extra support to build skills and experience. The program aims for an 80% employment rate and includes safeguards for quality and fairness. It will benefit about 55,000 young people over three years.

Prevention: We are improving support for young people at risk of becoming NEET by enhancing data sharing, monitoring further education attendance, and using new tools to help local areas target assistance effectively. We are also funding work experience opportunities for high-risk pupils in state-funded Alternative Provision settings. These efforts build on measures from the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper announced earlier this autumn.

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education are also working closely with the seven Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England who are delivering the eight Youth Trailblazers announced in the Get Britain Working white paper.

The West of England Combined Authority is running a Rural Access Pilot as part of its Youth Guarantee Trailblazer. This pilot focuses on supporting young people in rural areas by providing tailored employment coaching and practical transport solutions, alongside bursaries to cover work-related costs. A free travel pass is designed to remove transport barriers for young people in these areas, enabling them to access employment opportunities, training, and support services.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the National Youth Strategy will help youth organisations to set boundaries and safeguarding protocols to protect young people and service providers.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

As part of the new National Youth Strategy, a £15 million investment will be delivered over three years to strengthen the youth sector workforce by increasing the number of youth workers, volunteers and wider trusted adults and providing upskilling opportunities. We will be working with the sector to design the workforce funding to ensure it meets needs and has the right expectations on safeguarding.

The Government has committed to supporting trusted adults to adhere to safeguarding standards and have the right understanding of the challenges young people are facing today. We will also continue to fund the National Youth Agency to deliver an online safeguarding and risk management hub to provide guidance, support and access to training resources for all organisations and individuals working with young people.

Beyond the measures above, the Department for Education held a Call for Evidence on Safeguarding in Out-of-School Settings, including youth clubs and other forms of youth work, between May and September this year. Analysis and further engagement are ongoing, before the Government responds in due course.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how she will ensure helping young people to develop relationships with trusted adults aligns with safeguarding expectations

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

As part of the new National Youth Strategy, a £15 million investment will be delivered over three years to strengthen the youth sector workforce by increasing the number of youth workers, volunteers and wider trusted adults and providing upskilling opportunities. We will be working with the sector to design the workforce funding to ensure it meets needs and has the right expectations on safeguarding.

The Government has committed to supporting trusted adults to adhere to safeguarding standards and have the right understanding of the challenges young people are facing today. We will also continue to fund the National Youth Agency to deliver an online safeguarding and risk management hub to provide guidance, support and access to training resources for all organisations and individuals working with young people.

Beyond the measures above, the Department for Education held a Call for Evidence on Safeguarding in Out-of-School Settings, including youth clubs and other forms of youth work, between May and September this year. Analysis and further engagement are ongoing, before the Government responds in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Restoring Control Over the Immigration System: White Paper, whether her Department plans to apply the 5 and 10 year penalties for accessing public funds to those on limited leave to remain who are currently living in the UK and receiving benefits.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Data regarding how many people in the UK are subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition (NRPF) is currently in development and not ready for release. We will continue to explore what further information on NRPF can be produced. We are unable at this time to provide a specific timeframe for data publication or indeed confirm what will be published.

The earned settlement model is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026. Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Consideration will then be given, if appropriate, to how transitional arrangements may be designed to ease the impact of policy change, especially for individuals or groups already afforded permissions by the previous system.

The final model will also be subject to equality impact assessment, which the government has committed to publish in due course.

Free school meals are not classed as a 'public fund' for immigration purposes. It is the Department for Education who set the eligibility criteria for who can access free school meals.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) children and (b) adults are subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds condition.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Data regarding how many people in the UK are subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition (NRPF) is currently in development and not ready for release. We will continue to explore what further information on NRPF can be produced. We are unable at this time to provide a specific timeframe for data publication or indeed confirm what will be published.

The earned settlement model is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026. Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Consideration will then be given, if appropriate, to how transitional arrangements may be designed to ease the impact of policy change, especially for individuals or groups already afforded permissions by the previous system.

The final model will also be subject to equality impact assessment, which the government has committed to publish in due course.

Free school meals are not classed as a 'public fund' for immigration purposes. It is the Department for Education who set the eligibility criteria for who can access free school meals.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to protect children from gambling advertisements online.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

All gambling operators who advertise in the UK must comply with advertising codes, which are enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) independently of Government. These codes apply across all advertising platforms, and include a wide range of provisions designed to protect children from harm. In addition to rules on content and audience, operators must ensure that gambling advertising is not targeted at children. Earlier this year the Department for Education announced new statutory guidance for relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, which includes more in depth education about the risks of gambling related harms. We will continue to monitor this area closely and take action where there is evidence to do so.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the role of the mathematical sciences within future Strategic Priorities Grant funding.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The mathematical sciences sector is key to delivering the Government’s missions and plays an important role from advising government and business, to sharing expertise that underpins the innovation and scientific discovery that helps our country and economy thrive.

Ministers and officials in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) engage regularly with counterparts in the Department for Education (DfE) on a wide range of issues related to mathematical sciences and higher education funding. While we maintain this ongoing dialogue with the DfE, there have been no specific discussions on the role of mathematical sciences in the Office for Students’ Strategic Priorities Grant funding.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his department will work with the Department for Education to legislate to allow prisoners to obtain a student loan more than 6 years from their earliest release date.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice is committed to enabling prisoners to access higher education while in custody and, alongside HMPPS, works with partners such as the Prisoners Education Trust and the Open University to widen access to higher education for prisoners.

The Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education will continue to consider access to student finance for prisoners.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to treat developmental language disorders in line with autism by matching levels of freely available support, training and information for parents and carers.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities. NHS England is working with the Department for Education to identify and support children with speech, language, and communication needs by co-funding pathfinder sites to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child programme.

The programme aims to identify and support children and young people in their early years and primary school settings with mild to moderate speech, language, and communication needs, reducing the rate of specialist referrals, and increasing workforce capacity through innovative workforce models.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help integrated care boards (ICBs) and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for people referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and following a recent diagnosis of autism. Since publication, NHS England has been supporting systems and services to identify where there are challenges for implementation and how they might overcome these.

The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October, was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing published guidance.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of job vacancies in key professions within her Department’s responsibilities, including contractor organisations.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes information on the number of vacancies at UK-level, by industry, and by size of business as part of the vacancies and jobs in the UK release. Using that data, we see that in August to October 2025 there were 15,000 vacancies in arts, entertainment and recreation, 33,000 vacancies in information and communication and 76,000 vacancies in accommodation and food service activities. Parts of these industries are included in DCMS sector definitions.

Compared to August to October 2024:

• Arts, entertainment and recreation vacancies are down 14.0%

• Accommodation and food service activities vacancies are down 16.5%

• Information and communication vacancies are down 13.5%

DCMS uses a more granular industry classification (4-digit Standard Industrial Classification codes) to define our sectors and ONS vacancy data is not publicly available at this level.

DCMS publishes official statistics in development estimating the number of vacancies, alongside skills shortages and skills gaps, based on the Department for Education’s (DfE) Employer Skills Survey. Two regular data releases have been published so far: DCMS Sectors Skills Shortages and Skills Gaps: 2019 and DCMS Sector Skills Shortages and Skills Gaps: 2022, UK, as well as additional analysis for the Creative Industries. The 2022 data showed that 25.5% of DCMS Sectors businesses in the UK had at least one vacancy open at the time of the survey. This was significantly higher than All Sectors (23.2%).

Further insights into labour demand are provided in the ONS’s Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK dataset, which includes official statistics in development sourced from Textkernel data. DCMS has published additional estimates by SOC code for the Creative Industries using the DfE’s Employer Skills Survey.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many NEET young people (a) live with their parents or guardians and (b) live independently.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Office for National Statistics and the Department for Education – who both produce official statistics publications on young people who are NEET – do not publish a breakdown of young people who are not in employment, education or training broken down by whether they live with parents/guardians or live independently.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many NEET young people are parents, broken down by month since January 2020.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Office for National Statistics and the Department for Education – who both produce official statistics on young people who are NEET – do not publish a breakdown of young people who are not in employment, education or training broken down by parental status.

The Department for Education do publish an estimate of the proportion of young people aged 16-24 who are economically inactive for the primary reason of looking after family/home – which shows that in 2024 1.5% of 16-24 years where economically inactive due to looking after family/home – down from 1.7% in 2023. See here for more the annual series back to 2020: Create your own tables on neet age 16 to 24 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on reducing waiting times for children requiring speech and language therapy.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

For 2026/27 we have asked systems to actively manage long waits for community health services, including reducing the proportion of waits over 18 weeks, developing a plan to eliminate all 52-week waits, and increasing community health services capacity to meet growth in demand, expected to be approximately 3% nationally per year.

NHS England is working with the Department for Education to identify and support children with speech, language, and communication needs by co-funding pathfinder sites to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child programme.

The programme aims to identify and support children and young people in early years and primary school settings with mild to moderate speech, language, and communication needs, reducing the rate of specialist referrals, and increasing workforce capacity through innovative workforce models.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of voter registration among young people in Surrey Heath constituency.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Electoral Commission’s 2023 report on electoral registers found that young people are among the least likely groups to be registered to vote.

As set out in our Strategy for modern and secure elections, the Government is committed to improving voter registration, which includes work to support groups who are less likely to be registered.

A comprehensive programme of work is underway, involving collaboration with the Electoral Commission, local authorities, think tanks, academics, and civil society organisations. This programme is focused on identifying the attitudinal and knowledge barriers that prevent those with historically low participation, including young people, from becoming democratically active, and on exploring effective interventions to overcome these challenges.

Over the coming years, we will work to create a new automated registration system, removing key barriers to eligible citizens participating in our democracy. We want young people to find their voice and exercise their right to vote – registering to vote is a vital first step towards doing that.

We also want to build and encourage long-lasting engagement of young people with our democracy. Evidence from places that have lowered the voting age shows that doing so can increase turnout when implemented in a supportive environment. That is why the Government is committed to extending the right to vote to 16-and-17-year-olds and working alongside the Electoral Commission and civil society organisations to ensure that young people are both prepared and motivated to exercise their democratic rights. We hope that this early engagement will build the foundations for lifetime participation in our electoral processes.

While we are making these changes, we want to talk to young people to ensure we’re putting their needs at the centre of our policy making. We will work with other key actors to consider what additional measures can support schools, colleges, and youth groups to roll out practical voter/civic education. We know that it is imperative that citizenship education is fit for purpose in order to support this change. Following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review and its recommendations to the Government, we have committed to make citizenship compulsory in primary schools and to publish revised programmes of study to ensure that all pupils receive an essential grounding in a range of topics including democracy, government and law. The Department for Education will consult on programmes of study next year and the new national curriculum will be published in 2027 for first teaching in 2028.

Altogether, we will create an environment in which young people understand their rights and responsibilities, and where they are equipped and empowered to participate in our democracy.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to encourage newly eligible young voters to participate in elections in Surrey Heath constituency.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Electoral Commission’s 2023 report on electoral registers found that young people are among the least likely groups to be registered to vote.

As set out in our Strategy for modern and secure elections, the Government is committed to improving voter registration, which includes work to support groups who are less likely to be registered.

A comprehensive programme of work is underway, involving collaboration with the Electoral Commission, local authorities, think tanks, academics, and civil society organisations. This programme is focused on identifying the attitudinal and knowledge barriers that prevent those with historically low participation, including young people, from becoming democratically active, and on exploring effective interventions to overcome these challenges.

Over the coming years, we will work to create a new automated registration system, removing key barriers to eligible citizens participating in our democracy. We want young people to find their voice and exercise their right to vote – registering to vote is a vital first step towards doing that.

We also want to build and encourage long-lasting engagement of young people with our democracy. Evidence from places that have lowered the voting age shows that doing so can increase turnout when implemented in a supportive environment. That is why the Government is committed to extending the right to vote to 16-and-17-year-olds and working alongside the Electoral Commission and civil society organisations to ensure that young people are both prepared and motivated to exercise their democratic rights. We hope that this early engagement will build the foundations for lifetime participation in our electoral processes.

While we are making these changes, we want to talk to young people to ensure we’re putting their needs at the centre of our policy making. We will work with other key actors to consider what additional measures can support schools, colleges, and youth groups to roll out practical voter/civic education. We know that it is imperative that citizenship education is fit for purpose in order to support this change. Following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review and its recommendations to the Government, we have committed to make citizenship compulsory in primary schools and to publish revised programmes of study to ensure that all pupils receive an essential grounding in a range of topics including democracy, government and law. The Department for Education will consult on programmes of study next year and the new national curriculum will be published in 2027 for first teaching in 2028.

Altogether, we will create an environment in which young people understand their rights and responsibilities, and where they are equipped and empowered to participate in our democracy.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to raise awareness of voter registration requirements among young people in Surrey Heath constituency.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Electoral Commission’s 2023 report on electoral registers found that young people are among the least likely groups to be registered to vote.

As set out in our Strategy for modern and secure elections, the Government is committed to improving voter registration, which includes work to support groups who are less likely to be registered.

A comprehensive programme of work is underway, involving collaboration with the Electoral Commission, local authorities, think tanks, academics, and civil society organisations. This programme is focused on identifying the attitudinal and knowledge barriers that prevent those with historically low participation, including young people, from becoming democratically active, and on exploring effective interventions to overcome these challenges.

Over the coming years, we will work to create a new automated registration system, removing key barriers to eligible citizens participating in our democracy. We want young people to find their voice and exercise their right to vote – registering to vote is a vital first step towards doing that.

We also want to build and encourage long-lasting engagement of young people with our democracy. Evidence from places that have lowered the voting age shows that doing so can increase turnout when implemented in a supportive environment. That is why the Government is committed to extending the right to vote to 16-and-17-year-olds and working alongside the Electoral Commission and civil society organisations to ensure that young people are both prepared and motivated to exercise their democratic rights. We hope that this early engagement will build the foundations for lifetime participation in our electoral processes.

While we are making these changes, we want to talk to young people to ensure we’re putting their needs at the centre of our policy making. We will work with other key actors to consider what additional measures can support schools, colleges, and youth groups to roll out practical voter/civic education. We know that it is imperative that citizenship education is fit for purpose in order to support this change. Following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review and its recommendations to the Government, we have committed to make citizenship compulsory in primary schools and to publish revised programmes of study to ensure that all pupils receive an essential grounding in a range of topics including democracy, government and law. The Department for Education will consult on programmes of study next year and the new national curriculum will be published in 2027 for first teaching in 2028.

Altogether, we will create an environment in which young people understand their rights and responsibilities, and where they are equipped and empowered to participate in our democracy.

Found: universities, and the Association of Colleges.16 1.4 UK Government guidance on Erasmus+ The UK Department for Education

Found: • Analogue to digital services to improve the accessibility of health services 83 Department for Education

Found: (DfE), Teachers’ Pension Scheme (England and Wales) Annual Report and Accounts 2024-2025,

Found: Working with UK Research and Innovation, the Department for Education, and the Office for Students on

Found: It works closely with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Education (DfE

Found: individual support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy or the Department for Education

Found: policies should be adapted to meet the needs of young persons and to follow any applicable Department for Education

Found: policies should be adapted to meet the needs of young persons and to follow any applicable Department for Education

Found: Department for Education (DfE) will monitor this through asking grant recipients to provide additional

Found: TOTAL NON-BUDGET NON-BUDGET Department for Education X022A344 X022A344-IFA DEPT NON BUDGET

Found: discuss cross-departmental initiative in partnership with His Majesty's Treasury and the Department for Education

Found: discuss cross-departmental initiative in partnership with His Majesty's Treasury and the Department for Education

Found: govuk-template--rebranded" lang="en">