Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding hi Department provided for programmes that promote the use of artificial intelligence in schools.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department does not mandate or promote any specific materials or programmes as it is for schools to decide what to use. The department has provided over £6 million of funding since July 2024 to support safe and effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools, including £2 million for Oak National Academy to develop its AI lesson planning assistant, Aila, and joint-funding the Education Content Store pilot along with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The department has also funded free support materials for staff in schools and colleges, developed by the Chiltern Learning Trust and the Chartered College of Teaching.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions have (a) ministers, and (b) officials had with the Office for Students on the presence of Confucius Institutes in the UK.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ministers and officials regularly meet with the Office for Students to discuss a wide range of topics, including international partnerships. The government welcomes these partnerships, including with China, many of which make strong contributions to our society. Universities have a responsibility to ensure that any partnership, including with a Confucius Institute, is managed appropriately and is compliant with their legal duties and regulatory requirements.
Asked by: Calvin Bailey (Labour - Leyton and Wanstead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of flat-rate per-pupil funding for breakfast clubs in mainstream schools on the accessibility of these clubs for pupils with SEND.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Following the success of the 750 early adopters, where we invested £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year, the department is now moving to national rollout, raising the budget to £80 million to fund an additional 2,000 schools joining the programme between April 2026 and March 2027.
The department has used the rich learning from the early adopters, existing programmes and costs to determine funding rates for national rollout, and this has been tested and refined with schools. This includes mainstream schools with special educational needs and disabilities pupils.
The funding rate for national rollout will take this learning into account and provide schools with the autonomy they need to allocate funding to promote inclusive access and ensure the offer reaches those who need it most.
The department will provide further information on the funding for national rollout in the near future, alongside specifics on eligibility, funding, and expectations.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken alongside local authorities to help tackle persistent absence in schools in Slough constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
Thanks to the efforts of schools, absence is moving in the right direction, with children attending over 5.31 million more days this year compared to last. However, around one in five pupils are still missing 10% or more of school, which is why the department is continuing to drive further improvement.
Steps taken to improve attendance includes developing real-time data tools that allows schools to compare attendance against similar schools and enable earlier intervention as well as investing in targeted support, including £15 million to set up the attendance mentors programme supporting 10,800 pupils.
The department has also started to establish new Attendance and Behaviour Hubs, where up to 90 hubs led by schools with excellent attendance and behaviour practice will support more than 4,500 schools to improve.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department are taking to help support university students living with (a) Chron's and (b) Colitis.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ensuring that all students are well supported during their time at university.
Higher education providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for all their disabled students, which includes those with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.
Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their provider. In addition to reasonable adjustments, Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is available for the provision of more specialist support.
My noble Friend, the Minister for Skills, has recently appointed Sir Steve West as Higher Education Student Support Champion to lead the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The Taskforce is instrumental in assessing and driving improvements in mental health support across the sector, including taking forward recommendations from the recent national review of higher education student suicides.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department are taking to ensure universities have adequate mental health support services.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ensuring that all students are well supported during their time at university.
Higher education providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for all their disabled students, which includes those with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.
Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their provider. In addition to reasonable adjustments, Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is available for the provision of more specialist support.
My noble Friend, the Minister for Skills, has recently appointed Sir Steve West as Higher Education Student Support Champion to lead the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The Taskforce is instrumental in assessing and driving improvements in mental health support across the sector, including taking forward recommendations from the recent national review of higher education student suicides.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to ensure universities have adequate disability support services.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ensuring that all students are well supported during their time at university.
Higher education providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for all their disabled students, which includes those with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.
Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their provider. In addition to reasonable adjustments, Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is available for the provision of more specialist support.
My noble Friend, the Minister for Skills, has recently appointed Sir Steve West as Higher Education Student Support Champion to lead the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The Taskforce is instrumental in assessing and driving improvements in mental health support across the sector, including taking forward recommendations from the recent national review of higher education student suicides.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what response she has to the recommendation of the October 2025 final report of the Poverty Strategy Commission for Government to consult with parents and childcare providers on increasing payment rates to providers to ensure that they do not have to introduce optional charges for meals or other aspects of care to top up state funding of free hours.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
In financial year 2025/26 alone, the government has provided over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, increasing to over £9 billion in 2026/27. We have announced the largest ever increase to early years pupil premium since its introduction and have delivered a significant tranche of supplementary funding of £75 million through the early years expansion grant.
Government funding for the entitlements does not cover consumables like meals so providers are able to ask parents to pay for these things. However, the statutory guidance is clear that these charges must not be mandatory or a condition of accessing an entitlements place.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ban the use of smart phones in 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.
Phones have no place in our schools, and leaders already have the power to ban phones. 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. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.
Research from the Children’s Commissioner, with responses from nearly all schools and colleges in England, shows that the overwhelming majority of schools, 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools, already have policies in place that limit or restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many knives and other weapons were confiscated in schools in England in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Every child must be safe and the government is committed to making schools safer places for every child by tackling the root cause of serious violence.
The department does not hold data on the number of knives and other weapons confiscated in schools in England. Confiscations are operational matters managed at school level and are not part of statutory data returns to the department. Guidance on searching, screening and confiscation is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62d1643e8fa8f50bfbefa55c/Searching__Screening_and_Confiscation_guidance_July_2022.pdf.
However, findings from the School and College Panel survey indicate that in March 2024, 27% of secondary school leaders noted a known incident of weapon possession by a pupil on school premises since the beginning of the year, compared to only 2% of primary school leaders.
The department also monitors a range of data related to children’s risk of violence, including education, social care and police national computer data. Our published dashboard can be accessed at: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/childrens-social-care-and-offending/.