Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that violent and abusive pornography that is illegal to distribute in physical formats is also prohibited online, as recommended in the Independent Pornography Review published on 27 February.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Independent Pornography Review assessed the effectiveness of pornography legislation, regulation, and enforcement and the Review’s findings continue to be assessed in detail by government departments. A further update on how the government is tackling the issues raised in the Review will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their timeline for a full response to the recommendations in the Independent Pornography Review published on 27 February.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Independent Pornography Review assessed the effectiveness of pornography legislation, regulation, and enforcement and the Review’s findings continue to be assessed in detail by government departments. A further update on how the government is tackling the issues raised in the Review will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the child protection benefits of streaming services partnering with the British Board of Film Classification to ensure that content is appropriately age-rated.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has not made an assessment of the child protection benefits of streaming services partnering with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Ofcom, as the independent regulator, now has a new duty introduced through the Media Act 2024 to assess audience protection measures used by video-on-demand (VoD) services, such as age ratings, to ensure they are adequate to protect audiences from harm. The Government will in due course be designating mainstream VoD services, bringing them under enhanced regulation by Ofcom. Ofcom will then consult on a new standards code for these services, similar to the Broadcasting Code. This could include the use of age ratings, if Ofcom considers it appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what mechanisms exist to ensure that catering contracts agreed by schools and academies comply with the duty in the Children and Families Act 2014 to support pupils with medical conditions, by including provision for children with conditions such as coeliac disease and severe food allergies to have access to the same opportunities as others, including safe meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
For the provision of school food, catering companies and suppliers are subject to allergen and packaging rules and regulations, such as the Food Information Regulations. Compliance with the Regulations falls under the responsibility of the Food Standards Agency.
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on governing bodies of maintained schools, proprietors of academies and management committees of pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils at their school with medical conditions. These may be food-related, for example a pupil may have a food allergy or coeliac disease. Schools should therefore take appropriate action in supporting such pupils to access food provision, particularly when schools have a legal requirement to offer free school meals (FSM) to those eligible for means-tested FSM or universal infant free school meals.
.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost to schools and academies in England of upgrading computers following the most recent update to the Windows 11 operating system.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
I refer my noble Friend to the answer of 1 April 2025 to Question HL5134.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost to schools in England of replacing computers due to the requirements of new Windows 11 operating system.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The department is aware that Microsoft are ending support for Windows 10 in October and are working with Microsoft to manage the impact on schools, including with regard to cost. Devices that meet the specification requirements for Windows 11 will be able to be updated for free. Many schools may have devices which are not able to upgrade to Windows 11 and we are keen to support these schools.
We have validated with Microsoft a more affordable rate for schools for extended security updates on Windows 10 devices, so schools can continue to use these devices safely for the next three years and do not need to purchase new devices. Extended security updates for Windows 10 will be offered to education institutions at the cost of $1 per device in the first year, $2 the following year and $4 the third year. More details about the transition to Windows 11 can be found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/blog/2024/04/windows-10-end-of-support-updates-for-education/.
Schools have the flexibility to choose how they spend their money in relation to technology to best suit their needs and there is no ring-fenced funding for technology. Some services offered through the department’s school resource management collection may also be helpful to schools in managing their budgets. For example, the ‘Get help buying for schools’ service includes the opportunity to get free help from procurement specialists to help those in schools responsible for buying goods and services to get the best value for money. It provides specific advice on buying specific goods and services for their school through a department approved framework. The service is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-buying-for-schools.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve the capacity of local authorities to assess children for the purposes of education, health and care plans.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The department wants to ensure that, where required, education, health and care (EHC) plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.
Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an EHC plan. EHC plans must be issued within 20 weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need. The most recent dataset shows that there were 138,200 initial requests for an EHC plan and 90,500 assessments took place in 2023. 50.3% of new EHC plans in 2023 were issued within 20 weeks.
The department recognises the critical role of educational psychologists within the special education needs and disabilities (SEND) system, including in their statutory contribution to EHC assessments. To support this, we are investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024. This builds on the £10 million currently being invested in a cohort of over 200 trainees who began their training in September 2023. As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support the capacity of local authority educational psychology services, including in delivering assessments.
Furthermore, the department is providing almost £1 billion more for high needs budgets in the 2025/26 financial year, bringing total high needs funding to £11.9 billion. This funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with complex SEND.
The department knows that local authorities have seen an increase in the number of assessment requests and that more needs to be done to ensure that local areas deliver effective and timely services. This includes better communication with schools and families.
The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we help the local authority to identify the problems and put in place an effective recovery plan. This includes, where needed, securing specialist SEND adviser support to help identify the barriers to EHC plan process timeliness and put in place practical plans for recovery.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the work of the Office for Clean Energy Jobs will complement, and contribute to preparing the UK workforce for, the transition to net zero.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Office for Clean Energy Jobs (OCEJ) has been created to ensure that clean energy jobs are abundant, high quality, paid fairly, and have favourable terms and good working conditions.
The OCEJ is engaging widely with industry, experts, and trade unions for a clear assessment of the skills opportunities and challenges. It is working closely with Skills England to ensure that skills systems reforms support the clean energy transition.
The OCEJ will also set out targeted interventions to support specific skills needs in the clean energy workforce. It recently announced support for the Energy Skills Passport to support oil and gas workers into new roles in the clean energy sector.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to retrain the workforce to ensure that the UK has the right skills in the right areas to transition to a low-carbon economy.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Skills is a devolved matter. This response outlines the information for England only.
The government is committed to the UK becoming a Clean Energy Superpower, achieving clean power by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The government is working to ensure that the current and future skills system in England supports workers to retrain for the low carbon economy. This includes the new growth and skills offer, which will prioritise investment that supports economic growth, increases opportunity, better meets employers’ skills needs, and increases investment in skills shortage areas. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an investment of £40 million to help deliver new foundation and shorter apprenticeships in key sectors, an additional £300 million for our further education (FE) sector, as well as £300 million of capital funding for FE condition, to support the development of the skills the country needs.
Over 40 of the occupational standards that underpin technical education in England are directly supportive of the clean energy industry. Others support insulation and energy efficiency in construction.
The government is committed to delivering the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, which will launch in the 2026/27 academic year for courses starting from January 2027. This will broaden access to high-quality, flexible education and training by providing funding for full courses as well as modules of high-value courses. Skills Bootcamps are available to support the workforce to gain new skills, including skills for the low carbon economy.
Skills England is a new national body which will bring together key partners to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all the regions and create a shared national ambition to boost England’s skills. It will provide authoritative assessments of skills needs; ensure a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training, and technical qualifications; and work with devolved areas and regional organisations to ensure skills needs are met. Skills England will work closely with the Office for Clean Energy Jobs at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which has been set up with a focus on developing a skilled workforce in core energy and net zero sectors. Skills England published its first report in September, highlighting the skills needed to support targets on net zero, the Clean Energy Mission and UK targets for environmental improvements.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has designated employer representative bodies (ERBs) to lead Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) across England. Education and training providers must have regard to the LSIP when making decisions on provision that may be relevant to the skills, capabilities or expertise required now or in the future in their area.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises are able to provide competitive training offerings to information security and technology professionals.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
We are keen to support businesses with digital and technology skills which are critical for their growth and for the security of organisations and their customers.
Help to Grow: Management is an intensive national training programme equipping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the tools to grow their businesses. The curriculum focuses on leadership and management skills as well as some digital skills.
The Made Smarter programme supports digital transformation, including digital leadership skills, for SME manufacturers.
The National Cyber Security Centre offers a range of resources for SMEs including a “Check Your Cyber Security” tool alongside advice and guidance.