Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for support for education professionals working with armed forces children; and what steps he is taking to ensure that funding in this area is (a) informed by research, (b) supported by evaluation and (c) aligned with improving outcomes for armed forces families.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

Understanding that education is a devolved matter, the Secretary of State for Defence does not issue core funding to educational settings for Service children.

However, the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Armed Forces Families Fund provides additional funding opportunities for schools and local authorities across the UK. Since 2023, £4.5 million has supported the Service Pupil Support Programme (SPSP) in schools and local authorities across the UK. The sub themes of the SPSP align with the aims of the Armed Forces Families Strategy and include elements focusing upon the educational outcomes of Service children and supporting Service children with additional learning needs. The SPSP is evaluated externally and is also presently funding three university research projects in areas of specific interest.

In England the Department for Education continues to allocate additional funding in the form of the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) to state funded schools with Service children among their pupils. Service Pupil Premium funding helps schools to provide pastoral and academic support to current and former Service children. Schools are allocated SPP funding for each pupil aged 5 to 16 who is currently recorded as a Service child in the autumn school census or who has held this status in the last six years via ‘Ever 6’, or who receives a child pension from the MOD. The SPP is now worth £350 per eligible pupil annually. For example, more than £26 million has been paid to schools in the financial year 2023 to 2024, benefiting more than 78,000 pupils.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is planning to take to improve the (a) quality and (b) availability of data on the educational (i) outcomes and (ii) experiences of armed forces children; and if he will make it his policy to develop a national dataset to help inform evidence-based (A) policy and (B) practice in this area.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

We are committed with counterparts in Government to maintaining robust data around the educational outcomes of all children to inform future strategic and policy development. It is important to remember that education is a devolved matter, and caution should be applied in considering the feasibility of a UK-wide dataset, where very different education systems would be compared. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises the importance of the devolved administrations maintaining their own datasets to inform where their resources should be targeted.

The Department for Education (DfE) continues to provide the MOD updated datasets on how Service children perform in state schools in England across key measures of academic attainment; this information is published in the Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report. The DfE and the MOD have also recently published joint guidance to schools and local authorities on how best to support Service children in education.

In Scotland, the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Act places duties on education authorities, who retain the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education in Scotland. These duties require Scottish authorities to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of pupils. This includes Service children and young people, who may require extra support, short or long term and for whatever the reason. Delivery of ASL is a joint endeavour between the Scottish Government and Scottish Local Authorities.

The Welsh Government are currently exploring the potential to broaden the definition of Service children in Wales to ensure the maximum number of children can benefit from the support available. Linked to this they are considering how they collect data on Service children in Welsh schools to ensure that policy and support is based on robust evidence.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that projects supported by the Zero Emission Vessel Infrastructure fund in (a) Aberdeen (b) Portsmouth and (c) the UK are able to proceed with vessel plug-in demonstrations; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of (i) uncertainty on the UK Emission Trading Scheme's applicability to domestic maritime, (ii) the VAT rating of shore power and (iii) the level of ports' (A) transmission and (B) standing charges on the viability of such projects.

Answered by Mike Kane

The Zero Emission Vessel Infrastructure (ZEVI) fund provided £80 million of funding to ten projects, including over £25 million for cold ironing projects in Portsmouth, Aberdeen and Falmouth. Our UK SHORE programme delivery partner Innovate UK, monitors, scrutinises and works with projects to ensure they are on track for delivery and to assist with overcoming barriers which may impact upon delivery.

While we have not specifically assessed the impact of the points raised on the viability of ZEVI projects, the wider policy environment will of course enable the long-term viability of these projects.

The recently published Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy sets out our intended policy package for the UK domestic maritime sector, including expanding the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to domestic maritime from 2026. This will be a key policy in enabling the conditions for zero and near-zero emission vessels to be commercially viable, by applying a price to emissions, and incentivising the uptake of emissions reduction technologies.

In the coming months we will publish our response to the consultation on the technical details of including domestic maritime in the ETS, which will provide more certainty on the applicability of the scheme.

Further to this, we recently concluded a call for evidence on Net Zero Ports. It focused on port decarbonisation and zero emissions at berth, including questions on the barriers and opportunities of reducing emissions at berth and standing and transmission charges at ports. Our response to this call for evidence will follow in due course. We will continue to engage with Ofgem and other departments regarding the provision and use of electricity by ports and their users.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to his Department's document entitled Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy, published on 25 March 2025, when he will announce the outcome of the consultation on the application of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to shipping operating in UK waters.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

A second, technical consultation on the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to include the maritime sector closed in January 2025. The UK ETS Authority is currently analysing responses and finalising policy design for implementation. The consultation outlined that the scheme would apply to domestic voyages between UK ports, including voyages that begin and end in the same UK port. The Authority also proposed to include emissions at berth in UK ports (irrespective of whether a ship is undertaking a domestic or international voyage). We will publish the Authority Response to this consultation in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure distinct recognition for children from service families in education policy; and whether she will adopt a whole person, whole journey approach for such children.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell

The Armed Forces Covenant aims to ensure that service people and their families are not disadvantaged by their service to our country. The government is dedicated to recognising and supporting the education of children and young people from military families within the state-funded education system, ensuring they have the opportunity to achieve and thrive.

Schools are allocated additional funding through the Service Pupil Premium to help them better support the specific needs of children from service families. For the 2025/26 financial year, over £26 million has been allocated to state-funded schools in England through the Service Pupil Premium, at a rate of £350 per pupil.

The government remains open to new evidence regarding the specific needs of service children and is committed to finding the best ways to support them throughout all educational phases.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the VAT treatment of (a) shore power supplied to ships and (b) the services provided by contractors who connect or disconnect that supply; and if she will make it her policy to amend the Extra-Statutory Concessions for electricity to be a zero-rated marine fuel for VAT purposes.

Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

VAT charged on electricity generated through shore power and supplied to ships can be recovered by businesses operating these ships subject to the normal rules of the tax.

Extra-Statutory Concessions (ESCs) are remissions of revenue that allow relief in specific sets of circumstances and are authorised when strict application of the law would create a disadvantage or the effect would not be the one intended. This does not apply to the rules that relate to the supply of electricity.

ESC 9.2 allows zero-rating of marine fuel as ships stores. It is limited to a specific set of rebated duty fuels (fuel oil, gas oil and kerosene) that qualified for zero-rating before July 1990. The Government has no plans to review or amend the scope of ESC 9.2.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether claimants with disabilities who are in receipt of the Personal Independence Payment and legacy work-related benefits will be treated as new claimants for the purposes of the proposed changes to the health element of Universal Credit when they are migrated onto Universal Credit through managed migration; and whether such claimants will see a reduction in their income as a result of these proposed changes.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department plans to complete migration of ESA claimants to UC by March 2026. As part of this ESA claimants will be migrated to the UC Health Element. To protect any claimants who have not migrated by April 2026 we intend to mirror as closely as possible the changes made in UC in the ESA rates. Changes to the “support component” and the two disability premia (severe and enhanced disability premium rates) will reflect changes to UC LCWRA rates for existing claimants.  Including these commensurate measures aims to give fair treatment for all customers moving onto UC from income related ESA, regardless of their point of migration.

Found: Cleverly (Conservative; Braintree) Dr Caroline Johnson (Conservative; Sleaford and North Hykeham) Amanda Martin

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Amanda Martin

Found: Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Sir James Cleverly; Dr Caroline Johnson; Amanda Martin

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Amanda Martin; Darren

Maternity APPG
Thursday 10th July 2025

Found: Doncaster Central), Louise Jones MP (North East Derbyshire), Laura Kyrke-Smith MP (Aylesbury), Amanda Martin