Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on the introduction of a GCSE in Ukrainian.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE in England are taken by the four independent awarding organisations, AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC, rather than by central government. We are working with awarding organisations to explore the development of a Ukrainian GCSE.
More widely, the UK is proud to support Ukraine's future generations through the historic 100 Year Partnership. Together, we are deepening ties between our children and young people and supporting the long-term security and prosperity of our two countries.
The department launched the UK-Ukraine School Partnerships Programme in 2025 and from 2026 extended the programme to an additional 300 schools. This programme supports UK-based Ukrainian students’ cultural ties to Ukraine and builds cross-cultural understanding among our pupils.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people (a) chose to defer their state pension and (b) claimed an arears payment after 12 months in the most recent 12-month period for which data are available.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department does not know that a person has deferred until they submit a claim for their State Pension.
This means it is not possible to identify the total number of people who are deferring at any point in time, the average length of deferral or the numbers of claimants who receive the value of their deferred pension before they pass away.
Deferring entitlement to the State Pension is a personal choice based on an individual’s circumstances. It is the claimant’s responsibility to decide when to claim, including whether to defer it. Whether deferring a claim to the State Pension is the right decision will depend on a range of factors including, for example, length of deferral, employment, dependents, tax position before and after claiming the State Pension, and entitlement to other benefits.
Deferring can affect the amount and timing of payment, and this is a decision only the claimant can make. Individuals are signposted to deferral information on the Government website when they are invited to claim their State Pension; and an invitation to claim letter is issued up to four months prior to a customer reaching State Pension age.
The Department encourages people to seek independent financial advice before making a decision to defer their State Pension and this is set out at: www.gov.uk/plan-retirement-income/get-financial-advice.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension claimants are able to receive the value deferred back through inflated pensions before they pass away.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department does not know that a person has deferred until they submit a claim for their State Pension.
This means it is not possible to identify the total number of people who are deferring at any point in time, the average length of deferral or the numbers of claimants who receive the value of their deferred pension before they pass away.
Deferring entitlement to the State Pension is a personal choice based on an individual’s circumstances. It is the claimant’s responsibility to decide when to claim, including whether to defer it. Whether deferring a claim to the State Pension is the right decision will depend on a range of factors including, for example, length of deferral, employment, dependents, tax position before and after claiming the State Pension, and entitlement to other benefits.
Deferring can affect the amount and timing of payment, and this is a decision only the claimant can make. Individuals are signposted to deferral information on the Government website when they are invited to claim their State Pension; and an invitation to claim letter is issued up to four months prior to a customer reaching State Pension age.
The Department encourages people to seek independent financial advice before making a decision to defer their State Pension and this is set out at: www.gov.uk/plan-retirement-income/get-financial-advice.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the average period of time for which people choose to defer their state pensions.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department does not know that a person has deferred until they submit a claim for their State Pension.
This means it is not possible to identify the total number of people who are deferring at any point in time, the average length of deferral or the numbers of claimants who receive the value of their deferred pension before they pass away.
Deferring entitlement to the State Pension is a personal choice based on an individual’s circumstances. It is the claimant’s responsibility to decide when to claim, including whether to defer it. Whether deferring a claim to the State Pension is the right decision will depend on a range of factors including, for example, length of deferral, employment, dependents, tax position before and after claiming the State Pension, and entitlement to other benefits.
Deferring can affect the amount and timing of payment, and this is a decision only the claimant can make. Individuals are signposted to deferral information on the Government website when they are invited to claim their State Pension; and an invitation to claim letter is issued up to four months prior to a customer reaching State Pension age.
The Department encourages people to seek independent financial advice before making a decision to defer their State Pension and this is set out at: www.gov.uk/plan-retirement-income/get-financial-advice.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what whether she has considered screening all primary school age children for colour blindness.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department knows that effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Whilst the department does not have any current plans to introduce screening for all primary school age children for colour blindness, to support settings to identify need early, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings. Recently published evidence reviews from University College London will help to drive inclusive practices. They highlight what the best available evidence suggests are the most effective tools, strategies and approaches for teachers and other relevant staff in mainstream settings to identify and support children and young people with different types of needs.
We also recently announced new government-backed research into SEN identification, which will be delivered by UK Research Innovation (UKRI) in partnership with the department. This will aim to develop and test trusted and effective approaches to help the early identification of children needing tailored educational support.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of people waiting for NHS treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know how important it is to patients and clinicians that they receive and deliver treatment faster.
Our Elective Reform Plan is working. Waiting lists are down over 225,000 since we came to office. We delivered 5.2 million extra appointments in our first year; double what we promised.
The NHS is on the road to recovery, saving and transforming more lives through record investment, innovation and modernisation.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to implement social rent convergence.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At the Budget on 26 November 2025, the Chancellor restated the government’s commitment to implementing Social Rent convergence. We will announce a decision on how we will do so in January 2026, before the launch of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what his planned timetable is to (a) reform the EPC system and (b) introduce a new Home Energy Model in 2026.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government is working to reform EPCs so that they support our key objectives of achieving Clean Power by 2030 and accelerating to Net Zero. The government expects to introduce changes to EPCs metrics in 2026.
The Home Energy Model (HEM) will replace the current Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) as the methodology underpinning EPCs and building regulations, and is planned to be implemented first alongside the Future Homes Standard.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Pathfinder scheme to Hertfordshire.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones
The Pathfinder model is currently operating in six family court areas across England and Wales. Three further court areas will start the model on 11 November in the Black Country and Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire and in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. Courts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will start the model in January next year.
Further expansion of the model will be considered during the allocations process which follows the latest Spending Review, and we are unable to pre-empt the outcome of this.
Asked by: Andrew Lewin (Labour - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many postgraduate students are (a) studying and (b) parents of children of nursery age for which the latest data is available..
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education (HE) sector. HESA does not collect data on the parental status of students across all UK HE providers, and so information on the total number of postgraduate students that are parents of children of nursery age is not currently held by the department.
For the 2023/24 academic year, HESA reported there are 847,905 postgraduate students enrolled in UK HE providers. Counts of HE student enrolments by level of study are published in Table 3 of HESA’s Student data, which can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb271/figure-3.