Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve working conditions for parents working in primary and secondary education settings.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is taking a range of steps to improve working conditions for parents working in schools.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 provides for the establishment of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). This will be a new statutory body with a remit to negotiate pay, terms and conditions, and advise on training and career progression for school support staff.

We have committed to fund improvements to maternity pay for school and college teachers, leaders and support staff. From the academic year 2027/28, schoolteachers and leaders will see their period of full maternity pay doubled from four weeks to eight weeks. We will also enable the SSSNB to prioritise maternity pay in its first year of operation to negotiate an equivalent improvement for support staff.

Wider government reforms which will also apply to schools over time, include the introduction of new requirements on pay gap reporting and workforce action plans, alongside changes to flexible working. We are also developing a new workforce retention programme to launch this autumn to reduce workload, improve wellbeing and diversity and increase availability of flexible working.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the parity of GCSE English Language and IGCSE English Language on the coursework route qualifications.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

GCSE English Language and IGCSE English Language are distinct qualifications, which are assessed and regulated in different ways.

GCSE English Language qualifications in England are regulated by Ofqual, with subject content set by the Department. These GCSEs are assessed through examinations only, with no coursework contributing to the final grade.

IGCSE English Language is a different qualification that is not regulated by Ofqual and includes a coursework component as part of its assessment.

The UK National Information Centre assesses the comparability of overseas qualifications with UK qualifications, including those in English.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of whether X continues to qualify for protection as a platform rather than a publisher under UK law.

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

The Online Safety Act imposes a range of duties on user-to-user service providers, including X, requiring them to proactively identify, mitigate and manage risks to users, and to be accountable for the safety of their platforms.

Service providers must proactively mitigate risk of use for illegal activity and must address illegal content when it appears. They must also prevent children from encountering the most harmful content and must implement age-appropriate measures to protect children from other kinds of harmful content.

Ofcom, the independent regulator, has powers to take robust enforcement action where service providers do not comply with Act duties.

Draft Code of Practice on Services, public functions and associations

Found: Clifton-Brown (Conservative; North Cotswolds) (Chair) Mr Clive Betts (Labour; Sheffield South East) Anna Dixon

Found: Clifton-Brown (Conservative; North Cotswolds) (Chair) Mr Clive Betts (Labour; Sheffield South East) Anna Dixon