Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has for the Holiday activities and food programme after 31 March 2026.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Bristol North East to the answer of 3 October 2025 to Question 73205.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of taking (a) one and (b) two week holidays with family during school term time on the long-term educational performance of primary school children.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Research by the Children’s Commissioner in 2023 found that any amount of term-time holiday is associated with lower GCSE results. This research is accessible here: https://assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2023/11/CC-REPORT-_-Attendance-and-Attainment-_-Oct-23.pdf.
Recent research conducted by the department in 2025 found that at both key stage 2 and key stage 4, attending an extra two weeks of school is associated with a 30% higher chance of achieving the expected outcome at key stage 2 and a 10% higher chance at key stage 4. This research is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67c96d7dd0fba2f1334cf2ed/The_link_between_attendance_and_attainment_in_an_assessment_year_-_March_2025.pdf.
Absence does not just affect the child missing school, it also increases teacher workload. Research published by the National Foundation for Educational Research in 2019 shows that school absence disrupts learning for the whole class. The research is accessible here: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED594391.pdf.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
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 ensure that children nearing the end of life can access palliative care at home.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations.
To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance requires ICBs to work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. This funding will also help to develop and better outreach services to support people in their own homes when needed.
Additionally, we are providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.
I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all- age palliative and end of life care, including services provided at, or closer to, home, in line with the 10-Year Health Plan. It is our intention to work together with stakeholders to ensure that everyone has access to the care they need, in the right place, at the right time, at the end of life.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to support children with complex needs whose therapeutic support requirements exceed the maximum funding available for each child specified in the guidance entitled Adoption and special guardianship support fund, last updated on 24 April 2025.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Bristol North East to the answer of 5 June 2025 to Question 53958.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to monitor the treatment of UK citizens detained at foreign airports.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is contactable 24/7 to provide consular assistance to British nationals abroad. Our assistance services are set out on gov.uk, including the help we can give when a British national is detained overseas. We take all reports of mistreatment seriously, and with the individual's consent we raise such incidents with the local authorities.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the likely readiness of hydrogen-powered aircrafts for commercial use at the planned completion of the expansion of Heathrow Airport; and what steps her Department is taking to align aviation decarbonisation initiatives with future airport infrastructure developments.
Answered by Mike Kane
The government recognises the potential decarbonisation and growth benefits that new forms of zero-emission aircraft using hydrogen could provide. However, construction and operational timelines of any Heathrow Airport expansion remain a matter for the scheme promoter.
The government has been clear that any airport expansion proposals must be delivered in line with the UK’s legal, climate and environmental obligations. The government will set out detail on plans for meeting legislated carbon budgets later this year, including for aviation.
Also, the Jet Zero Taskforce, convening representatives from government, industry, and academia, has established a dedicated Task and Finish Group to review barriers to the commercial operation of zero-carbon hydrogen aircraft.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's planned timeline is for the (a) launch and (b) operational availability of non-government pensions dashboards.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Private sector (non-government) dashboards will be launched when the Secretary of State is satisfied that the dashboards ecosystem is ready to support widespread use by the general public, following consultation with the Money and Pensions Service, The Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority. Insights gained from the launch and operation of the MoneyHelper will help inform this.
The Secretary of State will announce the date for the public availability of private sector dashboards at least six months in advance, in line with the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) protect and (b) maintain water supply infrastructure from hostile actors.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is the Lead Government Department (LGD) in England with responsibility for the Water Sector, including as a Critical National Infrastructure sector. The equivalent bodies in the Devolved Governments are responsible for water, including Critical National Infrastructure in their respective nations.
Defra’s work to deter, detect and counter threats from hostile actors includes developing, maintaining and implementing legislation, including the Security and Emergency Measures Direction (SEMD) 2022 and the Network Information Systems (NIS) regulations (2018) (UK). The SEMD sets out legal responsibilities for the Water Sector in England on matters such as security and emergency planning.
Defra also works with other government departments and water companies to understand risks from hostile actors and develop mitigations. Water companies are Category Two Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and as such have legal duties to assess, plan and advise on risks. They work with partner organisations through Local Resilience Forums to prepare, respond and recover from emergencies.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on the provision of independent travel training for young people with SEND.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department publishes statutory guidance to assist local authorities in meeting their home to school travel duties. The guidance says that wherever possible, local authorities should offer independent travel training to children with special educational needs or disabilities who are eligible for free travel to school and who they think will be able to complete the programme. This guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance.
Departmental officials engage regularly with local authorities and host bi-monthly online meetings, to which all local authority school travel officers are invited, to share good practice and seek advice from one another and the department.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the BBC World Service is able to continue broadcasting to audiences in regions impacted by censorship and media regulations.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The BBC are operationally and editorially independent and decide the most effective and efficient way to deliver the BBC World Service.
At a time where media freedom is under threat across the world, the World Service provides impartial accurate news to a global audience of 320 million.
It reaches audiences living in authoritarian and conflict-affected states, where accurate information is most restricted. 75 per cent of its audience are based in countries with low or no media freedom.