Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure state schools have adequate levels of funding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025/26, meaning that it will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25. This is a 6% overall increase, which against the backdrop of a challenging fiscal picture, demonstrates the government’s commitment to enabling every child to achieve and thrive through delivery of the Opportunity Mission.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to include older women in her Department's (a) policies and (b) decision-making processes.
Answered by Nia Griffith
The Government is clear that equality and opportunity for all are at the heart of our programme of national renewal. This includes actively considering the needs of older women and ensuring that they are not discriminated against. The Government recognises the challenges some older women can face and is committed to ensuring that support systems are in place. These include improving older people’s participation online through the new Digital Inclusion Action plan, employment support through Jobcentres, and addressing healthcare inequality in the 10 Year Health Plan, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it, whenever they need it.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to protect workers' rights for app-based taxi drivers.
Answered by Justin Madders
Our Plan to Make Work Pay will modernise the UK labour market and address challenges thrown up by new trends and technologies. The Employment Rights Bill is the first phase of delivery, and will provide a new baseline of security for workers. Once implemented, it will raise the minimum floor of employment rights, raise living standards across the country and level the playing field for businesses engaged in good practices.
We have also committed to consult on a simpler employment status framework, distinguishing between workers and the genuinely self-employed, ensuring that all workers have the comfort of protection at work.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of pausing student loan interest from accruing while new parents are in receipt of statutory maternity pay.
Answered by Janet Daby
Student loans are subject to interest to ensure that those who can afford to do so contribute to the full cost of their degree.
The student finance system protects borrowers if they see a reduction in their income for whatever reason. This includes those in receipt of statutory maternity pay, or any other person on parental leave. Student loan repayments are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant student loan repayment threshold. Any outstanding debt, including interest built up, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.
A full equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance funding on student retention rates at universities.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
The department’s review of non-specialist spelling and grammar software found that the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs was available to students in free to access software. We do not expect that this change will affect students’ retention rates or employment prospects.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance funding on disabled students' future employment prospects.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
The department’s review of non-specialist spelling and grammar software found that the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs was available to students in free to access software. We do not expect that this change will affect students’ retention rates or employment prospects.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has she made of the potential merits of making the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund permanent.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer my hon. Friend, the member for Liverpool West Derby, to my written statement of 22 April 2025, which is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-04-22/hcws589.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing monitoring compliance with School Food Standards.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool West Derby to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 48872.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April to Question 20692 on food labelling, what his timescale is for a decision on (a) next steps and (b) responding to the consultation.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
A public consultation on fairer food labelling was undertaken last year by the previous Government.
We are now carefully considering all responses to the consultation before deciding on next steps. We recognise that this is an important matter and will respond to this consultation as soon as we are able to.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to extend the Nursery Milk Scheme entitlement to the end of the academic year in which a child turns five.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows early years childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five who attend a setting for two or more hours per day. Schools can claim reimbursement from the scheme in respect of their pupils aged under five years old.
There are no plans to extend eligibility for the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover children until the end of the academic year, during which they reach their fifth birthday. Separate legislation allows pupils from lower-income families, and who are eligible for free school meals, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old.