First elected: 5th May 2005
Left House: 30th May 2024 (Dissolution)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by John Penrose, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
John Penrose has not been granted any Urgent Questions
A Bill to make provision about the creation and operation of street-level plans for local development; and for connected purposes.
Whistleblowing Bill 2021-22
Sponsor - Mary Robinson (Con)
Local Electricity Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Peter Aldous (Con)
Energy Consumption (Innovative Technologies) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Rebecca Pow (Con)
Electoral Reform (Local Elections and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016-17
Sponsor - Ranil Jayawardena (Con)
We thank the honourable Member for Weston-super-Mare for highlighting these two letters
and apologise for the delay in responding. A response has been issued and should be with
the honourable Member now as of 26/03/2024.
I can confirm receipt of the letters my Hon. Friend refers to, having had them passed to me only this week. I have now responded to these letters, and I apologise for the delay in responding.
The UK follows the agreed international approach for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, whereby countries report emissions produced within their territories.
We will continue to drive international co-operation to counter the risk of emissions offshoring and the Government will consult later this year on Carbon Leakage Mitigation options.
I apologise for the delay in responding to the points raised by the hon. Member on behalf of his constituent.
I responded to the hon. Member’s letters on 11 January.
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence. As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence on gov.uk, departments and agencies should aim to respond to correspondence within a 20 working day target deadline.
Following transfer on 7 May of the Hon. Member’s correspondence of 4 March and 3 April 2024 from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to the Cabinet Office, I can confirm a response has now been issued, on 13 May.
The Government expects all former Ministers to abide by their obligations with regard to the Business Appointment Rules, as set out in the Ministerial Code. The work to develop a ministerial deed is ongoing and, as such, it has not yet been introduced.
The Government's response to Sir Nigel Boardman's Review into the Development and Use of Supply Chain Finance in Government; the Committee on Standards in Public Life's report 'Upholding Standards in Public Life', and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee's report 'Propriety of Governance in Light of Greensill' will be published before the summer recess.
A response to the Honourable Member’s constituent, Andy Clark, has been issued and a copy will be deposited in the House of Commons Library.
I refer the Hon Member to the Written Ministerial Statement Government Transparency and Accountability, put before the House by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 15 July 2022. The statement sets out action already taken in relation to reports by the Committee on Standards in Public Life and Nigel Boardman and that further work continues.
The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) was set up to improve the way government programmes are evaluated to improve our assessment of whether programmes should be continued, expanded, modified or stopped. The ETF provides all government Departments with reactive evaluation advice and support on request, as well as a proactive scrutiny and challenge function, which is responsive to requests from Treasury and Cabinet Office ministerial priorities. Departments, however, are responsible for evaluating their own programmes.
HM Government spends about £1 trillion each year, including £400 billion on public services. Since the establishment of the ETF 18 months ago, the team has advised on how to best evaluate 169 programmes worth £81.7bn. This includes the ETF’s recently published top 10 priority areas where they will provide more significant evaluation support and challenge to ensure that evaluation is used to understand the effectiveness of the most important policies and programmes across government. In addition, through the £15m Evaluation Accelerator Fund, the ETF has awarded 16 programmes funding to support actionable evaluations in priority areas.
The ETF advises on programmes covering single-year and multi-year expenditure and therefore cannot accurately determine the proportion of spending on government programmes that will be covered by the ETF this year.
The ETF will be updating the government major projects conducted by the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit in 2019. The findings will be used to identify projects where the ETF can make a significant difference by providing evaluation support. The ambition is, by 2025, all new major programmes in government will have a robust evaluation in place, delivering value for money for the public, and ensuring the impact of taxpayer money is maximised.
The Government publishes a comprehensive set of transparency publications and we keep this under review.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is independent of Government and is accountable to Parliament through the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee for its performance. The PHSO will therefore reply separately to this question by letter.
Being able to procure at speed has been critical in providing the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We welcome the NAO report which recognises that the government ‘needed to procure with extreme urgency’ and ‘secured unprecedented volumes of essential supplies necessary to protect front-line workers’.
All contracts, including those designed to tackle coronavirus issues, must continue to achieve value for money for taxpayers, use good commercial judgement and the details of any awards made should be published as soon as possible in line with Government transparency guidelines.
Robust processes are in place for the award of government contracts. PPE offers were assessed using the same eight step process, including quality checks, price controls and other due diligence, no matter where the original referral came from. This eight step process has been published in the NAO’s report. For further details please see the statement on gov.uk.
We are committed to transparency in public procurement. Details of central government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. We regret that some details have not been uploaded in a timely fashion. All will be published as soon as possible and significant information is already available online.
The forthcoming Green Paper on transforming the UK’s public procurement regulations will strengthen our longstanding and essential policies that are fundamental to public procurement including transparency, ensuring value for money and fair treatment of suppliers. As part of this, we will propose legislating to reinforce that contracting authorities would need to publish basic disclosure information, including the basis of award decisions.
We have always accepted that there are lessons to be learned from how we responded to this unprecedented global pandemic and the government is fully committed to doing so. We will address the NAO report’s recommendations in due course. As I stated in my answer on 12 November, we are engaged in both internal and external audit to review how our procurements during this period have been conducted.
The service to offer coronavirus (COVID-19) support has closed. Information for businesses seeking to offer coronavirus support is available at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-support-from-business
Being able to procure at speed has been critical in providing the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We welcome the NAO report which recognises that the government ‘needed to procure with extreme urgency’ and ‘secured unprecedented volumes of essential supplies necessary to protect front-line workers’.
All contracts, including those designed to tackle coronavirus issues, must continue to achieve value for money for taxpayers, use good commercial judgement and the details of any awards made should be published as soon as possible in line with Government transparency guidelines.
Robust processes are in place for the award of government contracts. PPE offers were assessed using the same eight step process, including quality checks, price controls and other due diligence, no matter where the original referral came from. This eight step process has been published in the NAO’s report. For further details please see the statement on gov.uk.
We are committed to transparency in public procurement. Details of central government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. We regret that some details have not been uploaded in a timely fashion. All will be published as soon as possible and significant information is already available online.
The forthcoming Green Paper on transforming the UK’s public procurement regulations will strengthen our longstanding and essential policies that are fundamental to public procurement including transparency, ensuring value for money and fair treatment of suppliers. As part of this, we will propose legislating to reinforce that contracting authorities would need to publish basic disclosure information, including the basis of award decisions.
We have always accepted that there are lessons to be learned from how we responded to this unprecedented global pandemic and the government is fully committed to doing so. We will address the NAO report’s recommendations in due course. As I stated in my answer on 12 November, we are engaged in both internal and external audit to review how our procurements during this period have been conducted.
The service to offer coronavirus (COVID-19) support has closed. Information for businesses seeking to offer coronavirus support is available at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-support-from-business
Being able to procure at speed has been critical in providing the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We welcome the NAO report which recognises that the government ‘needed to procure with extreme urgency’ and ‘secured unprecedented volumes of essential supplies necessary to protect front-line workers’.
All contracts, including those designed to tackle coronavirus issues, must continue to achieve value for money for taxpayers, use good commercial judgement and the details of any awards made should be published as soon as possible in line with Government transparency guidelines.
Robust processes are in place for the award of government contracts. PPE offers were assessed using the same eight step process, including quality checks, price controls and other due diligence, no matter where the original referral came from. This eight step process has been published in the NAO’s report. For further details please see the statement on gov.uk.
We are committed to transparency in public procurement. Details of central government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. We regret that some details have not been uploaded in a timely fashion. All will be published as soon as possible and significant information is already available online.
The forthcoming Green Paper on transforming the UK’s public procurement regulations will strengthen our longstanding and essential policies that are fundamental to public procurement including transparency, ensuring value for money and fair treatment of suppliers. As part of this, we will propose legislating to reinforce that contracting authorities would need to publish basic disclosure information, including the basis of award decisions.
We have always accepted that there are lessons to be learned from how we responded to this unprecedented global pandemic and the government is fully committed to doing so. We will address the NAO report’s recommendations in due course. As I stated in my answer on 12 November, we are engaged in both internal and external audit to review how our procurements during this period have been conducted.
The service to offer coronavirus (COVID-19) support has closed. Information for businesses seeking to offer coronavirus support is available at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-support-from-business
Being able to procure at speed has been critical in providing the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We welcome the NAO report which recognises that the government ‘needed to procure with extreme urgency’ and ‘secured unprecedented volumes of essential supplies necessary to protect front-line workers’.
All contracts, including those designed to tackle coronavirus issues, must continue to achieve value for money for taxpayers, use good commercial judgement and the details of any awards made should be published as soon as possible in line with Government transparency guidelines.
Robust processes are in place for the award of government contracts. PPE offers were assessed using the same eight step process, including quality checks, price controls and other due diligence, no matter where the original referral came from. This eight step process has been published in the NAO’s report. For further details please see the statement on gov.uk.
We are committed to transparency in public procurement. Details of central government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. We regret that some details have not been uploaded in a timely fashion. All will be published as soon as possible and significant information is already available online.
The forthcoming Green Paper on transforming the UK’s public procurement regulations will strengthen our longstanding and essential policies that are fundamental to public procurement including transparency, ensuring value for money and fair treatment of suppliers. As part of this, we will propose legislating to reinforce that contracting authorities would need to publish basic disclosure information, including the basis of award decisions.
We have always accepted that there are lessons to be learned from how we responded to this unprecedented global pandemic and the government is fully committed to doing so. We will address the NAO report’s recommendations in due course. As I stated in my answer on 12 November, we are engaged in both internal and external audit to review how our procurements during this period have been conducted.
The service to offer coronavirus (COVID-19) support has closed. Information for businesses seeking to offer coronavirus support is available at https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-support-from-business
My officials are coordinating and leading the drafting on a roadmap which will set out the Government’s ambition for future Smart Data scheme development across seven different sectors. The Government plans to publish this in early 2024.
The Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA), first announced in April 2022, is a major review into Britain’s electricity market design that will enhance energy security and help to deliver the UK's world-leading climate targets, whilst ensuring a fair deal for consumers.
The Government plans to publish a second consultation in early 2024, which will consider a narrower range of options for reform and set out a clear direction of travel for how Great Britain's electricity market arrangements will need to evolve in future.
Alongside this consultation, the Government plans to publish an Options Assessment which provides details regarding the analytical frameworks and bespoke analysis that have been produced to support the policy development process.
Heat pumps are a widely suitable and cost-effective way to decarbonise heating in our homes. They can already be cheaper to run than a fossil fuel system, particularly where consumers have a sufficiently insulated home and heating systems are designed to operate at the lowest possible flow temperature. Nevertheless, the Government recognises that addressing current distortions in electricity and gas prices is important to make it easier for consumers to switch to low-carbon heating. The Government accepted a recommendation in the 2022 Independent Review of Net Zero to make significant progress on rebalancing of gas and electricity prices by the end of 2024.
We are committed to tacking fuel poverty and we are reviewing the Fuel Poverty Strategy to reflect the challenges faced by households after the COVID-19 pandemic and energy price rises.
We have been working with Ofgem to ensure consumers are protected, including new rules on involuntary pre-payment meter installations. Alongside this, the Government is committed to supporting those most in need with up to £900 in further cost-of-living payments this winter alongside established financial support such as the £150 Warm Home Discount.
The Online Safety Act will be our key tool in combatting the most egregious forms of online mis- and disinformation but Government action doesn’t stop there.
In addition, we are educating and empowering users through our work on media literacy, responding to information threats to our democracy via the Defending Democracy Taskforce, and analysing attempts to artificially manipulate the online information environment through the work of the National Security Online Information Team.
I regularly meet with major platforms to discuss these issues and would be very happy to update him on recent progress that has been made.
The Department provided a response to the Member on 8 March, though apologises profusely for the delay experienced on this occasion.
My hon Friend, the Minister for Energy and Climate (Graham Stuart), wrote to my hon Friend on 13 January about the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
We are considering how our policies should evolve and will continue to be guided by our commitment to meeting carbon budgets, maintaining energy security, and ensuring cost effectiveness. We will also continue to adopt a system-wide approach in assessing the case for any changes.
I would like to thank the Hon. Member for conducting his review and continued advocacy for reforming our competition and consumer policy. The Government consulted from July to October 2021 on a wide range of reforms to competition and consumer policy, and the consultations respond to proposals made by the Hon. Member in his report. The Government is now analysing the feedback received and will respond to the consultations in due course. We do not intend to issue a formal response to the Penrose review beyond our plans for response to consultation.
The Bill’s Impact Assessment can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subsidy-control-bill-2021-bill-documents.
The new subsidy transparency rules will make the UK a world leader in subsidy transparency and will provide subsidy data for improving subsidy design across the UK.
Any financial support below £315,000 over three years does not require a public authority to check the subsidy against the principles, because it is exempt as Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA). This financial support does not need to be reported to the Government or uploaded to the transparency database. The Government does not intend to assess and monitor the effectiveness of financial support which is exempt from the subsidy control rules.
The subsidy transparency rules have been designed to balance the administrative burden of recording subsidies with the benefits of subsidy transparency for those subsidies most likely to distort competition. This is why the MFA threshold is set at £315,000 over three years.
Regardless of the transparency rules, public authorities have a responsibility to ensure that any public money they provide is spent appropriately. Nonetheless, the assessment of financial support which is exempt from the rules would reduce the effectiveness of the dataset generated by the subsidy control database. Any subsidy data analysis should focus on those subsidies subject to the rules of the regime.
Information on subsidies which were below the EU State aid transparency threshold was not required to be declared on the EU State Aid Transparency Public Search tool.
The information is also not held centrally by the Government and could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Information on subsidies which were below the EU State aid transparency threshold was not required to be declared on the EU State Aid Transparency Public Search tool.
The information is also not held centrally by the Government and could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Smart Meter Roll-out Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) published on 10 November estimates the costs and benefits for suppliers, consumers’ savings and energy networks – the document is available at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-meter-roll-out-gb-cost-benefit-analysis.
The smart meter rollout is expected to deliver significant net benefits to Great Britain, estimated overall at £5.7 billion over the lifetime of the programme.
By monitoring the near-real time and historical data on the In Home Display, consumers should increasingly be able to choose the right tariff for their needs, and will no longer leave consumers to make switching decisions on the basis of estimated bills. The rollout will also enable consumers quickly to share their data with energy services companies and switching sites, via the now-live Data and Communications Company infrastructure.
These benefits have been recognised by the Competition and Markets Authority, with some of their remedies being time-limited to fill the gap between now and the completion of the smart meter roll-out.
Our Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review recognised that promoting competition and stable, long-term regulation were critical to our connectivity ambitions. We embedded these goals into Ofcom’s Statement of Strategic Priorities.
Moreover, work continues across government on the UK’s regulatory frameworks: the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has consulted on reforms to competition and consumer policy; and, the government has set out its vision for modernising the economic regulation of the utilities sectors, including telecommunications.
A response to the 16 July letter was sent to the Hon Member on 13 August.
The What Works Centre for Wellbeing has a broad remit with their work advising on the activities of business, charities, and the public sector on areas such as health, work, sport, and education.
The department does not currently fund the Centre.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency sincerely apologises for the delay in responding to the hon. Member for Weston-Super-Mare’s correspondence.
The Department for Education, rather than the Education and Skills Funding Agency, is responsible for academy governance matters not relating to funding or finance, such as academies’ freedom to set their number of teaching days. Therefore, the Department will be responding to the hon. Member’s letters as a matter of urgency.
Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed. Pupils receive financial education through the national curriculum for mathematics and citizenship. For secondary school-aged pupils, this includes compulsory content covering the functions and uses of money, financial products and services, and the need to understand financial risk, including any emerging financial trends. Schools have flexibility over how they design their curriculum and can tailor it to the needs of their pupils.
The Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England during Talk Money Week (8-12 November 2021). The guidance includes links to quality assured resources for schools, including content and activities on cryptocurrencies and buy now, pay later schemes. It also sets out the knowledge and skills pupils need to protect their personal data, critically evaluate online content, and identify scams. The guidance is available to view here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
There are other opportunities across the national curriculum to teach pupils about cryptocurrencies. For example, the computing curriculum teaches the fundamental knowledge and skills that support pupils to make well-informed choices about technology. It covers the principles of e-safety at all key stages, with progression in the content to reflect the different and escalating risks that young people face. The computing curriculum is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study.
The department will continue to work closely with the MAPS and other relevant parties such as Her Majesty’s Treasury, to support the teaching of financial education to children and young people, including novel financial products.
Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework has a strong emphasis on schools providing a broad, balanced, and ambitious curriculum for all pupils, as exemplified by the national curriculum. Inspectors undertake deep dives into several specific subjects during inspection and this will include mathematics and citizenship for some schools.
Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed. Pupils receive financial education through the national curriculum for mathematics and citizenship. For secondary school-aged pupils, this includes compulsory content covering the functions and uses of money, financial products and services, and the need to understand financial risk, including any emerging financial trends. Schools have flexibility over how they design their curriculum and can tailor it to the needs of their pupils.
The Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England during Talk Money Week (8-12 November 2021). The guidance includes links to quality assured resources for schools, including content and activities on cryptocurrencies and buy now, pay later schemes. It also sets out the knowledge and skills pupils need to protect their personal data, critically evaluate online content, and identify scams. The guidance is available to view here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
There are other opportunities across the national curriculum to teach pupils about cryptocurrencies. For example, the computing curriculum teaches the fundamental knowledge and skills that support pupils to make well-informed choices about technology. It covers the principles of e-safety at all key stages, with progression in the content to reflect the different and escalating risks that young people face. The computing curriculum is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study.
The department will continue to work closely with the MAPS and other relevant parties such as Her Majesty’s Treasury, to support the teaching of financial education to children and young people, including novel financial products.
Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework has a strong emphasis on schools providing a broad, balanced, and ambitious curriculum for all pupils, as exemplified by the national curriculum. Inspectors undertake deep dives into several specific subjects during inspection and this will include mathematics and citizenship for some schools.
All schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
The mathematics programmes of study provide young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money.
In 2014 financial literacy was made statutory within the national curriculum as part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16-year-olds. The department also published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for 5 to 11-year-olds, which is clear that, by the end of primary education, pupils should be taught how to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.
Primary schools are free to include additional content on financial management in their curricula, including working with external experts to ensure they develop the right teaching approach for their particular context.
The Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England on 11 November 2021, during Talk Money week. The guidance is designed to support school leaders to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools to make it memorable and impactful. The department supported MAPS with their communications activities during Talk Money week and is looking for future appropriate opportunities to promote the guidance. The guidance is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
In the COVID-19 School Snapshot survey from June-September 2021, all leaders were asked if their school teaches pupils about managing money, such as how to make good decisions about spending and saving. The summary of findings showed that most did so but that it was more common amongst secondary schools (86%) than primary schools (60%). Schools with the lowest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals were more likely than those on the highest proportion to teach pupils about managing money (70% vs. 59%).
MAPS are planning to carry out a UK wide children and young people financial capability survey later this year. The Delivery Plans for each nation are being published shortly and will detail plans to increase the provision of financial education for more children and young people across the UK.
The department will continue to work closely with MAPS and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty's Treasury, to consider learning from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.
All schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
The mathematics programmes of study provide young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money.
In 2014 financial literacy was made statutory within the national curriculum as part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16-year-olds. The department also published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for 5 to 11-year-olds, which is clear that, by the end of primary education, pupils should be taught how to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.
Primary schools are free to include additional content on financial management in their curricula, including working with external experts to ensure they develop the right teaching approach for their particular context.
The Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England on 11 November 2021, during Talk Money week. The guidance is designed to support school leaders to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools to make it memorable and impactful. The department supported MAPS with their communications activities during Talk Money week and is looking for future appropriate opportunities to promote the guidance. The guidance is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
In the COVID-19 School Snapshot survey from June-September 2021, all leaders were asked if their school teaches pupils about managing money, such as how to make good decisions about spending and saving. The summary of findings showed that most did so but that it was more common amongst secondary schools (86%) than primary schools (60%). Schools with the lowest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals were more likely than those on the highest proportion to teach pupils about managing money (70% vs. 59%).
MAPS are planning to carry out a UK wide children and young people financial capability survey later this year. The Delivery Plans for each nation are being published shortly and will detail plans to increase the provision of financial education for more children and young people across the UK.
The department will continue to work closely with MAPS and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty's Treasury, to consider learning from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.
All schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
The mathematics programmes of study provide young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money.
In 2014 financial literacy was made statutory within the national curriculum as part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16-year-olds. The department also published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for 5 to 11-year-olds, which is clear that, by the end of primary education, pupils should be taught how to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.
Primary schools are free to include additional content on financial management in their curricula, including working with external experts to ensure they develop the right teaching approach for their particular context.
The Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England on 11 November 2021, during Talk Money week. The guidance is designed to support school leaders to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools to make it memorable and impactful. The department supported MAPS with their communications activities during Talk Money week and is looking for future appropriate opportunities to promote the guidance. The guidance is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
In the COVID-19 School Snapshot survey from June-September 2021, all leaders were asked if their school teaches pupils about managing money, such as how to make good decisions about spending and saving. The summary of findings showed that most did so but that it was more common amongst secondary schools (86%) than primary schools (60%). Schools with the lowest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals were more likely than those on the highest proportion to teach pupils about managing money (70% vs. 59%).
MAPS are planning to carry out a UK wide children and young people financial capability survey later this year. The Delivery Plans for each nation are being published shortly and will detail plans to increase the provision of financial education for more children and young people across the UK.
The department will continue to work closely with MAPS and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty's Treasury, to consider learning from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.
All schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek further information when needed.
The mathematics programmes of study provide young people with the knowledge and financial skills to make important financial decisions. In the primary mathematics curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on the essential arithmetic knowledge that pupils should be taught. This knowledge is vital, as a strong grasp of numeracy and numbers will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. There is also some specific content about financial education, such as calculations with money.
In 2014 financial literacy was made statutory within the national curriculum as part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16-year-olds. The department also published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for 5 to 11-year-olds, which is clear that, by the end of primary education, pupils should be taught how to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.
Primary schools are free to include additional content on financial management in their curricula, including working with external experts to ensure they develop the right teaching approach for their particular context.
The Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) published financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England on 11 November 2021, during Talk Money week. The guidance is designed to support school leaders to enhance the financial education currently delivered in their schools to make it memorable and impactful. The department supported MAPS with their communications activities during Talk Money week and is looking for future appropriate opportunities to promote the guidance. The guidance is available here: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.
In the COVID-19 School Snapshot survey from June-September 2021, all leaders were asked if their school teaches pupils about managing money, such as how to make good decisions about spending and saving. The summary of findings showed that most did so but that it was more common amongst secondary schools (86%) than primary schools (60%). Schools with the lowest proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals were more likely than those on the highest proportion to teach pupils about managing money (70% vs. 59%).
MAPS are planning to carry out a UK wide children and young people financial capability survey later this year. The Delivery Plans for each nation are being published shortly and will detail plans to increase the provision of financial education for more children and young people across the UK.
The department will continue to work closely with MAPS and other stakeholders such as Her Majesty's Treasury, to consider learning from other sector initiatives and whether there is scope to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.