Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information they hold on the number of workdays that were completed remotely in their Department in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 to date.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s employees work remotely from offices for a variety of reasons, including to visit educational institutions, partner organisations or when they have agreement to work from somewhere other than an office. IT log-on data indicates that approximately 55% of available working days in 2024 and 2025 to date were spent working remotely, but this figure should be treated as indicative rather than definitive, due to limitations in how the data is captured.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with (a) teachers and (b) head teachers on teaching pupils who have English as a second language.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not recently met with teachers or headteachers to discuss teaching pupils whose first language is other than English.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to children with dyslexia.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer the hon. member for Ashfield to the answer of 1 August 2025 to Question 61402.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve exam results for children with dyslexia.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer the hon. member for Ashfield to the answer of 1 August 2025 to Question 61402.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much their Department has spent on translating documents into languages other than (a) English and (b) other native UK languages in each year since 2023; and what these languages were.
Answered by Janet Daby
The total cost incurred by the department in providing translation services from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, other than English and languages native to the UK, is £16,594.18 and these are broken down as follows:
Language | Total |
Arabic | 10,904.45 |
Bangla (Bangladesh) | 536.45 |
Gujarati (India) | 536.45 |
Lithuanian | 447.74 |
Pashto (Afghanistan) | 536.45 |
Polish | 447.74 |
Punjabi | 536.45 |
Romanian | 447.74 |
Somali | 680.07 |
Ukrainian | 447.74 |
Urdu | 536.45 |
Yiddish | 536.45 |
| 16,594.18 |
The total cost incurred by the department in providing translation services for the period 01/04/2024 to 25/03/2025 is £25,286.79. This is split between £24,820.60 for British sign language and braille support and £318.57 for other translation services.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure political (a) neutrality and (b) balance in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer the hon. Member for Ashfield to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43267.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children resident in Ashfield constituency attend (a) private and (b) independent schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department publishes data on the number of pupils that attend an independent school on school census day. This data is published in the annual 'Schools, pupils and their characteristics' accredited official statistics. Constituency level data can be found in the underlying school level data files, which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds data on the number of children leaving private schools since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The department does not hold pupil-level data on private school pupils and so does not have information on how many pupils have left private schools.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure adequate provision of apprenticeships in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country, including in Ashfield, and support the industrial strategy.
From August, the department will be introducing seven new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, including construction and the built environment, digital, and health and social care. We are also reducing the apprenticeship minimum duration to eight months so that shorter apprenticeships are possible from August. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
To support employers to access apprenticeships, the government pays £1,000 to employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years old, and for apprentices aged 19 to 24 years old who have an education, health and care plan or have been in local authority care. We will also provide £2,000 payments to employers for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to 25 when they earn less than £50,270 a year.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing mandatory prison sentences for people operating unregulated care homes for children.
Answered by Janet Daby
This government is clear that all providers of children’s social care accommodation such as children’s homes should register with Ofsted as per the Care Standards Act (CSA) 2000.
Ofsted has existing powers to prosecute persons carrying on a children’s home or supported accommodation (formally an unregulated placement) without registering.
Where a person is found guilty of running an unregistered children’s home or supported accommodation, the court can issue an unlimited fine, and for a second or subsequent conviction for the same offence, or where the person’s registration has been suspended and they continue to carry on the provision, imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months and/or an unlimited fine.
The government is further strengthening Ofsted’s powers, via the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to enable them to issue monetary penalties for breaches of the CSA, including an unlimited fine for operating a children’s home without being registered. This will allow Ofsted to take action at pace and act as a significant deterrent.
Taken together, the set of powers that will be in place after the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is passed will allow Ofsted and the courts to take the appropriate enforcement action according to each circumstance.