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 are taking to promote reading in children.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government's Opportunity Mission will help every child to achieve and thrive at school through excellent teaching and high standards. It aims to break the link between young people’s background and their future success. Reading is central to this mission and is crucial for success at school and in life.
On 7 July 2025, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that 2026 will be The National Year of Reading, a campaign to address the decline in reading enjoyment amongst children, young people and adults. The National Year of Reading will position reading as a powerful contemporary activity, aiming to engage new audiences in reading and change the national reading culture for good.
The government has committed £27.7 million this financial year to support and drive high and rising standards in reading. This includes supporting the teaching of phonics, early language and reading for pleasure via the English Hubs programme. Furthermore, the government’s reading framework provides guidance on improving the teaching of reading.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department allocated the extra money returned to the Government by local authorities from fines for taking children out of school in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Over the past three financial years, the department has not received revenue from penalty notices issued for school absences. This reflects the system’s design. It is not intended to generate profit, and local authorities must not set income targets. All revenue must be ring-fenced for attendance-related purposes.
Funds should first cover penalty notice administration and prosecution costs. Any surplus must support attendance initiatives that do not involve issuing penalty notices or prosecutions, in line with the statutory attendance guidance.
This revenue must not be absorbed into wider budgets or used for core attendance duties or legal services. It must remain dedicated to attendance functions.
While any surplus at year end must be returned to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, in line with expectation, no surpluses have been returned during the period in question.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what purposes their Department has used artificial intelligence in the last year.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of our artificial intelligence (AI) adoption strategy, the department has established a secure infrastructure that enables teams to test and evaluate AI solutions within a controlled sandbox environment prior to the development of new AI-based products. Examples of initiatives currently in development include:
A records management tool, which classifies digital records to identify those that must be retained and archived in accordance with legislative requirements and The National Archives.
The Find Education and Training tool, which integrates multiple datasets including course offerings, training programmes, and geographic mapping to support 16 to 18-year-old learners in accessing appropriate educational or training provision.
In addition, we have deployed Microsoft Copilot Chat across the organisation to support staff in their daily work. Examples of how this tool is used include document summarisation, multi-source information analysis, and to support the drafting of briefings and papers.
Throughout these initiatives, the department has aligned our approach with the government’s AI Playbook, particularly its security principles. This includes ensuring our AI systems are secure by design, resilient to threats, and deployed in accordance with the Cyber Security Standard. Risk assessments and assurance processes are embedded into our development lifecycle to uphold robust security and governance.
The department also acknowledges and adheres to the mandatory obligation for government departments to comply with the AI Transparency and Risk Standards, which guide our efforts to ensure transparency, accountability, and responsible risk management in all AI deployments.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils who do not speak English as their first language who arrived in the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The requested data on the number of primary and secondary school pupils who have English as an additional language can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25.
The most recent data has been available since 5 June 2025.
A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. This measure is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration.
The department does not hold data for the number of pupils who have recently arrived in the UK.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils who have English as a second language.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The requested data on the number of primary and secondary school pupils who have English as an additional language can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25.
The most recent data has been available since 5 June 2025.
A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. This measure is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration.
The department does not hold data for the number of pupils who have recently arrived in the UK.
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.