Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I recognise the right hon. Gentleman’s long-standing interest in this area. Our national security is of the utmost importance, and the Office for Students already has extensive powers to require information from providers to investigate any breaches. If we are to introduce new reporting requirements, we must ensure that they add value without being overly burdensome, but I can be absolutely clear to the right hon. Gentleman and to this House that we expect universities to be alert to risks and to take action.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

We know that academics at British universities have been harassed by Chinese agents and pressured by their own administrators to censor their work. Sheffield Hallam, for example, blocked research by Professor Laura Murphy into the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Ministers make noises, but we have not yet had any action. Following on from the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson), when will the free speech legislation be enacted? Will Ministers commit to closing down every single Confucius institute in the country?

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[Georgia Gould]

We have strict rules about political impartiality within our education system and we are clear about those rules. All schools should apply them.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Saqib Bhatti (Meriden and Solihull East) (Con)]

Last month’s curriculum review demonstrated that the Government are fixated on watering down the curriculum, whether that is scrapping the English baccalaureate or changing Progress 8. These changes will lower standards for our children and harm them in the long term. The Minister thanked Professor Becky Francis, and she was right to do so, so why have the Government ignored the independent curriculum review and decided to change Progress 8 and lower outcomes for our children?

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[Olivia Bailey]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and for his interest in this important issue, and I recognise the statistics to which he refers. The Government take the issue extremely seriously and we will be setting out our plans in the White Paper in due course. We are investing in the early years, which is my own area, and ensuring that we have the Best Start in Life family hubs in our communities and SEND-trained professionals, so that we can identify special educational needs early and give children the support that they need before problems escalate.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Saqib Bhatti (Meriden and Solihull East) (Con)]

The Minister will be aware of the horrific case of Harvey Willgoose, who was stabbed to death by a fellow pupil who had previously brought an axe into school. Parents are rightly worried about such situations, so does the Minister agree that safety must come first and that any child who brings a knife into school must be expelled, regardless of their background—no ifs, no buts?

[Olivia Bailey]

The case that the hon. Member raises is absolutely horrific. If a child has brought a knife into school, I do not think that there is a headteacher anywhere in the country who would think that that child should continue to be in school.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

In July, the Secretary of State promised a better SEND system, with strengthened support, improved access and more funding, yet even a charitable interpretation of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis of the Government’s decision, announced at the Budget, to absorb SEND funding into core budgets shows several billion pounds of unfunded SEND commitments. Parents around the country are worried that the support that they have fought hard for their children to receive may now be taken away. Will she explain how she will deliver strengthened support, while seemingly having to cut billions from SEND funding through upcoming reforms? Can she guarantee that children will not lose support because of this change?

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[Jim McMahon]

The previous Government announced the free schools for sixth-formers programme over two years ago. It is now over a year since this Government announced a review of that programme, meaning that the local authority, alongside parents and other sixth-form providers, has been waiting over two years to find out whether Eton Star sixth-form college will go ahead. Can I urge the Government to give clarity on that programme before Christmas?

Of course, that deals with academic education, but vocational education in my town is important too. Can I ask the Government to pay some attention to the mismatch between apprenticeship vacancies and when children are leaving school? So few vacancies are advertised in July and August; the highest number of vacancies is in February, six months after young people have left school. Surely there is a mismatch?

[Mr Speaker]

Maybe they all go straight to university.

[Josh MacAlister]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point. As somebody who was a teacher in Oldham, I know many of the institutions he is referring to, and I particularly know about the great work that is done by Oldham sixth-form college and the secondary schools in his constituency. We want to make sure that where we are spending significant sums on capital investment, which the Budget and the spending review allow us to do, it reflects the Government’s priorities around special educational needs and extra school places. We want to get that right, and we will provide an update very soon to my hon. Friend and others.

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[Josh MacAlister]

There is a very simple answer to that question: the last Government left us with crumbling school buildings and a limited capital budget to allocate across the entire school estate. We have to balance rebuilding crumbling school buildings—which, as the National Audit Office and others have highlighted, were in a deteriorated state—with the need to prioritise extra school places in parts of the country that need them. That is what the country expects from us.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

The special needs budget mess is not the only uncertainty caused by this Government. The special needs White Paper is overdue, and 44 approved mainstream free schools and a number of approved special needs schools are in limbo. Schools, trusts or councils that want to open new special needs schools do not know the policy, the budget, or whether they will be allowed to open at all, so by what date will we get the White Paper? When will we get an answer to the budget mess, and when will we be told whether those free schools can go ahead? The Minister has just said “very soon”, but we had been promised an answer before Christmas. Will he get on with it?

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[Georgia Gould]

We are absolutely committed to the education of children in their local communities, and I have seen the difference that the £740 million we have put into specialist places has made: children can now be educated in resource bases linked to schools. In relation to the two schools that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, as the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister), said earlier, we hope to provide those answers as soon as possible.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Education Committee.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

This morning I visited the Nido Volans Centre, a specialist college in my constituency, and enjoyed a delicious cup of tea made by two students, Marco and Jason. Nido Volans means “Fly the Nest”, and the college provides education and training on independent living and employability skills for young people with special educational needs and disabilities up to the age of 25. Will the Secretary of State join me in celebrating Natspec’s The Power of Specialist FE Awareness Week, and will she assure me that the Government’s SEND reform proposals will fully recognise the vital role of specialist colleges and the need for sustainable funding, so that every young person who can benefit from a specialist college placement has access to one?

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[The Minister for School Standards (Georgia Gould)]

I am really grateful for the work of that school. I set out today the further investment we are putting into schools, including into special educational needs. We are focusing our funding on all schools, but particularly on supporting schools in the most deprived areas.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Bridget Phillipson]

Let me be absolutely clear: these are council deficits. They will not be coming from school budgets. Over the course of this Parliament, we are investing more in SEND. We are picking up the pieces of a system on its knees left behind by the party opposite. Either the right hon. Lady has not read what the OBR has to say, or she is wilfully seeking to mislead parents and to scaremonger. It was not a priority for her in her conference speech; it is not a priority for her now.

[Mr Speaker]

Sorry, but we cannot get away with “mislead”—that is like “lying”. I am sure that the Secretary of State will wish to withdraw the comment.

[Bridget Phillipson]

Of course, Mr Speaker.

[Bridget Phillipson]

I do not know whether the right hon. Lady listened to what I just said. It is not coming out of school budgets. [Interruption.] We are investing—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Please—[Interruption.] Order. It is not helpful for the right hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Laura Trott) to speak back at me either—that is completely wrong. And if we are setting educational standards, I do not think this is a good way of doing it.

[Bridget Phillipson]

The OBR published projections about SEND costs alongside the Budget. They were hypothetical illustrations, which the right hon. Lady would know if she went away and read the OBR document. The Treasury has been clear that the cost will be covered across overall budgets, but we are investing more in SEND and more in capital. We are delivering for our children and will be setting out further plans for reform next year. If she wants to work with us to get this right, I would be grateful—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Please, we need to get more people in. I call Lauren Edwards.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

T3. I understand that the 1,000 careers advisers the Government committed to introduce will now sit within jobcentres. Will the Minister outline how the Department will work with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that improving careers advice in schools remains a priority? Reaching children in primary schools now is incredibly important for promoting the technical career routes that our economy will rely on in future.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Josh MacAlister)]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question. My noble Friend the Minister for Skills is working across both Departments to ensure that we bring the very important work on careers and early entry to work programmes together across the Government. I have myself seen great collaboration between both Departments in my own constituency. The Government are still committed to improving work experience for children in secondary schools and early careers education as well.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Ian Sollom (St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

We found out last week that the international student levy will raise £445 million from our universities, but only 1% of that will go to the maintenance grants that Ministers have claimed to justify this damaging tax on our universities. Worse still, the flat fee design hits hardest the universities doing the most to serve students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Can the Secretary of State tell us whether more or fewer disadvantaged students will access university as a result of this policy?

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[Bridget Phillipson]

The Conservatives might not be serious about tackling child poverty, but the Labour party is and always has been. This Government will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, alongside other measures such as Best Start family hubs, expanding childcare and new free breakfast clubs—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I think I have heard enough; I do not need a running commentary on whether somebody might or might not be a turkey. Okay, let us move on.

[Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)]

T4. Forces families sometimes find that a child’s education, health and care plan is not automatically recognised when they are reposted to a new area, leaving children without provision. With the children’s services White Paper due next year, will the Minister ensure that military children specifically are included and raise the issue of adopting the Ministry of Defence local authority partnership system with local authorities that currently do not use it?

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[Bridget Phillipson]

It is not coming from the core schools budget—I could not be more clear. It will come from across Government budgets, and it is a matter for the next spending review. [Interruption.] It is! Alongside that, we will set out reforms in the new year to improve outcomes for children with SEND—something that the right hon. Member and the Conservative party failed to do over 14 years. They should hang their heads in shame at what they left behind.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Given that the following statement arrived late, Front-Bench Members need extra time to read it, so we will suspend the House until 3.42 pm.