Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many requests her Department has received from schools for sign-off of confidentiality clauses in staff settlement agreements in each of the last three financial years; and how many of those requests were approved.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The requirement for academy trusts to obtain prior approval from the department for confidentiality clauses associated with staff severance payments was introduced in October 2025 and is set out in paragraph 5.13 of the academy trust handbook, which is available at:
The revision was made to reflect HM Treasury’s updated guidance on public sector exit payments, which states that Treasury approval is required if the payment is novel, contentious or repercussive. Settlement agreements that contain confidentiality clauses are included within this description. As this requirement was only introduced in October 2025, annual data is not currently available.
For local authority-maintained schools, the responsibility and oversight for such decisions will be managed locally.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many recorders were sitting in the crown and county courts in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The annual official Diversity of the Judiciary statistics includes the total numbers of Recorders in post, as of 1 April of the relevant year (Data tables: Tab 3_1_JO_Appt):
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2025-statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2024-statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2023-statistics.
Recorders can be authorised to sit in multiple courts and jurisdictions, and the judiciary is responsible for assigning them to sit in specific Crown or County Courts.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to prevent people changing jobs from experiencing long gaps in Access to Work support.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to reducing waiting times for Access to Work. We have increased the number of staff processing Access to Work claims by 27% and applications from customers who are about to start a job or who are renewing are prioritised.
The Green Paper launched a consultation on the future of Access to Work which has now concluded. We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course.