Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children receive a minimum of two hours of high-quality physical education per week, and are supported to be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has pledged to protect PE time and wants schools to offer a minimum of two hours of PE per week for all pupils. The department is committed to supporting schools to meet this ambition.
The government response to the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review has committed to strengthen the PE curriculum across all key stages, including key stage 4, to give it a clearer purpose and ensure schools recognise the importance of protecting two hours of PE throughout a pupil’s time at school.
To bring more consistency to the provision of support and opportunities across the country and to ensure it reaches the children and young people who need it most, we are working to set up new PE and School Sport Partnerships across the country. These will make sure that the support that schools can draw on for making improvements to PE is high quality and informed by the best evidence and clearly focused on the challenge of reducing inactivity, securing equal access to sporting opportunities and ensuring there is a renewed focus on supporting schools to increase PE time.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the introduction of School Sport Partnerships and the new Enrichment Framework is supported by adequate levels of funding.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced in June 2025 the establishment of a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network to ensure all children and young people have access to high quality PE and extracurricular sport. Details on the PE and School Sports Partnerships funding will be confirmed in due course.
The Enrichment Framework will be published this academic year, accompanied by a range of support to help schools’ enrichment offers. We will work with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the National Youth Strategy implementation, including the £22.5 million Enrichment Expansion Programme and £132.5 million through the ‘Every Child Can’ dormant assets funding. This is in addition to international enrichment opportunities through the UK’s association to the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, continuing investment in our national network of Music Hubs, a new £750,000 chess support programme, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s flagship ‘TechYouth’ programme.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve training for primary school teachers on how to deliver high quality PE and school sport.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure disabled children have equal access to PE and school sport.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether guidance on screen use will include recommendations on preventing eye conditions such as myopia and dry eye associated with excessive screen use.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department and the Department of Health and Social Care are jointly working to produce and publish new practical, evidence-informed guidance on screen time for early years. An early years screen time advisory group of child health and development specialists has been convened to shape the guidance, which will also be informed by the perspectives of parents and carers. And as I committed to in the House, I will consider how we will support children with eye conditions.
In addition, amid concerns that young people’s lives are dominated by time in front of devices, the government will support families by producing evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16. Experts are considering a wide range of evidence, and the guidance will be published in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether guidance on screen time and social media use will include the potential impact of excessive use of screens on sight loss.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department and the Department of Health and Social Care are jointly working to produce and publish new practical, evidence-informed guidance on screen time for early years. An early years screen time advisory group of child health and development specialists has been convened to shape the guidance, which will also be informed by the perspectives of parents and carers. And as I committed to in the House, I will consider how we will support children with eye conditions.
In addition, amid concerns that young people’s lives are dominated by time in front of devices, the government will support families by producing evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16. Experts are considering a wide range of evidence, and the guidance will be published in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what definition of inclusive education her Department uses.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department believes every child in our country deserves an education that meets their needs - one that is academically stretching, where every child feels like they belong, and that sets them up for life and work.
We want to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting all children and young people to achieve and thrive in mainstream settings, through early identification, access to the right support at the right time, high-quality adaptive teaching and effective allocation of resources.
This government is determined to deliver reform that stands the test of time and rebuilds the confidence of families which is why the department is holding a further period of listening and engagement, gathering information and views from parents, teachers and experts in every region of the country.
We will set out our full vision for an inclusive education system in the Schools White Paper in the new year.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with students on the potential impact of the removal of non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather feedback on the removal of non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) funding. While there have been no recent direct discussions with students, the department conducted an Equality Impact Assessment to consider potential impacts and appropriate mitigations. This policy applies to new DSA recipients only and does not affect any spelling and grammar software already awarded to existing students.
The decision followed a detailed review which found that there are now free to access versions available with the required spelling and grammar support functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs. DSA will continue to fund such software in exceptional cases where a robust disability-related justification is provided.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of students who no longer have access to assistive software following the removal of non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather feedback on the removal of non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) funding. While there have been no recent direct discussions with students, the department conducted an Equality Impact Assessment to consider potential impacts and appropriate mitigations. This policy applies to new DSA recipients only and does not affect any spelling and grammar software already awarded to existing students.
The decision followed a detailed review which found that there are now free to access versions available with the required spelling and grammar support functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs. DSA will continue to fund such software in exceptional cases where a robust disability-related justification is provided.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to roll out family hubs in Battersea constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby
On 11 June, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life.
This builds upon my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, published in December 2024, which outlined the ambition to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.
We are working within the department and with the Department for Health and Social Care to share further information about what the Spending Review settlement means for the continuation and expansion of the programme. We recognise the importance of providing local authorities with certainty of future funding across the whole programme and we will share further information when we are able.