Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the growth of EHCPs on costs to the public purse.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Families are having to fight and go through bureaucratic and legal processes to get special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support for their children despite funding increases to the high needs budget. These and other failures in the current system mean that families are rightly demanding reform and that is what the government is delivering. The plans for a reformed SEND system, including the allocation of £4 billion investment to support transformation of the system, were set out in the recently published Schools White Paper and SEND reform consultation, and annexes.

The department’s assessment of future SEND spending will be updated following the SEND consultation and subject to future spending reviews.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a list of all the dates on which her Department’s SEND Development Group has met and the minutes of each of those meetings.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Solihull East to the answer of 21 April 2026 to Question 104812.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish the full list of members of her Department’s SEND Development Group and the criteria for membership.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Solihull East to the answer of 21 April 2026 to Question 104812.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish the terms of reference for her Department’s SEND Development Group.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Solihull East to the answer of 21 April 2026 to Question 104812.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of extending joint and several liability for payroll taxes within umbrella company arrangements on recruitment agencies supplying temporary staff to public sector bodies, including the NHS.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Umbrella companies are a type of employment intermediary that engages workers on behalf of recruitment agencies and end client organisations. Although many umbrella companies operate diligently, others are used to facilitate non-compliance including tax avoidance and fraud.

From 6 April 2026, recruitment agencies are responsible for ensuring that Pay As You Earn and National Insurance contributions obligations are met when they choose to use an umbrella company to engage a worker. Where these obligations are not met, HMRC will recover underpayments from the recruitment agency. If there is no recruitment agency involved in an arrangement with an umbrella company, this responsibility will fall to the end client organisation. The rules apply regardless of the sector in which workers are engaged.

The new rules are intended to drive behavioural change in the temporary labour market, increasing the amount of assurance undertaken by organisations that use umbrella companies to force non-compliance umbrella companies out of the market. This change is forecast to protect around £2.7 billion across the scorecard period up to and including 2030-31.

It is right that organisations that choose to use umbrella companies to engage workers should take steps to make sure that they are compliant. HMRC has published extensive guidance to support organisations that use umbrella companies to undertake assurance checks.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consideration she has given to establishing a government-recognised (a) compliance and (b) accreditation standard for umbrella companies to reduce payroll tax risk within labour supply chains supplying public sector bodies.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Umbrella companies are a type of employment intermediary that engages workers on behalf of recruitment agencies and end client organisations. Although many umbrella companies operate diligently, others are used to facilitate non-compliance including tax avoidance and fraud.

From 6 April 2026, recruitment agencies are responsible for ensuring that Pay As You Earn and National Insurance contributions obligations are met when they choose to use an umbrella company to engage a worker. Where these obligations are not met, HMRC will recover underpayments from the recruitment agency. If there is no recruitment agency involved in an arrangement with an umbrella company, this responsibility will fall to the end client organisation. The rules apply regardless of the sector in which workers are engaged.

The new rules are intended to drive behavioural change in the temporary labour market, increasing the amount of assurance undertaken by organisations that use umbrella companies to force non-compliance umbrella companies out of the market. This change is forecast to protect around £2.7 billion across the scorecard period up to and including 2030-31.

It is right that organisations that choose to use umbrella companies to engage workers should take steps to make sure that they are compliant. HMRC has published extensive guidance to support organisations that use umbrella companies to undertake assurance checks.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment HMRC has made of the risk of unpaid employer National Insurance contributions within labour supply chains providing temporary staffing to the NHS following the Ducas tax dispute; and whether she plans to introduce a statutory (a) accreditation and (b) licensing regime for umbrella companies operating in the labour market.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Umbrella companies are a type of employment intermediary that engages workers on behalf of recruitment agencies and end client organisations. Although many umbrella companies operate diligently, others are used to facilitate non-compliance including tax avoidance and fraud.

From 6 April 2026, recruitment agencies are responsible for ensuring that Pay As You Earn and National Insurance contributions obligations are met when they choose to use an umbrella company to engage a worker. Where these obligations are not met, HMRC will recover underpayments from the recruitment agency. If there is no recruitment agency involved in an arrangement with an umbrella company, this responsibility will fall to the end client organisation. The rules apply regardless of the sector in which workers are engaged.

The new rules are intended to drive behavioural change in the temporary labour market, increasing the amount of assurance undertaken by organisations that use umbrella companies to force non-compliance umbrella companies out of the market. This change is forecast to protect around £2.7 billion across the scorecard period up to and including 2030-31.

It is right that organisations that choose to use umbrella companies to engage workers should take steps to make sure that they are compliant. HMRC has published extensive guidance to support organisations that use umbrella companies to undertake assurance checks.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NHS England and NHS workforce framework providers on ensuring compliant payroll practices within the agency staffing supply chains for the NHS.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department, alongside NHS England, collaborates with framework providers like the NHS Workforce Alliance and HealthTrust Europe to ensure compliant payroll practices. Key actions include mandatory auditing, IR35 compliance, adherence to National Health Service employment checks, and enforcing agency price caps.

NHS England continues to monitor agency spending and works to reduce reliance on off-framework staffing, which is crucial for compliant, high quality, and cost-effective staffing.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of projects supported by the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme that would have proceeded as planned without the Scheme; and what comparative assessment she has made between this estimate and the findings of section 2.3.2 of Harlow Consulting's Evaluation of the Listed Places of Worship Scheme, published on 22 January 2026.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Department commissioned Harlow Consulting to conduct an independent evaluation of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme. The Department has not made a separate internal estimate, and uses Harlow’s comprehensive independent assessment to understand the Scheme’s impact and additionality.

The evaluation used survey data from Scheme beneficiaries to determine how much of the activity was truly "additional" versus how much would have occurred anyway. It established that 80% of respondents indicated they would have done the work without the rebate. Section 2.3.2 of the evaluation provides a further breakdown of this figure, indicating that the Scheme had an impact on the timing and quality of the work. 51% of all Scheme users reported that the grant increased the timeliness of repairs. Likewise, 31% of users were enabled to carry out more extensive works or works of a higher standard.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether funding has been directed from other departments' budgets to the budget of the Department for Education, as she outlined on the 1st December 2025.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The usual practice to transfer budgets between government departments is via budget cover transfers (BCTs), which occur twice a financial year through the Estimates process. The most recent Estimates Memo for the department is available here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/52047/documents/288898/default/.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what accountability measures is she implementing for local area partnerships that perform under the required standard.

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.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many SEND pupils will have left school entirely before single ECHP reform takes place.

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.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a statement on parental rights upon the implementation of SEND reforms outlined in the Schools White Paper.

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.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support will be available for children with dyslexia under the Experts at Hand programme.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The Experts at Hand offer will support schools and settings with expert advice and guidance to help them identify and meet a range of special educational needs, including dyslexia. This includes strengthening early identification and supporting more effective, inclusive practice. Through the offer, settings will have earlier and easier access to specialist expertise from educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and other appropriate professionals.

Experts at Hand is additional to existing statutory provision and does not replace established school-led approaches or specialist one-to-one services.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has undertaken an impact assessment of the potential reduction in enforceable rights for families arising from restricting EHCPs to only the most complex needs.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Our ambition is to provide more opportunities for health and education professionals to support the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) more effectively and inclusively. This is why we are investing £1.8 billion over the next three years to improve access to professionals for mainstream settings, including local authorities and Integrated Care Board working together to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer.

We are also developing National Inclusion Standards supported by an expert panel, to set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs.

We have carefully assessed the impact of all our proposals, and this is included in our published ‘SEND reform: equalities impact assessment’ and ‘SEND reform child's rights impact assessment’ which include projections on how children and young people will be impacted by the proposals. The equalities impact assessment can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69985b33047739fe61889ebd/SEND_reform_equalities_impact_assessment_.pdf.

The child’s rights impact assessment is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69985b75047739fe61889ebe/SEND_reform_child_s_rights_impact_assessment.pdf.

The responses to the consultation will help inform our policy development and assessments of impact of the final reforms.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Speech and Language Therapy Advanced Practitioners will be hired (a) in England and (b) in each Integrated Care Board geographical area.

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.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the projected costs per child of pupils in Targeted, Targeted Plus and Specialist layers of support are, respectively.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is providing additional funding to boost the capacity of mainstream settings to meet the continuum of needs children have, before any legislative changes.

The ‘SEND Reform: putting children and young people first’ consultation document includes our aim that more support will be commissioned on a cohort basis to enable more flexible, responsive provision that meets children’s needs earlier and more effectively. For example, we will invest £1.8 billion over three years in our new Experts at Hand services that will ensure individual early years settings, schools and colleges can access expert support from professionals like educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, without having to commission this individually which is inefficient and high burdensome for education settings.

The support in Targeted, Targeted Plus and Specialist layers of support will be developed through future work on National Inclusion Standards and Specialist Provision Packages. These will be developed by an independent panel of experts and tested with parents.