Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of extending VAT exemption to further education colleges on (a) college finances, (b) learner outcomes and (c) skills provision; and whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on this matter.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
While VAT is a matter for His Majesty’s Treasury, we are aware that the VAT status of providers is an area of interest for the sector. Many public bodies cannot recover the VAT they incur. The government keeps all taxes under review, and any proposals to change the tax system would need to be considered in the context of the broader public finances.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to introduce a multi-year funding settlement for the further education sector, and what assessment she has made of the potential benefits of a three-year funding cycle for workforce planning and financial sustainability in FE colleges.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education colleges have a number of different funding streams, including funding for 16-19 year-olds.
Funding for 16-19 year-olds is through a lagged funding system whereby the funding for each college is based on its student numbers in the previous year. However, for those institutions with a significant growth in students, the department recognises that there are additional costs and provides in-year growth funding to help with these.
This system allows funding for colleges to respond to changes in their delivery and give them confidence on 16-19 funding in the year ahead. Colleges are informed of their allocations several months before the start of the academic year to help them finalise their financial and workforce planning. Ensuring that funding directly reflects the number of students recruited enables institutions to recruit with confidence, whereas a fixed multi-year funding allocation would not. The department keeps the effectiveness of the funding system under review.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve staff (a) pay and (b) conditions in further education colleges.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education (FE) colleges, rather than government, are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges.
In May 2025, the department announced a further £190 million investment for colleges and other 16 to19 providers in addition to the £400 million of extra funding we already planned to spend on 16 to 19 education in the 2025/26 financial year.
Across the Spending review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/29. This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to 19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of excellent staff, including expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent.
Targeted Recruitment Incentives of up to £6,000 (after tax) are available for eligible early career FE teachers working in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, in disadvantaged schools and colleges, including in sixth form colleges. This payment is separate to teachers’ usual pay.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what incentives are available to employers to support day-release arrangements for young people in further education and apprenticeships; and whether she plans to introduce additional measures to encourage employer participation in such schemes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
T Levels include a substantive industry placement, with 96% of students completing their placement last year.
The Skills for Life campaign raises awareness of T Levels and other training, ensuring businesses understand their value. The department is increasing awareness of T Level industry placements and encouraging employers to take part through a network of T Level ambassadors, a targeted small and medium businesses (SME) campaign, and investing £6.3 million in the employer support fund. As part of the construction skills package, £100 million is committed to support 40,000 industry placements each year for construction learners.
An apprenticeship is a job with a formal programme of off-the-job training. The government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, giving greater flexibility to employers and learners. To support our ambition of 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships, we will expand foundation apprenticeships, launch a £140 million pilot with mayors to better connect young people to local apprenticeships, and fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible 16 to 24-year-olds.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the use of industry specialists within further education colleges to provide masterclasses, staff training and professional development; and whether funding is available to expand such industry-FE partnerships.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the Construction Skills package the department announced that areas with Local Skills Improvement Plans would benefit from £20 million to form partnerships between further education (FE) providers and construction employers, helping boost the number of teachers with construction experience in colleges through a teacher industry exchange scheme. The scheme will launch later this year and will facilitate opportunities for construction professionals to share their expertise in FE settings. This work will inform expansion into other priority sectors.
In addition, through our Taking Teaching Further programme, the department is supporting industry specialists across a range of technical sectors who are interested in teaching in FE. This programme provides funding to FE colleges and independent training providers for initial teacher education courses and early career support for technical experts moving into teaching. We are also working with the Gatsby Charitable Foundation as they pilot a new training offer for industry professionals coming into teaching in the FE sector. This will help industry professionals to receive a solid grounding in the skills and knowledge they need to be effective as teachers of technical and vocational students.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the cost of a standard class annual rail season ticket from Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street in (a) 2010 and (b) 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold information on the cost of these Annual Season tickets directly. Transport for West Midlands should be able to provide this.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of creating a national fostering strategy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Foster care is one of my top priorities as Minister. The department is already investing £25 million of transformation funding for foster care, which is additional to the £15 million announced at the Autumn Budget covering the 2025/26 financial year. We are already working with over 60% of local authorities in England to transform the way they recruit and retain foster carers.
However, we know we need to go further and faster with recruiting and retaining more carers to create a system which provides the best possible home for children in care.
The department will be setting out a comprehensive package of measures to improve recruitment and retention, increase the number of foster carers, and expand the types of foster care available to meet children's needs. These changes will bring meaningful benefits to thousands of fostered children. We will set out more detail on our planned investments and reforms for fostering in due course.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of taper rates on young people living in supported accommodation who take on paid work; and if he will bring forward proposals to ensure that those young people are better off when they increase their hours of work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.
We acknowledge there is a challenge arising from the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for working age customers (including young people) residing in supported and temporary accommodation.
Currently, a broad spectrum of customers receive rent support through Housing Benefit. This includes pensioners, residents in Supported or Temporary Accommodation and customers who have not yet migrated to Universal Credit. Any amendment to the Housing Benefit taper rules would apply to all these groups.
We are considering options to improve work incentives for residents of supported housing and temporary accommodation, while taking into account the views of stakeholders. Any future decisions will be taken in the round and in the context of the current fiscal environment.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that the National Cancer Plan for England includes measures that improve (a) early diagnosis and (b) outcomes for people with (i) myeloma and (ii) other blood cancers not covered by staging-based targets.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including myeloma and other blood cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes.
To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancers earlier and treating them faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan, which will be published in the new year, will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Sureena Brackenridge (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that new business identity verification rules prevent the creation of businesses at people's addresses without their consent.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The purpose of identity verification is to understand who is setting up, running, owning and controlling companies in the UK.
Identity verification will enhance the wider powers already available to query or reject inaccurate or suspicious information and addresses. These powers have enabled the Registrar to act more swiftly and decisively to the misuse of addresses. For example, up to 31 July 2025, Companies House has struck off 88,900 companies for failing to have an appropriate registered office address.
Companies House is continually iterating and developing their processes and systems, to proactively block the unauthorised use of addresses by companies.