Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 77869 on Teachers: Disclosure of Information, whether her Department plans to consider the experiences of teachers subject to non‑disclosure agreements in settlement contracts when developing the conditions to be set out in forthcoming regulations.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
School leaders are best placed to make staffing decisions to ensure the workforce reflects the needs of their pupils. That is why schools are provided the freedom to manage employment of all their staff. The department is not the employer of any school staff.
Where school employers use settlement agreements, they are required to comply with employment law. Settlement agreements are entirely voluntary, and employees do not have to enter into them if they do not agree with the proposed content. Academy trusts must comply with the Academies Financial Handbook if they are considering making a settlement agreement. The handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook.
Settlement agreements often include a confidentiality clause, however, the law is clear that confidentiality clauses cannot be used to prevent someone from making a protected disclosure, such as whistleblowing. Further information about whistle blowing for employees can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.
In addition, the government has introduced a new measure, through the Employment Rights Act 2025, that will address the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by employers. The government will consult on the conditions under which NDAs can still be validly made, known in the legislation as an ‘excepted agreement’.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the comparative levels of loss of experienced upper pay range teachers in academy and local authority-controlled schools; and what assessment they have made of the (1) extent, and (2) impact, of the use of settlement agreements and confidentiality clauses when such teachers leave employment.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not collect or publish teacher leaving rates broken down by teacher pay band. We publish the number and rate of qualified teachers who join and leave the state-funded sector each year in the ‘School workforce in England’ publication. The latest data was published 5 June 2025 and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. In 2023/24, 40,813 fulltime equivalent (FTE) qualified teachers left the state-funded sector, compared with 42,554 in 2022/23. This equates to 9% of all qualified teachers, one of lowest leaver rates outside the pandemic years.
The department is not the employer of school staff and does not collect data on the use of settlement agreements or confidentiality clauses by academy trusts or local authorities.
Settlement agreements should be entirely voluntary for all involved and schools, as employers, are required to comply with all aspects of employment law. Additionally, academy trusts must also comply with the Academies Financial Handbook, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-financial-handbook.
Where a settlement agreement includes a confidentiality clause, existing law means such clauses cannot be used to prevent someone from making a protected disclosure such as whistleblowing. Further information about whistle blowing for employees is provided here: https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take legislative steps to amend the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 to protect whistleblowers from (a) illegal and (b) unethical work placed practices.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Workers in Great Britain are protected from detriment or dismissal under the whistleblowing framework in the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest and Disclosure Act 1998, if they ‘blow the whistle’ on wrongdoing and certain conditions in the legislation are met.
The Government recognises that the whistleblowing framework may not be operating as effectively as it should and recently committed through the Anti-Corruption Strategy 2025 to explore opportunities for reform. We welcome continued engagement with parliamentarians and stakeholders on this important area of public policy.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what external oversight mechanisms are in place to ensure that publicly owned broadcasters investigate whistleblowing concerns independently of senior management.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our public service broadcasters are operationally independent of Government and so probationary periods rightfully remain a matter for them.
Employees of public service broadcasters, like most employees in Great Britain, who blow the whistle on certain types of wrongdoing are protected from retaliatory unfair dismissal and detriment under the Employment Rights Act 1996 if legislative conditions are met. This is a day one right, meaning employees do not need to satisfy any qualifying period of service to seek remedies in employment tribunals.
Employees of publicly owned broadcasters will be protected if they blow the whistle to Ofcom, the independent media regulator, if certain conditions in the legislation are met. Ofcom is a ‘prescribed person’ under the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Person Order) 2014. The Government is also exploring the addition of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) to this list and the Secretary of State continues to call on the television sector and wider creative industries to support the work of CIISA to improve standards of behaviour across industry.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of trends in the use of extension of probationary periods in publicly owned broadcasters to detriment whistleblowing employees.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our public service broadcasters are operationally independent of Government and so probationary periods rightfully remain a matter for them.
Employees of public service broadcasters, like most employees in Great Britain, who blow the whistle on certain types of wrongdoing are protected from retaliatory unfair dismissal and detriment under the Employment Rights Act 1996 if legislative conditions are met. This is a day one right, meaning employees do not need to satisfy any qualifying period of service to seek remedies in employment tribunals.
Employees of publicly owned broadcasters will be protected if they blow the whistle to Ofcom, the independent media regulator, if certain conditions in the legislation are met. Ofcom is a ‘prescribed person’ under the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Person Order) 2014. The Government is also exploring the addition of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) to this list and the Secretary of State continues to call on the television sector and wider creative industries to support the work of CIISA to improve standards of behaviour across industry.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of whistleblowing protections for employees of publicly owned broadcasters under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our public service broadcasters, publicly owned or otherwise, rightfully remain independent of Government, but their employees like most in Great Britain are protected under the whistleblowing framework in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Public Interest and Disclosure Act 1998). This protects employees from detriment and dismissal if they blow the whistle on wrongdoing and certain conditions in the legislation are met.
More broadly, the Government acknowledges concerns that the UK whistleblowing framework may not be operating as effectively as it should be and recently announced, through the Anti-Corruption Strategy 2025, that it will explore opportunities to reform that framework.
Asked by: Lloyd Hatton (Labour - South Dorset)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has any formal policies or guidance aimed at preventing potential retaliation against whistleblowers who report wrongdoing to the SFO; and whether consideration has been given to developing structural protections against retaliation for whistleblowers following the government's Anti-Corruption Strategy launch event in December 2025.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The SFO has well established formal policies and guidance aimed at protecting whistleblowers who report allegations of criminality. All whistleblowers who report to the SFO are dealt with by appropriately trained, nationally NPCC accredited members of staff whose role is to engage with whistleblowers and understand what is required to protect these people from retaliation or harm of any kind. The SFOs whistleblowing handling processes have also been fully reviewed and strengthened over the past year to ensure that all reports continue to be handled in accordance with national guidance.
The Government’s recently published Anti-Corruption Strategy commits to explore opportunities to reform the UK’s approach to whistleblowing in the employment context.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department last reviewed statutory safety standards for nurseries.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The safety of our youngest children is our utmost priority and the department continually monitors and reviews safeguarding requirements to make sure children are kept as safe as possible.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements early years providers must meet to ensure that children are kept healthy and safe. The framework is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c024cb8c6d992f23edd79c/Early_years_foundation_stage_statutory_framework_-_for_group_and_school-based_providers.pdf.pdf. In September 2025, changes were introduced to strengthen the safeguarding requirements in the EYFS, including clearer expectations on safer recruitment, child absences, safer eating, safeguarding training, and whistleblowing.
A new safeguarding training annex now sets out what training must cover. To support providers, a free online safeguarding training package is being developed with the NSPCC, aligned to the new requirements.
An expert panel will also be appointed to consider whether CCTV should be mandated and to set out best practice, technical guidance and clear expectations for the use of CCTV and digital devices.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of safeguarding in nursery settings.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The safety of our youngest children is our utmost priority and the department continually monitors and reviews safeguarding requirements to make sure children are kept as safe as possible.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements early years providers must meet to ensure that children are kept healthy and safe. It is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c024cb8c6d992f23edd79c/Early_years_foundation_stage_statutory_framework_-_for_group_and_school-based_providers.pdf. In September 2025, changes were introduced to strengthen the safeguarding requirements in the EYFS, including clearer expectations on safer recruitment, child absences, safer eating, safeguarding training and whistleblowing.
A new safeguarding training annex now sets out what training must cover. To support providers, a free online safeguarding training package is being developed with the NSPCC, aligned to the new requirements.
We are also appointing an expert panel to inform whether CCTV should be mandated within early years settings, along with the development of guidance on the safe and effective use of digital devices and CCTV within safeguarding, setting out best practice, technical information and clear expectations.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of protections for a safety-critical worker where the prescribed regulator is itself a shareholder in the organisation alleged to be improperly certifying maintenance.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We understand following further detail provided that this question refers to compliance related to Monarch Airlines Engineering Ltd and the role of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
As a regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has oversight and audit functions in respect to the organisations that it regulates. The CAA is not a shareholder in any organisation that is regulates.
The CAA has established a range of reporting channels including mandatory and voluntary incident reporting and dedicated whistleblowing routes. These mechanisms are specifically designed to ensure that individuals are enabled to raise and report any safety related concerns appropriately.