Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies on media literacy and citizenship education of the findings of the report by Resilience and Reconstruction entitled Disinformation, UK Democracy, and Attitudes toward Ukraine & Russia in the UK, published in January 2026, on passive exposure to misinformation via social media.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Improved media literacy builds resilience to misinformation and disinformation and fosters critical thinking. The government is improving media literacy through coordinated cross-government work, including funding innovative community-based interventions and launching an awareness campaign to build digital resilience and critical thinking skills online. The Online Safety Act updated Ofcom’s statutory duty to promote media literacy. This includes raising the awareness and understanding of misinformation and harmful content, especially where it affects vulnerable groups.
The government’s independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, emphasised the value of secure knowledge, the process of questioning and critical enquiry and weighing up evidence across information and sources. The government’s response to the review committed to strengthening media literacy content in the curriculum to ensure vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy are embedded into the revised curriculum, that subject-specific disciplinary skills including critical thinking and problem solving are clearly articulated in the refreshed programmes of study.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle gaps in public knowledge on the origins of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Improved media literacy builds resilience to misinformation and disinformation and fosters critical thinking. The government is improving media literacy through coordinated cross-government work, including funding innovative community-based interventions and launching an awareness campaign to build digital resilience and critical thinking skills online. The Online Safety Act updated Ofcom’s statutory duty to promote media literacy. This includes raising the awareness and understanding of misinformation and harmful content, especially where it affects vulnerable groups.
The government’s independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, emphasised the value of secure knowledge, the process of questioning and critical enquiry and weighing up evidence across information and sources. The government’s response to the review committed to strengthening media literacy content in the curriculum to ensure vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy are embedded into the revised curriculum, that subject-specific disciplinary skills including critical thinking and problem solving are clearly articulated in the refreshed programmes of study.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to support civic education initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience to foreign propaganda.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Improved media literacy builds resilience to misinformation and disinformation and fosters critical thinking. The government is improving media literacy through coordinated cross-government work, including funding innovative community-based interventions and launching an awareness campaign to build digital resilience and critical thinking skills online. The Online Safety Act updated Ofcom’s statutory duty to promote media literacy. This includes raising the awareness and understanding of misinformation and harmful content, especially where it affects vulnerable groups.
The government’s independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, emphasised the value of secure knowledge, the process of questioning and critical enquiry and weighing up evidence across information and sources. The government’s response to the review committed to strengthening media literacy content in the curriculum to ensure vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy are embedded into the revised curriculum, that subject-specific disciplinary skills including critical thinking and problem solving are clearly articulated in the refreshed programmes of study.
Asked by: Baroness Caine of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government which of the priority growth sectors in the Modern Industrial Strategy 2025 they have agreed sector skills plans with; and how much public investment has been committed to each priority growth sector over what period of time.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We are developing, with industry, sector Jobs Plans for all growth-driving sectors identified by the Industrial Strategy, as well as construction. These plans will build on the Industrial Strategy Sector Plans and provide a clear direction of travel for government and industry to develop the domestic workforce together. The first of these plans to be published was the Clean Energy Jobs plan.
Firms in the eight Industrial Strategy sectors receive a wide range of investment, including via a range of sector-targeted programmes and the Public Financial Institutions, such as the British Business Bank (including £4 billion of capital specifically for the Industrial Strategy sectors), UK Export Finance and the National Wealth Fund. They are also supported by wider public investment into other policy interventions, such as skills. As part of the government's investment in skills across this Parliament, in addition to £1.2 billion of additional investment in skills per year by 2028-29, we have committed to sector skills packages including £187 million for digital skills and artificial intelligence learning; £182 million for engineering skills and £182 million to boost the defence talent pipeline.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will set out the full scope of Commercial-X.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Commercial X, established by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in 2022, is a team of Commercial officers dedicated to disrupting and modernising Defence’s approach to acquisition while reducing bureaucracy. Its mission is to deliver groundbreaking technology and innovation to the MOD more quickly. It achieves this through three key approaches:
Notable deliverables to date: delivery of circa 650 innovation and technology contracts with an average time to contract of 31 days, 47% faster than average timelines for similar procurements. The creation of two new platforms to support small, business-friendly buying routes where suppliers can compete for contracts in technology and innovation. Recent notable contracts include: DragonFire, Hypersonics and NATO Allied Underwater Battlespace,
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the quality and availability of industry placements for T Levels.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
T Levels are providing excellent opportunities for young people to progress into skilled jobs and careers, and 96% of students in receipt of a T Level result completed their industry placement last year.
The national Skills for Life campaign raises awareness of skills development that includes T Levels, ensuring businesses and learners understand their value. Our network of over 1,000 T Level Ambassadors builds T Level understanding and engagement in the business community.
The department supports employers to host high-quality placements through guidance, workshops and direct support. Our digital Connect service supports local providers and employers to connect with each other and our updated delivery approaches allow greater flexibility for providers to design a high-quality placement experience.
We provide targeted support for industry placements in specific sectors and localities, with seven industry placement coordinators currently in local NHS integrated care systems, and an employer support fund supporting small and medium sized enterprises and priority sectors with the essential costs of hosting a placement.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase employer awareness of training programmes available beyond apprenticeships.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s Skills for Life campaign promotes the wide range of range of training options available to employers, including apprenticeships, T Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications. This includes digital advertising, public relations, social media, trade press partnerships and collaboration with business organisations.
We offer support, events and guidance to T Level providers to develop and implement effective employer engagement strategies. Our network of over 1000 T Level Ambassadors builds T Level understanding and engagement in the business community.
1,390 businesses of all sizes are using our Employer Standards framework to assess and report on the impact of their employer engagement, helping to open new pathways and opportunities in their sector for young people.
Local Skills Improvement Plans bring together local employers, leaders and training providers to identify and address skills needs, giving employers a strategic voice in shaping skills provision and support to recruit/train skilled workforces.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department’s policies of national implementation models of online parenting support in Australia.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises the importance of parenting support as being critical to a child’s development and aims to help more parents support their child’s communication, language, literacy, social and emotional skills. Parents have the biggest influence on their child’s early learning and many benefit from well-timed support and advice.
Best Start Family Hubs provide both a building that is a welcoming place for families, and a network of services, including virtual and digital support. Help for families will be delivered through open-access parenting programmes via blended delivery of physical, virtual and outreach activities. It will include the Best Start Parent Hub website that brings together trusted advice and guidance parents need in one place, links families to their local Best Start Family Hub, and allows parents to check their eligibility for childcare support. The department is considering how best to implement digital parenting support as part of the national Best Start in Life offer.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria his Department uses to assess requirements to rebuild underlying data analytics architecture, undertake fresh security accreditation and retrain personnel.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) keeps its data analytics infrastructure, security assurance processes and workforce skills under continual review. Decisions to rebuild underlying data analytics architecture are based on whether current systems remain aligned with Defence's enterprise data principles, architectural standards (Exploitable by Design), resilience requirements, and operational needs.
The MOD has replaced accreditation with Secure by Design in line with National Cyber Security Centre guidance on assuring systems and services. The MOD's Cyber Security Design Authority provides a reliable, curated source of standards and policies to enable secure design.
Personnel are retrained when new tools, platforms or security standards are introduced, or when capability reviews identify changing skills requirements across Defence's digital and data workforce.
These processes ensure Defence maintains secure, resilient, and modern data capabilities that can effectively support Defence outcomes.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many students have enrolled in the Defence Digital and Cyber Bursary scheme in each academic year since it was launched; and how many of those students are based in Lancashire.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
285 new students have enrolled in the latest cohort, taking the total number of students to 500. This follows an announcement in October 2025, where the Ministry of Defence expanded the scheme to 500 fully funded places for college-age students across Lancashire. This information is provided below:
Cohort | Academic Year | Intake | Status |
Cohort 1 | 2024-25 | 100 | Graduated |
Cohort 2 | 2025-26 | 115 | Year 13 students |
Cohort 3 | 2025-26 | 285 | Year 12 students and latest cohort |
All students are based in Lancashire, through partnerships with Digital Skills for Defence (DS4D) and the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub.