Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has considered introducing an entitlement to an outdoor residential experience for every child during their time at school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.
Participation in enrichment activities can be associated with a range of positive outcomes, including wellbeing, life satisfaction and better mental health.
Our enrichment framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.
The department is supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million ‘Every Child Can’ programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of guaranteeing every child the opportunity to attend an outdoor residential on pupils' wellbeing.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.
Participation in enrichment activities can be associated with a range of positive outcomes, including wellbeing, life satisfaction and better mental health.
Our enrichment framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.
The department is supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million ‘Every Child Can’ programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the answer to of 22 October 2025 to Written Question 101953 on Primary Education: School Libraries, published on 12 January 2026, how her Department will allocate funding for the creation of primary school libraries, in the context of the absence of centrally held data.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Every Child Can will invest £132.5 million of dormant assets funding to increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities exclusively across five key categories of enrichment: civic engagement; arts and culture; nature, outdoor and adventure; sport and physical activities; and developing wider life and future skills. This includes a £12.5 million investment to meet our commitment to provide a library in every primary school in England by the end of this Parliament.
The Libraries in Primaries programme - the first announced under Every Child Can - intends to extend provision to approximately 1,675 schools across England. It will prioritise schools with above-average free school meal eligibility, ensuring support reaches those with the greatest need, and schools with high SEND provision or additional needs will receive enhanced funding. The programme is led by the National Literacy Trust and is fully funded, meaning eligible schools receive this support at no cost.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing legislation that mirrors the Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.
Our Enrichment Framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including residentials and camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.
We are supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million Every Child Can programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What steps she is taking to enable more young people to access extracurricular and youth activities outside school hours.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s report, and the Schools White Paper, committed to set out a core enrichment offer through our upcoming Enrichment Framework that every school and college, in every community, should aim to provide. This includes access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities and developing wider life skills, and can include delivery within the school day, or beyond it, for example, at after-school clubs or weekend activities.
Last year, the government published ‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’, a 10 year plan to ensure every young person across the country has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of. It is backed by over £500 million of funding over the next 3 years from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for outside of school activities, support when and where young people need it, more safe spaces to connect with peers and trusted adults, and better local youth offers. It also includes a clear ambition to halve the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trail riding on people's health and wellbeing through active recreation.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the potential impact of trail riding on people's health and wellbeing through active recreation. The Department recognises that participation in outdoor activities using trails, such as cycling, walking, wheeling, and running, can have a range of physical and mental health benefits through movement, social engagement, and access to green and blue spaces.
The Government and the National Health Service recognise that reducing physical inactivity in people of all ages is important in helping people live longer, healthier lives. As committed to in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will address physically inactivity and help build movement into everyday lives through investing in grassroots sports, developing a new Physical Education and school sports partnership network to support children reap the benefits of movement, and supporting cycling and walking infrastructure.
Asked by: Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat - South Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of defunding the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist Apprenticeship on the outdoor education sector.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 13 April 2026 to Question UIN 123109.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will continue to fund the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist Apprenticeship in order to allow (a) the cohort already accepted for the scheme to continue and (b) substantive consultation with the sector to take place.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24 fall by 40% and over half of all apprenticeship starts are now by learners aged 25 and over. At the same time, we have seen the apprenticeship offer increase to over 700 standards, many of which do not support critical skills shortages.
Even with record investment of £3.3bn in 2026-27, the Growth and Skills Levy budget is finite. With 100% of our budget spent last year we need to prioritise in order to deliver foundation apprenticeships and short courses alongside the core apprenticeship offer. We are therefore withdrawing funding from 16 apprenticeships from September 2026, including the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist standard.
These changes will help to create the headroom to invest in our national skills priorities with more opportunities for more young people, and new apprenticeship units to provide a more flexible offer to businesses. We are continuing to fund the related Level 3 Outdoor Activity Instructor apprenticeship which provides an entry route into this profession.
All existing learners on the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist standard will continue to be funded through to completion, and providers have been written to individually to confirm their transition arrangements. Employers who value this apprenticeship standard will also be able to use it on a privately funded basis.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Outdoor Learning Specialist apprenticeships are projected to start in the current funding year; how long the standard has been operational; and what he estimates to be the cost saving associated with defunding the Level 5 standard.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Outdoor Learning Specialist standard was approved for delivery from February 2022.
The department publishes a range of apprenticeships data, including on apprenticeship starts, and those for the current academic year are published here: Apprenticeships, Academic year 2025/26 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK.
The department does not publish projected starts or estimated cost savings.
Asked by: Jim Dickson (Labour - Dartford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to research from The University of Manchester entitled The right to play: making play a policy and practice priority, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that all schools have access to green spaces.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Play is an essential part of children’s physical, social and cognitive development, as recognised in the early years foundation stage statutory framework. All education settings, from early years to further education, can register with the National Education Nature Park which provides free and quality assured resources, guidance and support to enable them to turn their grounds from grey to green.
The Education Estates Strategy also recently set out how the new design specifications and Renewal and Retrofit Programme will increase access to nature and create better outdoor places with more variety, so that pupils can undertake both quiet and energetic activities.
The value of access to nature and outdoor learning is also being recognised and promoted through enrichment, with our upcoming Enrichment Framework including 'Nature, outdoors and adventure' as one of five categories that schools should seek to cover in a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer.