theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the severe asthma service specification in ensuring eligible severe asthma patients are able to access biologic medicines. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England’s current severe asthma service specification is being revised by the Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group. The revised specification will support the management of patients who require further investigation and treatments, including biological medicines. The specification will also be updated to reference the most recent clinical guidelines such as the British Thoracic Society, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network’s asthma guideline, covering diagnosing, monitoring, and managing asthma in adults, young people, and children. It is expected to improve outcomes for people with asthma and identify early those who require further investigation and treatments, including biologic medicines. Eligibility for biologics is governed by the NICE’s Technology Appraisals, which make recommendations for the National Health Service on whether treatments represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund NICE-recommended treatments.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

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Peter Prinsley:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people waiting to undergo otolaryngology surgery. \p Karin Smyth: Otolaryngology surgery is listed under Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) data for recording purposes. As of November 2024, the waiting list for ENT stood at 633,270. This marked a decrease of 4,380 compared to October 2024. As of November 2024, 49.2% of pathways were within 18 weeks. Not all the patients on the waiting list will have a “decision to treat”.

Tackling waiting lists, including in ENT, is a key part of our Health Mission and we will deliver an additional two million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, equivalent to 40,000 per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.

The Elective Reform Plan, launched as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, sets out how we will get back to the NHS Constitutional Standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by the end of this Parliament and ensure patients have the best possible experience of care.

The Elective Reform Plan commits to the following actions to reform outpatient services, including increasing uptake of Advice and Guidance and triage to reduce unnecessary demand on elective services, reducing low value follow up appointments, minimising missed appointments to maximise clinical time, and reforming clinical pathways to improve efficiency in five priority specialties, one of which is ENT.
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Tristan Osborne:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to issue new guidance on the use of (a) Novarapid, (b) Insulin flextouch, (c) Insulatard and (d) Levimir for diabetes patients before March 2025. \p Karin Smyth: In late 2024, the Department issued communications on the discontinuation of both Novorapid Flextouch and Insulatard Penfill cartridges to the National Health Service, advising on suitable alternatives. The Department is working with NHS England and clinical experts to develop management advice for healthcare professionals ahead of the discontinuation of Levemir, in December 2026. This will be communicated at the earliest opportunity. There are no plans to issue guidance on Insulin Flextouch.
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Shivani Raja:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of announcing a national inquiry into grooming gangs; and what steps she is taking to (a) support investigations into alleged crimes and (b) help prevent similar crimes in the future. \p Jess Phillips: This Government is prioritising work to ensure victims and survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse are protected and supported, while pursuing offenders and bringing them to justice. We are continuing to work across government and with policing and law enforcement partners to strengthen the prevention of and response to these despicable crimes.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary’ statement made on 16 January, which sets out some of the actions the Government is taking forward to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse, including on grooming gangs offending. This includes making grooming an aggravated factor in sentencing, and new help to assist victims in getting prosecutions underway by expanding the remit of the Independent Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel.

The Home Secretary has also written to the National Police Chiefs’ Council to ask all chief constables to look again at historical gang exploitation cases where No Further Action was taken, and to work with the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to pursue new lines of inquiry and to reopen investigations where appropriate. These measures are being backed with £2 million of additional funding.

The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.
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Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her planned timeline is for making a decision on the minimum income requirement once the Migration Advisory Committee review has completed. \p Seema Malhotra: On 10th September, the Home Secretary commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules. Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system.

The MAC have already completed a call for evidence, which closed on 11 December, to gather views of stakeholders and those affected by changes to the family rules. More than 2000 people responded – a record for a MAC consultation.

It is expected the MAC will issue their report in the Summer. We will carefully consider the MAC’s recommendations before making any further changes and will set out a timetable for responding to the review in due course.
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Liz Jarvis:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many instances of mobile phone theft have been reported in Eastleigh constituency since 2020. \p Dame Diana Johnson: The Home Office collects information on the number of theft offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. It is not possible to identify from these data which crimes involved the theft of a mobile phone. The Office for National Statistics publish estimates of mobile phone theft for England and Wales, but these figures are not available for smaller geographic areas. The latest Office for National Statistics estimates can be found at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/focusonpropertycrimeappendixtables

We will shortly be holding a Home Office Mobile Phone Theft Summit, drawing together representatives from the mobile phone industry, including tech companies, and law enforcement to see what more can collectively be done to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.

As part of our Safer Streets Mission, this government is determined to crack down on theft and other crimes that make people feel unsafe in our communities, including strengthening neighbourhood policing, tackling anti-social behaviour and restoring public confidence.
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David Simmonds:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2024 to Question 15651 on Licensing Laws, whether she plans to reply to the alcohol easement consultation before the easement expires. \p Dame Diana Johnson: The Government is carefully considering the results of the recent consultation and will publish these shortly alongside next steps.
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Sir Julian Lewis:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish a substantive Answer to Question 20914 on Gender Dysphoria: Surgery, tabled on 18 December 2024. \p Seema Malhotra: A response to Parliamentary Question 20914 has now been provided; we apologise for the delay.
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Alex Burghart:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people had their Indefinite Leave to Remain status rescinded in each year for which data is available. \p Seema Malhotra: The information requested is not centrally held in an easily accessible from, and could only be collated for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
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Melanie Ward:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people claimed asylum by country of origin in each month of 2024. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum claims, by nationality, is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2024.
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Carla Denyer:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many referrals have been accepted by the National Age Assessment Board; and what proportion of these referrals were from (a) local authorities and (b) her Department. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The requested data is not part of published statistics, and could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been arrested for using forged passports at airports in the last 12 months. \p Seema Malhotra: The Home Office publishes statistics on detected irregular air arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ statistics release, available at:

Immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK

We do not hold central data on the number of people arrested for using forged passports at airports, and the figures could only be obtained for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
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Dan Norris:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's report entitled Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2023, published on 11 September 2024, what type of tests comprised the procedures conducted on dogs; and what steps she is taking to (a) reduce and (b) replace the use of dogs for such tests. \p Dan Jarvis: 69% of procedures of dogs in research are for the safety testing of potential new medicines to protect human health. The legal requirements for these tests are largely harmonised globally to ensure international acceptability of testing and prevent unnecessary duplication. Tests of procedures on dogs predict the safety of conducting the equivalent procedures on humans with up to 96% accuracy.

31% of procedures of dogs in research are for basic and translational research, primarily to discover and develop products to address human and animal diseases.

Research using dogs has been instrumental in the development of medications for use in treatments for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and genetic disorders.

In March 2023 The National Centre for the 3Rs made its biggest award to date in a single investment (£1.6M) to develop a ‘Virtual Dog’. The project aims to exploit advances in computational approaches and machine learning to ultimately replace their use in chronic toxicity studies.

Where dogs have to be used in science, the Regulator assures that the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) are fully applied in all granted licences. These establishments are then subject to rigorous audit by Inspectors for compliance purposes.
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Neil Coyle:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative assessment of the potential merits of a charging structure for citizenship applications based on recovering the full costs for processing them rather than a full-profit model. \p Seema Malhotra: Fees for immigration and nationality applications are kept under review and are set taking account of the charging powers provided by Section 68(9) of the Immigration Act 2014, which include the ability to set fees based on: the cost of processing the application, the benefits and entitlements provided by a successful application and the wider cost of the Migration and Borders system. Full details of which can be reviewed via the following link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/22/section/68.

The Home Office does not make a profit from fees and any income from fees set above the cost of processing are utilised for the purpose of running the Migration and Borders system. Taking this approach helps to meet the costs of maintaining an effective Migration and Borders system which benefits everyone and reduces reliance on taxpayer funding.

The Home Office offers fee exemptions and waivers for citizenship applications in limited circumstances. These circumstances relate to righting historical anomalies in nationality law and, in relation to children who are applying to register as a British citizen, there is a fee exception for those who are in local authority care and a fee waiver based on affordability grounds, which were introduced on 16th June 2022.

Please find a previously published Equality Impact Assessment which includes considerations in respect of citizenship fees: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/1004/pdfs/uksiod_20231004_en_001.pdf.
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Jessica Morden:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress of the transition to eVisas. \p Seema Malhotra: Millions of people have been successfully using eVisas for several years. They are a key part of our digital immigration system and will enhance people’s experience and increase the immigration system’s security and efficiency. eVisas are secure and cannot be lost, stolen or tampered with, unlike a physical document. They can be accessed anywhere and in real time. As of 30 November 2024, over 3 million people had created UKVI accounts, with many more creating accounts every day.

We have considered every part of the transition to eVisas and how people experience the system, listening to feedback from visa holders, stakeholders and MPs, and monitoring to identify where people are experiencing issues so that these can be addressed. We are continually streamlining and adapting our processes to ensure a smooth transition to eVisas.

There is no deadline for registering for a UKVI account to access an eVisa, although we have been encouraging people to do so before their BRP expires so that they can continue to prove their immigration status easily. If a person has not yet created an account, they can still do so now, quickly and easily, using their expired BRP if needed.

We recognise that some people are vulnerable and require additional support in switching to and navigating a digital system. That is why we have a range of support measures in place, including:

We are confident that our systems and processes will ensure no one is disadvantaged by the move to digital, but we are conscious that some people remain concerned about the transition, particularly in the context of travel. We have therefore brought in changes to reflect those concerns, including, as a temporary measure to reassure people that they will be able to travel without any issue during the transition period, allowing carriers such as airlines to accept a BRP or EUSS BRC which expired on or after 31 December 2024 as valid evidence of permission to travel, provisionally until 31 March 2025. This will be kept under review. We have also introduced a new 24/7 passenger helpline for passengers who are at port and travelling imminently.

We continue to monitor the rollout of eVisas and will ensure that any issues are resolved for those people affected.
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Luke Taylor:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the pilot rollout of (a) Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and (b) Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in Sutton will be reviewed to assess their effectiveness. \p Jess Phillips: On 27 November 2024 we launched new Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders (DAPNs/DAPOs) in select areas - specifically Greater Manchester, three London boroughs (Croydon, Bromley and Sutton) and with the British Transport Police. We will soon be going further by onboarding two additional sites in early 2025 to give the greatest possible number of victims access.

The Home Office has commissioned an independent evaluation of DAPNs and DAPOs. The evaluation aims to understand how the new order works in practice and its effectiveness.

For the first time, these orders provide protection for all forms of domestic abuse including coercive or controlling behaviour; have no maximum duration; and can impose electronic monitoring or require attendance to a behaviour change programme.
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Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle spiking by means of injection. \p Jess Phillips: Spiking is an abhorrent crime and illegal in any form, whether through needle, food, drink or vape. The Government is committed, as per its Manifesto, to introduce a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime. It will be delivered in the First Session of this Parliament.

In addition, the Home Office is currently supporting a range of work to tackle spiking, including specific training for up to 10,000 people working in the night-time economy (which includes specific information on needle spiking) and testing the efficacy of commercial drug test kits.
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Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been returned to their country of origin by the Third Country Unit in the last five years. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The Third Country Unit is responsible for inadmissible asylum cases, which may be removed to a safe third country. Data on inadmissibility related removals is published in table Asy_09a of the ‘Asylum and resettlement summary tables’. These returns are to a safe third country, not to an individual’s country of origin.
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Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of people scheduled for deportation have absconded in each of the last five years. \p Dame Angela Eagle: Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Home Office does not hold any central record of the requested information.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people smuggling gangs have been disbanded since the establishment of the Border Security Command. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Border Security Command (BSC) is working strategically across the Border Security system, including with partners such as the National Crime Agency, police, and intelligence agencies to dismantle criminal smuggling gangs, and disrupt their supply chains.

The BSC and its partner agencies are also working closely with their international counterparts to pursue Organised Immigration Crime gangs operating across Europe and beyond, and this work has already led to a number of widely publicised raids and arrests in recent months.

While the BSC is continuing to mature, it is already working closely with delivery partners who tackle organised immigration crime across Whitehall, collecting key data across the system such as organised immigration crime disruptions, with the ambition to track long-term impact and support the delivery of operational activity. This will support the BSC’s ability to drive cohesive delivery across the system and ensure a secure and effective border. Working collaboratively in this way will allow us to increase the number of OIC groups which we break up and subsequently reduce small boat crossings. These numbers will be monitored to ensure we make changes to our approach when needed. Further detail on success measures, including a reporting framework, will be out in due course.
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Neil O'Brien:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of foreign national offenders who left prison following a sentence of 12 months or more were deported in each (a) quarter and (b) year for which data is available. \p Dame Angela Eagle: Available statistics on the returns of FNOs by nationality and year are published on a quarterly basis. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending September 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK

The published statistics include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not available separately.

The Home Office has previously published figures on FNOs removed under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS), from 2010 Q1 up until 2022 Q2, which can be found within ‘FNO_09’, here: Immigration Enforcement data: Q3 2024 - GOV.UK
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Clive Lewis:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions on the Child Poverty Engagement Plan in which regions the Child Poverty Taskforce has had with (a) devolved governments, (b) elected mayors, (c) academia, (d) businesses and (e) civil society. \p Catherine McKinnell: The Child Poverty Taskforce is engaging with devolved governments, elected mayors, academia, businesses and civil society, as well as children and families across the regions and nations of the UK to shape and inform the Child Poverty Strategy.

The Taskforce regularly discusses its engagement approach with ministers from all four nations, and key child poverty stakeholders such as Save the Children, IPPR, Citizens Advice, Child Poverty Action Group, Barnardo’s, the End Child Poverty Coalition, and the National Children’s Bureau, who arrange events on our behalf. We also have an Analytical Expert Reference Group, which brings together independent external expertise.

The full details of our engagement plan will be set out when we publish the Child Poverty Strategy.
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Mike Martin:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to publish a timetable for the introduction of a Natural History GCSE. \p Catherine McKinnell: I refer the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells to the answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18517.
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Daisy Cooper:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities system in supporting children with acquired brain injuries. \p Catherine McKinnell: This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special education needs and disabilities or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Children who have had a brain injury can be affected in different ways. Some brain injuries will result in a special educational need (SEN) or a medical need, whilst others may affect a child in other ways.

In whatever way a brain injury manifests, it is essential that the pupil’s individual needs are identified and supported appropriately. Support should be tailored to their own learning barriers, irrespective of their diagnosis. This is underpinned by the range of statutory duties on schools to support children with SEN, disabilities or medical conditions. Depending on the impact that an acquired brain injury has on the child accessing education, they may be entitled to support under any or all of these duties. For example:
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Neil O'Brien:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools delivering free school breakfasts will be allowed to charge for provision outside the free 30 minute entitlement. \p Stephen Morgan: This government is committed, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to delivering a free breakfast club of at least 30 minutes in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England.

Breakfast clubs boost attainment and attendance, and delivering free universal breakfast clubs will ensure children are set-up to learn. Schools will not be able to charge for the 30-minute funded breakfast club. Schools must not create an expectation that parents have to pay for additional provision in order to access the free 30 minutes, and clubs must be available to all pupils from reception to year 6. Beyond these requirements schools will have discretion to set-up their clubs in a way that works for the families they serve.

This new offer will also support parents to have more choices on when to work and will support families with the cost of childcare.
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Richard Tice:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to (a) support the private education sector and (b) encourage its expansion (i) domestically and (ii) internationally. \p Stephen Morgan: The department encourages private schools to be high quality and is seeking to further improve regulation of the sector through measures outlined in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Amongst other things, the Bill seeks to ensure that all pupils receive both a safe and suitable education and to strengthen and improve the regulatory regime for private schools.

Capacity to expand domestically, within individual school settings, is a matter for private schools themselves. Where they do wish to expand, the department seeks to effectively consider the required material change application. Measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will make these requirements clearer.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) provides support for UK private schools that wish to expand internationally. They do this in a number of ways by:
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David Baines:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) providing funding for speech and language interventions earlier than reception age and (b) help ensure that Family Hubs can support families within the home learning environment before the age of three. \p Stephen Morgan: Early language is a part of the best start in life pillar of the Opportunity Mission, where we have set an ambitious milestone of a record number of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage assessment by 2028. This measure includes an assessment of children’s early communication and language development.

As part of the support offer in the early years, Stronger Practice Hubs have enabled early years settings to access funded places on evidence-based professional development programmes. This has included over 20 programmes focused on speech, language and communication for under 4s.

The department also works in partnership with NHS England to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) pathfinders, which utilises pre-qualification therapy support assistants to improve early identification and support for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs within early years and primary school settings.

Through the Family Hubs programme for children aged 0 to 19-years-old, or 25-years-old with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the government is investing in parent-facing interventions that seek to give children the best start in life. Research shows that what happens at home can make the biggest difference to long term impacts on a child’s life chances. Therefore, we are supporting families of 3 to 4-year-olds to create rich home-learning environments that foster a love of learning in their children. Family Hubs and voluntary and community sector partners play a pivotal role in supporting these efforts, providing local communities with the tools and support they need to succeed.

This work is complemented by our national campaign, ‘Little Moments Together’, which uses paid-for social media, out-of-home advertising, online videos and free resources to raise parents’ awareness, motivation and capability in the home-environment. We will continue to monitor the Family Hubs networks to ensure we consistently adopt the best approach to support families of young children, including exploring the effectiveness of expanding the age range targeted, as the programme evolves.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has been clear in her commitment to early years as her number one priority and we will take the steps needed to improve children’s early learning and development, giving every child the best start in life.
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James McMurdock:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent bullying in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Essex. \p Stephen Morgan: All schools must have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They are free to develop their own anti-bullying strategies to suit their specific needs and are held to account by Ofsted.

Schools must take a strong stand against all forms of bullying and should tackle bullying at the earliest opportunity to prevent it from escalating, particularly given the impact it can have on pupils, both emotionally and physically.

​The department has published advice to support schools with addressing incidents of bullying. The guidance is clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. The guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625ee64cd3bf7f6004339db8/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf.

​The department has also published a practical tool to help schools, which can be found on the Educate Against Hate website. It is available here: https://educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle anti-semitism in schools. \p Stephen Morgan: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The government has committed £7 million of funding to tackle antisemitism in education in the wake of the unacceptable rise of antisemitism across the country. £500,000 of this has already been awarded to the University Jewish Chaplaincy to continue providing welfare support for Jewish students on our university campuses.

A £4.35 million Tackling Antisemitism in Education procurement closed for tender applications on 16 January 2025, these are due to be evaluated. This procurement seeks to equip staff from across England’s educational settings with training and resources to build confidence to identify and deal with incidents of antisemitism.

​The remaining funding will go towards a future Tackling Antisemitism in Education innovation fund to help tackle and build resilience to antisemitism and hate, focusing on how to identify and appropriately tackle mis- and disinformation. Further details on the innovation fund will be provided in due course.

The department’s Educate Against Hate website provides schools, teachers and pupils with a vast range of accessible resources that are reviewed and updated to build resilience and awareness to extremism. Educate Against Hate has a dedicated page to antisemitism which features online resources and educational material, including provided by the Community Security Trust.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

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Manuela Perteghella:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with childcare providers on (a) changes in the level of additional service charges and (b) their potential impact on working families’ ability to access affordable childcare. \p Stephen Morgan: In December the government published its Plan for Change, which outlines the priority deliverable for the Opportunity Mission is for a record number of children to be starting school ready to learn, measured by attainment against the early learning goals. This is key to breaking the link between young people’s background and their success. The department is hugely ambitious for the early years because we know how important this is for parents and their children.

It is important that the funded childcare hours are accessible and affordable for all families that need them. That is why the government is taking action to tackle reported instances of parents facing very high additional charges on top of the funded entitlement hours. These could include extra charges for nappies, lunch or other ‘consumables’, which should not be made a condition of accessing a funded place. It is also important that any additional charges are completely transparent to parents.

As part of the department’s regular review of the early years statutory guidance for local authorities, we have engaged with local authorities, providers and groups representing parents to clarify our statutory guidance on charging, including on so-called ‘top up fees’, and are considering how the department can better support local authorities to protect parents from overcharging.

The department will publish its updated statutory guidance in due course.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-01-23 conversation_81

Sir Julian Smith:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to support local authorities to provide activities which promote children’s (a) health, (b) wellbeing and (c) learning during school holidays. \p Stephen Morgan: Departmental budgets for 2025/26 will be confirmed in due course, including the exact funding available for this type of support for children, young people and families during the holidays.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

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James McMurdock:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a national safeguarding framework for all educational institutions including academies. \p Stephen Morgan: The department already has an established and robust safeguarding framework in place for educational institutions in the form of ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE). This is statutory safeguarding guidance which sets out the legal duties and responsibilities that schools and colleges, including academies, must follow to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

KCSIE is regularly reviewed to see where it needs strengthening and to ensure it is reflective of emerging risks in safeguarding.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-01-23 conversation_84

Jo Platt:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to expand the statutory definition of Children Missing Education to include children with special educational needs not receiving adequate education. \p Stephen Morgan: The department conducted a call for evidence from 18 May to 20 July 2023 on ‘Improving support for children missing education’, to understand the sector’s current approach to identifying and supporting children missing education (CME). The department’s response was published in December 2024 and noted inconsistency in the application of the existing definition. We are cautious about adding further complication or making changes that would confuse clear obligations towards CME and children with SEND. The department therefore has no current plans to expand the definition of CME to include children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) not receiving adequate education.

The department recognises that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, and this is particularly true for pupils with SEND. Addressing these barriers requires a support-first approach and strong relationships between families, schools, local authorities and other relevant local services.

This is why the department has published the ’Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which became statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support-first' approach and provides detail on additional support for pupils with SEND. Where a pupil is not attending due to unmet or additional needs, this guidance sets out clear expectations on how schools, local authorities and wider services work together to access and provide the right support to improve attendance.

The department is working closely with schools and local authorities to ensure that education settings are able to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND including announcing £1 billion investment in high needs at the Autumn Budget 2024, to help ensure all children can access the high quality education that should be their right.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

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Mark Sewards:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that childcare providers are not able to charge for childcare costs on days where they are unable to deliver the service. \p Stephen Morgan: It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.

Eligible children are entitled to 570 or 1140 hours of free early education and childcare per year. If parents are concerned that they are not receiving their child’s full entitlement, they should raise this with their local authority.

The private paid hours delivered by childcare providers across the country are subject to private arrangements between providers and parents. Details of these services, including whether payment is required for days when the provider is unable to deliver services, are set out in each individual agreement. Where issues arise in relation to such agreements, parents and providers may want to consider guidance from the Competitions and Markets Authority on consumer law: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cma-consumer-enforcement-guidance.

As part of the department’s regular review of the early years statutory guidance for local authorities, we have engaged with local authorities, providers and groups representing parents on the issue of charging. We will consider how to better support local authorities to protect parents from overcharging.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-01-23 conversation_86

Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to make it easier for parents to obtain Education, Health and Care plans. \p Catherine McKinnell: For too long the education system has not met the needs of all children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve.

This government knows that parents have struggled to get the right support for their children, particularly through long and difficult education, health and care (EHC) plan processes. We will work with children, young people, parents, local authorities, schools and colleges and their partners in delivering improvements so that children and young people can access the support they need.

The department wants to ensure that, where required, EHC plan assessments are progressed promptly and, if needed, plans are issued as quickly as possible so that children and young people can access the support they need.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have special educational needs that require an EHC plan. EHC plans must be issued within twenty weeks of the needs assessment commencing so that children and young people can access the support they need. In 2023, there were 138,200 initial requests for an EHC plan and 90,500 assessments took place. 50.3% of new EHC plans in 2023 were issued within twenty weeks.

The department knows that local authorities have seen an increase in the number of assessment requests and that more needs to be done to ensure that local areas deliver effective and timely services. This includes better communication with schools and families.

The department continues to monitor and work closely with local authorities that have issues with EHC plan timeliness. Where there are concerns about a local authority’s capacity to make the required improvements, we help the local authority to identify the barriers and put in place an effective recovery plan. This includes, where needed, securing specialist SEND adviser support to help identify the barriers to EHC plan process timeliness and put in place practical plans for recovery.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-23)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-01-23 conversation_87

Matt Bishop:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending eligibility for Pupil Premium Plus to (a) children who have not been looked after and (b) other children in kinship care. \p Catherine McKinnell: The department is providing over £2.9 billion of pupil premium funding in 2024/25 to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils in England.

The criteria for pupil premium eligibility are:

The portion of funding for looked after children and previously looked after children is often referred to as pupil premium plus and these pupils attract funding at a higher rate.

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils and schools do not have to spend this funding so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria. Schools can direct spending where the need is greatest, including to pupils with other identified needs, such as children in kinship care. Schools can also use pupil premium on whole class approaches that will benefit all pupils such as, for example, on high-quality teaching.

The department will continue to keep eligibility under review to ensure that support is targeted at those who most need it.