Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that universities share learning from reviews of student deaths by suicide.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Universities are expected to carry out serious incident reviews after a suspected student suicide, following sector‑developed postvention guidance produced by Universities UK, PAPYRUS and Samaritans, which sets clear expectations for reviewing incidents and identifying lessons for improvement.
To support sector‑wide learning, the department last year published the first National Review of Higher Education Student Suicide Deaths, drawing on more than 160 such reviews to provide a shared evidence base and recommendations for improvement across the sector. These recommendations are now being taken forward through the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce, which is working with providers to embed consistent practice and strengthen postvention approaches.
The Taskforce is also exploring how to improve data and evidence collection so that learning from future cases can be captured more consistently and used to drive further continuous improvement across the sector.
Asked by: Terry Jermy (Labour - South West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to embed practical food, nature, and sustainability education across the national curriculum from EYFS to post-16, including T Levels.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The current national curriculum includes these topics, and there is a food preparation and nutrition GCSE, and science and geography are available at GCSE and A level.
In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the department will enhance the identity of food education by clearly distinguishing cooking and nutrition, which will be renamed food and nutrition, as a distinct subject within design and technology.
The department will also enhance the focus on climate education and sustainability that already exists in subjects such as geography, science, and citizenship. We will also include sustainability within design and technology.
The national curriculum will be taught in academies when it is implemented.
At post-16, the department is continuing to support adults to retrain and reskill in line with the needs of the green economy. We have a range of qualifications for older learners that provide training in green skills including apprenticeships, T levels, Skills Bootcamps and higher technical qualifications.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to help support parents of students with SEND with having Education, Health and Care Plans in place.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department works closely with a range of charities, who support parents, carers, children and young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans currently in place.
We have extended our current participation and family support contract to guarantee continuity of vital support services for parent carers and children and young people throughout 2026/27. These services include a national helpline which gives independent advice, support and resources to parent carers, and also the training of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Information Advice and Support Services (SENDIASS) staff to ensure they are up to date with legal advice and information, and that they can support families locally. SENDIASS offer independent impartial information, advice and support on the full range of education, health and social care for parents, carers, children and young people with SEND. They also provide advocacy support for individual children, young people, and parents, which includes representation during a tribunal hearing if the parent or young person is unable to do so.
These services are designed to help families understand the impact of changes to the SEND system particularly in relation to EHC plans.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help coordinate services between higher education institutions and NHS mental health services for students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Improving coordination between universities and NHS mental health services is a key priority. The Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce recently published Improving Student Mental Health through Higher Education-NHS Partnerships, which sets out evidenced models of effective collaboration and provides case studies showing how stronger partnerships working together can transform outcomes for students while delivering efficiencies for local health services. The government encourages any university not already involved in such a partnership to draw on these models and to work with their local integrated care board to identify an approach that meets local needs.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to ask the Office for Students to introduce a regulatory condition on student mental health and wellbeing.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator, and any decision to introduce a new regulatory condition would be for the OfS to determine. The Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce and department are working closely with the OfS as part of our work to improve consistency and raise standards in how providers support student mental health. This includes considering regulatory options alongside other levers such as governance, assurance and strengthened good practice frameworks. We will set out our position following advice from the taskforce, which is helping identify what a clear, strong and proportionate framework should look like.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many nights were spent in hotels by Departmental staff in financial year 2024-25 by the star rating of the hotel.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
In 2024-25 there were a total of 61 nights spent in hotels by departmental staff where overnight stays were essential for departmental business. These are broken down in the following table.
Star rating | Stays |
3 Star | 2 |
4 Star | 11 |
5 Star | 1 |
Not rated | 47 |
For the hotels that do not have a star rating, these are classed as budget hotels.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are currently accessing mental health services who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in a) Eastbourne b) East Sussex c) Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data on substance misuse treatment is available on the ViewIt statistics viewer on National Drugs Treatment Monitoring System website (NDTMS - ViewIt - Adult). This data is only available at an upper tier local authority level, therefore data for East Sussex and West Sussex only have been provided below.
In East Sussex, there were 1,280 new treatment presentations with known housing status during 2024/25. Of these, 345 people were identified as experiencing homelessness, accounting for 27% of the total new presentations. In West Sussex, there were 1,465 new treatment presentations with known housing status during 2024/25. Of these, 350 people were identified as experiencing homelessness, accounting for 24% of the total new presentations.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are currently accessing both mental health and addiction services who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in a) Eastbourne b) East Sussex c) Sussex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
NHS England publishes data at a national level on accommodation status for people in contact with mental health services. Using accommodation types associated with homelessness, including rough sleeper, squatting, sofa surfing, staying with friends or family as a short‑term guest, bed and breakfast accommodation to prevent or relieve homelessness, sleeping in a night shelter, hostel to prevent or relieve homelessness, and temporary housing to prevent or relieve homelessness, the dataset at the end of November 2025 shows around 21,429 people fall into these groups out of 2,088,415 people in contact with services nationally (approximately 1.03%).
78% of all service users have an ‘unknown’ recorded accommodation status, meaning the true number experiencing homelessness while accessing mental health services may be higher.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he received representations on delaying local elections from Labour (a) MPs, (b) councillors and (c) council groups that were separate from formal representations from the local authority.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Representations were received from councils with elections scheduled in May, including from councillors and political groups, and from other councils, interested organisations, Member of Parliament, and members of the public.
The Secretary of State ran a locally led process and it was for councils to make representations and assess their capacity to conduct a safe and smooth transition to new authorities at the same time as holding elections.
In reaching his decisions, the Secretary of State carefully considered all the representations made alongside departmental advice on those representations.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department undertook verification of local authorities’ representations which noted insufficient capacity because of the scheduled May 2026 elections.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Representations were received from councils with elections scheduled in May, including from councillors and political groups, and from other councils, interested organisations, Member of Parliament, and members of the public.
The Secretary of State ran a locally led process and it was for councils to make representations and assess their capacity to conduct a safe and smooth transition to new authorities at the same time as holding elections.
In reaching his decisions, the Secretary of State carefully considered all the representations made alongside departmental advice on those representations.