Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address falling school readiness, following the findings of the Kindred Squared School Readiness Survey, published on 30 January.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The government welcomes the focus from the Kindred Squared School Readiness Survey. Preparing children for school should be a partnership between parents, early years settings and schools.

That is why this government has set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.

This is an increase from 67.7% currently and would mean an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year hitting developmental goals.

To achieve this milestone, we will:

• Roll out government-funded childcare entitlements and support 3,000 new and expanded school-based nurseries, increasing the availability of high quality childcare places.
• Offer sustained professional development and work with providers to help spread evidence-based programmes, such as Maths Champions, as part of comprehensive plans to drive high quality early education and care.
• Ensure that the reception year sets children up for success, by rolling out evidence-based programmes that boost early literacy and numeracy skills, including the Nuffield Early Language Intervention.
• Strengthen and join up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood. This includes continuing to invest in and build up Family Hubs and Start for Life programmes to support early child health, parenting and home learning programmes, strengthen health visiting services for all families and improve early identification of special educational needs and disabilities.

We will continue to work closely with parents and teachers as we deliver our ambitious reforms to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 11 March (HL5240), what is the turnover and gross value added for each of the 73 industries covered in their definition of energy-intensive industry.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

• Data from the latest ONS Annual Business Survey on energy intensive industries (EIIs) for turnover and GVA in 2022 was published in 2024 and can be seen in full as an attachment.
• In 2022, the EIIs with the highest turnover were manufacture of refined petroleum products (£56.2 billion), manufacture of basic iron and steel and of ferro-alloys (£9.2 billion), and manufacture of prepared feeds for farm animals (£8.0 billion).
• EIIs with the highest GVA in 2022 were manufacture of refined petroleum products (£5.4 billion), manufacture of other plastic products (£2.7 billion), and manufacture of plastic plates, sheets, tubes and profiles (£2.3 billion).

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s assessment in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook March 2025 that 3 million people will be in receipt of the Universal Credit health element in 2029–30; and how many people they forecast will be in receipt of it in 2029–30, by age and region.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Memorandum of understanding between the Office for Budget Responsibility, HM Treasury, the Department for Work & Pensions, and HM Revenue & Customs sets out the responsibilities of the OBR and government departments in the preparation of forecasts for welfare spending at fiscal events, including how this is presented in the OBR’s publication the Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

In line with paragraph 2.7 of the MoU, the DWP forecasts for the UC health journey caseloads are produced in consultation with OBR and are consistent with the OBR Spring Statement 2025 forecasts. These will be published in the DWP’s Outturn and Forecast tables on 23rd April.

Figures by region and age are not available for UC health journey caseloads.

Found: meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Baroness Browning; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Baroness Browning; Lord Crisp; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Baroness Browning; Lord Crisp; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: Page 3 of 9 Lord Crisp Baroness Goudie Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Baroness Browning; Lord Crisp; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: 3.45 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Lord Crisp; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Baroness Browning; Lord Crisp; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

Found: Members present: Baroness Rock (The Chair); Lord Addington; Baroness Browning; Lord Crisp; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell