Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of NHS-registered GPs in England who offer all patients the ability to make an appointment in person or by phone rather than through the NHS app or other online booking facilities.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The GP Contract requires all practices to enable patients to telephone or visit their practice in person to make appointments. Online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing a general practitioner, and practice receptions should be open so that patients without access to telephone or online services are in no way disadvantaged.

To support patients who depend on telephone bookings, recent contractual changes require all general practices to offer online booking throughout core hours, from 8:00am to 6:30pm. This is designed to ease pressure on phone lines by allowing those who prefer online booking to do so at any time, freeing up phone lines, reducing long phone queues, and improving the experience for those reliant on telephone bookings.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the methods used by absent parents on incomes above £156,000 to evade full and accurate assessment for child maintenance by the courts.

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

Where a parent’s gross income exceeds £156,000 a year, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) makes a maximum maintenance calculation. Any further consideration of child maintenance is a matter for the courts, which have their own mechanisms for examining the finances of those involved in proceedings where relevant.

Where a paying parent’s income is not fully reflected in a statutory maintenance calculation, the CMS can take account of certain forms of diverted and unearned income through the variation process where income has not been fully reflected in a maintenance calculation. Where information is disputed or appears not to reflect a parent's true circumstances, caseworkers can access specialist support, including the Financial Investigation Unit.

The Government continues to work closely with HMRC to improve the quality and timeliness of income data and strengthen the identification of complex income arrangements. Assessments and processes are kept under review to help ensure that child maintenance liabilities accurately reflect parents' financial circumstances and that all parents contribute appropriately towards their children.

The CMS can provide information to the courts where requested through the proper legal process, including information used in child maintenance calculations and, where relevant, findings from CMS investigations

The CMS remains committed to ensuring that parents meet their financial responsibilities to their children.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the £156,000 cap on annual income earned by the absent parent eligible for assessment by the Child Maintenance Service has not been uprated since December 2012; and what assessment they have made of the resulting impact on child poverty.

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

The £156,000 annual gross income limit reflects the £3,000 gross weekly income threshold introduced with the 2012 child maintenance scheme. The scheme was designed to provide a standard formula for assessing child maintenance in most cases. Where a paying parent’s income exceeds this threshold, receiving parents may apply to the courts for a top-up order. Higher-income cases can involve more complex financial arrangements and, as intended when the scheme was introduced, the courts remain responsible for determining any additional maintenance above the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculation limit.

The Government keeps all aspects of the child maintenance system under consideration, but there are currently no plans to uprate this threshold.

A paying parent with gross weekly income of £3,000 or above would be liable for child maintenance of approximately £294 per week for one qualifying child, £392 per week for two qualifying children and £482 per week for three or more qualifying children under the statutory formula, before any adjustments for shared care or other factors.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of children who have and who have not been taught to read music by (1) age 11 and (2) age 16 in England.

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

In the current national curriculum, pupils should be taught to use and understand staff and other musical notations at key stage 2 from ages 7 to 11, and to use staff and other relevant notations appropriately and accurately at key stage 3 from ages 11 to 14. The department does not hold information on whether pupils are taught to read music but Ofsted’s most recent subject report, based on visits to 25 primary and 25 secondary schools, found that pupils do not consistently develop secure musical knowledge and skills over time, including in notation and reading music.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report on 5 November 2025. The government has issued a response to the report, setting out planned changes to the music curriculum to ensure pupils develop a strong foundation in the three pillars of musical understanding, technical, constructive and expressive, including how to read music. The first teaching of a refreshed curriculum will be September 2028, following planned consultation to launch in September.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the numbers of children in England being offered teaching at school in (1) Mandarin, (2) Spanish, (3) Hindi, and (4) Arabic.

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

The government is committed to supporting the teaching of modern foreign languages in England’s schools. Schools are free to choose which languages they teach at primary and secondary level. When deciding which languages to offer, schools will consider the needs of the communities they serve.

The department does not hold information on the number of children being taught Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi or Arabic in school. However, we can provide the following information on GCSE entries: in 2025, 73% of state-funded secondary schools in England entered at least one pupil for GCSE Spanish (2,719 schools), compared with 28% for GCSE Arabic (1,030 schools) and 31% for GCSE Chinese (1,154 schools).

The department does not hold data for Hindi, as this is offered as an iGCSE qualification, not GCSE. Schools may be used as exam centres for local heritage language schools, so we do not know if the teaching for these exams took place in schools or elsewhere.