Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, when his Department intends to publish its response to the consultation on Fireworks and pyrotechnics in the UK; and whether he plans to bring forward legislation in light of the consultation's findings.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)

The Government is currently reviewing responses to the consultation which closed on 7 October 2026 and will publish the Government response in due course. The consultation sought views on targeted reforms to fireworks and pyrotechnics legislation. Over 140,000 responses were received. The evidence provided by members of the public, businesses, charities, enforcement bodies and other stakeholders is being carefully considered and will inform decisions on whether legislative changes are required.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact on students and graduates of using the Retail Prices Index (RPI) in student finance calculations; and whether she will consider adopting the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), which is generally lower than RPI, to better reflect inflation pressures faced by students.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Decisions on student loan repayment arrangements must be considered alongside wider fiscal priorities, the long-term sustainability of the higher education (HE) funding system and value for money for taxpayers. The department has already taken decisive action against inflationary pressures by capping the maximum interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 loans at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year, protecting borrowers from inflation shocks.

The Office for National Statistics has confirmed that it will bring the methods and data sources used to calculate the Consumer Prices Index, including owner occupiers' housing costs, into the Retail Prices Index from February 2030. The government will continue to consider the appropriate treatment of inflation measures within the student finance system as part of its ongoing consideration of HE funding and student support arrangements.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has assessed whether the use of parental income to determine eligibility for student maintenance support remains fair and fit for purpose; and whether she plans to review those arrangements to ensure that students receive adequate support regardless of their parents’ ability to contribute to their living costs.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government considers the current household income assessment for living costs support to be the fairest and most consistent way of targeting support towards undergraduate students whose families have the least capacity to support them.

To help students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds progress and succeed in higher education, we have future-proofed our living costs loan offer by committing to increase them in line with forecast inflation each academic year from the 2026/27.

This will ensure that students from the lowest income families receive the largest year-on-year cash increases in support and provide students with greater long-term financial certainty about the financial support available while they study.

Maximum loans for living costs have been increased by 2.71% for the 2026/27 academic year.

We will continue to keep the student finance system under review to ensure that it remains fair and financially sustainable.

Student finance

Cancer and access to travel insurance

Found: present: Emily Thornberry (Chair); Fleur Anderson; Alex Ballinger; Aphra Brandreth; Dan Carden; Abtisam Mohamed