Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made recent progress on implementing section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government inherited a broken water system. These systemic issues require a proper reset with a reformed water sector in a new partnership with the Government to bring in the investment that is needed. The Government is committed to using legislation to reform the water sector and will continue to do so where necessary.
The Government recognises that current arrangements of sewer adoption need to be reviewed, which is why private sewerage has been included in the terms of reference of the ongoing review of the water sector, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe to recommend reforms to reset the water sector regulatory system.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of persistent school absences in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England; and what steps her Department is taking to improve school attendance in those areas.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at regional and local authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases.
The department does not publish attendance data at the constituency level, so we are unable to provide data specifically for the Mid Cheshire constituency. However, local authority, regional, and national absence data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england. Additionally, the department publishes more frequent experimental attendance data on a fortnightly basis, which you can access here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools, or via the dashboard here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/pupil-attendance-in-schools/.
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence which is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts, although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons.
Central to the department’s approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024 and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services, including across the Mid Cheshire constituency, should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support, including where a pupil is not attending due to special educational needs.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why the department set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, who have offered support to 2000 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools, including in Cheshire, and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance. Bringing together best practice from the hubs, we have also published an attendance toolkit which aims to support schools to identify the drivers of absence in their setting and address these. This toolkit is available here: https://attendancetoolkit.blob.core.windows.net/toolkit-doc/Attendance%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf.
In addition to this work, the department also aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
From early 2025, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will support all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice across areas, including attendance, and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another. For schools requiring more intensive support, RISE teams and supporting organisations will work collaboratively with their responsible body to agree bespoke packages of targeted support, based on a school’s particular circumstances.
School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs, across all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department is working across government on plans to provide a range of measures, including access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs which include access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. The department will also initiate new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance and off-rolling.
Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the number of unfilled teacher posts in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire, (c) the North West and (d) England in each of the last five years; and what steps she is taking to (i) fill those vacancies and (ii) improve teacher recruitment and retention in those areas.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.
Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, and can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
This includes the number and rate of unfilled teacher posts in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for the North West and England are published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3eb0c32-ece8-4c6e-778a-08dd2da39723.
The attached table provides the number and rate of unfilled teacher posts in the Mid Cheshire and Cheshire constituencies, aggregated from local authority level data, in each of the last five academic years, as at November each year.
The growing number of teacher shortages is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across schools, both mainstream and specialist, and colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. The department has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, the department has made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.
In addition to recruiting expert teachers, the department wants existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession. New teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a Targeted Retention Incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for Targeted Retention Incentives.
To further support retention, the department has made available workload and wellbeing resources, developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service, and continues to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.
The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, providing professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted so far, with support continuing to be available through Education Support’s website.
The department is also committed to supporting schools in implementing flexible working practices, including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.
The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering Initial Teacher Training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Cheshire Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was for a First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) appeal for (a) personal independence payment and (b) universal credit in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics. The average waiting times data requested can be found under “Tribunal Statistics CSV files”.
The information requested about the number of appellants waiting for appeals to be listed is not held centrally.
HMCTS cannot isolate the number of appellants waiting for their appeal to be listed, as opposed to the number of appeals waiting to be listed. An appellant may have more than one appeal waiting to be listed: appeals can be made against (amongst other things) initial decisions on entitlement to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), overpayments, or period of time for which PIP has been awarded, for which separate appeals can be lodged.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appellants are waiting for First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) appeals to be listed for personal independence payment in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics. The average waiting times data requested can be found under “Tribunal Statistics CSV files”.
The information requested about the number of appellants waiting for appeals to be listed is not held centrally.
HMCTS cannot isolate the number of appellants waiting for their appeal to be listed, as opposed to the number of appeals waiting to be listed. An appellant may have more than one appeal waiting to be listed: appeals can be made against (amongst other things) initial decisions on entitlement to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), overpayments, or period of time for which PIP has been awarded, for which separate appeals can be lodged.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy of the condition of the canal towpath network and (b) potential merits of enabling higher levels of use of the canal towpath network for (i) walking and (ii) cycling.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Use of towpaths by walkers and cyclists is an operational matter for individual navigation authorities, and Government does not have a role in that. However, Defra provides an annual grant of £52.6 million to the Canal and River Trust, which is the largest navigation authority in England and Wales with 2,000 miles of waterways. The Trust reports that towpath user satisfaction in 2023/24 was 91%.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle inequalities in education outcomes in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Every child and young person should have every opportunity to achieve and thrive. The Opportunity Mission will promote equal opportunities for all by setting every child up for the best start in life, helping them achieve and thrive, and build skills for opportunity and growth. This will be underpinned by addressing family security, as the department is aware it must tackle the underlying barriers to opportunity that hold too many young people back.
High and rising standards, with excellent teaching in every school, are at the heart of the mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve outcomes for every child, no matter their background. That is why the department has started work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers and launched an independent, expert led Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people.
The department is also committed to creating 3,000 new school-based nurseries, providing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, and launching Skills England to transform opportunities and drive growth.
The department recognises the impact poverty and disadvantage has on outcomes for children and young people, which is why the Child Poverty Taskforce is bringing together expertise from across and beyond government to develop a UK-wide Child Poverty Strategy, which will tackle the root causes of poverty and ensure every child has the best start in life.
The department’s North West regional team works closely with Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester local authorities, as well as multi-academy trusts operating in the area, regarding education performance and outcomes in schools across the authorities. From early 2025, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams will drive higher standards, supporting all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of trends in the levels of reoffending rates in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England in each of the last five years; and what steps her Department is taking to help reduce reoffending rates in those areas.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The overall proven reoffending rate for England has decreased from 29.1% in 2017/18 to 25.0% in 2021/22 (the latest year for which reoffending data is available – see Table 1).
The overall proven reoffending rate for Cheshire has decreased from 29.6% in 2017/18 to 27.5% in 2021/22 (the latest year for which reoffending data is available – see Table 1).
We do not currently hold reoffending data broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Table 1: Rate of reoffending for the regions of Cheshire, and England, across the past 5 years | |||||
Region | Apr 2017- Mar 2018 | Apr 2018 - Mar 2019 | Apr 2019 - Mar 2020 | Apr 2020 - Mar 2021 | Apr 2021 - Mar 2022 |
Cheshire | 29.6% | 27.8% | 26.5% | 25.7% | 27.5% |
England | 29.1% | 27.9% | 25.4% | 24.1% | 25.0% |
This Government is committed to reducing reoffending by giving people the tools they need to turn their backs on crime. To do that, we will increase prisoners’ access to purposeful activity, including education and employment, which we know can reduce reoffending by up to 9 percentage points.
For example, we have recruited specialist education and employment roles in prisons to support and prepare prisoners for work on release, including Prison Employment Leads who match prisoners to jobs. Prison Employment Leads are currently in place at HMP Risley, HMP Styal and HMP Thorn Cross, three prisons located in Cheshire.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of appeals to the tribunals service in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England which related to (i) personal independence payments and (ii) universal credit were successful in (A) the most recent period for which figures are available and (B) each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
The data requested can be found under “Tribunal Statistics CSV files”.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of young people out of work, education and training in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey (LFS) for young people aged 16 to 24. This can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.
The number of 16 to 24-year-olds considered as NEET in England at the end of 2023 is estimated to be 709,600, 11.9% of the population. However, these estimates are only published at national level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16 to 24 in the Mid Cheshire constituency and Cheshire cannot be provided.
However, local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. This data is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures.
These figures show that of the 7,716 young people aged 16 and 17-years-old who were known to Cheshire East local authority, at the end of 2022, 205 were NEET or their activity was not known. This comprises 193 young people who were known to be NEET and 12 young people whom the local authority could not confirm their activity. This data is an average of December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023.
In Cheshire West and Chester local authority, of the 7,263 young people aged 16 and 17-years-old who were known to the local authority at the end of 2022, 329 were NEET or their activity was not known. This comprises of 274 young people who were known to be NEET and 55 young people whom the local authority could not confirm their activity. These statistics are published as transparency data, so some caution should be taken if using these figures. Data is not available for Mid Cheshire constituency.
In addition, 16 to 18 destination measures are published. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16 to 18 study, that is six months of continual activity. This can be used as a proxy for NEET at age 18. As Mid Cheshire was re-established as a constituency in 2024, no data is currently available, as the latest publication includes destinations in 2022/23. Data at parliamentary constituency level for 2022/23 can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/819215d3-4c06-40ac-0f95-08dd167ca495.