Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Written Statement of 22 October 2024 on Mainstream Free Schools, HCWS150, what progress her Department has made on the review of planned mainstream free schools.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The review that my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced in October 2024 will put a stop to the over-supply of unnecessary places and channel funding towards improving the deteriorating condition of existing schools and colleges and enable prioritisation of capital funding where it is most needed across the education estate to counter urgent condition need.

Since the review was announced, departmental officials have been working through evidence gathered from trusts and local authorities to develop robust, evidence-based recommendations. We will update trusts and local authorities on next steps in due course.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of (a) the Information Commissioner’s Office and (b) Ofcom in assessing how regulated services are enforcing their minimum age limits to ensure children’s safety and data protection.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

In 2024, the ICO updated its Age assurance opinion for the Children’s code, with guidance on what online services must do if they are likely to be accessed by children. We welcome the ICO’s ongoing work to assess how services are applying age assurance measures to identifying child users and through the Data (Use and Access) Bill we are taking steps to require the ICO to have regard to the fact that children merit specific protection.

Under the Online Safety Act services in scope must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from encountering the most harmful content. Additionally, services which have a minimum age limit must specify in their terms of service how these restrictions are enforced and apply these terms consistently. Ofcom must publish a report on services’ use of age assurance within 18 months of child safety duties coming into effect.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans for the rules on school uniform contained in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to be adjustable by secondary legislation.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

For too many families, the cost of uniform remains a financial burden. ​This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require, to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities.

The department believes a clear and transparent limit, set out in primary legislation, is the most effective way to make schools remove unnecessary and expensive branded items and bring down costs for parents.

There are no plans for this measure contained in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to be adjustable by secondary legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43038 on Prisons: Overcrowding, how many and what proportion of the Operation Safeguard police cells made available overnight were used.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Operation Safeguard is an important contingency measure used to ensure that the current demand on prison places does not cause undue disruption to Criminal Justice System partners. The first places were activated by the previous Government in February 2023.

Between 20 February 2023 – 4 July 2024, 86,561 Operation Safeguard police cells were made available overnight. Over the same period, there were 2,564 overnight uses of Safeguard.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, whether there will be a de minimis value below which a required uniform item would not count towards the limits for branded items of school uniform.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

There will not be a de minimis value below which a required uniform item would not count towards the limit for branded items of school uniform. The department wants to ensure that the action we are taking to reduce the cost of uniform provides schools and parents with clarity about which items are in scope.

The explanatory notes to the bill, which set out the detail of the measures included, are available here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909/publications.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the impact on participation of the change in the average cost of domestic school trips since 2019; and if she will make an assessment of the trends in the levels of the contributing factors for the changes in that average cost.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department is providing schools with an additional £3.2 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, taking total core school budgets to over £64.8 billion. Schools have autonomy over how they use this funding to best support their pupils based on their individual circumstance, including any spending decisions on school trips.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answers of 9 April 2025 to Questions 43036 on Prison Accommodation: Closures and 43032 and 43033 on Prison Accommodation, what the gross addition to prison estate capacity was from (a) new-build prisons, (b) extensions, (c) rapid deployment cells and (d) other additions without netting off the removal of places in each year for which data is available.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The previous Labour Government added nearly 28,000 places to the prison estate between 1997 and 2010. However, available records do not provide a breakdown for these figures of these places by category.

For the gross additions to prison estate capacity relating to (a) new-build prisons and (b) extensions, I refer you to the table provided in response to PQs 36624 & 36626. For gross additions relating to (c) rapid deployment cells, I refer you to the table provided in PQ 36625. The information requested for part (d) is not available in a format showing gross additions only. This is because this category contains significant turnover of prison places coming in and out of use for temporary reductions, such as maintenance projects, and it is not possible to distinguish the gross additional capacity added over this period.

Last year this Government announced plans to build 14,000 places by 2031 as part of our 10-year Prison Capacity Strategy. We have already started the 700-place expansion at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk in March, and a new houseblock providing nearly 460 places at HMP Rye Hill in Northamptonshire recently received its first prisoners. This week has also seen the opening HMP Millsike, which will hold nearly 1,500 prisoners.

Found: Q25 Damian Hinds: Venues are operating businesses.

Found: Q25 Damian Hinds: Venues are operating businesses.

Found: Q111 Damian Hinds: Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining this Committee today.

Found: Q111 Damian Hinds: Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining this Committee today.

Found: _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .

Found: REPORT STAGE Friday 2 May 2025 12 _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .

Found: REPORT STAGE Thursday 1 May 2025 12 _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .

Found: _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .

Found: _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .

Found: _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .

Found: order, subject to privacy safeguards for third parties. 9 REPORT STAGE Friday 25 April 2025 _NC12 Damian Hinds

Found: subject to privacy safeguards for third parties. 9 REPORT STAGE Thursday 24 April 2025 _NC12 Damian Hinds

Found: _NC12 Damian Hinds Kit Malthouse Dame Caroline Dinenage .