Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to statement in the OBR’s report entitled Economic and fiscal outlook November 2025, page 122, that the Government has announced in the Budget that SEND provision will be fully absorbed into existing RDEL limits from 2028-29, whether this absorption will be in the Department for Education’s budget.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The autumn budget made clear that future special educational needs and disabilities funding implications will be managed within the overall government departmental expenditure limits envelope, such that the government would not expect local authorities to need to fund future special educational needs costs from general funds, once the statutory override ends at the end of 2027/28.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies on Further Education Colleges of (a) business rates revaluation and (b) the new multiplier bands from April 2026.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given in UIN 104727.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for each wave of Mental Health Support Teams up to Wave 12, what the anticipated ratio of FTE clinical staff (a) was and (b) is in the Mental Health Support Team to pupil numbers in the schools covered.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) typically comprise of approximately eight full-time equivalent (FTE) clinical staff. Each team was anticipated to cover a population of between 8,000 and 8,500 children and young people. This figure refers to the total population covered by an MHST, not the number of children and young people receiving direct care.

The most recent coverage analysis indicates that MHSTs support an average population of approximately 8,300 children and young people. This equates to a current estimated ratio of FTE clinical staff to children and young people of approximately 1:1,037.

In July 2025, the National Children’s Bureau published an independent MHST evaluation report, Evaluating the implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper programme. According to survey data published as part of this report, 86% of respondents in schools and colleges were satisfied or very satisfied with the direct interventions that the MHST provided for pupils/students or families. The evaluation report is available at the following link:

https://www.ncb.org.uk/what-we-do/practice-and-programmes/building-integrated-child-centred-health-services/mental-2

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, further to the three month consultation announced by the government on further measures to keep children safe online, how many full-time equivalent officials she has assigned to this consultation.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In order to ensure that the consultation considers all arguments and views, we are drawing on expertise from across the department and from a variety of different teams as necessary. This means that an accurate estimation in terms of FTE is not possible.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to conduct a post-implementation review of the potential impact of the early waves of deployment of Mental Health Support Teams on schools.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has no plans to conduct a post-implementation review of the potential impact of the early waves of deployment of Mental Health Support Teams on schools.

In July 2025, the National Children’s Bureau published an independent Mental Health Support Teams evaluation report, Evaluating the implementation of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper programme. The impacts and other details are set out in the report, which is available at the following link:

https://www.ncb.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/attachments/CYP%20MH%20GP%20survey%202024%20report%20-%20Mundy%20et%20al%20%282025%29.pdf

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is planning to take to ensure the exchange of best practice among Healthcare Trusts from their deployment of Mental Health Support Teams.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care, along with NHS England and the Department for Education, jointly provide guidance and support to providers and commissioners of Mental Health Support Teams (MHST). This includes both the implementation of new teams and improving the quality and effectiveness of existing teams.

A national MHST Community of Practice has also been established, hosted by NHS England, with examples of best practice routinely made available to providers and commissioners.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what capacity his Department has made available for Work Capability Assessments in the next six months; and what the backlog of cases is.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

During the second half of 2024, DWP experienced a much higher level of demand for new Work Capability Assessments (WCA) than envisaged. As a result, 34,000 reassessments built up from individuals reporting a change in their condition before May 2025. We have worked with suppliers to rapidly increase capacity to clear this, including by accelerating the recruitment and training of additional assessors. As of 31 January 2026, 14,000 of these cases remain, and we expect the remainder to be cleared in the coming months.

In the meantime, claimants awaiting a reassessment will continue to receive their current rate. Where a reassessment leads to entitlement to a higher rate of benefit, that rate will be backdated accordingly.

Please note:

• All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 1,000.
• All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the Assessment Suppliers
• The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2026 to Question 102744 on Hospitality Industry and Retail Trade: Business Rates, what estimate she has made for the total business rates liability for the current set of properties in category 159 (Local Authority Schools) in (a) 2025/6 (b) 2026/7, and (c) 2027/8.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Valuation Office Agency is responsible for assessing non-domestic properties and determining their rateable value (RV). Local authorities are responsible for calculating business rates bills using the RV, the multiplier set by parliament, and any appropriate reliefs.

The government has published guidance for estimating a property’s business rates for 2026-27: Estimate your business rates - GOV.UK.

Found: and Admiralty— Q336 Damian Hinds: I know what has happened.

Found: Q4 Damian Hinds: It would be super helpful if we could quantify this.

Found: Q4 Damian Hinds: It would be super helpful if we could quantify this.