Asked by: Hannah Spencer (Green Party - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has issued guidance to universities on the Employment Rights Act; and what steps she is taking to prevent university employers engaging in fire and rehire practices before January 2027.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Universities are autonomous institutions and, as such, like any other employer, are expected to comply with UK employment laws. The government has not issued specific guidance to universities on the Employment Rights Act, but clearly they should comply with it as they should any other law.
The government does not have an intervening role with specific providers or in resolving disputes between providers and their staff. Providers are however expected to work with their staff to develop sustainable models that retain talent and expertise, and provide stability for the workforce and the institution.
Asked by: Hannah Spencer (Green Party - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ensure no compulsory redundancies among staff who cannot relocate from her Department's offices which are closing.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The department is committed to supporting colleagues affected by the closure of six office locations and have developed a package of mitigations to support those affected, resulting in the majority of colleagues accepting moves to one of our remaining eight nationally based offices. We continue to work with all staff to reach a workable solution with the aim to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible.
Asked by: Hannah Spencer (Green Party - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring schools to provide easy access to free drinking water.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department takes the health and wellbeing of both pupils and staff very seriously. All schools need to be safe, well-maintained, and compliant with all relevant regulations. This is the responsibility of those running our schools, which includes local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies.
All schools must ensure their water supply meets the requirements of either the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 or the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, for maintained schools and academies respectively.
These Regulations set strict requirements that schools must provide suitable drinking water facilities and that they are clearly labelled and readily accessible at all times when schools are in use. The Water Supply Regulations 2016 requires water to be wholesome at the point of consumption and the School Premises Regulations reinforces this requirement.
Asked by: Hannah Spencer (Green Party - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the latest School Teachers' Review Body report on teacher’s pay; and what discussions she has had with head teachers and their representatives on (a) the publication date of that report and (b) the potential impact this date will have on the adequacy of the amount of time schools get to plan their budgets for September.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has received the School Teachers’ Review Body’s 36th Report. As is the case each year once the report is received, the government is now in the process of discussing the recommendations and will publish the report, in addition to the government’s response, and launch the statutory consultation as soon as those discussions have concluded, making every effort to give schools as much notice of the impact on school budgets as is possible.
Asked by: Hannah Spencer (Green Party - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the recommendation on the competitiveness of teachers’ pay in The National Foundation for Educational Research report entitled The School Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2026 published on 19 March 2026.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department notes the recent National Foundation for Educational Research report, which highlights some improvement in the competitiveness of teachers’ pay.
The department values all teachers, which is why we have delivered two above inflation awards that, combined, will mean all schoolteachers will have seen an increase in their pay of almost 10% over the last two years.
In making their recommendations on teacher pay in maintained schools each year, the School Teachers’ Review Body carries out rigorous assessments as part of its reports and considers a range of evidence, including key indicators for pay competitiveness.
We are already seeing positive signs that our investment is delivering. The workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time equivalent between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, and our teacher pipeline is growing, with just under 32,600 new entrants to initial teacher training in autumn 2025, up 13% on the previous year.