Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make the eligibility criteria for the holiday activities and food programme the same as that for free school meals.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool West Derby, to the answer of 13 June 2025 to Question 57800.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure state schools have adequate levels of funding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025/26, meaning that it will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25. This is a 6% overall increase, which against the backdrop of a challenging fiscal picture, demonstrates the government’s commitment to enabling every child to achieve and thrive through delivery of the Opportunity Mission.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of pausing student loan interest from accruing while new parents are in receipt of statutory maternity pay.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Student loans are subject to interest to ensure that those who can afford to do so contribute to the full cost of their degree.
The student finance system protects borrowers if they see a reduction in their income for whatever reason. This includes those in receipt of statutory maternity pay, or any other person on parental leave. Student loan repayments are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant student loan repayment threshold. Any outstanding debt, including interest built up, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.
A full equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance funding on student retention rates at universities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
The department’s review of non-specialist spelling and grammar software found that the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs was available to students in free to access software. We do not expect that this change will affect students’ retention rates or employment prospects.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance funding on disabled students' future employment prospects.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
The department’s review of non-specialist spelling and grammar software found that the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs was available to students in free to access software. We do not expect that this change will affect students’ retention rates or employment prospects.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has she made of the potential merits of making the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund permanent.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the member for Liverpool West Derby, to my written statement of 22 April 2025, which is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-04-22/hcws589.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing monitoring compliance with School Food Standards.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool West Derby to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 48872.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of ventilation in schools in reducing the spread of airborne infections.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes non-statutory guidance on ventilation in ‘Building Bulletin 101: Guidelines on ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality in schools’, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-bulletin-101-ventilation-for-school-buildings.
This guidance is consistent with the expert advice given by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic on ventilation requirements to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and by extension other airborne infections. The department supports and works with academics to understand the research relating to the impact of air quality on school users.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Education Support's annual survey titled Teacher Wellbeing Index, what steps her Department is taking to support teachers' mental health.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool West Derby to the answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29516.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to help support kinship carers in (a) Liverpool and (b) other areas.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children. In October 2024, the department published the new Kinship Care statutory guidance for local authorities, which sets out the support and services local authorities should provide to kinship families, including reaffirming the requirement to publish their local offer of support in a clear, accessible way.
Alongside this, as part of her role as the National Kinship Care Ambassador, Jahnine Davis will work alongside all local authorities to help them improve their kinship practice and local policies and ensure they are following national guidance. She will share learning nationally so that more local authorities can benefit from evidence of best practice. In turn, this will help to improve outcomes for children and families across England.
In October 2024, the government also announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance in some local authorities in England, to test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of supporting a child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends. This is the single biggest investment made by government in kinship care to date and could transform the lives of vulnerable children who can no longer live at home.
The department will share further details on the process for selecting local authorities in due course.