Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the number of children with EHCPs whose preference was for a specialist school place, but were instead placed in a mainstream school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. To support local authorities with this duty, in December, the department announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. This builds on the £740 million invested in 2025/26, which is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places. Of this funding, Thurrock council has been allocated just under £2 million, and Essex has been allocated just under £21 million.
This funding is intended to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs. It can also be used to adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their high needs capital funding to address local priorities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 94577 on Special Educational Needs: Admissions, whether she has provided guidance on the number of additional SEND places required to meet forecast demand in Thurrock.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. To support local authorities with this duty, in December, the department announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. This builds on the £740 million invested in 2025/26, which is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places. Of this funding, Thurrock council has been allocated just under £2 million, and Essex has been allocated just under £21 million.
This funding is intended to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs. It can also be used to adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their high needs capital funding to address local priorities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of SEND spaces needed in South Basildon and East Thurrock to meet forecast demand.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. To support local authorities with this duty, in December, the department announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. This builds on the £740 million invested in 2025/26, which is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places. Of this funding, Thurrock council has been allocated just under £2 million, and Essex has been allocated just under £21 million.
This funding is intended to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs. It can also be used to adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their high needs capital funding to address local priorities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of unmet demand for SEND places in (a) Thurrock and (b) Basildon.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), sits with local authorities. To support local authorities with this duty, in December, the department announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. This builds on the £740 million invested in 2025/26, which is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places. Of this funding, Thurrock council has been allocated just under £2 million, and Essex has been allocated just under £21 million.
This funding is intended to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs. It can also be used to adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their high needs capital funding to address local priorities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the relationship between enforcement activity and a) arrests, b) convictions and c) sentencing outcomes for immigration offences.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has made a strategic shift in Border Security, focusing on long-term systemic improvements, smarter, intelligence-led interventions and stronger partnerships across agencies.
The Border Security Command (BSC), established in July 2024, provides cross system leadership—bringing together the National Crime Agency, police, intelligence agencies, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force—to prioritise intelligence led operations that disrupt organised immigration crime, illegal working and associated harms. In May we launched a new Organised Immigration Crime Domestic taskforce to transform the way in which police respond to the threat of organised immigration crime.
There is a clear relationship between enforcement activity and arrests. Published Home Office data shows that, from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, Immigration Enforcement teams carried out over 11,000 illegal working visits (up 51% year on year) which resulted in more than 8,000 arrests (up 63%). Detentions following those visits rose by 75% and returns recorded after a visit rose by 11%. These figures demonstrate that sustained, intelligence led operational activity leads to more arrests and case progression.
Convictions and sentencing outcomes are a matter for the independent Crown Prosecution Service and the Courts.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to publish sector-specific data on illegal working enforcement outcomes, including gig-economy sectors.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office takes the issue of illegal working seriously and continues to take robust enforcement action against those who breach immigration laws.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil penalties have been issued for illegal working in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information on illegal working civil penalty statistics has been published since 2016 as part of the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Transparency Data. This can be found at immigration-enforcement-data-jul-sep-2025 on tab CP02.
This publication covers the period up to 30 September 2025.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 8th December 2025 to Question 95555, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of existing fines in deterring illegal working.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office continues to assess direct impacts of civil penalties for illegal working across all sectors of the labour market, through assessment of any changes in the composition and characteristics of those businesses receiving civil penalties, and their actions as a result.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of rising demand for ambulance services on Category 2 performance in the east of England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) has experienced sustained growth in demand in recent years. In the current financial year-to-date, to November 2025, the service has responded to over 640,000 incidents. This represents the highest year-to-date total to November since records began in 2018/19, and an increase of more than 40,000 incidents compared to the same period last year.
Despite increased demand, Category 2 performance has improved. In the current financial year to date, to November 2025, the mean Category 2 response time has been 34 minutes 56 seconds.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer to Question 97399 on Local Government: Essex, what plans his Department has to help increase levels of public engagement with the local government reorganisation process for Greater Essex.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
When we launched the consultation on local government reorganisation in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, we asked councils to use their existing mechanisms and forums to seek to bring the consultation to the attention of people and organisations in their local area. This is to facilitate the widest possible awareness of the consultation.
The hon. Member’s constituents are able to respond to the consultation here.