Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of home tuition fee eligibility rules on British citizens who relocated to EU member states while the UK was part of the European Union; and whether she plans to review these rules to account for decisions made whilst the UK was still a member of the EU.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
UK nationals and their children living in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, who wish to study in the UK, will be eligible for automatic home fee status and student support for courses starting up to seven years from the end of the transition period.
The seven-year period ensures that eligible UK nationals and their children, whose normal place of residence is in the EEA or Switzerland but wish to undertake higher education in England, will still be able to access home fee status and student financial support immediately on their return to the UK during this time.
From 1 January 2028, UK nationals and their children must normally have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) for at least three years immediately before the start of their course to qualify for automatic home fee status and student support.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to address the difference in home fee status eligibility for siblings who are both British nationals where one child benefits from Withdrawal Agreement protections and another does not due to the timing of their university entry after 2028.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
UK nationals and their children living in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, who wish to study in the UK, will be eligible for automatic home fee status and student support for courses starting up to seven years from the end of the transition period.
The seven-year period ensures that eligible UK nationals and their children, whose normal place of residence is in the EEA or Switzerland but wish to undertake higher education in England, will still be able to access home fee status and student financial support immediately on their return to the UK during this time.
From 1 January 2028, UK nationals and their children must normally have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) for at least three years immediately before the start of their course to qualify for automatic home fee status and student support.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department will consider introducing discretionary provisions within home tuition fee eligibility criteria for British nationals living abroad who can demonstrate genuine and ongoing connections to the UK but were unable to relocate prior to their children commencing university.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To qualify for automatic home fee status and higher education student support, students must normally be settled in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for at least three years before their course begins. However, if a student has spent time overseas due to their own or a specified family member’s temporary employment abroad, this does not interrupt their ordinary residence in the UK, providing flexibility for those who have not made a long-term decision to live outside the UK. Decisions on whether a student meets the criteria for home fee status rest with higher education providers, which are independent and autonomous bodies. Student Finance England makes decisions about eligibility for student finance.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits of calculating maintenance loans through net rather than gross household income and (b) impact of that change on single parental income households.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Entitlement to partially means-tested undergraduate loans for living costs is based on the income of the student’s household.
The income used is the total income on which a person is charged income tax at step 1 of the calculation in Section 23 of the Income Tax Act 2007, before the deductions made by HMRC from step 2 onwards of Section 23.
The use of income charged to tax in the household income assessment applies a standard measure of income to calculate a student’s entitlement to living costs support and allows all students to be assessed consistently and fairly. It also ensures that the most support is paid to students from the lowest income families, including those with single parents, who need it most and who are historically under-represented in higher education. It is not intended to be an exact calculation of disposable income for each household.
Information on income is available from HMRC and allows around 1.3 million assessments a year to be carried out quickly and efficiently each year by Student Finance England.
Maximum grants and loans for living and other costs for the 2025/26 academic year have been increased by forecast inflation, 3.1%, based on the RPIX inflation index.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding provided to nurseries to deliver the extended free childcare hours without financial shortfall.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, the department has provided over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, increasing to over £9 billion in 2026/27.
The department has announced the largest ever increase to early years pupil premium since its introduction and have delivered a significant tranche of supplementary funding of £75 million through the early years expansion grant.
The department wants to ensure the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver the entitlements and high quality early years provision going forward.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding she has provided to Sutton Bonington Primary School for rebuilding in the last 12 months.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is a centrally delivered programme. Therefore, no funding is allocated or distributed directly to schools.
Details of all contracts awarded over £10,000 are published on the ‘Contracts Finder’ website, which can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. Payments made to the contractor are in line with agreed milestones for the project.
In addition to the SRP, the department is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26. As part of that, Equals Trust, which is responsible for Sutton Bonington Primary, was allocated just under £1.1 million in capital funding for the 2025/26 financial year to decide how to invest across its schools.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 including a target of at least 80 hours of enrichment activities in the enrichment framework.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Rushcliffe to the answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62871.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 including a target of at least 80 hours of enrichment activities in the enrichment framework.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Rushcliffe to the answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62871.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital funding streams are available to academy trusts for essential playground (a) repairs and (b) replacement.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government has given a long-term commitment for capital investment to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England through to 2034/35. It is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.
The department supports local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies, who are responsible for keeping buildings and grounds safe and well-maintained, by providing capital funding to improve the condition of their estates.
The majority of capital funding is provided through annual School Condition Allocations to large responsible bodies, such as local authorities and large multi-academy trusts, to decide how to invest in improving the condition of their estates, including playgrounds. Small or stand-alone academy trusts and sixth form colleges bid for funding for essential condition projects through the Condition Improvement Fund.
Schools also receive a small annual capital allocation, Devolved Formula Capital, to spend on their own capital priorities, such as replacing or upgrading playground equipment.
Further details about capital funding for 2025/26 are published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the value for money provided by Social Work England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).