Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary schools in a) Norfolk and b) North West Norfolk constituency do not have a school library.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for North West Norfolk to the answer of 22 October 2025 to Question 81502.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2025 to Question 61218 on Government Departments: Reviews, how many lines of activity in her Department were considered as part of the zero based review.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
At the Spending Review 2025, the government conducted the first zero-based review (ZBR) of department budgets in 18 years, with every line of spending scrutinised to ensure value for money.
Through the ZBR, the department carried out a line-by-line review of its current budgets. The review involved differing levels of granularity depending on the type and size of expenditure under review.
To ensure consistency in approach, cross-government guidance set expectations for the level of granularity each review should consider, recommending that departments review all spending within individual programme expenditure, at a minimum reflecting any lines of spending in excess of £1 million per annum.
Savings identified through this process will support delivery of the government's commitment for all departments to deliver at least 5% savings and efficiencies by 2028/29.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 82981 on PE and sport premium grant funding, what alternative funding streams her Department provides that are available to primary schools for capital expenditure on sports equipment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Schools, including primary schools, are allocated devolved formula capital (DFC) to spend on capital projects and capital purchases that meet their own priorities.
Further information and DFC allocations for the 2025/26 financial year are published here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 for (a) schools and (b) colleges in North West Norfolk constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has increased school funding by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, a 6% increase on 2024/25 levels, and committed to a further increase of £4.2 billion through the 2025 Spending Review. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on the core schools budget and support us to transform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.
With regards to colleges, £8.5 billion of 16 to 19 programme funding has been invested during the 2025/26 academic year. Published allocations show that 16 to 19 funded institutions in Norfolk have been allocated approximately £112 million in 16 to 19 total programme funding.
In North West Norfolk, mainstream school funding per pupil through the dedicated schools grant averages £6,343 (excluding growth and falling rolls funding) in the 2025/26 financial year. The precise funding individual schools receive will depend on how Norfolk local authority decide to distribute the funding they receive.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 changing the guidance entitled PE and sport premium: conditions of grant 2024 to 2025, last updated on 23 April 2025, to permit capital expenditure on sports equipment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As revenue funding, the PE and sport premium grant funding is unable to be used towards capital expenditure. Schools access capital funding through other funding streams.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department’s Spending Review settlement includes funding for a multi-year extension to the Holiday activities and food programme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Through our Plan for Change, we are committed to giving every child the best start in life. On 28 August 2025 we confirmed over £600 million for the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme for the next three financial years (from 2026/27) which equates to just over £200 million each year.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2025 to Question 59412 on Government Departments: Reviews, if her Department will publish the line by line review of its spending conducted for the Spending Review 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department is committed to meeting the 5% savings and efficiency target, with spending review funding allocations agreed on this basis.
These funding allocations, informed by the findings of the Zero Based Review, are the first step in a wider plan to finalise budgets for different projects and programmes, with any necessary savings decided through that process. The savings taken forward will be subject to the normal rigorous business planning processes and in-year financial management.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to the letter of 23 May 2025 from the hon. Member for North West Norfolk.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I can confirm that a response to the correspondence dated 23 May 2025 from the hon. Member for North West Norfolk was sent on 25 June 2025.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2025 to Question 23863 on Department for Education: Disclosure of Information, what recent progress her Department has made on the inquiry; and whether special advisers have been interviewed as part of the inquiry.
Answered by Janet Daby
The investigation remains ongoing and the department is unable to comment further on the progress or specifics of an ongoing investigation.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of fines in tackling levels of attendance at schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity. If children are not in school, it does not matter how effective or well-supported teaching and learning is, they will not benefit. Thanks to the hard work of the sector there has been progress, but we remain a long way off pre-pandemic levels.
The department’s statutory attendance guidance, ‘Working together to improve school attendance’, promotes a support-first model. The guidance is clear that all partners should always work together to understand and remove the barriers to attendance. However, where that support is not successful, not appropriate (for example for term-time holidays), or not engaged with, the law protects pupils’ right to an education. The guidance outlines a role for legal intervention based on effective practice within the sector.
The vast majority of penalty notices are issued due to unauthorised family holidays. However, usage has been uneven across the country, with 26 out of 153 local authorities accounting for half of all penalty notices issued in 2023/2024. The new National Framework for Penalty Notices, introduced in August 2024, is designed to create consistency in that area by establishing a common threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered. In a public consultation in 2022, 71% of local authority employees and 59% of school and academy trust employees and governors or trustees strongly or somewhat agreed with the proposed national thresholds which were subsequently adopted within the framework.
The statistical release on parental responsibility measures, which includes information on the number of penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/parental-responsibility-measures.