Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with stakeholders on the potential merits of auto-enrolling all eligible families to the Healthy Start programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk, and infant formula. Those on the scheme have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four years old.
The Department has been approached by, and engaged with, stakeholders regarding autoenrollment. The scheme is kept under review, and we remain open to all viable routes to improve uptake to ensure that as many eligible people as possible are accessing the scheme, to support their children with a healthy start in life. In January 2025, Healthy Start supported over 353,000 people.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of infant and baby products with high sugar content.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data shows that babies and young children are eating too much sugar, and that some commercial baby foods, particularly finger foods, contain added sugar or high sugar ingredients. This does not align with the recommendations from the independent Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, that in diets of children aged one to five years old, foods, including snacks that are high in free sugars, should be limited, and that commercially manufactured foods and drinks marketed specifically for infants and young children are not needed to meet nutrition requirements.
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest next generation ever. We will provide an update on the publication of voluntary industry guidelines to limit the levels of sugar, and salt, in commercially available baby food and drink in due course.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to orchestral tax relief for International work on the orchestral sector's ability to deliver loss-making activities in the UK.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK provides world-leading support for orchestras: at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government confirmed that from 1 April 2025, the rate of Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) will be set at the generous rate of 45%.
From April 2024, qualifying expenditure is expenditure incurred on goods or services that are ‘used or consumed in the UK’, replacing the previous rule that qualifying costs were those incurred on goods and services provided from the UK or EEA. To ease the transition to the new rule, orchestras with concerts in train on 1 April 2024 were permitted to continue claiming relief on goods and services provided from within the EEA until 31 March 2025.
It is appropriate to refocus orchestra tax relief on UK expenditure now that the UK has left the EU. Under the new rule, the relief incentivises activity within the UK, rather than the UK and the EEA.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will undertake a review of the maintained nursery school supplementary funding formula.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Additional supplementary funding is provided to local authorities for maintained nursery schools (MNS) in their areas. In the 2025/26 financial year, the initial budget for MNS supplementary funding is £92.6 million, subject to final budget update. The national average hourly rate for MNS supplementary funding in financial year 2025/26 is £5.90, the minimum supplementary funding rate is £5.27 and the cap on the hourly rate is £10.
Changes to the MNS supplementary funding formula were made in the 2023/24 financial year including an additional £10 million investment and an introduction of a minimum hourly funding rate to distribute funding evenly across all local authorities with MNS. At present, there are no plans to review the formula beyond this.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 safeguarding leads in schools being violence against women and girls accredited.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Children’s wellbeing and safety, including reducing violence against women and girls, is a key priority for this government. A robust safeguarding framework is in place that schools and colleges must have regard to in the form of keeping children safe in education (KCSIE).
This guidance is clear that every school must have a designated safeguarding lead (DSL) who should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. Annex C of the guidance sets out the role and expectations placed on DSLs.
The department does not prescribe the training and accreditation that DSLs should receive. However, DSLs are required to undergo the training needed to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to carry out their role effectively within their school and community context. This includes how to identify, understand and respond to the specific needs that increase the vulnerability of children, as well as the many specific harms that put children at risk, which includes violence against women and girls.
Education can be a significant protective factor for children who are vulnerable, either as victims and/or perpetrators of violence against women and girls. KCSIE requires schools to implement whole-school behaviour policies to reduce incidents of violence, put pastoral support in place to support both victims and perpetrators of violence, and to ensure that all school staff understand their role within their local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in escalating concerns about children to local authority services.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make (a) schools and (b) education providers statutory safeguarding partners.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The involvement of education and childcare agencies is fundamental at all levels of safeguarding arrangements. The department knows that teachers and educators are often the first to spot warning signs of abuse and neglect and are the largest referrer of cases into children’s social care, after the police.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which the government introduced into the House of Commons in December of last year, will place a duty on safeguarding partners to automatically include education and childcare settings in their safeguarding arrangements. The duty on safeguarding partners will ensure education is consistently involved in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements across England. It will include include all education and childcare agencies, at both operational and strategic levels of their safeguarding arrangements, so they have a clear role in safeguarding locally.
These measures include all education settings, covering early years and childcare settings through to schools, colleges and alternative provision, so that opportunities to keep children safe are not missed.
This legislation enables the voice of education to influence the decisions of safeguarding partners and recognises the key role that education plays in keeping children safe.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to give local planning authorities further powers to prevent high concentrations of (a) short-term and (b) holiday-let accommodation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer to Question UIN 13348 on 18 November 2024.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 abolishing the notion of reasonable chastisement.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Violence towards children and abuse of children are never acceptable. There are laws in place to protect children against this.
Wales is in the process of reviewing the impact of removing the defence of reasonable chastisement and the UK Government expects that the Welsh Government will publish their findings by the end of this year. Ministers in the department will want to consider this evidence, with other government ministers, ahead of deciding whether a change to the law is required.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing a unique ID for every child to (a) facilitate data sharing between public bodies and (b) identify children not in school or any form of education.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Implementing a unique ID for every child has been regularly cited as a potential solution to bring together data on children’s interactions with different services. The government’s manifesto for the 2024 election included a commitment to this end (on page 81) and the government is committed to improving data sharing across services, with a single unique identifier, to better support children and families.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently before Parliament, introduces a legal provision for a consistent identifier to be specified and the organisations required to use it, to be determined later through regulations. Alongside this, the department will initiate a pilot to establish how a consistent identifier can be effectively implemented.
The Bill also includes provisions for compulsory ‘Children Not in School’ registers in each local authority area in England. While the introduction of these registers does not depend on a consistent identifier, it may enhance data linking, which the department will explore through future piloting.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the level of support provided to Ukrainian refugees in applying to UK universities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government remains committed to giving all Ukrainians in the UK the same access to education as enjoyed by UK citizens.
Persons granted leave under one of the Ukraine Schemes, including the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, have access to higher education (HE) student support and home fee status on the same basis as those within other protection-based categories, such as refugees.
Support on applying to HE courses can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/higher-education-courses-find-and-apply, where students can explore a range of resources to help them apply to UK HE providers.
Organisations such as the UK Council for International Student Affairs also provide extensive information and support for Ukrainian students wishing to study in the UK, including a student advice line.