Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many agency staff were employed by her Department in each of the last three years.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The figures below reflect the number of agency staff, specialist contractors and interim managers (contingent workers) employed by the department in the following financial years:
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire will begin offering free breakfast clubs from September 2026.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
More than 1,400 schools will join the free breakfast club programme from September, offering a free breakfast club to all pupils from reception to year 6. This brings the total number of schools on the programme to more than 2,700 from September. This includes 56 schools within Lincolnshire and 3 schools in South Holland and the Deepings:
For this first year of national rollout, places on the free breakfast club programme were offered to schools with primary provision who have higher levels of disadvantage, and to schools on the food-only national school breakfast programme. The full list of more than 2,700 schools on the programme is available on GOV.UK.
New schools will be onboarded in stages throughout 2027/28 to ensure we can continue to provide appropriate support to ensure successful delivery.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase defibrillator training in schools in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Defibrillators are designed to be simple and safe to use with no prior training. The devices talk users through step-by-step instructions at the time of use.
As part of the department’s defibrillator programme, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies. By providing defibrillators and raising awareness, this programme will help to produce a generation of young people who feel able and confident to use this life saving equipment.
The department’s defibrillator guidance signposts to free resources and additional support which schools may find helpful. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/automated-external-defibrillators-aeds-in-schools.
All state-funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the mandatory relationships, sex and health education curriculum. This involves children aged over 12 being taught CPR and the use of a defibrillator. More information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department uses numerical reasoning tests as part of the recruitment process for its graduate recruitment scheme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The department does not have a graduate recruitment scheme and instead places bids to provide placements for the Civil Service Fast Stream graduate recruitment scheme, which is managed centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her department is taking to address the recruitment and retention of teachers in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In February, the department published our delivery plan, which sets how we will recruit 6,500 secondary, special school and further education teachers over the course of this Parliament.
We are already seeing positive signs that our investment is delivering. We have now achieved 71.6% of the 6,500 additional teachers target, and the latest school workforce census reported the lowest leaver rate (8.5%) in any year outside the pandemic.
We are offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools. Within South Holland and the Deepings there are seven eligible schools and 56 in the Lincolnshire local authority in the 2025/26 academic year.
The department has established a network of teaching school hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. L.E.A.D. Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across South Holland and the Deepings.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many political appointees have been made by her department since July 2024.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
We have taken ‘political appointees’ to mean special advisers. A list of special advisers by department is published each year in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is laid in parliament. The Annual Report on Special Advisers 2026 will be published in due course.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of people who have outstanding Plan 2 student loans in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As of 21 June 2026, there were 4,900 (to the nearest hundred) Plan 2 student loan borrowers with a positive balance registered with the Student Loans Company (SLC) whose recorded postcodes fall within the South Holland and The Deepings constituency. This may include borrowers who were resident in the constituency at the point of application (including at parental addresses) and who have not subsequently updated their address with the SLC.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 the Lifelong Learning Entitlement on (a) mature student enrolment numbers and (b) local upskilling opportunities in (i) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (ii) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will replace and transform the existing student finance system for higher education at levels 4 to 6. It will support this ambition by making modular provision eligible for funding for the first time.
An equality analysis on the LLE was published in 2023 and is available on GOV.UK.
A subsequent equality analysis was published alongside the Lifelong Learning (Fee Limits) Regulations 2026 that were laid before the House on 18 May 2026.
We expect the LLE to have a positive impact on mature learners and for them to benefit from the ability to use their entitlement student finance more flexibly, including in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency, and Lincolnshire.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support pupils in Lincolnshire in learning to swim.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Swimming is a vital life skill. This is why swimming is a curriculum entitlement at primary school. Funded through core school budgets, schools must provide swimming lessons in either key stage 1 or 2.
The department has confirmed £1 billion funding for PE and school sport over three years, building on the £67 billion core funding provided this year.
Increasing access and improving attainment in swimming will be key priorities for the new PE and School Sport Partnerships network. It will bring together schools, local clubs, and national governing bodies of sport to identify and address barriers to participation, targeting funding and support to where they are needed most.
The network will develop more consistent high-quality support, including swimming and water safety training, access to specialist coaching, links to local swimming clubs and greater access to competitions and national programmes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing for post-16 education providers in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is supporting providers across the country, including in South Holland and the Deepings and across Lincolnshire, with over £18 billion per year of programme funding in post-16 education and skills, delivering record investment this Parliament.
This includes nearly £800 million extra into 16 to 19 education in 2026/27, compared to original plans, enabling providers to grow high quality pathways for thousands more learners.
Through the £1.4 billion Adult Skills Fund for providers/areas, we are continuing to invest in high-quality training for adults.
The department oversees the further education (FE) sector through its regulatory and stewardship role, setting funding and quality expectations and monitoring performance via data, inspections and structured engagement, intervening where standards, financial management or delivery fall short.
Tiered (universal, targeted and intensive) support is available from the FE Commissioner’s team for FE colleges and local authority providers using a risk-based approach. If an intervention trigger is met the FE Commissioner’s will undertake an intervention assessment and publish their findings with recommended actions to improve.