Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to recommendation 13 of the Fourth Report of the Women and Equalities Select Committee of Session 2019-21, on Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services, HC1050, published on 22 December 2020, what progress his Department has made on ensuring that all Government communications comply with the accessible communications checklist.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government Communication Service (GCS) is committed to ensuring the government communicates effectively to everyone by making its communications inclusive and accessible. This includes standards, monitoring, training and guidance on accessibility and inclusion. We have aligned, where possible, with the charity sector’s accessibility checklist.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to support disabled children abroad.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's ambition is for all children with disabilities to realise their right to education, equipped with the foundational skills and knowledge to lead fulfilling lives, and to learn in an environment that is inclusive, accessible, safe from all forms of violence, and free from discrimination.
Through the FCDO's Disability Inclusion and Rights Strategy and Girls' Education Action Plan, we have committed to prioritise interventions that tackle the barriers that children with disabilities experience in accessing quality education.
The Girls' Education Challenge has supported 154,386 girls with disabilities to attend school and the programme has provided over 5,000 assistive devices to learners who need them and addressed stigma and discrimination at community and school level to make it easier for children with disabilities to access schools.
Our Disability Inclusive Development programme is testing 'what works' in providing children with disabilities quality inclusive education in Nepal, Nigeria and Tanzania. The programme has already supported the education of 1,684 children with disabilities and the lessons learnt are being shared across FCDO's network of education programmes as well as being published as a global public good.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an estimate of the total value spent by his Department supporting educational opportunities worldwide in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is one of the most generous global aid donors, spending nearly £12.8 billion in aid in 2022. Education is an important international development priority. From 2018 to 2022, the FCDO (including former DfID) is estimated to have spent £2.5 billion in bilateral education ODA. The UK is estimated to have spent £906 million in multilateral education ODA from 2018 to 2021. UK support to education also extends beyond financing, to include country partnerships; influential research and expertise; and encouraging global financing from other partners.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to ensure that developers are installing school sports pitches that are (a) safe and (b) meet quality standards.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not monitor playing fields installed by developers. This is a matter for local planning authorities. Sport England are statutory consultees on planning applications which include outdoor PE facilities. They also provide separate guidance on good practice.
The School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 set regulations for physical education, including the playing of games outdoors. They are available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1943/introduction/made.
The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 include the same regulation for independent schools, including academies. The Education Regulations are available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3283/made.
Building Bulletin 103 and 104 (BB103/4) at Area guidelines and net capacity provide non-statutory guidance on what site area is needed to provide sufficient sports pitches for any school, depending on the type, age range and size. The guidelines are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/area-guidelines-and-net-capacity. Local Planning Authorities can require BB103/4 minimum standards to ensure that the site area will support the PE facilities needed.
The department’s Output Specification for new and refurbished school grounds applies to all school projects directly funded by the department. These are published and can be used by local authorities to set standards.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to help prevent the placement of electric car charging cables across public footpaths.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government recognises that some households without off-street parking could access charging by running cables from their property to a vehicle. However, this can negatively impact other pavement users if done inappropriately and in some cases, breach the Highways Act 1980.
As part of the Plan for Drivers, the Government committed to provide guidance on the use of cross pavement solutions, which safely guide charging cables between a property and on-street vehicle. This will include best practice to local authorities on relevant legislation, permissions and how to consider applications. In addition, the plan committed to expand the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant to trial support for safe cross pavement solutions.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have participated in the Holiday Activities Programme since that programme was launched.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This year the government invested over £200 million in the department’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, with all Local Authorities in England delivering in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays and continuing to do so until March 2025.
The HAF programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning.
During the pilot phase of the programme in 2018, the HAF programme reached around 18,000 children across the country. In 2019, the HAF programme reached around 50,000 children in 11 Local Authority areas, and in 2020, the programme reached around 50,000 children across 17 Local Authority areas. The HAF programme was rolled out nationally in England, to all areas in 2021 and reached over 685,000 children and young people in summer 2022, including over 475,000 children eligible for free school meals.
The 2023 data is not yet available.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support parents of primary-aged children with childcare outside of school hours.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is investing £289 million in a new wraparound childcare programme to support local authorities to work with primary schools and providers, including childminders, to set up and deliver more wraparound childcare before and after school in the term time. The government’s ambition is for all parents of primary school children who need it, to access childcare in their local area from 8am to 6pm. Successfully meeting this objective will go some way to ensuring that parents have enough childcare to work full time, more hours and more flexible hours.
Parents will still be expected to pay to access this provision, but support with costs will be available to eligible parents through Universal Credit childcare and Tax-Free Childcare.
Parents should expect to see an expansion in the availability of wraparound care from September 2024, with every parent who needs it able to access term-time wraparound childcare by September 2026.
The department is also providing over £200 million a year for the continuation of the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, with all local authorities in England delivering the programme in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. The HAF programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. In summer 2022, the programme reached around 600,000 children across England, including over 475,000 children eligible for free school meals across England. The department is working to ensure that the creation of new or expanded wraparound childcare provision can also help to support the delivery of sustainable holiday childcare provision, wherever possible.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing childminders to claim childcare funding for the costs of caring for (a) their own child and (b) a related child they are parenting when they have been registered for over five years.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Childminders in England cannot claim funding from the department’s early education entitlements for related children in their care. Early years entitlements are only available where a registered early years provider provides 'childcare' for a child. The definition of 'childcare' is set out in the Childcare Act 2006 and excludes care provided for a child by a parent, a person with parental responsibility for the child, a stepparent, foster parent, or other certain relatives (for example a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether they are full blood or half blood, or by marriage or civil partnership).
An Education Select Committee report, published on 18 July 2023, recommended that the department should permit parents to claim funded hours for their child if they are cared for by a registered childminder who is also a member of their extended family (for example a grandparent, aunt or uncle, rather than a child’s parent or primary carer). The department’s current approach avoids creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis, which could apply to extended family members as well as parents and carers. Currently, the department has no plans to change this position as allowing childminders to receive funding for related children in their care would not be an effective use of public money, and may have a negative impact on the viability of existing childcare businesses.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has provided to the Football Foundation in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government has committed to delivering the facilities that every community needs and is investing over £300m across the UK between 2021 and 2025 as a step towards that ambition - including a £230m uplift, on top of an existing £18m annual commitment in England.
Since 2021, DCMS has provided £184.2m of funding to the Football Foundation:
2021/22 - £39m
2022/23 - £64.2m
2023/24 - £81m
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times Sport England has used statutory powers to restrict community access to sports (a) pitches and (b) other facilities in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Sport England does not proactively record the number of times they have used statutory powers to restrict community access to pitches or facilities.
Recent records show that between 2021 and 2023, Sport England introduced two planning conditions to limit community use to some degree, so as to not undermine the viability of nearby sites.