Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2024 to Question 9543 on Housing: Construction, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the fitting of solar panels on new homes and buildings.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government’s approach to building regulations remains technology-neutral, to ensure housebuilders have the flexibility to choose the most appropriate and cost-effective solutions for their site. However, we appreciate the benefits of solar panels, including lower bills for households and greater security from fluctuations in electricity prices. That is why the Deputy Prime Minister and I are clear that rooftop solar should play an important role, where appropriate, as part of future standards for homes and buildings.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support peacebuilding efforts by Israeli and Palestinian civil society.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

This government has been clear; we are committed to pursuing a lasting solution to the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict, including through achieving a two-state solution. We continue to support efforts to this end through our aid programmes, which assist civil society in Israel and Palestine on a range of issues, including peacebuilding and conflict resolution. We further support grassroots local peacebuilding efforts between Israeli and Palestinian civil society, for example on more inclusive and conflict-sensitive journalism.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the (a) health and (b) welfare of (i) pets and (ii) wild animals during fireworks season in Aylesbury constituency.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Existing fireworks legislation controls the sale, availability, and use of fireworks. There is an 11pm curfew in place for the use of fireworks, with later exceptions only for the traditional firework periods. Using fireworks outside the curfew hours is a criminal offence.

Users of fireworks should be aware of animals in the neighbouring area and use them responsibly. As a matter of best practice, those organising displays should give neighbouring owners advance notice and ensure that fireworks are not set off near livestock or horses in fields, or close to buildings that house livestock.

Government officials have been working with Combat Stress, Help for Heroes and the Dogs Trust to share information about safe and considerate use of fireworks. The Government has recently launched an awareness campaign on the Gov.uk website to provide guidance on minimising the impacts of fireworks on people and animals.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of creating a statutory requirement to log centrally incidents of hate at (a) schools and (b) colleges.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department has published guidance for schools on how to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010. The Public Sector Equality Duty also requires public bodies, including maintained schools and academies, to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Act, advance equality of opportunity for people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it, and foster good relations across all characteristics.

Education is a key component of building a fairer and more equal society. As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, there are opportunities in the curriculum for children to learn about:

• Citizenship education, which teaches about diversity, mutual respect and understanding.
• Relationships education, which teaches about the impact of prejudice and the importance of respect.
• Religious education, which teaches about religious tolerance.

The department is making sure that all children in England will learn about respectful relationships, in person and online, as part of mandatory relationships, sex and health education. These subjects are designed to give pupils the knowledge they need to lead happy, safe and healthy lives, and to foster respect for other people and for difference.

The department has published ‘Respectful School Communities’, which is a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline. This can combat bullying, harassment, and prejudice of any kind, including hate-based bullying. This tool is available here: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

Educate Against Hate provides education settings with access to free, quality-assured teaching resources that build students’ resilience to all forms of extremism and hatred. These resources help settings discuss sensitive topics with students, including discrimination, hate-crime and holding classroom debates and discussion.

Non-crime hate related incidents are often managed under school and college behaviour policies and procedures. The Home Office’s statutory guidance on Non-Crime Hate Incidents is clear that if a report is made to the police about an incident that occurs in a school and does not amount to a crime, the appropriate police response would be to refer the matter to the school management team and to offer advice to the complainant about available support.

The school management team will assess the risk and decide on a proportionate response. When considering resolution of such incidents, the school management team should implement safeguarding measures for any children involved, and in appropriate circumstances ensure that a parent or guardian is notified and present when a child may be questioned.

Ofsted inspectors will expect to see records and analysis of bullying incidents, discriminatory and prejudiced behaviour, either directly or indirectly, which puts the onus on schools to keeping these records already. Where bullying, aggression, discrimination and use of derogatory language has occurred, inspectors will expect that this is dealt with quickly and effectively and is not allowed to spread. Ofsted’s school inspection handbook sets out that the behaviour and attitudes judgement is likely to be inadequate where such incidents are frequent, and pupils have little confidence in a school’s ability to tackle them successfully.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of conducting research on the impact of social media design on children's mental health.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Research is critical to ensure the safety of the products we interact with daily. This includes online platforms.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is considering options for research into the impact being online has on children and will shortly be making announcements.

Alongside this, the Data Use and Access Bill contains a provision granting the Secretary of State power to create a framework enabling researchers to gain privacy-preserving access to online safety related data and conduct vital research into online trends, helping to support future action for a safer online world.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has carried out research into the impact of AI in education settings on children's wellbeing.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Artificial intelligence (AI) represents an opportunity to give our schools’ leaders and teachers a helping hand with classroom life, but only if the technology is safe and reliable and risks are managed appropriately.

The department has undertaken a range of research and engagement to understand the risks and opportunities posed by AI in education. The call for evidence on generative AI in education sought views and experiences from practitioners across all stages of education, as well as the education technology sector and AI experts. The report highlights the opportunities and risks of AI, including consideration of the impacts on pupils and concerns around the quality and reliability of tools.

In partnership with The Responsible Technology Adoption Unit within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the department commissioned research to understand parent and pupil attitudes to the use of AI in education. This research can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-on-parent-and-pupil-attitudes-towards-the-use-of-ai-in-education/research-on-public-attitudes-towards-the-use-of-ai-in-education.

Parents and pupils were found to be supportive of opportunities for teachers to use AI to help reduce workload and allow them to focus on face-to-face interactions with pupils, but had concerns about pupil use of AI, including the impacts on wellbeing through over-reliance on technology and privacy and safeguarding risks.

The department’s approach to AI in education is informed by these insights. We have committed to publish expectations for the safety of generative AI products used in education to address concerns around safeguarding and privacy. Our project to develop a store of educational content optimised for use with AI aims to drive up the reliability and quality of tools. We are providing funding for innovation to develop tools which will help to reduce everyday feedback and marking workload for teachers, whilst avoiding AI use for high stakes marking, responding to parent and pupil views.

The department will continue to gather feedback and evidence on AI in education to inform the policy direction and remains committed to working in partnership with the sector to respond to technological developments.

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 improve dementia care in Aylesbury constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Buckinghamshire Council have stood up a new Dementia Strategic Oversight Board to deliver on local priorities that span across the Well Pathway for Dementia. These priorities include raising awareness of dementia, building up the support available in the community and encouraging timely diagnoses.

Buckinghamshire was selected as one of NHS England’s Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate pilot sites. This pilot was delivered over a 12-month period starting in May 2023. The aim was to reduce the waiting list for assessment and restore the dementia diagnosis rate to pre-Covid levels. Over the course of this project, the Dementia Diagnosis Rate (DDR) has increased by 3.1% (from 56.2% in May 2023 to 59.5% in July 2024).

Buckinghamshire Council are re-commissioning the Dementia Support Service with the new provision due to start on 1st April 2025. This service offers advice, information, care and support for both those with memory concerns and a dementia diagnosis. It is being expanded to enable more residents to access the service and will provide an outreach service to engage clients that don’t usually access dementia support.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of Official Development Assistance is spent on (a) fragile and (b) conflict-affected states.

Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

In 2023, 64 per cent (£1.4 billion) of the of the UK's country-specific bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) was of scored to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 2022 States of Fragility which provides a list fragile and conflict-affected states. This figure understates the true level as it does not include core contributions to multilateral organisations where funds cannot be directly tracked to benefitting countries. Additionally, this total does not include bilateral non-country specific ODA in the form of regional or centrally managed programmes, for which the beneficiary country cannot be individually identified.

Submit Evidence (by 9 Dec 2024)

In Development: call for potential topics of inquiry

Submit Evidence (by 7 Jan 2025)

In November 2020, the Government announced a reduction of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), a “temporary measure” until a set of certain fiscal rules were met. In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the Government confirmed that the FCDO would be held to the previous government’s fiscal rules, with the OBR confirming that these rules, and therefore a restoration of the aid budget, are not expected to be met during the life of this Parliament. With the UK’s aid budget being under further strain due to Home Office spend on in-donor refugee costs, it becomes increasingly important that the FCDO ensures Value for Money on its programme spending.