Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of feeder schools taking priority in school admissions on the average distance that pupils have to travel to school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for admission authorities to set the oversubscription criteria which are most suitable for their schools according to their local circumstances. The School Admissions Code allows admission authorities to give priority within their oversubscription criteria to pupils attending a named feeder school. The selection of a feeder school or schools as an oversubscription criterion must be transparent and made on reasonable grounds.
Admission authorities must consult on any change to their admissions arrangements, including introducing a new feeder school, to ensure that any local impacts are considered. Once set, anyone who believes a school's admission arrangements are unfair or unlawful can object to the Independent Schools Adjudicator.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect internet users from (a) suicide and (b) self-harm content on artificial intelligence platforms.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Every death by suicide is a tragedy, and the government is deeply concerned about the role that online content can play in facilitating suicide and self-harm. This government is committed to keeping people safe online. For the first time, platforms now have a legal duty to ensure that they are protecting users from illegal content and, in particular, safeguarding children from harmful content. But we have gone further still. We have made self-harm and cyber-flashing, and now strangulation, priority offences. We will go further still by backing Ofcom to make sure that enforcement is robust too.
Some chatbots, including live search and user-to-user engagement, are in scope of the Online Safety Act 2023, and we want to ensure that enforcement against them, where relevant, is robust. The Secretary of State has commissioned work to make sure that, if there are any gaps in the legislation, they will be looked at fully and robust action will be taken too.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to update guidance for police forces on the investigation of (a) false and (b) malicious allegations as potential criminal offences.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 sets out that wasting police time is a criminal offence, which includes by knowingly making a false report.
Furthermore, the Common Law offence of perverting the course of justice could also be considered by police and the Crown Prosecution Service when investigating and making a decision on whether an offence has been committed.
The Home Office has no plans to amend or update any existing guidance in use by police in relation to these matters.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of waiting times at the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support Chamber) on claimants’ financial wellbeing.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on Tribunals performance is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Receipts, disposals and the outstanding caseload for individual Chambers in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal, the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal can be found at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
The Ministry of Justice is working to reduce the outstanding caseload across the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal, which includes the Social Security and Child Support jurisdiction. This is key to reducing the waiting time for tribunal hearings.
The Department continues to invest in improving tribunal capacity and productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, the deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems, and the use of remote hearing technology. We expect these actions to have a positive effect, improving timeliness and overall performance in the Social Entitlement Chamber.
The Ministry of Justice has not conducted assessments of the impact of tribunal waiting times on claimants but we recognise the potential negative impacts and uncertainty for individuals waiting for their appeal to be resolved.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for hearings at the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support Chamber).
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on Tribunals performance is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Receipts, disposals and the outstanding caseload for individual Chambers in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal, the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal can be found at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
The Ministry of Justice is working to reduce the outstanding caseload across the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal, which includes the Social Security and Child Support jurisdiction. This is key to reducing the waiting time for tribunal hearings.
The Department continues to invest in improving tribunal capacity and productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, the deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems, and the use of remote hearing technology. We expect these actions to have a positive effect, improving timeliness and overall performance in the Social Entitlement Chamber.
The Ministry of Justice has not conducted assessments of the impact of tribunal waiting times on claimants but we recognise the potential negative impacts and uncertainty for individuals waiting for their appeal to be resolved.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review housing allocation guidance to ensure that care leavers’ (a) welfare and (b) community ties are taken into account when determining (i) local connection and (ii) housing priority.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities have discretion to manage their housing registers (waiting lists) and are free to develop solutions that make best use of their social housing stock.
Many local authorities have adopted a residency or local connection test for social housing which requires people to have a well-established local association or to have lived in the area for a certain period before they can put their name on the housing waiting list. Statutory guidance also makes clear that local authorities are expected to take proper account of special circumstances, by making provision for appropriate exceptions.
We recognise that not all care leavers wish to settle in areas that they have a local connection to. As a result, we laid regulations to exempt care leavers under 25 from local connection or residency tests in order to access social housing. These regulations came into force on 10 July 2025.
Statutory guidance was also updated to strongly encourage local authorities to give the same level of priority to those care leavers who have been placed in their authority area and wish to stay, as their own care leavers whom they have a duty to provide support and assistance up to age 25. Local authorities should also consider exempting care leavers more broadly to recognise that a lack of family stability and their experiences whilst in or leaving care might mean that some care leavers may not have a tangible connection to an area.
The guidance on social housing allocations, which the government keeps under review, can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that care leavers are able to remain in areas they have (a) links to and (b) family connections in.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities have discretion to manage their housing registers (waiting lists) and are free to develop solutions that make best use of their social housing stock.
Many local authorities have adopted a residency or local connection test for social housing which requires people to have a well-established local association or to have lived in the area for a certain period before they can put their name on the housing waiting list. Statutory guidance also makes clear that local authorities are expected to take proper account of special circumstances, by making provision for appropriate exceptions.
We recognise that not all care leavers wish to settle in areas that they have a local connection to. As a result, we laid regulations to exempt care leavers under 25 from local connection or residency tests in order to access social housing. These regulations came into force on 10 July 2025.
Statutory guidance was also updated to strongly encourage local authorities to give the same level of priority to those care leavers who have been placed in their authority area and wish to stay, as their own care leavers whom they have a duty to provide support and assistance up to age 25. Local authorities should also consider exempting care leavers more broadly to recognise that a lack of family stability and their experiences whilst in or leaving care might mean that some care leavers may not have a tangible connection to an area.
The guidance on social housing allocations, which the government keeps under review, can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support (a) local authorities and (b) residents where housing developments cannot be adopted because developers have gone into liquidation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to question UIN 81305 on 24 October 2025.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken for the adoption of (a) highways and (b) drainage infrastructure on completed housing developments.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to question UIN 81305 on 24 October 2025.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of support provided to care leavers transitioning to independent living (a) in general and (b) housed outside their home local authority.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The move to independence is a critical milestone in any young person’s life. Care leavers should expect the same level of care and support that others would expect from a parent.
The local authority responsible for their care should make sure they have the skills, confidence, support and opportunities to thrive. This includes offering them more than one chance as they grapple with the responsibilities of adulthood.
Ofsted is responsible for assessing the adequacy of support for care leavers in each local authority and, as part of its inspection of local authority children’s services, has a specific remit to set out the key strengths and areas for improvement on the experiences and progress of care leavers.
We recognise the additional challenges faced by young people who are placed into care outside their home local authority area. This can leave them with few local connections to either the area they are currently living in, or the area they are expected to return to, and has restricted their access to social housing upon leaving care. We have introduced an exemption to address this so that, as of July 2025, the local area connection test no longer applies to care leavers.