Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of data from ADR UK on multiple temporary exclusions of pupils and the criminal justice system, published in April 2026.

Answered by Olivia Bailey

We recognise the disproportionate impact repeated, preventable exclusion can have on pupils’ education and life chances. The findings published by ADR UK in April 2026 underline the importance of tackling repeat suspensions and ensuring vulnerable pupils receive the support they need to remain engaged in education.

To reduce lost learning, improve behaviour and strengthen inclusion, the Every Child Achieving and Thriving Schools White Paper, published February 2026, committed to reforming the exclusion system. We will consult on a new national framework for internal suspension, the introduction of Reintegration Support Partnerships and a requirement for schools to set schoolwork during the first five days of exclusion.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the impact of the recent heatwave on the punctuality of trains across the national rail network; and what steps she has taken to ensure passengers receive timely delay compensation.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Network Rail uses a combination of proactive monitoring and investment in smart technologies to protect critical infrastructure and keep the railway running during periods of hot weather.

For safety reasons, during periods of extreme weather, trains operate at reduced speeds and to amended timetables, meaning journeys will take longer and be at risk of potential delays, cancellations, and last-minute alterations. Departmental officials, Network Rail and the wider rail industry worked together to assess and manage the impacts of the extreme heat and, as a result of the rail industry’s preparedness, approximately 82 per cent of planned services ran between 24-26 June.

Passengers who hold a valid ticket and are delayed because of disruption are entitled to claim Delay Repay from their train operator up to 28 days after their journey. Train operators are responsible for ensuring that information on disruption and compensation is communicated clearly and in a timely manner.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether alignment of EU and UK clean technology standards are a subject of discussion of the EU-UK Reset negotiations.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds

The UK and EU are working together to support the development of clean energy technologies; the Electricity Agreement will cover the promotion of renewables, and the May 2025 Common Understanding welcomed continued technical and regulatory exchanges on new energy technologies.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will take steps to ensure that the planned social media ban for under-16s will have robust blocks in place to avoid circumvention.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

The Government is committed to ensuring that the new social media restrictions are effective in practice and deliver meaningful protections for children. Through the ‘Growing up in the Online World’ consultation, the government sought views and evidence on circumvention and the measures that could be used to address it.

The Government is carefully considering the consultation responses and will set out its approach to addressing circumvention in its full response shortly.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy of mental health provision for young people and (b) the potential impact of rates of anxiety, depression, autism and ADHD on youth economic inactivity.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

The Government is committed to improving access to mental health services for children and young people, and to ensuring a system that is simpler, faster, and stronger at every stage. Access to support is expanding, but services remain under pressure, and poor mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions can affect young people's education, training, and employment outcomes. We recognise the pressures on services, including long waits and variation in access, but we are taking action to strengthen the whole pathway, from early support in schools and communities through to specialist services for those with the most complex needs.

In April to June 2025 there were 374,000 people aged 16 to 64 years old with depression, bad nerves, or anxiety as a main health condition who were economically inactive due to long-term sickness. For autism and severe or specific learning difficulties, there were 178,000 and 68,000 people, respectively. There were 727,000 people who were economically inactive due to long-term sickness with a mental health condition, of which 216,000, or 30%, were aged 16 to 34 years old.

The Young People and Work: Interim Report is clear that this is a long-term, structural challenge rather than the result of any one recent change. It reflects a combination of factors, including weaker transitions into work, rising health-related inactivity, and a system that has too often failed to intervene early enough. That is why the Government is taking a cross-Government approach, acting across employment, education, skills, and health. In parallel, the Department has commissioned an independent review of the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, which will inform a new cross-Government Mental Health Strategy for England.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with advanced and terminal illnesses receive the Civil Service Pensions in a timely manner.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and GOV.UK.

We are making Capita work to restore, to contractual levels, administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme following its failed transition in December last year. Capita committed to restoring the service by the end of June. The Government is now undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the latest data provided by Capita post the end of June commitment.

We remain committed to holding Capita accountable. Should underperformance occur and the agreed firm end of June deadline not be met, the Government will not hesitate to take firm action, all commercial levers will be used and all options will be considered.

I can confirm that when the scheme administrator receives an application from a member suffering from serious ill health, they should be prioritising these cases as a matter of urgency and look to resolve them.

Capita were initially instructed to prioritise and clear the most urgent cases such as Death in Service and Ill-Health during February and March. While Capita previously assured us that performance standards for Death in Service and Ill-Health were being met by mid-March, recent information continues to demonstrate unacceptable delays in some ill-health retirement and death-in-service cases. We have urgently escalated this to Capita, who are actively investigating the underlying data and reasons for these continued delays.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what process Child Maintenance Service uses to verify reports by constituents that incorrect or unverified information has been used in maintenance assessments.

Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The primary goal of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is to ensure that children receive the financial support they are entitled to. To achieve this, the CMS collaborates with HMRC and Benefit systems to accurately calculate maintenance payments. This collaboration helps prevent paying parents from misrepresenting their income. Parents can make a request to the CMS to have other forms of income not previously considered included in the maintenance calculation.

To tackle fraudulent reporting of earnings, if there is a suspicion of income misrepresentation, the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) will conduct a thorough investigation. Complex income and cases where a paying parent may be responsible for declaring their own income can also be investigated by the FIU. This specialist team can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given. When an investigation identifies evidence of criminal offences, the FIU will submit their findings to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider prosecution on offences contrary to the Child Support Act 1991.