Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training are care leavers, in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The available information relates to care leavers aged 17 to 24. This is published in the annual statistical release and is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2025.
For 17 to 21-year-old care leavers, information is collected on the activity which most accurately reflects the young person's main activity status on or around their birthday. The latest information on the number of 17 to 21-year-old care leavers who were not in education, employment or training during the reporting year ending 31 March 2025 is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/a0cc6be3-ef34-407f-543a-08de072d13df.
For 22 to 24-year-old care leavers, the activity information relates to the latest contact in the year if the young person requested and received support from the local authority.
Local authorities are not expected to be in touch and initiate contact with young people older than 21 who have not requested or received support during the reporting period.
The latest information on the number of known 22 to 24-year-old care leavers not in education, employment or training at their latest contact during the reporting year ending 31 March 2025 is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/61b0c0fb-0270-4d46-5441-08de072d13df.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training were in receipt of a) working-age and b) disability benefits in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
The specific information requested is not included in datasets underpinning routine publication of official statistics. The latest available published data for 18- to 24-year-olds in England in 2023/24 was published alongside the Young people and work: interim report.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has taken a decision in principle or not regarding whether to roll over for another 10 year term the excepted charitable status of (a) Church of England parishes with an income less than £100,000 annually (b) other church denominations also currently excepted (c) Scout, Girlguiding and student union groups with an income under £100,000 annually.
Answered by Vicky Foxcroft - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Charity Commission estimates that around 30,000 church charities across all temporarily excepted Christian denominations will need to register by 31 March 2031.
There are no current plans to further extend the deadline for registration. Other excepted charity categories, such as Scout, Girlguiding, and student union groups, operate under permanent exception arrangements.
The Department has not received a request from the Charity Commission for additional staff or budget in relation to registering excepted church charities. The Charity Commission is working directly with denominational bodies on a phased approach to voluntary registration ahead of the 2031 deadline.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Department has received a request from the Charity Commission of England and Wales to increase its staff and budget in anticipation of any increased work by the Commission in registering over 9,000 small Church of England parish churches as individually registered charities.
Answered by Vicky Foxcroft - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Charity Commission estimates that around 30,000 church charities across all temporarily excepted Christian denominations will need to register by 31 March 2031.
There are no current plans to further extend the deadline for registration. Other excepted charity categories, such as Scout, Girlguiding, and student union groups, operate under permanent exception arrangements.
The Department has not received a request from the Charity Commission for additional staff or budget in relation to registering excepted church charities. The Charity Commission is working directly with denominational bodies on a phased approach to voluntary registration ahead of the 2031 deadline.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of Church of England parish churches with an annual income of between £5,000 and £100,000 who will potentially have to register with the Charity Commission of England and Wales by 2031.
Answered by Vicky Foxcroft - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Charity Commission estimates that around 30,000 church charities across all temporarily excepted Christian denominations will need to register by 31 March 2031.
There are no current plans to further extend the deadline for registration. Other excepted charity categories, such as Scout, Girlguiding, and student union groups, operate under permanent exception arrangements.
The Department has not received a request from the Charity Commission for additional staff or budget in relation to registering excepted church charities. The Charity Commission is working directly with denominational bodies on a phased approach to voluntary registration ahead of the 2031 deadline.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people aged 16 - 24 not in education, employment or training were disabled in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2024/25, the latest year of available data, there were approximately 401,000 disabled people aged 16 -24 who were not in education, employment or training (NEET), which is 45.0% of all young people who are NEET.
The figures on the employment of disabled people was published here.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance she has issued to NHS bodies on embedding co-design with blind and partially sighted people throughout the development, testing and ongoing improvement of digital health services.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon Member to the National Health Service guidance available at the link below, which includes the steps taken to recruit users of digital services with different disabilities to test and improve the accessibility of each service:
The guidance is set out in the NHS Service Standard, which requires NHS digital services to be designed so that everyone can use them, including through involving people with disabilities in user research, testing, and service improvement activities.
NHS England applies these principles in the development of the NHS App. The NHS App team follows an inclusive design approach and involves people with lived experience of disability in user research and service development, including engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with sight loss to help shape and test services. The team works with specialist organisations and representative groups, and co-designs and tests new features with users who have a range of access needs, including blind and partially sighted people.
The team also undertakes regular independent accessibility audits, tests services against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standards, and operates dedicated Accessibility Labs to support the development of accessible and inclusive digital services. NHS England has also strengthened its accessibility and inclusive design capability to help ensure that accessibility is considered throughout the development and improvement of digital health services.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure blind and partially sighted people are involved in the design and testing of NHS digital services, including the NHS App.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon Member to the National Health Service guidance available at the link below, which includes the steps taken to recruit users of digital services with different disabilities to test and improve the accessibility of each service:
The guidance is set out in the NHS Service Standard, which requires NHS digital services to be designed so that everyone can use them, including through involving people with disabilities in user research, testing, and service improvement activities.
NHS England applies these principles in the development of the NHS App. The NHS App team follows an inclusive design approach and involves people with lived experience of disability in user research and service development, including engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with sight loss to help shape and test services. The team works with specialist organisations and representative groups, and co-designs and tests new features with users who have a range of access needs, including blind and partially sighted people.
The team also undertakes regular independent accessibility audits, tests services against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standards, and operates dedicated Accessibility Labs to support the development of accessible and inclusive digital services. NHS England has also strengthened its accessibility and inclusive design capability to help ensure that accessibility is considered throughout the development and improvement of digital health services.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the proposals in the consultation on Assistive software funded through the Disabled Students' Allowance, which closed on 18 June 2026.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is currently analysing the responses to the consultation and assessing the implications for its policies. This evidence, alongside an updated Equality Impact Assessment, will inform decisions on any changes to the provision of assistive software funded through Disabled Students’ Allowance.
No final policy decisions have been made. The department intends to publish the consultation response in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to ensure accessibility and communication needs are recorded once and shared consistently across NHS services through the Single Patient Record and the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This is something that should routinely happen across all National Health Service digital services, via the Reasonable Adjustment Flag process, details of which can be found at the link below and which will be rolled out as a core element of each new digital service:
https://digital.nhs.uk/services/patient-flags-service/reasonable-adjustment-flag