Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to meet representatives of training providers affected by fee increases introduced by City & Guilds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Departmental officials regularly meet with representatives of training providers and awarding organisations. Ofqual publishes annual qualification price statistics which are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress he has made on the development of the two new transportation and capture projects under Track 2.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
At the 2025 Spending Review the government announced its support for the Acorn and Viking clusters and is providing the development funding to advance their delivery. This funding will support the clusters in developing detailed designs and preparations, ready for the next stage.
Since the Spending Review, we have worked closely with both clusters to understand what they need to keep them progressing towards FID and have continued our due diligence.
We will continue to collaborate on the specific ask from the projects, and will be subject to negotiations, subsidy control considerations and value for money and deliverability assessments.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with technology companies on automatically renewed subscriptions for services and the ease of cancellation of those subscriptions.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 sets out new consumer protection rules for subscription contracts. Once the rules are in force, traders will have to provide clear information about subscription contracts before a consumer signs up, ensure that arrangements to exit the contract are straightforward, and provide a 14-day cooling-off period after a 12month+ contract or trial auto-renews.
Secondary legislation is required to implement the regime. We consulted on proposals and the Government Response can be found here: Consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime - GOV.UK
My officials and I have engaged with businesses from across the economy, including technology companies, and will continue to do so in advance of the new rules coming into force.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has contingency plans in place to protect students and apprentices in the event of disruption to qualification delivery by private awarding bodies.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Ofqual, the independent regulator of exams and assessments in England, requires awarding organisations to establish, maintain and comply with an up-to-date detailed written contingency plan to mitigate any incident that may cause a disruption to candidates.
In addition, Ofqual has published guidance on how the sector should manage disruption to exams and assessments, including clear steps that both exam centres and awarding organisations should take to ensure qualifications are delivered.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students and apprentices are currently enrolled on qualifications accredited by City & Guilds in England.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The number of learning aims on City & Guilds qualifications in further education (FE) institutions reported so far (August 2025 to January 2026) for FE and skills is 449,500, of which 120,750 relate to apprenticeships.
Statistics on FE and skills is published in the accredited official statistics publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-and-skills/2025-26.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that vocational qualification standards are maintained where awarding organisations undergo significant (a) ownership and (b) management changes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
City and Guilds of London Institute is an independent organisation. The government has no role in its governance or commercial decisions. Following the announcement of their consultation, City and Guilds Ltd have released a statement confirming the changes are not expected to disrupt learners, including those currently working through their assessments, or affect the delivery or quality of qualifications.
Departmental officials meet regularly with City and Guilds colleagues to discuss provision of qualifications and outline any issues early.
Ofqual oversees the awarding organisation in all setup and governance models. It expects strong governance, proper handling of conflicts of interest, financial resilience and transparency. Ofqual recognition rests with the recognised entity and cannot be separately transferred or merged.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had discussions with City & Guilds, PeopleCert or sector representatives regarding recent fee increases, staffing changes and the continuity of vocational qualifications provision.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
City and Guilds of London Institute is an independent organisation. The government has no role in its governance or commercial decisions. Following the announcement of their consultation, City and Guilds Ltd have released a statement confirming the changes are not expected to disrupt learners, including those currently working through their assessments, or affect the delivery or quality of qualifications.
Departmental officials meet regularly with City and Guilds colleagues to discuss provision of qualifications and outline any issues early.
Ofqual oversees the awarding organisation in all setup and governance models. It expects strong governance, proper handling of conflicts of interest, financial resilience and transparency. Ofqual recognition rests with the recognised entity and cannot be separately transferred or merged.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recent changes at City & Guilds on students and apprentices currently undertaking qualifications accredited by that organisation.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
City and Guilds of London Institute is an independent organisation. The government has no role in its governance or commercial decisions. Following the announcement of their consultation, City and Guilds Ltd have released a statement confirming the changes are not expected to disrupt learners, including those currently working through their assessments, or affect the delivery or quality of qualifications.
Departmental officials meet regularly with City and Guilds colleagues to discuss provision of qualifications and outline any issues early.
Ofqual oversees the awarding organisation in all setup and governance models. It expects strong governance, proper handling of conflicts of interest, financial resilience and transparency. Ofqual recognition rests with the recognised entity and cannot be separately transferred or merged.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support is available to individuals that no longer qualify for the Motability scheme and lose access to a vehicle.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
If a customer no longer receives a qualifying benefit, then DWP will notify Motability who will support customers to return their vehicle and may offer a transition package.
Further information is available on the Motability website: https://www.motability.co.uk/get-support/faqs/allowance-has-stopped
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his department is taking to ensure the safety of DWP staff working at the Crown House in Grimsby.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) take the safety of its staff very seriously, ensuring that through the relevant policies, procedures, training, risk assessments, and supervision, we allocate resources to manage risk and keep our people safe.
Each site has a Senior Responsible Officer (SROs) who ensures risks are managed, incidents are investigated, and lessons learned, working closely with a national team of health and safety business partners.