Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether Poland's President will be invited to the 80th VE celebrations.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is leading the Government’s contribution to the VE and VJ Day 80 and is working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to ensure appropriate representation at official events. The guest list for the commemorations has not been finalised.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish updated Relationships and Sex Education guidance.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Twickenham to the answer of 6 February 2025 to Question 28134.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including misogyny and violence against women and girls in Relationships and Sex Education guidance.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade. Education has a crucial role to play in tackling harmful behaviour and helping children and young people to develop empathy, boundaries and respect for difference.

Through compulsory relationships education, all pupils should already learn how to form positive and respectful relationships and develop an understanding of the concepts and laws around sexual harassment and sexual violence. The existing Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance emphasises that schools should be alive to issues such as everyday sexism, misogyny, homophobia and gender stereotypes, and take positive action to build a culture where these are not tolerated. It states that any occurrences should be identified and tackled. The guidance is clear that schools should provide pupils with the knowledge they need to recognise and report abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

​​The department is currently reviewing the statutory RSHE curriculum for primary and secondary pupils, and as part of this review we are looking at how to ensure that relationships education effectively equips pupils to form healthy and respectful relationships. We are analysing consultation responses, talking to stakeholders and considering relevant evidence to determine what curriculum changes might be needed to complement our wider actions to tackle misogyny and VAWG.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15145 on Teachers: Workplace Pensions, what recent progress she has made on reducing the backlog of people waiting for cash equivalent transfer value details from teachers' pensions.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The scheme administrator has made significant progress to reduce the backlog of cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) figures that had built up whilst the necessary guidance was developed following the transitional protection legislation taking effect.

CETVs that could be automated have been prioritised, alongside the most sensitive cases, to reduce the backlog from 3,062 at the end of October 2024 to 499 as of 4 April. The current outstanding figure includes recent applications.

The scheme administrator is now working through the more complex cases for members who have not retired and have scheme flexibilities to take account of, which must be processed clerically as a result.

Guidance to provide CETV calculations for members who have retired has recently been received and is being assessed by the scheme administrator. Where possible, the scheme administrator has issued Remediable Service Statements (RSS) to retired members, as once their RSS choice has been implemented, no further guidance is required.

Addressing the remainder of the backlog remains a key priority for both the department and the scheme administrator, and all available resource continues to be used, including the use of ongoing overtime.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund in each years since 2015; and how many individual children have accessed support through the Fund in each year since 2015.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The information requested is available in the following table:

End of year data is not yet available for 2024/25

*In 2020/21, £8 million was repurposed for the adoption support fund COVID-19 scheme.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2025 to Question 29915 on Parental Pay, how many people were in receipt of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay, (b) Statutory Paternity Pay, (c) Statutory Adoption Pay and (d) Statutory Shared Parental Pay in 2023-24.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Counts of employees receiving Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Shared Parental Pay in 2023-24 have been published in response to an earlier Parliamentary Question. They can be found at the following location:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-12-18/21027

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Turkish counterpart on the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As a close friend and ally of Turkey, the Government is closely monitoring the situation. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu is subject to an ongoing domestic Turkish legal process. The UK expects Turkey to uphold its international commitments and the rule of law, including swift and transparent judicial processes. The Government has been engaging with the Turkish Government and Foreign Secretary spoke with Foreign Minister Fidan on 29 March to raise these issues. The UK supports democracy, human rights and the rule of law across the world and will always support the fundamental rights to freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and media freedom.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2025 to Question 27891 on Detention and Training Orders: Children, how many and what proportion of the children identified as having SEND (a) had and (b) did not have (i) an EHC plan and (ii) other special needs support.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Children’s special educational needs are assessed when entering custody, and are regularly reviewed.

To obtain the information requested, it would be necessary to undertake a detailed review of individual records, which could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the number of court hearing records that were (a) lost and (b) not recorded in the last (i) 12 months and (ii) 5 years.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Data on information on audio recording failures is not collated or held centrally. Hearings across the Crown Court, Family Court, County Court, High Court, and Court of Appeal, as a matter of routine, are digitally audio recorded, among other things so as to facilitate the provision of written transcripts where, requested or required. Operational courtroom checks are undertaken daily to assure the technology used is working correctly.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) three and (b) four year olds were recorded as eligible for the additional 15 hours of free childcare in the academic year 2024-25; and how many were unable to take up those hours due to shortage of nursery places.

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

Information on 15 hours free childcare entitlements is published in the education provision: children under 5 years of age statistical publication. The publication is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5/2024.

Data on the number of two-year-olds eligible for the 15 hours free childcare entitlement for working parents is expected to be published in July 2025. An estimated 154,957 disadvantaged 2-year-old were eligible for 15-hours of free childcare in January 2024. Based on analyses of data from various surveys, an estimated 427,000 three and four-year-olds were eligible for the 30-hour entitlement in January 2024.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. No local authority is currently reporting a sufficiency concern.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department will discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed, we support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many two year olds were recorded as eligible for 15 hours of free childcare in the academic year 2024-25; and how many were unable to take up those hours due to shortage of nursery places.

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

Information on 15 hours free childcare entitlements is published in the education provision: children under 5 years of age statistical publication. The publication is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5/2024.

Data on the number of two-year-olds eligible for the 15 hours free childcare entitlement for working parents is expected to be published in July 2025. An estimated 154,957 disadvantaged 2-year-old were eligible for 15-hours of free childcare in January 2024. Based on analyses of data from various surveys, an estimated 427,000 three and four-year-olds were eligible for the 30-hour entitlement in January 2024.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. No local authority is currently reporting a sufficiency concern.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department will discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed, we support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department is measuring its progress on recruiting 6,500 new teachers; and whether this measurement will account for teachers that leave the profession over the remainder of the Parliament.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The factor in schools and colleges that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Ensuring a high-quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. However, this government inherited shortages of qualified teachers across the country as the number of teachers has not kept pace with demographic change. That is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has already made good early progress towards this key pledge, including providing a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax.

We have also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help reestablish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) to be undertaken remotely, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers​.

​​​​Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including targeted support for career changers.

We are working with the sector to develop our approach as part of the spending review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress she has made on recruiting 6,500 new teachers.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The factor in schools and colleges that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Ensuring a high-quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. However, this government inherited shortages of qualified teachers across the country as the number of teachers has not kept pace with demographic change. That is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has already made good early progress towards this key pledge, including providing a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax.

We have also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help reestablish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) to be undertaken remotely, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers​.

​​​​Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including targeted support for career changers.

We are working with the sector to develop our approach as part of the spending review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of career changers on meeting her target of recruiting 6,500 new teachers.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The factor in schools and colleges that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Ensuring a high-quality teaching workforce is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child. However, this government inherited shortages of qualified teachers across the country as the number of teachers has not kept pace with demographic change. That is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has already made good early progress towards this key pledge, including providing a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax.

We have also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help reestablish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA) to be undertaken remotely, and making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers​.

​​​​Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including targeted support for career changers.

We are working with the sector to develop our approach as part of the spending review.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many claimants were awarded compensation by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority by 31 March 2025.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) publishes updated figures every month.

As of 14 March, IBCA had invited 255 people to start their compensation claim, and 214 of those had started the claim process. 63 offers of compensation had been made, totalling over £73 million, and so far 40 people had accepted their offers with more than £44 million paid in compensation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of renewing her Department's contract with Now Teach, in the context of meeting teacher recruitment targets.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service, which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including career changers.

The current contract for the career changers programme will come to its natural end in autumn 2026, with no option to directly renew the contract with Now Teach. The department is currently working with Now Teach to support their exit planning and ensure that the final cohort of trainees complete the programme successfully. We have no plans to reprocure the contract at this stage.

The department has contracts with many organisations in support of teacher recruitment and training and continues to fund and support those organisations in line with the terms of the agreed contracts.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what evidential basis she does not plan to renew her Department's contract with Now Teach, in the context of meeting teacher recruitment targets.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Career changers make a valuable contribution to the teaching profession and the department remains committed to recruiting and supporting them into initial teacher training, including as part of our efforts to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

Our wider offer to all potential teachers, including career changers, supports them through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the Get Into Teaching service, which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including career changers.

The current contract for the career changers programme will come to its natural end in autumn 2026, with no option to directly renew the contract with Now Teach. The department is currently working with Now Teach to support their exit planning and ensure that the final cohort of trainees complete the programme successfully. We have no plans to reprocure the contract at this stage.

The department has contracts with many organisations in support of teacher recruitment and training and continues to fund and support those organisations in line with the terms of the agreed contracts.

Sanctioning of UK Parliamentarians by Russia

Convoy of Hope partnership for Ukraine

Introduction of the Hillsborough Law and the 36th anniversary

Israeli Defence Force attacks on humanitarian workers

World Kidney Day 2025

Radiotherapy (No. 2)

NHS targets

Women's health hubs

Protecting children from data exploitation

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