Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to help improve the educational attainment rate of Romani Gypsy, Roma and Irish traveller children.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

A world-class education system that works for everyone is the surest way to ensure that all children and young people can reach their potential. The department has high expectations for all pupils. The department does not design education policy to target certain groups of pupils based on ethnicity, but instead is focused on improving outcomes for all children. For all children to reach their potential they need an ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum, taught by great teachers in schools with high expectations and good pupil behaviour.

One of the most significant factors affecting pupil attainment, which cuts across all ethnicities, is economic disadvantage. That is why the department has continued to provide pupil premium funding which will rise to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25. Pupil premium per pupil rates will have increased by 10% over the three years from 2021/22 to 2024/25. ​This increase will ensure that this targeted funding continues to help schools to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils.

In 2024/25, the national funding formula (NFF) will allocate £7.8 billion (17.8% of all funding allocated by the NFF) through additional needs factors based on deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility.

The department recognises the issues faced by Romani Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller children and young people and how schools and others can make a positive difference. While some pupils from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds can, and do, perform well at school, as a group their attainment and attendance at school is particularly low at every key stage of education.

The department will continue to work to deliver reforms, to ensure all children and young people are able to reach their potential and experience the transformative effect of a high-quality education and continue to support schools and leaders to respond to the needs of their schools and communities.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many incidents of ethnicity-based bullying within schools were reported to her Department in the last 12 months; and what steps her Department is taking to help tackle such incidents.

Answered by David Johnston

There is no legal requirement on schools to record and report incidents of bullying and there never has been. Schools should develop their own approaches for monitoring bullying and exercise their own judgement as to what will work best for their pupils.

All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

In July 2017, the department updated its advice for schools, which outlines schools’ responsibilities to support children who are bullied. The advice makes clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. This advice is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.

The department provided over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This included projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate related bullying.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of detaining asylum seekers that have experienced torture on their mental health.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson

The Home Office takes the welfare and safety of people in its care very seriously and we are committed to ensuring the proper protection and treatment of vulnerable people in detention.

The Home Office recognises that some groups of people can be at particular risk of harm in immigration detention. This is the basis of the Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention policy. In accordance with the policy, people considered to be vulnerable, including those suffering from serious mental health conditions and victims of torture, are detained only when the risk factors in their case are outweighed by the immigration considerations.

People entering detention have a medical screening undertaken by a nurse within two hours of their arrival at an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) which seeks to identify any immediate or long-term healthcare risks. Subject to them providing consent, everyone detained in an IRC is also given an appointment with a doctor for a physical and mental examination which takes place within 24 hours of their arrival at the IRC.

Everyone in detention also has access to a complete range of medical care throughout their period in an IRC including primary care, dentistry, substance misuse treatment services, mental health care and welfare services. Depending on the outcomes of the reception screening and the doctor’s appointment, clinical pathways into other healthcare services such as mental health or welfare services may be initiated.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the commencement of detention operations undertaken by his Department following the passage of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 on levels of contact with people whose asylum claims have been deemed inadmissible.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson

The Home Office routinely monitors levels of compliance for individuals who are required to report as a condition of their bail. We have a range of interventions available to us to maintain contact, including face to face reporting, contact by telephone, digital reporting and notifications from the accommodation providers where they reside.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support her Department is providing to families of children with poor mental health.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The Every Mind Matters website and the National Health Service website both contain helpful advice for parents and carers of a child or young person with poor mental health. This includes signposting to a number of voluntary organisations offering support and information.

Family members of children with poor mental health, who feel they themselves need psychological support, should speak to their general practitioner, or can self-refer to NHS Talking Therapies online. Details are available on the NHS website.

In addition, NHS England is developing a new waiting time measure for children and their families and carers to start receiving community-based mental health care within four weeks of referral. NHS England began publishing this new data in 2023, to improve transparency and drive local accountability.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to protect children from unhealthy food and drink marketing.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

The Government is committed to working with businesses to ensure that we create the conditions for a healthier nation, and we are implementing an ambitious programme of measures to tackle childhood obesity. On 1 October 2022, the Government introduced legislation to restrict the location of foods high in fat, salt, or sugar in shops and online.

On 1 October 2025, the volume price promotion restrictions will come into force, restricting volume price promotions such as three for two offers on less healthy products. The Government will simultaneously introduce a United Kingdom-wide 9:00pm television watershed for products high in fat, salt, or sugar, and a restriction of paid-for advertising of these products online, also on 1 October 2025. We continue to work with industry on the Food Data Transparency Partnership, to co-develop voluntary reporting requirements for food business to demonstrate the healthiness of their sales.

The Government, through its focus on prevention, is committed to improving the oral health of our young children through the Smile for Life programme, so that they have good habits by the time they start primary school.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of transitioning from CAMHS to adult mental health services on the support provided to young people.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, local health systems have been tasked with delivering a comprehensive offer for zero to 25 year-olds to ensure young adults receive appropriate mental health support, regardless of their age or diagnostic profile.

Between the ages of 16 to 18 years old, young people are more susceptible to mental illness, undergoing physiological change and making important transitions in their lives. The structure of the National Health Service’s mental health services often creates gaps for young people undergoing the transition from children and young people’s mental health services to appropriate support, including adult mental health services. The new approach to young adult mental health services for people aged 18 to 25 years old will better support the transition to adulthood.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support her Department is providing to children experiencing addiction issues.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Alcohol or drug dependence is rare in children and young people under the age of 18 years old, although they may be drinking problematically. Children may also experience second-hand harms of parental alcohol or drug dependence. The most effective and sustainable approach to reducing alcohol and drug harms in children is by giving them the best start in life, the best education possible, and keeping them safe, well, and happy.

Statutory guidance on relationships, sex, and health education requires all primary and secondary school pupils to be taught the key facts and risks of alcohol and drug use, as well as how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. The Department has worked with the PSHE Association to develop the lesson plans on alcohol and is currently commissioning an update of the resources to be published later this year. Current resources are available at the following link:

https://pshe-association.org.uk/drugeducation

Through the cross-Government Drug Strategy, the Department has allocated £532 million of additional funding through to 2024/25, to support improvements in alcohol and drug treatment, including facilitating 5,000 more young people into age-appropriate treatment by 2024/25. Local authorities can also invest their allocation in options from a menu of interventions, some of which include strengthening the services available to children and families.

The Government also has an information and advice service called Talk to FRANK, which aims to reduce alcohol and drug use and its harms, by providing awareness to young people, parents, and concerned others. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.talktofrank.com/

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will lower the threshold for free school meals qualification.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The department has extended free school meal (FSM) support several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. As a result, the greatest ever proportion of children are now receiving free lunches. Over one third of children are now eligible for FSM, compared to one in six in 2010.

However, a threshold must be set somewhere. The department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables children in low-income households to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the correct decision.

The department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will implement a visa scheme to enable Palestinian children to receive critical medical treatment in the UK.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

The UK is exploring how best to support the medical needs of those in Gaza, including what options can be provided in the region.

It is ultimately at the discretion of the Israeli and Egyptian authorities who can cross the border.

The Home Office is not currently considering establishing a bespoke visa scheme for Palestinian children to receive critical medical treatment in the UK. There are provisions that allow a person to come to the UK for private medical treatment under Appendix V of the Immigration Rules. If the rules are not met, careful consideration will be given on whether a grant of leave outside of the rules would be appropriate.

Should applications be submitted from Palestinian children, who have secured permission from the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to exit Gaza, requiring specialist medical treatment they will be treated with the utmost seriousness. If that leads to the identification of specific cases in which a person would be better off making the long journey to the UK to undertake treatment, we will not rule out bringing them to British hospitals, as we have done in the past.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing funding to increase capacity in children and young people's gender services.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

This year NHS England has more than doubled the level of financial investment into children and young people’s gender services compared to last year, and will make significant further investment this year and in subsequent years, as up to eight regional providers are established in line with the recommendations of the Cass Review.

NHS England has made significant progress on its overhaul of children’s gender identity services. NHS England closed the Tavistock Gender Clinic last month and opened two new, regional services operating under a fundamentally differing service model earlier this month. A third clinic is set to open in Bristol this autumn, and NHS England has committed to a further three services by 2026. These new services will increase service capacity and reduce waiting lists.

Student protests in Bangladesh

Ending the two-child benefit cap

International Criminal Court, Gaza and the Rule of Law

Imperial War Museums and union derecognition

19th Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony

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Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville

Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville

Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville

Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville

Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville

Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville

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Found: Whittome Debbie Abrahams Charlotte Nichols Lloyd Russell-Moyle Caroline Lucas Liz Saville