Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 29 April 2026 to Question 128336, what is the total a) amount and b) proportion of funding that is allocated to support additional needs for school pupils up to the age of 16, including both deprivation factors and the Pupil Premium funding.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In the 2026/27 financial year, 11% (£5.6 billion) of the schools national funding formula (NFF) has been allocated through deprivation factors, and 18.1% (£9.2 billion) has been allocated for additional needs overall.
The total amount of funding allocated through the deprivation factors, and the proportion this represents of the overall schools NFF for 2026/27, can be found here:
In addition to the funding provided through the schools NFF, pupil premium rates are increasing by 2.2% in 2026/27. This will take total pupil premium funding to around £3.2 billion in 2026/27, which will improve attainment and wider outcomes of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Pupil premium is not ring-fenced by type of need, and schools determine how it is used. Therefore, the department does not allocate funding to be spent on specific forms of additional support. Guidance for school leaders on how to use pupil premium, including the menu of approaches on which schools can spend their funding, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/using-pupil-premium-guidance-for-school-leaders#the-menu-of-approaches.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has conducted a comparative analysis of the per-pupil funding allocated to disadvantaged students in (a) Key Stage 4 and (b) 16 to 19 education; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of funding differentials on the attainment of young people from low-income backgrounds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The national funding formula (NFF) for school pupils up to age 16 reflects additional needs of pupils, including economic disadvantage, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and pupil mobility. In the 2026/27 academic year, £5.6 billion (11.0%) of the NFF has been allocated according to “deprivation” factors reflecting economic disadvantage and £9.2 billion (18.1%) has been allocated for additional needs overall. In addition to funding through the NFF, schools also receive pupil premium funding for disadvantaged pupils.
Disadvantage funding for 16 to 19 year-old students is provided linked to students’ economic deprivation and low prior attainment. We also allocate English and maths funding to support students aged 16 to 19 who have not achieved a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and maths. In total, 16 to 19 disadvantage and English and maths funding came to £1 billion in the 2025/26 academic year allocations, or 12% of total programme funding.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in year 10 were eligible for free school meals by constituency in 2024-25.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The number of pupils eligible for free school meals is published annually in the Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics accredited official statistics here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The table in the attachment shows the number of pupils in year 10 in England who were eligible for free school meals in the 2024/25 academic year, by parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what comparative assessment her Department has made of (a) service-by-service age verification and (b) device, app store, or operating system level age assurance, in terms of consistency across services, enforceability and the risk of circumvention.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom considers age assurance to be highly effective when it meets particular criteria for technical accuracy, robustness, reliability and fairness, and has set out guidance on which methods meet that criteria. Ofcom will publish reports on age assurance and the use of app stores by children by July 2026 and January 2027 respectively.
Age assurance under the OSA takes place at platform level. While age assurance at other levels may offer benefits, we must allow time to assess the Act’s effectiveness before introducing further measures. The public consultation on protecting children online will seek views on strengthening age assurance measures.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to incorporate Ofcom’s findings on the role of app stores in protecting children from harmful content into the Government’s consultation on children’s use of technology; and whether she expects that report to inform any proposed requirements intended to apply consistently across app-based services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department engages regularly with Ofcom on implementation of the Online Safety Act, including Ofcom’s statutory report on the use of app stores by children due to be published in January 2027. The Government has ensured Ofcom is sufficiently resourced and has agreed a significant uplift to Ofcom’s online safety funding in 2025/26 in recognition of Ofcom’s increased duties as implementation of the Act progresses.
The Act allows the Secretary of State to bring app store providers into scope following Ofcom’s report. Our consultation on children’s technology use will also gather evidence on several measures, including strengthened age assurance.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has had recent discussions with Ofcom on the (a) timetable and (b) resourcing for its work on the role of app stores in children’s access to harmful content.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department engages regularly with Ofcom on implementation of the Online Safety Act, including Ofcom’s statutory report on the use of app stores by children due to be published in January 2027. The Government has ensured Ofcom is sufficiently resourced and has agreed a significant uplift to Ofcom’s online safety funding in 2025/26 in recognition of Ofcom’s increased duties as implementation of the Act progresses.
The Act allows the Secretary of State to bring app store providers into scope following Ofcom’s report. Our consultation on children’s technology use will also gather evidence on several measures, including strengthened age assurance.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the average time taken to complete cladding remediation works on residential buildings of approximately 20 to 25 storeys; what evidence underpins an estimated 24-month completion timeframe for such projects; and whether he will publish a percentage breakdown of remediation projects completed within 18 months, within 24 months, and beyond 24 months.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department’s data collection is focussed on height thresholds as this is the current determinant of programme eligibility. We expect buildings of 20 to 25 storeys to make up a very small proportion of those requiring remediation.
Based on the reported remediation start and completion dates, and storey information provided for the 24 buildings known to be 20 to 25 storeys, which have completed remediation and for which start and end dates have been reported, the average time taken to complete remediation on site is 24 months.
The Department does not work to an assumption on the time take to complete remediation of buildings of this height group (20 to 25 storeys) - and does not currently publish information on the time taken to complete remediation.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress she has made on the provision of Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government is dedicated to improving the lives of young people; that is why we launched the National Youth Strategy and the Young Futures Hubs programme - to ensure they have safe spaces to go and meaningful things to do. Our eight early adopter areas, which will be operational by March 2026, will allow us to capture best practice before we roll out 50 hubs across the country by 2029. I am working closely with colleagues across departments to ensure we build on collective expertise and deliver a joined-up service for young people.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of local councils in exercising their statutory enforcement powers to protect local waterways from pollution; and whether her Department holds data on enforcement activity by local authorities.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities do hold limited enforcement responsibilities, primarily through Environmental Health functions, for example, under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 in relation to certain industrial processes, and powers relating to flooding from ordinary watercourses. However, these are distinct from the regulation of water company discharges.
Enforcement against pollution from water companies is the responsibility of the Environment Agency, which issues discharge permits, monitors compliance, and takes civil or criminal enforcement action where offences occur. Defra sets the overall legislative and policy framework for this system, including recent reforms under the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, which strengthens the ability of regulators to take faster and tougher action, including new criminal liability for company executives.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on tackling knife crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have set an ambitious but essential target: to halve knife crime over this decade. We are already seeing results. Knife crime is falling.
Since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 8% and knife homicides are down by 27%.
We have banned ninja swords and zombie style machetes, we have taken nearly 60,000 knives off our streets and we have established new Young Futures Panels.