Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much she plans to spend on the Best Start for Life programme in the (a) 2026-27, (b) 2027-28 and (c) 2028-29 financial years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has allocated close to £1.5 billion over the next three financial years on improving family services and early years education. This funding includes both programme and capital funding, and is separate from the additional funding being provided for early years entitlements.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the real terms cost to the public purse is of Free School Meals in 2025-26; and what she expects this to be in future years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department published information on pupil free school meal eligibility in the annual Schools, Pupils and Characteristics publication, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The most recent data is based on the January (spring) school census. Under current eligibility criteria, the department spends around £1.5 billion on free lunches annually.
We estimate that over 500,000 additional children will benefit from expanded free school meal eligibility from September 2026, net of the ending of transitional protections, based on data which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/estimate-of-additional-children-claiming-free-school-meals-following-expansion-of-eligibility/2025. We have set aside over £1 billion in additional funding over the multi-year spending review period to cover meal costs.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of pupils she expects to be eligible for Free School Meals (a) this year and (b) in future years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department published information on pupil free school meal eligibility in the annual Schools, Pupils and Characteristics publication, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The most recent data is based on the January (spring) school census. Under current eligibility criteria, the department spends around £1.5 billion on free lunches annually.
We estimate that over 500,000 additional children will benefit from expanded free school meal eligibility from September 2026, net of the ending of transitional protections, based on data which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/estimate-of-additional-children-claiming-free-school-meals-following-expansion-of-eligibility/2025. We have set aside over £1 billion in additional funding over the multi-year spending review period to cover meal costs.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of secondary schools provide two weeks of work experience.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department has asked the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) to collect national baseline data on the delivery of two weeks’ worth of work experience for every secondary pupil, across schools in England. CEC plan to publish this data by the end of 2025.
The most recently published data by CEC regarding work experience relates to the 2023/24 academic year. 76% of schools self-report that the majority of their pupils have had an experience of the workplace by the end of year 11.84% of schools report that the majority of their pupils had received experience of the workplace in year 12 or year 13.
The department recently updated careers statutory guidance to set out expectations for the 2025/26 academic year, including multiple, high quality experiences of the workplace for every pupil.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of plagiarism in the education sector; and what steps her Department is taking to tackle plagiarism.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Cheating of any kind is unacceptable. It threatens to undermine the reputation of our world-class education sector and devalues the hard work of those who succeed on their own merit.
Ofqual require Awarding Organisations to have robust policies and procedures in place to prevent, detect, and deal with malpractice, including plagiarism.
The Joint Council for Qualifications have published guidance to support schools and colleges to identify and address concerns about plagiarism in exams and assessments, which can be found at: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/malpractice/plagiarism-in-assessments---guidance-for-teachersassessors/.
Higher education providers are independent bodies responsible for their own approaches to preventing academic misconduct by students, including plagiarism, but are regulated in relation their assessment practices by the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS sets the expectation that assessments must be designed in a way that minimises opportunities for misconduct and facilitates its detection where it does occur.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reinstate two weeks of compulsory work experience in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Earlier this year, we updated the careers statutory guidance reflecting the revised Gatsby Benchmarks of good careers guidance and included the new definition of meaningful workplace experiences to raise the quality of work experience.
In this guidance we also set out the vision for this government’s priority for the delivery of two weeks’ worth of meaningful work experience for all pupils over the course of their secondary education, irrespective of background.
Building on the Gatsby Benchmark 6 definition for Experiences of Workplaces, we will ensure that all pupils have multiple, meaningful and varied high-quality workplace experiences, including one weeks’ worth of workplace activities between years 7-9 and one weeks’ worth of work placement between years 10-11, progressively increasing their exposure to different places of work.
We are currently piloting a new flexible model of work experience, designed to reduce barriers for young people, schools and employers. The department will set out more details of the work experience guarantee in due course.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding she plans to provide to (a) the National Careers Service, (b) the Education and Training Foundation, (c) WorldSkills UK and (d) the Careers and Enterprise Company in the 2025-26 academic or financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of our Plan for Change, the government is investing in skills in order to drive economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity. The overall programme resource budget for apprenticeships, further education and higher education in the 2025/26 financial year is £15.8 billion. This includes funding for the National Careers Service, the Education and Training Foundation, WorldSkills UK, and the Careers and Enterprise Company.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools received a lump sum payment in the last financial year; and for how many of those schools the lump sum represented (i) less than one, (ii) two to five, (iii) five to 10, (iv) 10 to 20, (v) 20 to 30, (vi) 30 to 40 and (vii) over 50 per cent of their total income.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The schools national funding formula (NFF) introduced in 2018 is used to distribute core funding for mainstream schools, for pupils from reception to year 11. The NFF determines how much funding each local authority receives, and local authorities then determine individual schools’ final allocations through their own local formulae.
In both the schools NFF and local authority formulae, the majority of funding is distributed on the basis of pupil numbers and pupil characteristics. In line with the formula introduced under the previous government, every school receives a contribution to the costs that do not vary with pupil numbers, which is why both the national and local funding formulae provide a lump sum for every school, irrespective of their size.
The table below summarises the proportion of the funding generated by local authority formulae that the lump sum represents in 2024/25.
Lump sum proportion | Number of schools |
<1% | 9 |
1<2% | 1,350 |
2<5% | 2,744 |
5<10% | 5,898 |
10<20% | 7,128 |
20<30% | 2,057 |
30<40% | 696 |
40<50% | 217 |
>=50% | 51 |
Total | 20,150 |
Further information can be found at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-funding-statistics/2024-25.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's transparency data entitled Breakfast clubs early adopters: schools in the scheme, published on 24 February 2025 and updated on 22 April 2025, for what reason 79 schools are no longer taking part in the scheme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston to the answer of 6 May 2025 to Question 47782.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what number and proportion of Level 7 apprenticeship (a) starts and (b) completions were for people aged (i) under 22 and (ii) 22 or over, in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The attached file shows level 7 apprenticeship starts and achievements for the 2015/16 to 2023/24 academic years broken down by learner age as requested.