Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with the UKRI on its funded research projects on solar radiation modification.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department engages regularly with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and its constituent Councils, on a range of research and innovation priorities.
In April 2025, UKRI’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) invested £10 million in four research projects on solar radiation modification (SRM). These projects cover stratospheric aerosol intervention; marine cloud brightening; the environment’s response to SRM; and the cooling potential of lesser-known SRM approaches. These projects will not involve outdoor experiments.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has issued to (a) schools and (b) teaching bodies on using vapes in school settings.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the UK, it is against the law to sell nicotine vaping products to under 18s or for adults to buy them on their behalf. Young people should not have these products in schools.
Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including which items are banned from school premises. School staff can search pupils for banned items as outlined in the department’s Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance.
Schools have an important role in educating pupils about the dangers of harmful substances. Primary pupils should be taught about legal and illegal harmful substances while secondary pupils are also taught about the associated legal and psychological risks. The relationships, sex and health education curriculum is currently being reviewed and will consider vaping as part of the review of the statutory guidance.
FRANK, the government-funded national drug and alcohol advisory service, has also been updated with relevant information on vapes, including the risks, physical effects and addictiveness of nicotine vapes.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of schools reported finding students in possession of illegal drugs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect such information centrally.
The Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance emphasises the importance of the school’s duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils. Searching can play a critical role in ensuring that schools are safe environments. Authorised members of school staff have the statutory power to search a pupil when they have reasonable grounds to suspect them to be in possession of prohibited items, such as illegal drugs. At all times, schools must ensure they continue to adhere to their statutory safeguarding duties as outlined in the Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance documents.
The relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance states that, in both primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including drug-taking. To support schools to deliver this content, the department has published a suite of teacher training modules, including one on drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children aged between 12 and 16 years inclusive that have taken illegal drugs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are two official national surveys on illicit drug use among children. NHS England’s Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys pupils aged between 11 and 15 years old in England. In 2023, 13% of pupils reported that they had taken drugs.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics, reported that in the year ending March 2024, 15% of young people aged 16 to 19 years old reported using any drugs in the past 12 months.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of children aged 12-16 who are vaping.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes estimates of the prevalence of vaping in children in the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England Survey. This survey covers children in years 7 to 11 in secondary school, the majority of whom will be aged 12 to 16 years old, although some 11 year olds will also be included.
The latest figures for England are from the 2023 survey, which showed that 5% of children were regular vapers, 4% were occasional vapers, and 25% reported having ever tried vaping. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of failed asylum seekers scheduled for deportation are known to have mental health issues.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no specific figure available of the type described in these questions.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reporting rate is of failed asylum seekers to her Department.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no specific figure available of the type described in these questions.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many deportations have taken place to Somalia since 8 July 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Statistics on returns from the UK by nationality and destination are published on a quarterly basis. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, and are currently available to the end of March 2025, available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many failed asylum seekers still in the UK hold criminal records.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 19 June to Question 58400.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of cricket participation rates among state school pupils.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey for Academic Year 2023-24 shows that 252,500 (6.6%) children in academy schools have participated in cricket at least once a week or more, and 253,000 (7.3%) children in maintained schools have participated in cricket at least once a week or more.
The Government is committed to protecting time for physical education in schools. The Prime Minister recently announced a new School Sport Partnerships approach and a new Enrichment Framework for schools to ensure all young people have equal access to high-quality sport and extracurricular activity. The ongoing independent expert-led review of the curriculum will ensure that all children can engage with a broad range of subjects, including PE and sport.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the National Governing Body for cricket, has committed to making the sport as inclusive as possible for children and young people through their new strategy and state school action plan. I have also seen the work of their charitable arm, Chance to Shine, to encourage more children to take up cricket, at the Mill Academy in Worsbrough last year.
We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million of National Lottery and government money. The ECB receives £10.2 million funding from Sport England across up to five years to help deliver strategic objectives, including tackling inequalities and improving access to sport.