Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department investigated the conduct of social worker Anwar Meah.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Social Work England (SWE) is the independent regulator for the social work profession in England and, as such, is responsible for investigating concerns relating to social workers’ fitness to practise that are referred to them. While the department is unable to intervene in individual cases, officials contacted the regulator when concerns were highlighted.
SWE’s overarching objective is to protect the public. In meeting this objective they are obliged, as set out in legislation, to consider all concerns it receives to determine whether there is evidence that a social worker’s fitness to practise may be impaired.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with universities to ensure academics with gender-critical views are not treated differently and that their research is allowed to be published.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom. Higher education (HE) must be a space for robust discussion and intellectual rigour. Academics must be allowed to test the truth of the ideas that shape society and participate in the free exchange of ideas.
The department has confirmed our plans for the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which will create a more proportionate, balanced and less burdensome approach to protecting free speech and protecting researchers’ rights to academic freedom. From 1 August 2025, providers have strengthened duties to secure and promote the importance of free speech. These duties require HE providers to take reasonably practicable steps to protect those expressing lawful views, including those which may be gender critical.
The Office for Students has also set out detailed published guidance for HE providers on how to implement their duties and protect academic freedom, including in relation to the expression of gender critical views.
As well as taking reasonably practicable steps to protect the lawful freedom of speech and academic freedom of all academics, including those with gender critical beliefs, HE providers must also comply with relevant provisions of the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits unlawful discrimination in relation to protected characteristics, such as gender critical beliefs.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department will introduce its proposed changes to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government’s changes to the 2023 Free Speech Act will create a more proportionate, balanced and less burdensome approach to protecting free speech and academic freedom in higher education. Strengthened free speech duties on higher education (HE) providers and the Office for Students (OfS) came into force on 1 August 2025, including requirements to promote freedom of speech and academic freedom and, for HE providers only, to put in place enhanced codes of practice. We will also seek to repeal and amend elements of the Act where necessary to ensure it is fit for purpose. This includes seeking to repeal the tort and duties on students’ unions, and to amend the OfS’ free speech complaints scheme and mandatory condition of registration. Making these changes will require primary legislation.
In the meantime, as well as the new provider duties in place, the OfS’ director for freedom of speech and academic freedom continues to work with the sector to offer advice and share best practice, so providers themselves are more effectively protecting free speech and academic freedom.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate has she made of the number of children who will be eligible for Free School Meals under the plans to expand eligibility in (a) Birmingham Edgbaston constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
Providing over half a million children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will also lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
We have published data on the number of children who could benefit from expanded provision by constituency/region/local authority here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in Birmingham Edgbaston constituency will receive funding from the school rebuilding programme.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government has given a long-term commitment for funding through to 2034/35 to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England.
The department is investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding the School Rebuilding Programme, with a further 250 schools to be selected within the next two years.
Details of schools currently in the School Rebuilding Programme are published on GOV.UK, including the following schools in the constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston: Welsh House Farm Community School and Special Needs Resources Base, and Baskerville School. The department plans to set out further details about the selection process for the additional 250 schools to be selected for the programme later this year.
In addition, the department is investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26. Details of annual capital funding are made available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 introducing specific (a) Sikh and (b) Jewish options for a person’s ethnic group in data collection conducted by her Department.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department collects ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK. Those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation later this year. We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of classifications that children's services use to record child sexual abuse.
Answered by Janet Daby
The number of episodes of children in need with the ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘child sexual exploitation’ factors identified in an assessment in the year ending 31 March 2024 can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/12ce1c63-e357-4177-3d87-08ddae36ea5c. Factors identified at the end of assessment are additional factors that social workers record as being relevant in a case.
These figures are based on assessment factors recorded against individual episodes of need, which begin when a child is referred to children’s social care services and is assessed as being in need of children’s social care services. Each unique factor is counted once against a given episode, irrespective of the number of times the same factor was recorded in that episode. However, as a child can have more than one episode of need during the year ending 31 March, the same child can be recorded more than once for a given factor.
The majority of children have more than one unique factor recorded for each episode of need. It should be noted that not all episodes have factors recorded, but this has improved over time. Nonetheless, there can be differences in the recording practices between local authorities. Therefore this data should be treated with caution and should not be taken to represent the national, regional or local authority prevalence of particular issues.
The number of child protection plans as at 31 March 2024 where sexual abuse was the initial or latest category of abuse is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a9a79795-cdd0-42fc-8333-08ddaf142d69.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish the number of students enrolled in higher education in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 academic years, broken down by religion.
Answered by Janet Daby
Statistics on higher education (HE) student enrolments by personal characteristics, including the number of HE student enrolments in the 2023/24 and 2023/24 academic years broken down by religious beliefs, are published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency and can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb271/figure-5.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of five year olds were school ready in (a) Birmingham Edgbaston constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances. That is why the department’s Plan for Change set out our ambition for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. We will measure our progress through 75% of children reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile was significantly revised in September 2021. It is therefore not possible to directly compare assessment outcomes since 2021/22 with earlier years.
The department has published data through the early years foundation stage teacher assessment since 2021/2022 which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results/2023-24.
Local authority and regional data from 2013 to 2019 can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results-2018-to-2019.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn a musical instrument.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Music is an essential part of supporting children and young people to develop creativity and find their voice. The government believes creative subjects like music, art and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves.
On 18 March 2025, the department announced its intention to launch a National Centre for Arts and Music Education to promote opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school, including through the government’s network of music hubs. The department intends to launch this centre in September 2026, with a delivery lead appointed through an open procurement. Further details will be released in due course.
To support the delivery of music education, the government has committed £79 million per year for the music hubs programme, including the 2024/25 academic year. The 43 music hubs partnerships across England offer a range of services, including musical instrument tuition, instrument loaning and whole-class ensemble teaching. All partnerships have a local plan in place with an inclusion strategy that sets out specific support for disadvantaged children, including young people eligible for the pupil premium and those identified with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). To widen access to musical instruments, the government is investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology from the 2024/25 academic year.
The government is also investing £2 million to support the Music Opportunities Pilot over a four-year period from the 2024/25 academic year to the 2027/28 academic year, backed by a further £3.85 million funding from Arts Council England and Youth Music. This pilot is delivered by Young Sounds UK in 12 areas of the country and aims to help disadvantaged children and young people, as well as those with SEND, to learn how to play an instrument of their choice or learn to sing to a high standard. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.