Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the economic impact of improving access to childcare out of school hours.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The government has introduced free breakfast clubs in all primary schools which are 30 minutes before the school day. So far, the department has delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country.
Following the success of the early adopters, as the first phase of national rollout, we are investing a further £80 million into the programme to fund around 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around 500,000 more children. Parents will gain up to 95 hours back over the academic year, saving up to £450 per year.
Parents can also receive support with costs for childcare, if eligible, through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit childcare, which are UK-wide schemes. The Flexible Support Fund also helps individuals overcome financial barriers to employment and can provide support costs such as childcare, enabling claimants to access opportunities that improve their chances of finding or starting work.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether HPV self-sampling will be less frequently than clinician screening, in the context of uncertainties in relation to the accuracy of the self-sampling test.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The frequency of human papilloma virus (HPV) self-sampling will be the same as the frequency of clinician-led cervical screening. The home kits will only be offered to people who have missed their cervical screening appointment by six months or more. The next stage in the pathway for anyone who tests positive for HPV via self-sampling would be an appointment for a clinician-taken test.
Following the announcement to introduce HPV self-sampling in the National Health Service cervical screening programme for the under-screened population, the NHS has begun planning an in-service evaluation (ISE) of HPV self-sampling in the wider population.
The purpose of the ISE is to ensure that the self-sampling test is acceptable, accurate, and feasible compared with a clinician collected specimen, and to evaluate its impact on cervical screening uptake. The findings of the ISE will inform any future UK National Screening Committee recommendation to ministers to offer self-sampling across the whole population, alongside clinician-led screening.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that companies implementing (a) age-verification and (b) safety requirements use (i) secure and (ii) adequately regulated third-party vendors for data processing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act requires providers to give particular regard to the protection of users’ privacy rights when complying with their new safety duties, including when using age assurance measures. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has a range of criminal and civil enforcement tools at its disposal, including prosecution and substantial monetary penalties for serious breaches of data protection legislation.
Third party vendors must have appropriate technical and security measures in place to protect personal data. Where Ofcom has concerns that providers have not complied with their obligations under data protection law, it may refer the matter to the ICO.