First elected: 8th June 2017
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
These initiatives were driven by Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Education and Training (Welfare of Children) Act 2021
Sponsor - Mary Kelly Foy (Lab)
Housing and Homelessness (Local Accommodation Duty) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Karen Buck (Lab)
Aviation Banning Orders (Disruptive Passengers) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Gareth Johnson (Con)
Demonstrations (Abortion Clinics) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Rupa Huq (Lab)
Nuclear Submarine Recycling (Reporting) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Luke Pollard (LAB)
Ground Rents (Leasehold Properties) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Eddie Hughes (Con)
Plastics Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Geraint Davies (Ind)
Social Media Service Providers (Civil Liability and Oversight) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Lord Mann (Lab)
The Office for Equality and Opportunity plans to strengthen protections against workplace sexual harassment through the Employment Rights Bill. These measures intend to amend the Equality Act 2010 to:
● require employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees;
● introduce an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties, and;
● enable regulations to specify steps that are to be regarded as “reasonable”, to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
Prevalence across a range of Violence Against Women and Girls offences, including sexual harassment, is currently measured through the Crime Survey for England and Wales which is run continuously throughout each financial year by the Office for National Statistics, with data published quarterly.
The Government is continuing its work to halve Violence Against Women and Girls in a decade.
This Government is committed to recouping public money lost in pandemic-related fraud. As promised in our manifesto, the Government appointed a Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner, Mr Tom Hayhoe on 3 December. He is expected to engage with both the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Serious Fraud Office.
The CPS continues to bring those who have fraudulently exploited the pandemic to justice. In September 2024, an entrepreneur was sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraudulently securing a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan, which he misused for personal expenses and legal costs.
This Government is committed to halving knife crime in the next decade as set out in our Safer Streets Mission.
From Tuesday 24 September, it will be illegal to own zombie-style knives and machetes as they will be added to the list of dangerous prohibited items already banned, including zombie knives, butterfly knives, Samurai swords, and push daggers. The Government will also legislate to ban ninja swords and strengthen rules to prevent online sales of knives.
The Crown Prosecution Service and National Police Chiefs’ Council also work closely to prevent and tackle knife crime. Guidance setting out their joint approach to knife crime offending can be found here: Offensive Weapons, Knife Crime Practical Guidance | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk).
The Government is considering the Liaison Committee's report and looks forward to discussing it with the incoming Chair once elected.
The Government is considering the Liaison Committee's report and looks forward to discussing it with the incoming Chair once elected.
The definition is detailed in the Functional Standards Common Glossary, which is published on the gov.uk website.
The Cabinet Office is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence (AI) and effective use of data.
The Cabinet Office Data Strategy promotes the use of high quality data and analytics to gain insights that drive decision making and operational effectiveness.
In parallel, we are growing the department’s AI capabilities through the design and application of a range of solutions, including Redbox which is a tool to help staff perform research, drafting and reviewing faster, reducing administrative burdens and improving response times for stakeholders. Other solutions are also in development (e.g. machine learning applications and generative AI) to automate and accelerate routine business operations and policy activity.
We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.
The department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, for expert advice.
We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.
UK product safety regulations require that only safe consumer products be placed on the market. Importers must ensure their products comply with these regulations, including any requirements covering chemicals or banned substances. Distributors have a duty of care to not sell products they know, or should know, are unsafe.
National and local regulators enforce these regulations, including using data and intelligence to target checks on dangerous and non-compliant products entering the UK at the border and sold online.
The Government's Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, introduced to Parliament in September, provides powers to further strengthen the UK's product safety framework.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) works closely with local authorities and investment partners to monitor and support the impact of foreign direct investment in the Berkshire area.
Official statistics at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbt-inward-investment-results-2023-to-2024 show that Foreign Direct Investment projects created 1,270 new jobs in Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in 2021-22, 746 in 2022-23 and 399 in 2023-24.
The definition is detailed in the Functional Standards Common Glossary, which is published on the gov.uk website.
Revitalising our high streets is a priority for this government. The Secretary of State and I are working with MHCLG to engage colleagues across Whitehall in delivering a cross-government approach for creating better conditions for high street businesses to thrive.
This means addressing anti-social behaviour and crime, working with the banking industry to roll out 350 banking hubs, reforming business rates, stamping out late payments, empowering communities to make the most of the vacant properties, strengthening the Post Office network, and upgrading the new apprenticeship levy.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) works closely with local authorities and investment partners to monitor and support the impact of foreign direct investment in the Slough constituency.
Foreign direct investment in the Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area resulted in 33 FDI projects and the creation of 399 new jobs in 2023-24, including both single-site and multi-site projects. While this area covers Slough, specific statistics for the parliamentary constituency are not published due to confidentiality concerns.
This government is committed to supporting businesses and communities that make our high streets, including those in Slough, successful.
This means addressing anti-social behaviour and crime, rolling out banking hubs, stamping out late payments, empowering communities to make the most of the vacant properties, strengthening the Post Office network, reforming the apprenticeship levy, and reforming business rates.
We will also use High Street Rental Auctions, to provide local authorities in England with a tool to tackle vacancy, promote minimum letting standards for commercial units and flexible rents.
Slough council have used UK Shared Prosperity Fund money to establish a new weekly market in Slough high street. Small businesses in Slough also benefit from DBT’s Berkshire Growth Hub funding.
Our Small Business Strategy Command Paper, to be published in 2025, will set out this government’s intentions on supporting small businesses across key areas, including thriving high streets.
The Department for Business and Trade is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and effective use of data.
For example, we are participating in the trial of Microsoft Copilot Pro, making secure AI tools available for staff, and continue to use machine learning in internal and external products and services. Work with the Alan Turing Institute produced a governance framework to manage and monitor AI use.
Staff have access to a range of data services under continual review including CRM, central data catalogue and a data environment with dashboards and data analysis tools along with training packages.
There is a comprehensive legislative framework regulating the manufacture, storage, supply, possession and use of fireworks in the UK. Local Authorities and the Police have a wide range of powers available to them to tackle the misuse of fireworks.
To ensure people continue to use fireworks in a safe and considerate manner I have launched a fireworks campaign for this season to provide guidance on minimising the impacts of fireworks and encouraging responsible use.
To inform any future decisions on the legislative framework, I intend to engage with stakeholders to gather evidence on the issues and impacts of fireworks.
There is a comprehensive legislative framework regulating the manufacture, storage, supply, possession and use of fireworks in the UK. Local Authorities and the Police have a wide range of powers available to them to tackle the misuse of fireworks.
To ensure people continue to use fireworks in a safe and considerate manner I have launched a fireworks campaign for this season to provide guidance on minimising the impacts of fireworks and encouraging responsible use.
To inform any future decisions on the legislative framework, I intend to engage with stakeholders to gather evidence on the issues and impacts of fireworks.
The definition is detailed in the Functional Standards Common Glossary, which is published on the gov.uk website.
Businesses have a vital role to play in the transition to net zero, from decarbonising their own operations, to working across their sectors and supply chains.
Small and medium-sized businesses can visit the UK Business Climate Hub, which is run in partnership with government, for advice and sources of finance or support on reducing emissions.
Climate Change Agreements provide tax discounts for businesses reducing their emissions, and the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund supports industrial sites with high energy use to transition.
DESNZ is committed to improving its productivity, including through the use of artificial intelligence and effective use of data.
All DESNZ staff have access to Copilot for the web, a work-safe generative AI tool that helps summarise and draft text. In addition, as part of a large-scale, cross-government experiment led by the CDDO, around a third of all DESNZ staff have been given a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, which allows them to utilise generative AI within tools such as Word, Excel and Outlook, and can base responses on their own data (documents, emails, and messages). The experiment began on 30 September and runs through to 29 December and will conclude with a report from the CDDO to set out the case for adopting a tool like M365 Copilot in the longer-term.
We are also building our inhouse capability to develop AI tools at DESNZ. For example, our Advanced Analytics team are currently exploring multiple use cases that allow DESNZ staff to retrieve key information needed for their work more efficiently, including information from past impact assessments, lessons learnt logs and statistics from our Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) publications.
DESNZ has an internal adoption of AI working group which leads on supporting the development of departmental use-cases for Artificial Intelligence, as well as the guardrails, rules and playbooks that govern the safe, secure and ethical use of this technology, ensuring alignment to the Central Digital and Data Office’ Generative AI Framework for Government.
DESNZ's Data Strategy and Governance team are currently developing a data strategy for DESNZ that sets out our strategic ambition for how we collect, manage and use data as a Department. This includes time-saving measures around making it easier for DESNZ staff to locate and access data, making it easier for data to be shared across organisational boundaries, reducing the time taken to ingest, process and cleanse it, and introducing standards that make it easier to aggregate and compare across policies and programmes.
We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits.
The definition is detailed in the Functional Standards Common Glossary, which is published on the gov.uk website.
The Government meets regularly with a range of stakeholders related to online safety, including social media platforms, to discuss implementation of the Online Safety Act, and the duties it will place on services to tackle illegal content, and content harmful to children, on their sites.
Ministerial meetings and engagements are published through quarterly transparency reports on gov.uk.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and effective use of data.
We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.
The department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office for expert advice.
We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.
This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we are committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. Over the past three years, Slough has received funding from the Million Hours Fund and via our support for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. These funds create new opportunities for young people to access regular activities, volunteering and adventures away from home.
Our government has also recently announced the co-production of an ambitious new National Youth Strategy, which will be produced together with young people and the youth sector. This Strategy will better coordinate youth services, as well as move away from national, one-size-fits all programmes from government, bringing power back to young people and their communities and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector.
The Strategy will be published next year.
The definition is detailed in the Functional Standards Common Glossary, which is published on the gov.uk website.
Departmental settlements have been set following the Budget announcement on October 30. Individual programmes will now be assessed during the departmental Business Planning process.
DCMS is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and more effective use of data, with projects across our science, analytical and digital functions.
We have a number of initial small-scale AI pilots taking place, to assess potential use cases across the organisation to identify benefits of scaling such tools in the future; for example developing a model to analyse free-text responses to public consultations.
We have also used data analytics to gain insights into spend and outcomes across our sectors and public bodies, helping to better evaluate the effectiveness of our interventions. We are building our data capability to enhance our evidence base, standardise our architecture and infrastructure to expand our ability to use data to generate efficiencies and achieve more impactful outcomes.
We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage.
For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the government data quality framework, the Code of Practice for Statistics and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard. The department also has access to the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), now based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice.
We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. At the Autumn Budget, we announced £1.3 billion of extra funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement for the next financial year.
This Government recognises the vital role that youth services play in improving young people’s life chances and wellbeing. That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed.
Every child should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are, where they are from, or how much their parents earn. Too often opportunity for children and young people is defined by their background.
That is why this government is committed to breaking the link between a child’s background and their future success. The Opportunity Mission will set every child up for the best start in life, help every child to achieve and thrive at school, build skills for opportunity and growth, and build family security, tackling the underlying barriers to opportunity that hold too many children and young people back. The Plan for Change sets out more details on our priorities for the Opportunity Mission: https://www.gov.uk/missions.
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.
On 23 October 2024 the government published ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy’, which sets out how the government will develop the Strategy, which will harness all available levers to deliver a reduction in child poverty this parliament as part of an ambitious ten year strategy. The report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support, especially in the early years.
This government will also, at last, commence the socio-economic duty in Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. The duty will require public bodies, when making strategic decisions, to actively consider how their decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage. We will be updating Parliament on this in due course.
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence which is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons.
The department has a national approach to supporting all schools to tackle absence, including those in the Slough constituency. Central to this approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, encouraging schools, trusts and local authorities to work with families in addressing attendance barriers.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why the department has set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, who have offered support to 2000 schools and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance.
In addition to this work, the department also aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
From early 2025, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will support all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice across areas, including attendance, and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another. For schools requiring more intensive support, RISE teams and supporting organisations will work collaboratively with their responsible body to agree bespoke packages of targeted support, based on a school’s particular circumstances.
School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs, across all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also initiate new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance and off-rolling.
We are working across government on plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.
Data published in May this year showed that, in Slough local authority, 42% of schools and colleges worked with a Mental Health Support Team in March 2024 compared to 34% nationally, and 78% of schools and colleges had signed up for a senior mental health lead training grant, compared to 74% nationally.
Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.
The department publishes statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey (LFS) for young people aged 16 to 24. The statistics are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.
The number of 16 to 24-year-olds estimated as NEET in England at the end of 2023 is estimated to be 709,600 (11.9% of the population). However, these estimates are only published at national level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16 to 24 in Slough cannot be provided.
However, local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. This data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures. The data shows that of the 4,435 young people aged 16 and 17 years old who were known to Slough local authority at the end of 2022 (average of December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023), 217 were NEET or their activity was not known (117 known to be NEET and 100 young people for whom the local authority could not confirm their activity). These statistics are published as transparency data so some caution should be taken if using these figures.
The new government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child.
The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty and widening attainment gaps between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers. Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty by tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring 2025. The taskforce will consider a range of policies in assessing what will have the greatest impact in driving down rates of child poverty.
A formal assessment has not been made of the number of children living in relative poverty who are eligible to receive FSM. As with all policies, the government keeps the approach to FSM under review.
Today, 4.3 million children are living in poverty in this country. Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.
To support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils, pupil premium funding in the 2024/25 financial year has increased to over £2.9 billion. Pupil premium funding is allocated to eligible schools based on the number of pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM) or have been recorded as eligible in the past six years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM), as well as children who are looked after by the local authority or have been adopted from or left care. In line with the pupil premium Menu of Approaches, schools can spend their pupil premium on evidence-based strategies to support attendance.
This government will ensure school is the best place to be for every child, with free breakfast clubs in primary schools so that every child is on time and ready to learn, better mental health support through access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, and inclusion for children with special educational needs and disabilities within mainstream settings right across the age range.
Backed by £15 million, the department is also expanding its investment into attendance mentoring to reach 10,000 more children and cover an additional ten areas. These attendance mentors will provide one-to-one targeted support for persistently and severely absent pupils.
There is an absence epidemic in this country, with one in five children persistently absent. The department’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ statutory guidance sets a clear expectations that where pupils face additional barriers which affect their attendance, schools should work with these families and put support in place to help them to attend. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf. Where the barriers are outside of the school’s control, all local partners should work together to support pupils and parents to access support to ensure regular attendance.
The government is committed to promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and skills to ensure the UK remains competitive in the global economy.
Universities operate as autonomous institutions, therefore specific data on the number of university biology, chemistry and physics departments that have opened and/or closed in the last five years is not collected or maintained by the department.
The government recognises the financial environment of the higher education sector is increasingly challenging and the department is aware that some providers are making difficult decisions in order to safeguard their financial sustainability. The department is committed to working with the sector to create a secure future for our world-leading universities.
The government has recently announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance in up to 10 local authorities to test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of supporting the child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends. Further details on the process for selecting local authorities will be shared shortly.
The programme will begin in 2025 and decisions about future national rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation. We will share further detail on the timetable and delivery of the programme in due course.
Information on the school workforce, including the pupil to adult and pupil to teacher ratios at national, regional, local authority and individual school level, is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
In the 2023/24 academic year, which is the latest data available, the ratio of pupils to teachers (qualified and unqualified) was 16.8 in state-funded secondary schools in England, the same as the previous year. The ratio of pupils to adults (excluding auxiliary staff) was 12.0 to one in state-funded secondary schools in England, again the same as the previous year.
The attached table provides the pupil to adult ratio and the pupil to teacher ratio for state-funded secondary schools in Slough constituency and England for the 2015/16 to 2023/24 academic years.
I refer the hon. Member for Slough to the answer of 11 November 2024 to Question 12804.
The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children.
The government recently announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance in up to ten local authorities to test whether paying an allowance to cover certain costs, such as supporting a child to settle into a new home with relatives, can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends.
This is the single biggest kinship care investment made by government to date. This investment could transform the lives of vulnerable children who can no longer live at home.
The programme will begin in 2025 and decisions about future national rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation. The department will share further detail on the timetable and delivery of the programme in due course.
The department is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence (AI) and effective use of data.
For example, a Microsoft Azure Open AI sandbox environment has been enabled to limited groups of users within the department, allowing them to build and test AI models based on specific use cases in a safe and secure environment. This has allowed the department to safely and securely test 12 use cases ahead of a launch into production and wider rollout to our workforce. If testing goes well, newly-developed technologies are expected to be rolled out to staff from December 2024. We believe these will be amongst the first bespoke generative AI tools launched in government and will allow the department to deliver its services to the public at a faster pace and lower cost.
The department is also mid-way through the migration of its analysts to the new Analytical Data Access service, giving analysts and policy teams a single point of access to key departmental data. This data is fully governed, secure and discoverable using the latest cloud technology tools. This is significantly improving the speed and reliability of the department’s data to better inform holistic policy and funding considerations, and support scenario planning. It also provides a secure environment for utilising AI and large language models, where both lawful and ethical.
The department draws on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform its AI and data usage, for example, the Generative AI Framework and the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework. We also work closely with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to widen access to the data we are responsible for via the existing ONS Secure Research Service, and are also partnering with the ONS to support development and integration of department data into the new Integrated Data Service.
The department also has access to the Central Digital and Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice. We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.
On 11 October 2024, the department announced an additional £15 million to expand the attendance mentoring programme to at least 10,000 pupils across ten new areas.
Mentoring support is expected to begin in April 2025. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-pupils-receive-support-to-boost-school-attendance--2.
Poor mental health in children and young people is a significant contributing factor in school absence, and a key barrier to opportunity and learning, that the government is committed to addressing.
To tackle mental ill-health among children and young people, the government has committed to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. We need to ensure any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers which is why we are exploring a range of options. This includes existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.
This is in addition to activity to support schools and local authorities to tackle the school absence challenge, which includes setting clear expectations for schools, trusts and local authorities to provide a ‘support first’ approach to attendance. Departmental guidance can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
The department is also piloting attendance mentors, offering 1:1 targeted support to 10,000 persistently absent pupils and their families across 15 local authorities to identify and address barriers to education.
Tackling school absence is at the heart of the department’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity. However, 20.7% of children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons, and we recognise that supporting parents, guardians and children is vitally important in overcoming this.
This is why the department has published the ’Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which became statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, setting clear expectations that schools and local authorities should work with families to address barriers to attendance in a sensitive way. To support parents, we have published a parent-facing version of the guidance and have worked with schools to strengthen communications to parents around attendance.
In addition, backed by £15 million, the government is expanding attendance mentoring to reach 10,000 more children and cover an additional ten areas. This is alongside the commitment to roll out funded breakfast clubs to all primary schools to ensure all children are ready to learn.
Mental health support is particularly important for enabling pupils to attend. The department has provided grants for all schools to train a senior mental health lead. We are also committed to delivering access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.
Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.
Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.
The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.
The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.
In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.
Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.
Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.
The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.
The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.
In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.
Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.
Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.
The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.
The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.
In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.
Simpler Recycling in England will reform the recycling system. Across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, whether at home, work or school, putting an end to the confusion over what can and cannot be recycled in different parts of the country.
Local Authorities are best placed to determine the effective delivery of local services. We want to provide the framework in which they do this and ensure that there is consistency in what is collected.
UK Government remains committed to a mandatory labelling regime as part of the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic. This will make it easier for consumers to understand how to recycle packaging correctly, and ultimately for the scheme to deliver its environmental outcomes.
The Government is committed to reducing the impact of flooding on vulnerable communities and has established a Floods Resilience Taskforce to help achieve this. The Government is aware of the University of Hull and Humberside Fire and Rescue Service proposal for a National Flood Resilience Centre. The Government recognises the importance of both research and training and will consider the proposal for a National Flood Resilience Centre through the work of the Taskforce.
Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) are actively engaged in partnership working with local resilience partners, including the emergency services, local authorities, specialist military units and other supporting organisations to provide resilience flooding in England. Defra and the EA carry out joint exercising and share learning to with partner organisations through the resilience forums, whilst also attending joint emergency service training for the response to all types of environmental emergencies, not just flooding.
Simpler Recycling in England will reform the recycling system. Across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, whether at home, work or school, putting an end to the confusion over what can and cannot be recycled in different parts of the country.
We recognise that local circumstances differ across the country, and so we are making sure that councils and other waste collectors have flexibility where appropriate to make the best local choices. On 29 November we confirmed that local authorities and other waste collectors will not be required to collect waste in seven separate streams and will be able to co-collect some streams by default.
Local authorities currently fund the collection and management of household packaging waste through locally raised revenues and funding from central government. Under packaging extended producer responsibility (pEPR), the efficient costs of managing and recycling packaging waste will transfer to businesses who make and use packaging.
We have already provided £258 million of capital funding and will also be covering transitional resource costs and ongoing service costs.