Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent progress his Department has made towards publishing the details of the Warm Homes Plan.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are working across Government on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan to cut energy bills for good, we will publish more details soon.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent progress his Department has made towards publishing the details of how funding will be allocated to different schemes under the Warm Homes Plan.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are working across government on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan to cut energy bills for good.
At almost £15 billion, the Warm Homes Plan is the single biggest public investment programme in energy efficiency in UK history. This includes £1.5 billion increased capital in this Budget to support driving forwards with home upgrades.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2025 to Question 87802 on Access to Work Programme, whether his Department has any plans to collect data on employment outcomes for Access to Work customers following reassessments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work is only available to individuals who are in employment. The Department for Work and Pensions does not therefore collect data on employment outcomes for Access to Work applicants, including after reassessments.
In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we consulted on the future of the Access to Work scheme. We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2025 to Question 87803 on Access to Work Programme, whether his Department holds data on the (a) number and (b) proportion of Access to Work applications that have closed in each financial year from 2022-2023 to 2025-26 to date by (i) stage of the claim and (ii) reason for closure.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not close Access to Work applications. Instead, applications may be approved or not approved following assessment. The Department holds data on the number of applications that were not approved at the application outcome stage for each financial year as follows:
This represents a total of 108,314 applications not approved between April 2022 and October 2025, accounting for 28% of all decisions made during that period.
Data on non-approvals is only recorded at the application outcome stage.
The reasons for non-approval include:
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that specialist Citizenship teachers are recruited and retained; and what steps she is taking to extend bursaries to this subject.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is working with the sector to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession across all subjects, including citizenship. As a first step, this government has increased teacher pay by almost 10% over two years.
Our Plan for Change is committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament to ensure sufficient teachers across all subjects. We are making good progress with the workforce has grown by 2,346 on a full-time equivalent basis between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, where it is needed most.
Trainee bursaries are reviewed annually to ensure we are focusing on the subjects most in need. Our commitment of over £200 million for bursaries in 2026/27 follows improved recruitment, with 10% more acceptances to start initial teacher training courses this year compared to last year and the teacher leaver rate falling to 9%, one of the lowest on record. In 2024/25 3,685 teachers taught citizenship.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the exclusion of citizenship from the teacher training bursary list on the (a) recruitment of specialist teachers and (b) ability of schools to deliver high-quality citizenship education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is working with the sector to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession across all subjects, including citizenship. As a first step, this government has increased teacher pay by almost 10% over two years.
Our Plan for Change is committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament to ensure sufficient teachers across all subjects. We are making good progress with the workforce has grown by 2,346 on a full-time equivalent basis between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, where it is needed most.
Trainee bursaries are reviewed annually to ensure we are focusing on the subjects most in need. Our commitment of over £200 million for bursaries in 2026/27 follows improved recruitment, with 10% more acceptances to start initial teacher training courses this year compared to last year and the teacher leaver rate falling to 9%, one of the lowest on record. In 2024/25 3,685 teachers taught citizenship.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new teachers have been recruited since July 2024; and how many of those are citizenship teachers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the school workforce, including the number of teachers in state-funded schools, is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england/2024.
41,736 qualified teachers joined state-funded schools in England for the 2024/25 academic year, the latest date for which data is available. This has been available since 5 June 2025 and, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/3d4415a2-a099-427d-d209-08de2129b4fd..
A breakdown of the above figure by subject taught is not available.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that Ofsted (a) inspections and (b) public reporting properly reflect schools’ statutory obligations to deliver Citizenship education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
These are matters for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to my hon. Friend, the Member for Lewisham North and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that Citizenship is treated on an equal footing with other statutory National Curriculum subjects within Ofsted’s inspection framework.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
These are matters for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to my hon. Friend, the Member for Lewisham North and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the number of Access to Work reassessments conducted in (a) 2022-2023, (b) 2024-2025 and (c) the financial year 2025-26 to date which resulted in (i) a reduction in funding, (ii) an increase in funding and (iii) no change in funding for the individual.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not record the outcomes of Access to Work reassessments in a way that allows for data extraction. This exercise would incur disproportionate cost.
Access to Work has not been substantially changed since its introduction in 1994. There is a strong case for updating the role it plays in making work accessible for disabled people. We recognise that Access to Work is providing a poor experience for some applicants with processing delays affecting employees’ ability to start or continue in employment, and employers’ ability to support them.
In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we consulted on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the scheme so that it helps more disabled people in work. We are reviewing all aspects of Access to Work as we develop plans for reform following the conclusion of the consultation.