Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential impact of the take-up of AI on adult education requirements.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ministers in DSIT and DfE are working closely together to ensure adult education keeps pace with the rapid take-up of AI.
As AI is increasingly adopted across the workplace, this will create a high demand for workers to have the skills to deploy AI. This will require adult education and upskilling to evolve for the AI age, which is why we’re jointly reviewing AI skills needs, expanding lifelong learning, and rolling out new scholarships and traineeships so adults can upskill and reskill for the jobs AI is creating.
DSIT has also formed a partnership with 11 major technology companies and leading UK businesses to upskill 7.5 million workers in AI by 2030. This will ensure that UK workers benefit from the transformational impact AI will have in the workplace, including those working for small businesses and in all parts of the country.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to ensure that children and young people in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme, b) Staffordshire and c) England learn about farming, agriculture and food at school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Food education is covered primarily within Design and Technology, and elements of food education, farming and agriculture can also be covered across Biology, Geography and RSHE in the national curriculum.
The curriculum requires that pupils learn about healthy eating, where food comes from, nutrition and sustainability. Schools also have flexibility within the broad framework of the national curriculum to tailor curriculum subjects to meet the needs of their pupils.
Additional resources are available from Oak National Academy, who have recently developed a new cooking and nutrition curriculum package. This has been designed by experts to give access to practical, engaging lessons covering food preparation, cooking techniques, and healthy eating.
In the recent response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the department set out that it will be ensuring that the programmes of study for cooking and nutrition, which will be renamed food and nutrition, are more specific and prepare pupils for life and potential future careers in the food sector.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current levels of funding for music education in schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the national curriculum schools are expected to fund the delivery of music teaching from their schools budget. The government has committed to putting education back at the forefront of national life, with school funding increasing by £3.7 billion in financial year 2025/26, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
The government also invests £76 million per year through the Music Hubs grant, including this academic year. This supports 43 Music Hub partnerships across England to offer a range of services to schools, including musical instrument tuition and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access, the government is also investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology.
We intend to establish the National Centre for Arts and Music Education by September 2026, and the funding will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding is planned for National Centre for Arts and Music Education beyond March 2026.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the national curriculum schools are expected to fund the delivery of music teaching from their schools budget. The government has committed to putting education back at the forefront of national life, with school funding increasing by £3.7 billion in financial year 2025/26, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion, compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
The government also invests £76 million per year through the Music Hubs grant, including this academic year. This supports 43 Music Hub partnerships across England to offer a range of services to schools, including musical instrument tuition and whole-class ensemble teaching. To widen access, the government is also investing £25 million in capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology.
We intend to establish the National Centre for Arts and Music Education by September 2026, and the funding will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of espionage have been identified in British universities since 2015, broken down by (a) year, and (b) nationality of identified suspects.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The National Security Act 2023 provides the security services and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to deter, detect, and disrupt state threats including new espionage offences. The Government is committed to transparency on the operation of these new powers and is considering a recommendation made by Jonathan Hall KC, in his first annual report as Independent Reviewer of State Threats Legislation, calling for publication of official statistics on use of state threat powers. The Government will respond formally to this recommendation in due course.
The Government supports the Higher Education sector in managing security risks through the Research Collaboration Advice Team, and the NPSA and NCSC’s Trusted Research and Secure Innovation guidance. The UK also has a comprehensive package of legislative and regulatory measures in place – including the Academic Technology Approvals Scheme, Export Controls and the National Security and Investment Act.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with her Chinese counterpart on (a) student numbers and (b) research funding in the UK higher education sector.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had discussions with a Chinese counterpart on student numbers in UK higher education (HE). Policy for HE research funding for England is the responsibility of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). UK Research and Innovation, which falls under DSIT's remit, is the biggest public funder of research.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve accessibility to higher education for people with progressive neurological conditions such as Friedreich’s ataxia.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ensuring that all students are supported to both access higher education (HE) and to thrive while they are there. For example, in our recent Skills White Paper we committed to significantly increasing the take-up of the Adjustment Planner. This allows all individuals to go through the support that they think would be right for them and discuss this with the people they are studying with.
It also remains the case that HE providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for all their disabled students.
Wherever possible, disabled students should expect to have their needs met through inclusive learning practices and individual reasonable adjustments made by their provider.
In addition to reasonable adjustments, the Disabled Students’ Allowance is available for the provision of more specialist support. For students with progressive neurological conditions, such as Friedreich’s ataxia, this may include assistive technology.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that pupils in rural schools have equal access to AI learning opportunities.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department is committed to leveraging technology to benefit all schools, including those in rural areas.
We are addressing barriers by connecting schools to fibre through the School Gigabit Programme and improving wireless networks through Connect the Classroom, which was expanded this year.
The Plan Technology for Your School service provides tailored support to help schools meet core digital and technology standards by 2030.
Our Generative AI Policy Position supports schools to implement AI safely and effectively.
We have also introduced the Generative AI Product Safety Expectations framework to ensure AI tools meet safeguards, and published online toolkits to help teachers and leaders use AI safely and effectively.
Alongside this, we are investing in our evidence-base via the EdTech Impact Testbed, which will evaluate AI tools’ impact on improving outcomes and reducing workload, so that schools will have confidence in products they select.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what internal discussions her Department has had on the allocation of funding for the mathematical sciences within the 2026-27 Strategic Priorities Grant.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The allocation of funding for mathematical sciences within the 2026-27 Strategic Priorities Grant is the responsibility of the Department for Education (DfE). As such, there has been no specific internal discussion within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on this issue.
For this Academic Year 2025-26, more than two thirds of the £1.3 billion Strategic Priorities Grant budget allocated to providers will support the provision of high-cost subjects, for example medicine, dentistry; science, engineering and technology. DfE is reviewing the high-cost subject funding to ensure that this best aligns with the Government’s Growth Mission and is targeted effectively towards provision that supports the industrial strategy and future skills needs. DfE will issue guidance to the Office for Student (OfS) in due course setting out funding priorities for 2026/27.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the current use of AI in schools.
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 department recognises the transformative potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) use in schools when used safely and effectively. However, we also recognise that evidence is still emerging on GenAI use in schools.
That is why the department collects biennial evidence via the Technology in Schools survey, with our most recent report published on 27 November 2025 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technology-in-schools-survey-report-2024-to-2025.
We also collect more regular evidence via Omnibus Surveys and work closely with the sector and stakeholders to understand how we are pioneering safe and effective adoption of AI in schools. We have published guidance and toolkits for educators, launched the EdTech Evidence Board pilot to build confidence in education technology (EdTech) products, and developed product safety expectations with industry partners. We are also funding innovation through initiatives such as Oak National Academy’s AI lesson planning assistant.
Our approach balances opportunity with risk, prioritising child-centred design, safeguarding, data protection and evidence-based pedagogy.