Asked by: Baroness Curran (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with international partners concerning the ongoing conflict in Myanmar.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Noble Baroness to the answers I provided on 5 February in responses to Questions HL13820 and HL13821. A copy of each response has been provided below for ease:
HL13820: We continue to support the aspirations of the people of Myanmar for a peaceful, democratic future. However, there is little sign that the recent elections will achieve an end to violence, advance dialogue, or address the urgent requirements to allow access for humanitarian assistance and bring an end to human rights violations.
In December 2025, the UK convened the UN Security Council to discuss the Myanmar elections, emphasising ongoing human rights concerns and the humanitarian situation:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/elections-under-the-current-circumstances-in-myanmar-risk-provoking-further-violence-uk-statement-on-myanmar
We have also continued to signal concern over the election conditions, including at the UN Third Committee on Human Rights in November 2025:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-uk-is-concerned-by-the-ongoing-violence-in-myanmar-including-escalating-human-rights-violations-and-increasing-reports-of-sexual-andgender-based
We continue to support ASEAN's leadership on the crisis, including the work of the Special Envoy and the need for full implementation of the Five Point Consensus. In addition, we will continue to use our penholder role to spotlight the Myanmar crisis and raise our concerns with international allies within the UN Security Council and other international fora.
HL13821: Since the coup in Myanmar in February 2021, the UK has provided more than £190 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance, emergency healthcare and education support, and work to support civil society and local communities. In the past year, the UK has supported 1.4 million people with humanitarian assistance and provided essential health services to 1.3 million people. The UK works with local civil society organisations and national NGOs in Myanmar, which can overcome humanitarian access restrictions to reach vulnerable people in conflict-affected areas.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether safeguards will be introduced to help ensure that Individual Support Plans (ISPs) do not become resource‑led documents due to limited specialist provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice sets out that the provision made for pupils with special educational needs should be recorded accurately and kept up to date. As a result, many settings already keep records of the needs and provision required by children or young people with SEND and communicate these with parents.
The department is introducing a duty on settings to produce an individual support plan for every child or young person with SEND, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.
Additional funding through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund will be provided to early years, schools and colleges to boost the existing core funding for SEND, with over £500 million per year over the next three years. This funding, alongside their existing core funding, will help equip settings to invest in high-quality, adaptive teaching, targeted evidence-based support, inclusive pedagogy and decision-making, and create safe, calm and accessible learning environments for all. On 25 March, we published the guidance ‘Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools’, which provides examples and case studies of how settings can use this funding to enhance support for children with SEND. The guidance is available at:
Our proposed reforms go further to support educators, with easier access to expert advice through Experts at Hand and evidence-based tools and resources through the National Inclusion Standards.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the contract for the National school breakfast club programme prohibits the use of ultra-processed cereals and breads; and if she will set out the nutritional and processing specification of that contract.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) is an inherited scheme from the previous government and the contract will end in July 2026. The contract with the supplier Family Action stipulates that all food available for schools to purchase must meet the School Food Standards, which already restrict foods high in fat, salt and sugar, as well as low-quality reformed or reconstituted foods. To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, we are revising the School Food Standards and are engaging with experts across the sector.
This government is committed to delivering a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England. All NSBP schools with primary-aged pupils will have the opportunity to transition onto the free breakfast clubs programme from September 2026. NSBP secondary schools will be provided with continued support at an equivalent value to what they receive on the NSBP for the 2026/7 academic year. Further details for secondary schools will follow shortly.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made representations to the government of Senegal regarding the Senegalese National Assembly’s recent vote to double prison sentences for consensual same-sex intimacy.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The UK is concerned by the Senegalese National Assembly's vote to increase prison sentences for same-sex sexual acts and criminalise the 'promotion' of homosexuality. If enacted, this would further undermine the human rights and freedoms of those perceived as being members or allies of the LGBT+ community in Senegal. His Majesty's Ambassador to Senegal has raised the issue with the Government of Senegal at the highest levels. We will continue to consider our response as the legislative process progresses.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will publish guidance on quality standards for Individual Support Plans to prevent variation between local authorities and ensure consistent support for children nationwide.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
There will be a legal duty on education settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.
The use and quality of ISPs will be considered in Ofsted inspections, with clear routes for parents to raise concerns. Where there are concerns about provision, parents and young people will be able to resolve this directly with the setting, including making use of the improved schools complaints process if necessary. We will seek to strengthen the school complaints system with the inclusion of an appropriate, independent special educational needs and disabilities specialist (for example, a special educational needs coordinator, multi-academy trust inclusion director or senior school manager) on a panel, if the complaint cannot be resolved by the school’s senior management team or head teacher.
The ISP will be tailored in line with the layers of support, with guidance to support education settings in creating high-quality plans. ISPs will be standardised across settings to facilitate transitions. ISPs will be interactive, accessible, and available in a digital format, supporting consistency across the system.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what enforcement mechanisms will apply to ensure full compliance with Individual Support Plan commitments.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
There will be a legal duty on education settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted or specialist support, ensuring help keeps pace with their development, prevents challenges from escalating, and reduces the risk of them disengaging from learning.
The use and quality of ISPs will be considered in Ofsted inspections, with clear routes for parents to raise concerns. Where there are concerns about provision, parents and young people will be able to resolve this directly with the setting, including making use of the improved schools complaints process if necessary. We will seek to strengthen the school complaints system with the inclusion of an appropriate, independent special educational needs and disabilities specialist (for example, a special educational needs coordinator, multi-academy trust inclusion director or senior school manager) on a panel, if the complaint cannot be resolved by the school’s senior management team or head teacher.
The ISP will be tailored in line with the layers of support, with guidance to support education settings in creating high-quality plans. ISPs will be standardised across settings to facilitate transitions. ISPs will be interactive, accessible, and available in a digital format, supporting consistency across the system.
Asked by: Laura Trott (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether school children who have been in a classroom, dining hall, shared areas with someone who now has confirmed meningitis are being offered a)antibiotics b)vaccinations.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Children and young people, including those identified as contacts of cases, can and should continue to attend school or college as normal, including sitting exams and qualifications, unless directly advised otherwise by the local health protection team.
Meningococcal disease does not spread easily, and outbreaks of the size seen in Kent are rare. Transmission of meningococcal disease requires close and prolonged contact to spread, including living in the same household, and intimate contact such as kissing or sharing vapes.
A targeted programme of preventative antibiotics and meningitis B vaccination has been introduced to provide longer-term protection for students and young people in the area. Vaccination has been offered to all those who have received preventative antibiotics, and to year 11, 12 and 13 students in schools and colleges in Kent where confirmed or probable cases have been identified. Widening the vaccine offer is a precautionary measure to ensure longer-term protection whilst helping to minimise disruption to school attendance at a critical time in the academic year.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what a) guidance and b) support does her Department provide to ensure sufficient school transport capacity in rural areas such as West Dorset during periods of high demand.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging home-to-school travel for eligible children. They use a mix of in-house services, passes for free travel on public transport and contracts with private operators and must ensure the arrangements they make are suitable for the needs of the children travelling.
Most local bus services in England outside London are run on a commercial basis where the operator decides on routes and provision, including the frequency of services and the type of vehicle used. The government is committed to improving bus services and has confirmed investment of over £3 billion until 2028/29 for local authorities and bus operators to maintain and improve bus services.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consultation they have undertaken with private companies on investment into nature as part of the Nature Investment Standards Programme.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra sponsors the British Standards Institution’s (BSI) Nature Investment Standards Programme to work with industry to develop a suite of standards to ensure that as they develop, UK nature markets secure positive outcomes for the environment. These standards have been developed using a market-led process with input from market experts, including private companies, and feedback from public consultations.
The standards are designed to drive consistency and integrity across UK nature markets, and Government is putting in place a range of other interventions to stimulate more private investment into nature recovery. At this stage, it has not been possible to attribute specific levels of investment to the standards, so no such assessment has been made. In line with the Magenta book, Defra is evaluating the impact of the standards, including on levels of investment.
On 24 March 2026, following consultations on earlier draft versions, BSI published standards for the Supply of Biodiversity Benefits and the Supply of Nutrient Benefits. These are available, along with all other published standards and those in development, at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-investment-standards/the-bsi-nature-investment-standards (see attached). A draft standard for the Supply of Nature-based Carbon Benefits was published for consultation in summer 2025 and a subsequent version will be published in due course.
Also, in March this year we published a Land Use Framework for England which set a vision for multifunctional land use. To achieve that vision, we recognise that in some circumstances, it may make sense for multiple revenue streams to be combined on the same area of land. We are considering how best to support this vision while maintaining environmental integrity and intend to set out our position later this year as part of the forthcoming response to the recent consultation on Voluntary Carbon and Nature Markets.
Asked by: Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 6 March (HL15294), whether they plan for ministers to be responsible for approving the NHS Payment Scheme after NHS England is abolished; and if so, whether ministers will be consulted about approval of that scheme in the transition period before new legislation is passed by Parliament to transfer that responsibility to ministers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Primary legislation is required to enable the transfer of NHS England’s functions, powers and responsibilities formally to the Department or out to the wider system. Primary legislation is subject to the will of Parliament, and the Government welcomes parliamentary scrutiny of these provisions. The bill will be introduced in Parliament when parliamentary time allows.
Currently, NHS England is responsible for publishing the NHS Payment Scheme, with the relevant legislation set out in schedule 10 of the 2022 Health and Care Act. Under NHS England’s Scheme of Delegation, responsibility for approving the NHS Payment Scheme rests with the Chief Executive Officer of NHS England, delegated to the Chief Financial Officer of NHS England.
During development of the NHS Payment Scheme, NHS England engages with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Department. The 2026/27 NHS Payment Scheme was published on 26 March 2026 and incorporates a number of changes following consultation.