Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of extending free school milk provision to all children until the end of the Reception year.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 23 June 2026 to Question 9524.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 30 June 2026, to Question 13237, on Department for Transport: Public Relations, how much spending has there been on these contracts since July 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The value of all contracts referred to in the answer to 13237 are published on Contracts Finder - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search (contracts above £12,000 - including VAT and £25,000 in the wider public sector) and/or Find a Tender - Find a Tender.
ORR currently holds contracts with Field Consulting, the spend on these contracts since July 2024 would be £9000.
From July 2024 to 31 May 2026, National Highways spent £280,921 on its technical professional services’ public affairs contract.
Transport Focus have a Public Affairs monitoring contract with Randall’s Monitoring Ltd. They have spent £6,210 excluding VAT on this.
Network Rail holds a contract for stakeholder engagement services with Lexington Communications. The contract was awarded in September 2021. Spend on this contract amounts to £423,439.93 since July 2024. Network Rail also spent a total of £143,480 with Yonder. . A total of £33,660 has been spent on the Future Governance Forum project since July 2024.
HS2 Ltd identified 2 live contracts which fall into the scope of Public Affairs spending. From July 2024 to 30 April 2026, HS2 Ltd has spent £71,100 on live contracts.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether guidance is issued to schools on assessing the eligibility of pupils to wear kirpans on school premises.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Headteachers have my full support in ensuring schools are safe. Schools are advised by the department that decisions on uniform need to consider their individual circumstances, taking into account both religious freedom and pupil safety.
It should be possible for most religious requirements to be met within a uniform policy and many schools have arrangements in place to allow the wearing of kirpans alongside sensible safeguards, for example limiting their size and requiring them to be sheathed and further enclosed in a securely fastened cushioned pouch.
The department’s advice for schools on developing school uniform policies is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform/school-uniforms. The government keeps all its guidance under regular review.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's guidance permits schools to make participation in school events, trips, and extracurricular activities conditional on achieving a minimum attendance rate.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s guidance does not prescribe how school attendance rewards and incentives are applied. Decisions about their operation are generally matters for individual schools, reflecting their circumstances and the needs of their pupils.
Where schools choose to link attendance to access to particular activities, we would expect them to do so carefully, proportionately and without discrimination. They should consider reward systems that are inclusive and appropriate for all pupils including those with disabilities or long-term health conditions.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many MP surgeries Ministers in her Department have had with MPs (a) in the period July 2024 to January 2025 and (b) since January 2025.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Ministers of the department held 28 MP surgeries in the period July 2024 to January 2025, and 229 MP surgeries since January 2025.
Asked by: Lord Bridges of Headley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect on the UK's national resilience of replacing the centrally powered Public Switched Telephone Network with Digital Voice services which depend upon electricity and broadband equipment within individual premises; and whether they have undertaken any comparative assessment of the resilience of the two systems in the event of a prolonged nationwide power outage arising from a hostile cyber attack or other major civil emergency.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks from the industry-led migration of the analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to digital Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for everyone across the UK. VoIP technology is more resilient, more secure, enables better quality phone calls, and can be used to block scam calls. Over 92% of PSTN landlines have already been migrated.
Communications providers are under legal obligations to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services, including 999 and 112, and to take appropriate and proportionate steps to identify risks to network resilience and mitigate service disruption.
In November 2024, the Government secured additional safeguards from the telecoms industry. These include the provision of free battery back-ups for vulnerable and landline dependent customers to ensure access to emergency services beyond one hour in a power outage. Many providers have gone further, providing 4-7 hours.
Communications providers are also subject to robust cyber security and resilience requirements under the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, including obligations to identify, manage and mitigate cyber risks that could affect network availability and services.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many authorised firearms officers were employed by each police force in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes annual statistics on the total number of armed officers and operationally deployable armed officers (which excludes absences) in England and Wales in the “Police use of firearms statistics” publication. The latest data, covering the year ending 31 March 2026, can be accessed on GOV.UK (at the following link):
Police use of firearms statistics, April 2025 to March 2026 - GOV.UK
Data on the number of operationally deployable armed officers, by police force area, for the last 10 years are available in the accompanying open data tables at the link above. Data on the total number of firearms officers are available at the link above from 2021/22 and by police force area from 2022/23 only. Data on total armed officers were not collected prior to 2021/22.
Asked by: Lord Bridges of Headley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the closure of private schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
School closures can be influenced by a range of factors, not just the VAT policy. While VAT may have compounded pressure, school closures cannot be attributed to VAT alone. Factors such as school performance, financial viability and demographic shifts also play a role. In the 2025/26 academic year, more private schools opened than closed. The department monitors the private school sector via the ‘Get Information about Schools’ (GIAS) system, which shows that between 1 September 2025 and 31 July 2026, 108 private schools opened and 51 closed.
Asked by: Lord Reay (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any funding provided to the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance will be provided in the form of loans rather than grants; and, if so, what the terms of the loans will be.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has contributed £15.3 million to the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance since November 2022. This year, this Government announced an additional £2.2 million. All contributions are made in the form of grants.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 2 July 2026 to question 13207, if he will publish a breakdown of the i) spending in Purchase of goods/services - Hosting and ii) spending in Purchase of goods/services - Social Care for a) 2023-24 and b) 2024-25.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please see attached breakdown of spend for ‘Purchase of goods/services – Hosting’ and ‘Purchase of good and service - Social care’.