Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of levels of financial literacy in relation to pensions among the UK population.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to supporting people to build their financial literacy.
As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Government announced plans to make financial education compulsory in primary schools in England through a new statutory requirement to teach citizenship, alongside a renewed focus on the subject in secondary schools in the subjects of mathematics and citizenship. The Department for Education will be engaging with sector experts and young people to determine how best to reflect this in the updated curriculum, including appropriate content on pensions and long-term saving. There will be a period of public consultation in 2026 before it is finalised.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s nationally representative Financial Lives Survey gathers insights into the financial behaviour, attitudes and experiences of adults aged 18 and over in the UK. It covers a wide range of topics, including financial capability and detailed information on how people engage with their pensions – such as their awareness, decision-making and approach to saving for retirement. Taken together, these findings provide an indication of financial literacy in the pensions context, although this is not measured as a standalone metric.
Building on these insights, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), an arm’s length body of Government, provides free, impartial financial guidance for consumers to support them at every stage of their financial lives. Its MoneyHelper services – available online, via webchat and over the phone – offers information on a wide range of financial topics, including pensions, along with easy-to-use tools and calculators to support people in managing their finances.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2025 to Question 73667 on Schools: Interpreters and Translation Services, whether her Department monitors how (a) primary and (b) secondary schools spend English as an additional language funding.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates core funding for mainstream schools based on school and pupil characteristics. The English as an additional language (EAL) factor forms part of the NFF, accounting for 1.1% of the funding allocated through the NFF in financial year 2025/26.
The funding that schools receive through the EAL factor forms part of their overall core funding. It is not ringfenced and it is for schools to decide how to spend the funding they receive to meet the needs of their pupils.
A school’s financial position depends on the overall amount of funding they receive, rather than the funding allocated through individual factors in the NFF. The overall core schools budget (CSB) is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025/26, meaning the CSB will total £65.3 billion, compared to almost £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
For the 2025/26 financial year, 18,453 schools have at least one pupil on roll who attracts EAL funding through the NFF. The funding that schools actually receive is dependent on their local authority’s funding formula.
The government remains committed to keeping the school funding system under review to ensure it continues to be fair and responsive to the needs of all schools.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2025 to Question 73667 on Schools: Interpreters and Translation Services, what English as an additional language funding may be used for in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates core funding for mainstream schools based on school and pupil characteristics. The English as an additional language (EAL) factor forms part of the NFF, accounting for 1.1% of the funding allocated through the NFF in financial year 2025/26.
The funding that schools receive through the EAL factor forms part of their overall core funding. It is not ringfenced and it is for schools to decide how to spend the funding they receive to meet the needs of their pupils.
A school’s financial position depends on the overall amount of funding they receive, rather than the funding allocated through individual factors in the NFF. The overall core schools budget (CSB) is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025/26, meaning the CSB will total £65.3 billion, compared to almost £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
For the 2025/26 financial year, 18,453 schools have at least one pupil on roll who attracts EAL funding through the NFF. The funding that schools actually receive is dependent on their local authority’s funding formula.
The government remains committed to keeping the school funding system under review to ensure it continues to be fair and responsive to the needs of all schools.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has been made of trends of junior bank account openings and levels of savings for young people since 2015.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ensuring that individuals have access to appropriate financial services and products is a key Government priority. This is vital for supporting financial resilience and wellbeing and enables people, including young people, to fully participate in the economy.
HM Treasury does not hold data on junior current account openings specifically. However, the Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS) UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing 2020–2030 reports that one in ten 16- to 17-year-olds have no bank account at all. Of those who do have accounts, 30% have never deposited money.
Through the Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Government is working with schools and the Money and Pensions Service to improve young people’s financial capability. As part of this, financial education will become compulsory in primary schools in England through a new statutory requirement to teach citizenship. In 2025–26, MaPS will also pilot its Talk, Learn, Do programme, which helps parents have money conversations with their children. The pilot will run through five family hubs and other organisations that support families in England, with the aim of achieving sustainable scale across the UK.
The Government is also supportive of industry’s efforts to develop age-appropriate products and services for young people.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support is available to schools to tackle the challenges faced by pupils living in poverty, including access to (a) free school meals, (b) mental health services and (c) after-school programmes in the North East.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
We are supporting schools to tackle the challenges faced by pupils in poverty. As part of this support, schools will receive pupil premium funding worth over £3 billion in the 2025/26 financial year to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils.
The removal of the two-child limit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures announced this year, including the expansion of free school meals, which will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament and put £500 back in families’ pockets. Further, we are delivering on our pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children.
We are also providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams (MHSTs). As of April 2025, 57% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in the North East region were covered by an MHST.
The department will also publish an Enrichment Framework, providing advice for schools on delivering a high-quality enrichment offer, including extra-curricular activities after school.
Since September 2024, the department has invested over £180 million in the National Wraparound Programme, which has created over 50,000 additional childcare places.
Support with costs for wraparound childcare is also available for eligible parents through the Tax-Free Childcare and the childcare element of Universal Credit.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the total cost of (a) translations and (b) interpretation services in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in each of the last three years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates core funding to local areas for mainstream schools. The NFF includes an English as an additional language (EAL) factor. Pupils attract this funding to their school if their first language is not English and if they entered the state education system in England in the past three years. The table below shows the total funding allocated through the EAL factor from the 2021/22 to 2025/26 financial years:
Financial Year | Primary EAL funding | Secondary EAL funding | Total EAL funding | EAL funding as a proportion of total NFF funding |
2021/22 | £311 m | £108 m | £420 m | 1.1% |
2022/23 | £307 m | £105 m | £412 m | 1.1% |
2023/24 | £318 m | £116 m | £434 m | 1.0% |
2024/25 | £343 m | £141 m | £484 m | 1.1% |
2025/26 | £365 m | £173 m | £539 m | 1.1% |
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to expand financial education into the primary school curriculum.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43513.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to expand financial education provision to primary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Solihull West and Shirley to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43513.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure the provision of high-quality library services in primary schools in Yeovil constituency by the end of this Parliament.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school.
It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.
The Dormant Assets strategy, published on 2 June 2025, announced that more than £130 million from the Dormant Assets scheme will be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. Some of this will be used to invest in helping to foster a culture of reading for pleasure amongst disadvantaged children and young people in the spaces and places that matter to them, including schools, youth clubs and other settings like early years providers and libraries, through targeted intervention and increased access to reading material.
Additionally, the English Hubs programme is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, and they deliver the Transforming School Reading Cultures programme, as part of the English Hubs continuous professional development offer. For schools in the Yeovil constituency, the local English Hub is Cornerstone Hub.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support the provision of specialist SEND services in mainstream schools in West Dorset constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department know that many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) struggle to find a suitable school placement that is close to their home and meets their needs. The government committed to addressing this by improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs.
Many mainstream settings are already committed to delivering specialist provision locally, including through resourced provision and special educational needs (SEN) units. We are encouraging schools and local authorities to set up more of these provisions to increase capacity in mainstream schools. We will work with the sector to increase capacity and extend best practice across the system, so that every child or young person with SEND can access a suitable school placement.
The department has published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2025/26 financial year. The funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible for children with SEND, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs. Of this funding, Dorset has received £5 million in July. We also continue to work very closely with the local authority and trust leaders on proposals to establish, and expand, high quality resource bases and SEN unit provision.
The department has also invested £22 million in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme. PINS deploys specialists from both health and education workforces in mainstream primary schools. The aim is to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children, including pupils with autism. The PINS programme is being evaluated, and the learning will inform future policy development around how schools support neurodivergent children.
Across the Dorset integrated care board (ICB) footprint, 37 schools took part in PINS in 2024/25 and will continue to receive support to embed their learning over 2025/26. The ICB is in the process of recruiting an additional 30 new schools for 2025/26.