Written questions by Wrigley.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including (a) pupil wellbeing and (b) staff retention data in school performance tables.

The department currently publishes school and college performance data on its compare school and college performance service. This service can be accessed at: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/.The department continues to keep the performance measures published on compare school and college performance under review. We draw on a range of data, including school censuses and Individualised Learner Records, and data submitted directly by Awarding Organisations. We carry out extensive validation and quality assurance checks on the data as well as the resulting performance measures.The department is currently consulting on school accountability reform. This includes a proposal to introduce school profiles, an accessible one-stop shop for information on schools, incorporating new Ofsted report cards but also presenting a range of up-to-date performance data and other information that matters to parents, all in one place. We are inviting views on which information we should include on school profiles, which could include, for example, school workforce information or information about pupil wellbeing. The consultation on school accountability reform is inviting responses until 28 April 2025 and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/school-accountability-reform.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of mandatory SATs on pupil wellbeing and teacher workload; and whether her Department has considered adopting moderated teacher assessments as an alternative.

Key stage 2 assessments are essential to check all pupils’ progress in mastering the basics of reading, writing and mathematics. They are also essential to identify any children who may need extra support and prepare them to achieve and thrive at secondary school. The assessments help teachers identify where pupils need more support in comparison to national expectations. They also allow the department to hold schools to account to ensure they support all pupils, regardless of background or prior attainment, to achieve sufficient progress and attainment, helping secure high and rising standards.It is important that schools encourage their pupils to do their best in the tests, however, the department does not recommend that pupils in primary school devote excessive preparation time for the assessment and not at the expense of their mental health and wellbeing.Our independent Curriculum and Assessment Review panel have been clear that SATs assessments are an important part of assessing children’s progress throughout primary school, and that the system of primary assessment is currently working well. As the Review moves into its second phase, it will consider how to build on effective systems to support the attainment of all children.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure Ofsted inspections place greater emphasis on (a) pupil wellbeing, (b) creative subjects and (c) social development.

In 2024, Ofsted conducted its Big Listen, which was the largest consultation in its history, receiving more than 20,000 responses. It listened to the views of a wide range of parents, teachers, school leaders and others about the impact of inspection and where change was needed. Ofsted published its ‘Big Listen action monitoring report’ in December 2024 to show what progress it has made in responding to feedback from parents, pupils and education staff and an updated report was published earlier this month. It can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/big-listen-action-monitoring-reports.In February 2025, the department and Ofsted launched public consultations on proposals for a better accountability system. Ofsted’s consultation includes proposals for a revised school inspection framework, with the outcomes of inspection presented in a report card. The report card will cover key areas, including the school’s curriculum and pupils’ personal development and wellbeing. Ofsted has proposed a new role of ‘Nominee’, a member of staff who works closely with the inspection team, with the intention of making the inspection event more of a professional dialogue.

Food and Rural Affairs, how long a period of notice was given to stakeholders before the closure of SFI.

To ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand. Whilst we aim to give notice where possible (and we are aware the application service mentioned this intention of 6 weeks’ notice), there was no requirement in the scheme rules for SFI24 for us to give any notice before we closed applications.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that independent schools are subject to the same inspection standards as state-funded schools.

The regulatory regime for private schools, as set out in the 2008 Education and Skills Act, is based on compliance with the independent school standards, and failure can lead to a notice to improve, restrictions being placed on school operations or, following long-term or very serious failures, deregistration which requires closure. Private schools do not receive public funding, so are regulated to ensure that they provide a safe and suitable education as required by the independent school standards, whilst being able to operate as independent private businesses.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to open capital grants in summer 2025.

The Environmental Land Management standalone Capital Grant will re-open in the summer. Other grant schemes, including Higher Tier Capital Grants and Protection and infrastructure grants are open now.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on the new GP contract.

We have made necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise will be implemented in April 2025. Primary care providers, including general practices, are valued independent contractors who provide almost £20 billion worth of services in the National Health Service. Each year, we consult with each sector both about what services they provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract. We are investing an additional £889 million in general practice (GP) to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. We are pleased that the England general practitioners committee of the British Medical Association is supportive of the contract changes.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's new policy on the Sustainable Farming Incentive, whether he has made an assessment of the availability of private funding to deliver public goods for nature.

The Government is committed to significantly increasing private investment in nature’s recovery. This will not only help meet our environmental targets but will also create opportunities for farmers and land managers to diversify their business revenues through the sale of nature services. Nature markets in the UK are small but growing. We will be consulting on what additional action is needed to strengthen these markets in the coming weeks. Alongside this, in the recent Land Use Framework publication, we announced a Call For Evidence which will seek views on how we can better incentivise private investment in nature from sectors who impact and depend upon our shared natural capital. This will be published later this year.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will report on the (a) financial, (b) environmental and (c) social impact of coastal natural capital resources in Devon.

Defra has not undertaken specific regional surveys on coastal natural capital resources and, therefore, does not hold information on the financial, environmental and social impacts specific to Devon. Defra’s £38 million marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme has explored the state of England’s marine and coastal natural capital resources and the environmental, societal, and economic value they hold. It has delivered evidence, tools and guidance to inform place-based and system-wide decision making. The programme completes at the end of March 2025, with data and reports available later this year.

What estimate he has made of levels of funding available to GPs following (a) the new GP contract for 2025-26 and (b) changes to employer National Insurance contributions.

We have made necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise will be implemented in April 2025. Primary care providers, including general practices, are valued independent contractors who provide almost £20 billion worth of services in the National Health Service. Each year, we consult with each sector both about what services they provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract. We are investing an additional £889 million in general practice (GP) to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. We are pleased that the England general practitioners committee of the British Medical Association is supportive of the contract changes.

Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason his Department did not give six weeks’ notice when closing Sustainable Farming Incentive applications.

To ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand. Whilst we aim to give notice where possible (and we are aware the application service mentioned this intention of 6 weeks’ notice), there was no requirement in the scheme rules for SFI24 for us to give any notice before we closed applications.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to protect children against the risks of generative-AI content on small websites.

AI generated content is regulated by the Online Safety Act where it is shared on an in-scope service and constitutes illegal content or content which is harmful to children. Providers who publish pornographic content must protect children from that content, including where it is AI generated.In recognition of the unique risks that small but high-risk platforms pose to users, Ofcom, the online safety regulator, has established a taskforce to tackle these services. The taskforce’s aim is to proactively identify services, focusing on those posing the most severe risks of harm, and ensure compliance with the Act.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will set a target date for reopening the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

We will be reforming the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment. We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.

Innovation and Technology, if he will put a statutory duty on small websites to prevent putting children at risk of (a) sexual extortion, (b) grooming and (c) generating child sexual abuse images.

The Online Safety Act creates new duties on online services to protect users from being harmed by illegal content and activity. The strongest duties are to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation (CSEA) and to stop child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from being shared. The illegal content duties have been in effect from 17 March. Ofcom is the regulator for the regime and has set out steps providers can take including strong automated content moderation measures and anti-grooming measures. Ofcom will continue to develop their codes iteratively, including measures to detect, prevent and remove CSAM.

Food and Rural Affairs, what processes his Department has in place to monitor budgeted agriculture spend.

We monitor forecasts against the current year budget on an ongoing basis and respond accordingly to maximise the amount that can be delivered. We committed to spending £2.6 billion in 24/25 and are on track to deliver that having responded to a number of demands in year. Furthermore, we have a full understanding of commitments into future years arising from multi-annual agreements. We monitor the uptake of our demand led schemes which have a budgetary impact on future years (such as SFI) on a regular basis, increasing the frequency of this as the level of commitment approaches the budget available in future years.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment o strengthening protections from AI-generated CSAM by introducing a statutory duty for all Generative AI developers to (a) complete a risk assessment and (b) mitigate the risks of their products contributing to illegal activity.

AI generated child sexual abuse images are illegal material. It is an offence to produce, store or share any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a real child or not.The Online Safety Act places new duties on companies that provide user-to-user services and search services to prevent CSAM appearing on their services, and to have systems in place to remove it quickly when it does.We also remain committed to introducing targeted rules on companies developing the most powerful AI models to ensure we can realise the benefits of these systems safely.

Innovation and Technology, if he will introduce legislation to put a statutory duty on generative AI developers to (a) complete risk assessments for and (b) mitigate risks of contributing to illegal activity.

We remain committed to introducing targeted rules on companies developing the most powerful AI models to ensure we can realise the benefits of these systems safely.The Central AI Risk Function continues to identify, assess and prepare for risks associated with AI, including the risks of AI contributing to illegal activity.The Online Safety Act also places new duties on companies that provide user-to-user services and search services that will do more to mitigate the risk of illegal content on their services.We will continue to engage with the tech sector to support them in making their technology safer.

Communities and Local Government, if she will list the stated legal reasons her predecessor Department withdrew the private parking code of practice in 2022.

The government recognises the need for high standards in the private parking industry and is committed to delivering a Code of Practice, in accordance with The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019.The previous government introduced the Private Parking Code of Practice in February 2022 but chose to temporarily withdraw the Code following legal challenges brought by the parking industry to review its decisions to cap the levels of parking charges and debt recovery fees.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to return to budget management mechanisms from the Common Agricultural Policy.

No. The farming budget for each financial year is set through Government's Spending Reviews and managed by established in-year mechanisms.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, what support communications he plans to send to impacted farming businesses; and what support communications his Department plans to provide to organisations supporting vulnerable farmers.

A letter from Minister Zeichner was sent to all farm businesses on 12 March advising them of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive to new applications. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will be writing to impacted farm businesses shortly with more information on what this means for them. The RPA teams are also taking calls from concerned farmers, and they will continue to work with farmers on new and extant agreements. The RPA works closely with farming welfare support organisations and will continue to engage with them through existing channels.