Written questions by Irons.

With reference to the Answer of 29 April 2026 to Question 128336, what is the total a) amount and b) proportion of funding that is allocated to support additional needs for school pupils up to the age of 16, including both deprivation factors and the Pupil Premium funding.

Awaiting answer.

How many pupils in year 10 were eligible for free school meals by constituency in 2024-25.

The number of pupils eligible for free school meals is published annually in the Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics accredited official statistics here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The table in the attachment shows the number of pupils in year 10 in England who were eligible for free school meals in the 2024/25 academic year, by parliamentary constituency.

Whether her Department has conducted a comparative analysis of the per-pupil funding allocated to disadvantaged students in (a) Key Stage 4 and (b) 16 to 19 education; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of funding differentials on the attainment of young people from low-income backgrounds.

The national funding formula (NFF) for school pupils up to age 16 reflects additional needs of pupils, including economic disadvantage, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and pupil mobility. In the 2026/27 academic year, £5.6 billion (11.0%) of the NFF has been allocated according to “deprivation” factors reflecting economic disadvantage and £9.2 billion (18.1%) has been allocated for additional needs overall. In addition to funding through the NFF, schools also receive pupil premium funding for disadvantaged pupils.Disadvantage funding for 16 to 19 year-old students is provided linked to students’ economic deprivation and low prior attainment. We also allocate English and maths funding to support students aged 16 to 19 who have not achieved a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and maths. In total, 16 to 19 disadvantage and English and maths funding came to £1 billion in the 2025/26 academic year allocations, or 12% of total programme funding.

Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has had recent discussions with Ofcom on the (a) timetable and (b) resourcing for its work on the role of app stores in children’s access to harmful content.

The Department engages regularly with Ofcom on implementation of the Online Safety Act, including Ofcom’s statutory report on the use of app stores by children due to be published in January 2027. The Government has ensured Ofcom is sufficiently resourced and has agreed a significant uplift to Ofcom’s online safety funding in 2025/26 in recognition of Ofcom’s increased duties as implementation of the Act progresses.The Act allows the Secretary of State to bring app store providers into scope following Ofcom’s report. Our consultation on children’s technology use will also gather evidence on several measures, including strengthened age assurance.

Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to incorporate Ofcom’s findings on the role of app stores in protecting children from harmful content into the Government’s consultation on children’s use of technology; and whether she expects that report to inform any proposed requirements intended to apply consistently across app-based services.

The Department engages regularly with Ofcom on implementation of the Online Safety Act, including Ofcom’s statutory report on the use of app stores by children due to be published in January 2027. The Government has ensured Ofcom is sufficiently resourced and has agreed a significant uplift to Ofcom’s online safety funding in 2025/26 in recognition of Ofcom’s increased duties as implementation of the Act progresses.The Act allows the Secretary of State to bring app store providers into scope following Ofcom’s report. Our consultation on children’s technology use will also gather evidence on several measures, including strengthened age assurance.

Innovation and Technology, what comparative assessment her Department has made of (a) service-by-service age verification and (b) device, app store, or operating system level age assurance, in terms of consistency across services, enforceability and the risk of circumvention.

Ofcom considers age assurance to be highly effective when it meets particular criteria for technical accuracy, robustness, reliability and fairness, and has set out guidance on which methods meet that criteria. Ofcom will publish reports on age assurance and the use of app stores by children by July 2026 and January 2027 respectively.Age assurance under the OSA takes place at platform level. While age assurance at other levels may offer benefits, we must allow time to assess the Act’s effectiveness before introducing further measures. The public consultation on protecting children online will seek views on strengthening age assurance measures.

Media and Sport, what progress she has made on the provision of Young Futures Hubs.

This Government is dedicated to improving the lives of young people; that is why we launched the National Youth Strategy and the Young Futures Hubs programme - to ensure they have safe spaces to go and meaningful things to do. Our eight early adopter areas, which will be operational by March 2026, will allow us to capture best practice before we roll out 50 hubs across the country by 2029. I am working closely with colleagues across departments to ensure we build on collective expertise and deliver a joined-up service for young people.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of local councils in exercising their statutory enforcement powers to protect local waterways from pollution; and whether her Department holds data on enforcement activity by local authorities.

Local authorities do hold limited enforcement responsibilities, primarily through Environmental Health functions, for example, under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 in relation to certain industrial processes, and powers relating to flooding from ordinary watercourses. However, these are distinct from the regulation of water company discharges. Enforcement against pollution from water companies is the responsibility of the Environment Agency, which issues discharge permits, monitors compliance, and takes civil or criminal enforcement action where offences occur. Defra sets the overall legislative and policy framework for this system, including recent reforms under the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, which strengthens the ability of regulators to take faster and tougher action, including new criminal liability for company executives.

Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the average time taken to complete cladding remediation works on residential buildings of approximately 20 to 25 storeys; what evidence underpins an estimated 24-month completion timeframe for such projects; and whether he will publish a percentage breakdown of remediation projects completed within 18 months, within 24 months, and beyond 24 months.

The Department’s data collection is focussed on height thresholds as this is the current determinant of programme eligibility. We expect buildings of 20 to 25 storeys to make up a very small proportion of those requiring remediation. Based on the reported remediation start and completion dates, and storey information provided for the 24 buildings known to be 20 to 25 storeys, which have completed remediation and for which start and end dates have been reported, the average time taken to complete remediation on site is 24 months. The Department does not work to an assumption on the time take to complete remediation of buildings of this height group (20 to 25 storeys) - and does not currently publish information on the time taken to complete remediation.

What progress her Department has made on tackling knife crime.

We have set an ambitious but essential target: to halve knife crime over this decade. We are already seeing results. Knife crime is falling.Since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 8% and knife homicides are down by 27%.We have banned ninja swords and zombie style machetes, we have taken nearly 60,000 knives off our streets and we have established new Young Futures Panels.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the amount of the Housing Benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation cases being less than Local Housing Allowance rates on the quality of temporary accommodation.

DWP pays local authorities a Housing Benefit subsidy for Temporary Accommodation cases. There are restrictions on the amount paid, including a subsidy cap which is the lowest of £500 per week in certain areas of London or £375 elsewhere, 90% of 2011 LHA rates, or the claimant’s Housing Benefit entitlement. These arrangements are designed to incentivise local authorities to ensure Temporary Accommodation is good quality and value for money. We recognise the financial pressures that local authorities are experiencing. This Government has invested £1bn in homelessness and rough sleeping services this year (2025/26), a £316m increase on the previous year. We want to encourage better investment into Temporary Accommodation stock up-front to minimise costs to local authorities and £950m was announced in the latest round of the Local Authority Housing Fund. This coupled with measures to strengthen local authorities’ financial position such as a new £39 billion Affordable Homes Programme and a 10-year rental settlement at Consumer Price Index + 1, will support local authorities in England to increase the supply of good quality Temporary Accommodation and drive down the use of costly bed and breakfasts and hotels. We will continue to work with MHCLG as part of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Inter Ministerial Group.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help support (a) homeless services and (b) supported housing providers with their finances.

The government has increased funding for homelessness services by £233 million in 2025/26 to a total of £1 billion to prevent rises in the number of households in temporary accommodation and to help prevent rough sleeping. This includes £185.6 million through the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant. The allocations for this grant can be found on gov.uk here. The Spending Review provided over £5 billion of new grant funding for local services that communities rely on. This includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement. We also announced a 10-year rent settlement (that will permit increases by up to CPI+1% each year), which will give providers the financial certainty to invest in new and existing homes, and have committed to implement a convergence mechanism as part of the new rent settlement.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the supply of supported housing meets future demand.

At the Spending Review, we announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. The programme will not set numerical targets for particular types of homes other than Social Rent. However, it is designed with the flexibility necessary to support a greater diversity of social and affordable housing supply including supported housing.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 61354 on Personal Independence Payment, if she will set out the methodology used to estimate the number of claimants who would be subject to the benefits cap.

As I made clear in my statement to the House, Hansard, 1 July, col 219, any changes to PIP eligibility will come after a comprehensive review of the benefit, which I am leading, and which will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, so a wide range of views and voices are heard. This review aims to ensure that the PIP assessment is fair and fit for the future. The review is expected to conclude in autumn 2026. For the previous proposals’ impact on the benefit cap, administrative datasets from August 2024 showing the number of households exempt from the benefit cap as a result of PIP receipt were used to estimate the proportion of households that would become affected by the benefit cap if they lost their entitlement to PIP. This was then applied to the estimated volume of PIP claimants that would be affected by the 4-point policy that do not receive the Mobility component of PIP. Implicit in this assumption was that exemptions from the benefit cap are equally likely among those not having a 4-point score as those who have one.

What estimate she has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposed changes to the PIP eligibility criteria on the number of people subject to the benefits cap (a) nationally and (b) in Croydon East constituency.

We estimate that in 2029/30, for those affected by the proposed changes to the PIP eligibility criteria, 1,200 claimants will be also subject to the benefit cap. This estimate assumes that people potentially subject to the benefit cap are no more, and no less, likely than other people affected by the proposed changes to change their behaviour to continue to qualify for PIP and the estimate is subject to revision. Estimates of the volumes of PIP claimants affected by the reform in the future are forecast for England and Wales only and therefore have not been broken down by Parliamentary Constituency or any other geographic area. After accounting for behavioural changes, the OBR predicts that 9 out 10 PIP recipients at the time of policy implementation are expected to be unaffected by the PIP 4-point change in 2029/30. No one will lose access to PIP immediately - and most people will not lose access at all. Our intention is that changes will start to come into effect from November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval. After that date, no one will lose PIP without first being reassessed by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, who assesses individual needs and circumstance. Reassessments happen on average every 3 years. People who continue to receive a PIP mobility component will remain exempt from the benefit cap. We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including ensuring health and care needs are met. We have also announced a wider review of the PIP assessment to make it fair and fit for purpose, which I am leading. We are bringing together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress. Even with these reforms, the overall number of people on PIP and DLA is expected to rise by 750,000 by the end of this parliament and spending will rise from £23bn in 24/25 to £31bn in 29/30.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the level of independence of the National Age Assessment Board.

The introduction of the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) in March 2023, a decision-making body comprising of social workers who can conduct Merton age assessments on behalf of local authorities, offers significant improvements to our processes for assessing age. It aims to create greater consistency in age assessment practices and increase capacity and expertise in the system.We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the NAAB is distinct from the Home Office’s asylum and immigration decision making functions and the two sit under separate management functions. In addition, the information acquired by the NAAB when conducting age assessments is not accessible to asylum and immigration decision making teams, other than the final decision on age.

What steps she is taking to ensure that schools provide (a) children and (b) young people with information on support available for victims of domestic abuse.

‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE), our statutory safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges, is clear that all staff should be aware of and provide support to children and young people who might be victims of domestic abuse. KCSIE provides staff with advice on the signs and impact of domestic abuse, and signposts to support for child victims, including the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, the NSPCC Childline and the Operation Encompass helpline.Through compulsory relationships education, all primary and secondary pupils learn about positive and respectful relationships, and the concepts and laws around sexual harassment and sexual violence.The department is currently reviewing the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) guidance to ensure it enables schools to tackle harmful behaviour, starting in primary. As part of the review, we will consider how content on tackling violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, can be strengthened. We intend to publish final revised RSHE guidance in 2025.

What information her Department holds on the number of assessments undertaken by the National Age Assessment Board that were subject to a legal challenge in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024; and how many and what proportion of those decisions found in favour of the National Age Assessment Board.

The number of age assessments undertaken by the National Age Assessment Board that were subject to a legal challenge was 22 in total (1 in 2023 and 21 in 2024).20 of the 22 age assessments decisions were successfully defended (91%).

Whether she has made a comparative assessment of the cost to the public purse of (a) increasing funding for early interventions and (b) conducting late-stage interventions in children’s social care.

This government recognises that early intervention improves outcomes and reduces overall public spending.In the 2023/24 financial year, local authorities’ gross expenditure on children and young people's services was £14.8 billion, a 12% increase in cash terms from 2022/23. £8.1 billion was spent on looked-after children (LAC), an increase of nearly 16% from 2022/23. More than 50% of this increase owed to growth in residential care spending, which increased by 24% and accounted for 39% of LAC spend.Early intervention has been shown to impact spending on LAC by keeping more families together. An evaluation of the Supporting Families programme highlighted a 32% reduction in the number of LAC over 24 months and estimated that every pound spent on the programme generated £2.28 in benefits.Building on this evidence, the government has provided over £500 million in the 2025/26 financial year for the Families First Partnership programme, rolling out reforms to Family Help, multi-agency child protection, and family group decision making.The government’s investment in 2025/26 is a significant step in our ambition to rebalance the children’s social care system towards early intervention, enable local authorities to move towards financial sustainability, and deliver improved outcomes. The government will set out funding plans for future years in phase 2 of the spending review on 11 June 2025.

If she will take steps to ensure that two-year-olds in Government-funded childcare places receive free school meals in (a) private and (b) school nurseries.

Under current programmes, 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive benefits-based free school meals (FSM). This includes pupils attending a local authority maintained, academy or free school nursery who are entitled to FSM, as long as they are either in full-time education or receive education both before and after lunch, and meet the benefits-based FSM eligibility criteria.As with all government programmes, we will keep our approach to FSM under continued review.