Written questions by Bhatti.

Whether the Department has conducted or plans to conduct an equality impact assessment to examine the impact of universal school meal programmes on pupils with religious dietary requirements.

The government sets out required minimum standards for school food in the school food standards to ensure that children are served healthy, nutritious meals at school. The standards do not specify food requirements in terms of cultural and religious needs.Head teachers, governors and their caterers are best placed to make decisions about their school food policies. We expect schools to act reasonably, providing choices that take account of cultural, religious and special dietary needs, and to work with parents in making appropriate arrangements.The department aims to revise the school food standards and is engaging with stakeholders to ensure they support the work to create the healthiest generation of children in history. As part of this work, the department will complete a full equalities impact assessment, including the consideration of pupils with religious beliefs.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of reductions to exam times on students.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review acknowledged that young people in England sit more hours of exams than their peers in many other countries. As GCSEs are reformed, the department will work closely with Ofqual and exam boards to reduce exam time by 2.5 to 3 hours for the average student. In analysis submitted to the Review, Ofqual considered that a reduction of 10% is feasible with current content levels whilst balancing reliability and effects on teaching and learning. We will ensure that any amendments maintain high standards and protect the integrity and validity of the assessment system.

Whether her Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the reduction in the number of exams on school standards.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review acknowledged that young people in England sit more hours of exams than their peers in many other countries. As GCSEs are reformed, the department will work closely with Ofqual and exam boards to reduce exam time by 2.5 to 3 hours for the average student. In analysis submitted to the Review, Ofqual considered that a reduction of 10% is feasible with current content levels whilst balancing reliability and effects on teaching and learning. We will ensure that any amendments maintain high standards and protect the integrity and validity of the assessment system.

With reference to her Department's publication entitled Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, if she will instruct Ofqual to release the analysis quoted on the impact of reductions to allocated exam times.

This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sir Ian Bauckham, to write to the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East, and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of excluding (a) general practitioners and (b) other frontline medical staff from the covid-19 booster vaccination programme in autumn 2025 on (i) patient safety and (ii) workforce resilience; if he will take steps to amend the eligibility criteria.

The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI has advised that COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, though it can still be unpleasant, with rates of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 having reduced significantly since it first emerged. The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious illness, resulting in hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19. On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-in-2025-and-spring-2026-jcvi-advice/jcvi-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-2025-and-spring-2026On 26 June 2025, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice for autumn 2025, and in line with this, in autumn 2025 a COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over.In line with JCVI advice, frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) and staff working in care homes for older adults are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination under the national programme for autumn 2025. This is following an extensive review by JCVI of the scientific evidence surrounding the impact of vaccination on the transmission of the virus from HSCWs to patients, protection of HSCWs against symptoms of the disease, and staff sickness absences.In the current era of high population immunity to COVID-19, additional COVID-19 doses provide very limited, if any, protection against infection and any subsequent onward transmission of infection. For HSCWs, this means that COVID-19 vaccination likely now has only a very limited impact on patient safety and reducing staff sickness absence. Therefore, the focus of the programme is on those at greatest risk of serious disease and who are, as a consequence, most likely to continue to benefit from vaccination.Any HSCW who is otherwise eligible, because of their age or due to immunosuppression, is encouraged to take up the offer of vaccination.The Government has accepted JCVI’s advice on eligibility for the autumn 2025 COVID-19 vaccination programme and has no plans to review eligibility for this campaign. As for all vaccines, the JCVI keeps the evidence under regular review.

What steps her Department plans to take to assess the adequacy of the accessibility to parents of recent childcare announcements made by her Department.

In 2025/26, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, an additional £2 billion compared to 2024/25, saving eligible families who use their full entitlement £7,500 a year on average. The government will provide an additional £1.6 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26, to continue the expansion of government-funded childcare for working parents.The department has announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life. The first phase of the programme is creating up to 6,000 new nursery places, with schools reporting over 5,000 have been made available in September 2025.The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

Whether her Department plans to provide funding for wraparound childcare after March 2026.

This government is rolling out free breakfast clubs in all primary schools, with £80 million funding available from April 2026 to bring free breakfast clubs to an additional 2,000 schools. It builds on the more than £30 million the department has invested this year to test and learn free breakfast clubs in 750 early adopter schools.In addition, since September last year more than 50,000 new before and after school places have been delivered in schools to help working families, with more expected before March 2026. We are working with local authorities, schools, and childcare providers on the next phase with a focus on sustaining childcare places, expanding provision where there is demand, and strengthening the childcare market overall.

How her Department plans to integrate feedback from schools on the adequacy of funding for the breakfast clubs programme.

We have always been committed to rolling free breakfast clubs out nationally and the test and learn phase was put in place to inform how best to do so.We have been listening to schools and other stakeholders throughout this phase and will continue to work with them to learn from our early adopters and inform national rollout. Further information on national rollout will be announced later in the Autumn term.

How her Department plans to measure the (a) effectiveness and (b) uptake of breakfast clubs; and whether she plans to publish this assessment.

The department is using the findings from the early adopter phase to inform the national roll out of free breakfast clubs. We’re also committed to continuing to learn throughout national roll out and have robust evaluation activity in place, including looking at take up. This will be critical to the programme’s delivery and ensuring that the programme is evidence informed and capable of demonstrating value for money. This will be shared with the public in line with the appropriate government social research guidelines.

What information her Department holds on the number of children who are attending the early adopters breakfast clubs.

The free breakfast clubs early adopter phase has been a huge success, with data showing that over 5 million breakfasts have been served so far. We continue to receive excellent feedback from schools, parents and pupils on the positive impact that the free breakfast clubs are already having. For example, schools are reporting improved punctuality, attendance and behaviour. We want every school, every child, and every family to have the chance of those benefits and that is why we’re committed to rolling out free breakfast clubs in every school with primary age children in England. Following the success of the early adopter phase, we are investing a further £80 million into the programme to onboard approximately 2000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around 500,000 thousand more children.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential cumulative impact of (a) National Insurance contributions and (b) the Employment Rights Act on overall hiring costs for UK businesses.

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy, including on businesses. The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change. As set out in the government’s published impact assessments for the Employment Rights Bill, there are a range of channels through which the measures in the Bill could benefit the economy, as well as potential offsetting effects. Final impacts will depend on further policy decisions that are for secondary legislation.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of National Insurance contributions on small and medium-sized businesses ability to hire new staff.

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy, including on businesses. The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change. The OBR forecast, which accounts for the impacts of employer NICs on the economy, expects that the unemployment rate will fall to 4.1% by the end of 2027 and remaining at that rate for the rest of the forecast. After accounting for impacts of employer NICs, the OBR still expect the employment level to increase from 33.6m in 2024 to 34.8m in 2029.

What steps she is taking to ensure that the Autumn Budget 2025 incentivises businesses to invest in (a) job creation and (b) workforce development.

Economic growth is the central mission of this government, and we recognise that sustainable growth can only be achieved in partnership with businesses and other stakeholders. We are providing long-term stability through clear fiscal rules that give firms the confidence to hire and expand. Through the National Wealth Fund, we are unlocking over £70 billion in private investment and creating jobs across key sectors. We are also advancing structural reforms to drive business-led job creation, including a new modern Industrial Strategy, agreeing new trade deals, reforming the UK planning system, and have launched the Backing Your Business plan, which delivers targeted support for small and medium-sized enterprises. To support workforce development, we are transforming the apprenticeship levy into a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy, enabling employers to fund a wider range of high-quality training, including shorter and foundation apprenticeships and short courses under the Industrial Strategy. Employers are also supported through an NIC exemption for apprentices under 25. However, we cannot comment in advance on Budget measures.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that requirements on agencies to offer guaranteed hours contracts do not reduce flexibility; and if he will consider reforms to allow such contracts to be requested by workers on the basis of hours worked with their agency.

The Government believes agency workers should be able to access a contract which reflects the hours they regularly work. Agency workers who prefer a more flexible arrangement can reject any guaranteed hours offer.It will generally be hirers’ responsibility to offer guaranteed hours to qualifying agency workers, but regulations will be able to transfer the obligation on agencies or other intermediaries in certain scenarios. We will consult to ensure the measures work for agencies, hirers and agency workers.We believe it could create undesirable barriers for agency workers to access guaranteed hours if they had to request guaranteed hours offers.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of expanding Statutory Sick Pay on recruitment agencies; and if he will consider taking steps to (a) enable agencies to recover SSP costs from hirers where workers fall ill during assignments, (b) clarify how Day 1 entitlement applies to agency workers and (c) strengthen HMRC’s role in preventing multiple SSP claims across different agencies.

Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is part of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay. The Government conducted a Regulatory Impact Assessment Here on the impact of the SSP measures in the Employment Rights Bill. Whilst this is not a specific assessment on the impact on recruitment agencies, the Government believes that the SSP measures strike the right balance between providing financial security to employees and limiting additional costs to employers, including agencies. The Bill ensures that people who work through employment agencies and employment businesses have comparable rights and protections to their counterparts who are directly employed. a) We do not intend to make changes to allow agencies to recover SSP costs from end hirers during gaps in assignment. The government believes that employers, including those in the recruitment sector, are best placed to manage sickness absences and ensuring employees receive appropriate support. The removal of the waiting period means all eligible employees will be entitled to SSP from Day 1 of their sickness absence. This includes eligible agency workers. This enables employees to take the time off work they need to recover when sick.b) Strengthening HMRC’s role in preventing multiple SSP claims from one employee would require mandatory reporting from businesses. This would be administratively burdensome, particularly for SMEs.

What assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

The department has made very significant investments into 16-19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in the 2025/26 academic year, up over 5% on last year. We must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities.That is why we have announced that the additional funding previously available for a range of larger 16 to 19 programmes will be focused in future on supporting larger than normal mathematics and high value A level programmes to support the pipeline of students for priority sectors. It remains a choice for institutions as to whether they offer this provision. International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma achievement is included in the 16 to 19 performance tables. There are also newly approved IB Alternative Academic Qualifications that can form part of a diploma, available for delivery from August 2025.

What her Department's policy is on the continued provision of the International Baccalaureate Diploma in state schools.

The department has made very significant investments into 16-19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in the 2025/26 academic year, up over 5% on last year. We must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities.That is why we have announced that the additional funding previously available for a range of larger 16 to 19 programmes will be focused in future on supporting larger than normal mathematics and high value A level programmes to support the pipeline of students for priority sectors. It remains a choice for institutions as to whether they offer this provision. International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma achievement is included in the 16 to 19 performance tables. There are also newly approved IB Alternative Academic Qualifications that can form part of a diploma, available for delivery from August 2025.

Whether her Department plans to reduce funding for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

The department has made very significant investments into 16-19 education funding. The base rate of funding per student has increased to £5,105 in the 2025/26 academic year, up over 5% on last year. We must make this funding work hard, tilting it towards key priorities.That is why we have announced that the additional funding previously available for a range of larger 16 to 19 programmes will be focused in future on supporting larger than normal mathematics and high value A level programmes to support the pipeline of students for priority sectors. It remains a choice for institutions as to whether they offer this provision. International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma achievement is included in the 16 to 19 performance tables. There are also newly approved IB Alternative Academic Qualifications that can form part of a diploma, available for delivery from August 2025.

If he will set out whether all grades of prison officers are required to be politically neutral.

All employees are bound by the Civil Service Code and must serve the Government impartially. The HMPPS Outside Activities Policy requires all employees, including all grades of Prison Officer, to remain politically neutral at all times and they must seek permission to take part in political activities if needed. Employees must not carry out any political activity while on duty, in uniform or on official premises.

What guidance his Department issues to ensure prison officers follow the civil service code.

The requirement to adhere to the Civil Service Code is set out in all HMPPS employee's employment contracts. In HMPPS, these standards are reinforced through the Outside Activities and the Conduct and Discipline policies, which set behavioural expectations and how any breaches are handled.