Lord Watson of Invergowrie

The Government expects UK businesses to undertake due diligence so that human rights issues are considered in their operations and supply chain relationships, in line with the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This Government will continue to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the UK’s existing measures, alongside the impacts of new tools that are emerging to ensure we can best promote responsible business practices, including in the fashion sector.

Under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, commercial businesses who operate in the UK with a turnover of £36 million or more must make an annual statement on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains.

This government is committed to harnessing the potential of technology to drive high and rising standards in education and deliver our Plan for Change. That includes breaking down the barriers to opportunity for all to ensure no one is left behind.

We will set out our initiatives to tackle the digital divide in due course, and in line with the multi-year spending review, which will conclude in late spring 2025.

The department has no plans to issue guidance under sections 10(8), 10(10) and 12B(4) of the Children Act 2004.

Safeguarding partners (police, health, local authorities) are under a duty to make arrangements to work together and with other partners locally, including education providers and childcare settings, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. These responsibilities are set out in the 2023 statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’. The department will review this guidance regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect evidence, learns from children’s social care reform and aligns with legislative changes.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans for children’s social care reform in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, the department introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

Clause 43 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill proposes a power for my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education to issue a direction to secure the proper performance of a relevant duty or power by the proprietor of an academy trust. A ‘relevant duty’ is defined as ‘any duty, whether or not imposed by or under enactment, to which the proprietor of an academy trust is subject’. This includes the duty, under Section 10(5) of the Children Act 2004, to co-operate with the local authority in making arrangements to promote co-operation with a view to improving the wellbeing of children.

The department has no immediate plans to update regulations under sections 17 and 66 of the Children Act 2004. Safeguarding partners (police, health, local authorities) are under a duty to make arrangements to work together, and with other partners locally, including education providers and childcare settings, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. These responsibilities are set out in the 2023 statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’. The department will review the statutory guidance regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect evidence and learning from children’s social care reform and aligns with legislative changes.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans for children’s social care in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, the department introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

The department has not undertaken a review of the use made by local authorities of their duty under section 10(1) of the Children Act 2004 (Co-operation to improve well-being), or of the response of relevant partners listed under section 10(4)(fa) to (fd).

Evidence is clear that multi-agency and multi-disciplinary support is essential to keep children safe at home with their family. The department is therefore testing stronger multi-agency approaches to support families, through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder and Family Networks Pilot. This will help families overcome challenges, stay together and thrive whilst keeping children safe. This includes establishing new multi-agency child protection teams and lead child protection practitioners.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, we introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

There were almost 8,500 schools and colleges participating in the mental health support team programme in 2023/24, which equates to 34% of the schools and colleges in England.

Assuming the average number of schools or colleges and pupils or learners per mental health support team remains constant, we estimate that coverage would increase to 54% of pupils or learners and 42% of schools or colleges by March 2025.

An interim report, titled Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme: a rapid mixed-methods study, was published in June 2023 and highlights the impacts of mental health support teams on improving pupil mental health and improving teacher mental health. A copy of the report is attached.

Data regarding the latest coverage of the mental health support team programme is routinely collected and published by the Department for Education.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. We need to ensure that any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers. This includes considering the role of existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as mental health support teams in schools and colleges.

This government is committed to tackling modern slavery, ensuring that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible are prosecuted. We recognise the valuable role that digital tools can play in supporting businesses to assess and manage this risk.

We encourage industry-led innovation to identify and manage modern slavery risks and comply with the reporting requirements under S54 of the Modern Slavery Act. The Tech Against Trafficking workstream under the Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking is an excellent example of this, where businesses have put competition aside to work together on digital tools to help eradicate modern slavery.

Under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, commercial businesses who operate in the UK and have a turnover of £36m or more must report annually on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. The Home Office published statutory guidance in 2015 to support businesses to draft high quality modern slavery statements and we are currently working with a diverse group of stakeholders to update this.

We encourage businesses to upload their modern slavery statements to the online modern slavery statement registry. This is a powerful tool for transparency, bringing together modern slavery statements into one place on GOV.UK. The registry now hosts over 16,400 modern slavery statements and over the last year there have been an average of 22,500 public searches for the registry every month. We are currently developing a public facing data dashboard that will support businesses and members of the public to analyse the data held on the registry in more detail.

To commemorate this historic milestone, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Fighting with Pride held events for both Serving personnel and veterans over the weekend of 12 January and have plans to host more throughout 2025.

During the weekend of 12 January, the design for the LGBT+ Armed Forces Community Memorial was announced at an evening reception. The RAF Church St Clement Danes held a service of commemoration to mark the 25^th anniversary and an evening reception with Ministers and all three Service Chiefs was held. Additionally, the pride flag was proudly flown from MOD Main Building throughout the weekend.

Throughout the rest of 2025 all three Services have planned 25^th Anniversary Dinners; Defence and veterans will be participating in various Pride events; and the official unveiling of the LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial at the National Arboretum will be marked by an event.