Question follow-through · 82085

Children: Corporal Punishment

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to section 58 of the Children Act 2004, if she will take legislative steps to remove the defence of reasonable punishment for parents.

answeredDepartment for Education

About this written question

A written question asks a government minister for information in writing. Parliament publishes the question and any answer.

Answering body
Department for Education
Tabled
14 Oct 2025
Target answer date
16 Oct 2025
Answer
4 Nov 2025 · 21 calendar days after tabling

Elapsed calendar days describe the record timeline, not whether Parliament considers an answer on time.

Votes on this topic

These Commons divisions share a topic label. The question did not necessarily lead to a vote.

Recorded timeline

  1. 14 Oct 2025

    Question tabled

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to section 58 of the Children Act 2004, if she will take legislative steps to remove the defence of reasonable punishment for parents.

  2. 16 Oct 2025

    Target answer date

    Date supplied by the official written-questions record.

  3. 4 Nov 2025

    Answer published

    The landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, a key part of the government’s Plan for Change, represents the most transformative piece of child protection legislation in a generation, including wholesale reform of the children’s social care system a...

Open official record

Official data retrieved 28 Sept 2026.

Later records

Possible follow-up questions

Strong links require the same MP, department and exact heading. Other same-department questions are shown as unreviewed candidates, not as confirmed follow-ups. No debate link is asserted unless a stable source relationship exists.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Finance

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support academies with multimillion-pound deficits.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Schools: Finance

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools that have had to (a) reduce subjects, (b) rely on non-specialist teaching staff and (c) remove extracurricular opportunities due to funding shortfalls.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Schools: Finance

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to (a) ring-fence and (b) increase funding for school infrastructure where buildings are assessed as structurally unsound.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Pay

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of executive pay in academy trusts where schools (a) are in financial deficit and (b) have made frontline staff redundancies.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Pay

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has a process for (a) reviewing and (b) approving executive pay rises in multi-academy trusts.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Pay

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues to academy trusts on executive pay.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Finance and Leadership

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure accountability in (a) financial management and (b) strategic leadership in academy trusts.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Training

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that trustees of academy trusts receive the (a) training and (b) support they need to provide effective oversight.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Finance and Leadership

15 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve transparency in the (a) governance, (b) financial decision-making and (c) scrutiny of leadership in academy trusts.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Children: Food Poverty

10 Nov 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to end child hunger in Devon.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Curriculum and Staff

15 Dec 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the relationship between academy trust executive pay levels and reductions in curriculum offer or staffing.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Academies: Pay

15 Dec 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What benchmarks her Department uses to assess whether academy trust executive pay represents value for money when trusts are making redundancies.