Josh MacAlister

Josh MacAlister

Labour — Whitehaven and Workington

Speaking in the House of Commons on 10 November 2026

Debate

Mobile Phones in Schools

Contribution

I know that the hon. Member has been a keen campaigner on these issues over a number of years. On resources for implementation, as I shared in response to the question from the Chair of the Education Committee, we know that 40% of secondary schools have already implemented, from within their existing budgets, some version of a complete ban during the school day. With the range of options that are available, we are confident that schools will be able to implement this change, but we will engage closely with school leaders over the coming months to ensure that we have a version of this that is effective and can be implemented with the resources that are available. I turn to buses. Payments are an issue in my own constituency, where Stagecoach requires young people to have an app much of the time. It is something we need to look at, and the hon. Lady is absolutely right to highlight it. Setting out the changes now, with the lead-in that we have, means that we can get to work on tackling some of those issues. There are lots of other options for how bus companies can get young people to use their services without insisting on payment through a smartphone. The hon. Lady’s important point on young carers is well made, and I would be very happy to look at that further.

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