Votes · March 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 · Amendment

Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Report Stage: New Clause 36: how MPs voted on 17 March 2025

Division 124, 17 March 2025, 20:22. The Commons Votes API gives 159 Ayes, 317 Noes: majority 158 for the Noes.

The question

New Clause 36

Action to promote children’s wellbeing in relation to mobile phones and social media

“(1) Within 12 months of the passing of this Act, the Secretary of State must, for the purposes of promoting the wellbeing of children—

(a) direct the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom (“the UK CMOs”) to prepare and publish advice for parents and carers on the use of smartphones and social media use by children,

(b) publish a plan for research into the impact of use of social media on children’s wellbeing, and

(c) require all schools in England to have a policy that prohibits the use and carrying of certain devices by pupils during the school day.

(2) Any advice published under subsection (1)(a) must have regard to—

(a) the paper published on 7 February 2019 entitled “United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ commentary on 'Screen-based activities and children and young people’s mental health and psychosocial wellbeing: a systematic map of reviews'”, and

(b) any scientific or other developments since the publication of that paper which appear to the UK CMOs to be relevant.

(3) Any policy implemented under subsection (1)(c)—

(a) may provide for exemptions from the policy, or for an alternative policy, for sixth form students, in so far as such exemptions or alternative policies do not negatively impact upon the wider policy;

(b) may provide for exemptions for medical devices;

(c) is to be implemented as the relevant school leader considers appropriate; and

(d) may, where implemented by a boarding school or residential school, include appropriate guidance for the use of certain devices during other periods which their pupils are on school premises, subject to such policies safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in accordance with relevant national standards.

(4) For the purposes of this section—

“certain devices” means mobile phones and other devices which provide similar functionality and whose main purpose is not the support of learning or study;

“the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom” means the Chief Medical Officers for—

(a) England,

(b) Wales,

(c) Scotland, and

(d) Northern Ireland

“the school day” includes all time between the start of the first lesson period and the end of the final lesson period.”—(Laura Trott.)

This new clause would require the Secretary of State to take action to promote children’s wellbeing in relation to mobile phones and social media by commissioning a report from the Chief Medical Officers and requiring schools to ban …

As printed in Hansard before the division.

By party

Conservative MPs cast 92 of the 159 named Aye votes; Labour MPs 312 of the 317 named No votes.

Tellers: Nick Timothy (Conservative, West Suffolk) and Mr Andrew Snowden (Conservative, Fylde) (Ayes); Keir Mather (Labour, Selby) and Martin McCluskey (Labour, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West) (Noes).

How each MP voted

476 named · CSV

Sources

• Bill: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
• Hansard: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
• Commons division 124
• Commons Votes API: division 47244ccd36bdd25f 15 October 2026
• Hansard API: division search b1ab8e1ec9335fbe 15 October 2026
• Hansard API: debate 8a4b0c551cbe92d1 15 October 2026

SHA-256 of each copy read. Open Parliament Licence v3.0

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