A minister has said she is 鈥渇rustrated鈥� with her own government鈥檚 delay at publishing a national survey on behaviour in schools. Since 2023, government has published its annual 鈥榥ational behaviour survey鈥� which gives an insight into the level of disruption in England鈥檚 classrooms. However last year鈥檚 report, due to be published in Spring, has not yet surfaced. Speaking in the House of Lords yesterday, Conservative peer Baroness Penn said the report would be a 鈥渒ey milestone鈥� in reviewing the effect of the previous government鈥檚 mobile phone restrictions. The Conservatives introduced guidance last year which asked schools to ban mobile phones, but they refused to make the advice statutory 鈥� which would have enforced such bans. However, Penn said the previous government planned to 鈥渒eep the approach under review鈥� and 鈥渕ove to introduce statutory guidance if the situation had not improved鈥�. Now in opposition, the Conservatives are pushing for an enforceable ban on phones in schools. While nearly all schools restrict use of mobiles now, the vast majority of secondaries do not ban mobiles altogether on the school site, data suggests. In response to Penn鈥檚 question, skills minister Jacqui Smith said: 鈥淚 share her frustration about when the survey will be published. That is all I can say about it.鈥� The Department for Education said it had nothing further to add to Smith鈥檚 comments. Last year鈥檚 survey, published in April, found schools are losing almost a quarter of lesson time to poor behaviour, as leaders warned of worsening issues and a growing impact on their wellbeing. In May 2023, 76 per cent of teachers reported that misbehaviour 鈥渟topped or interrupted teaching鈥� in at least some lessons in the past week, up from 64 per cent in June 2022. The comments were made in the latest schools bill debate, which is now moving through the House of Lords who are discussing amendments. ‘Time to step up on social media’ Monday鈥檚 session saw an amendment tabled by former academies minister Lord Nash to ban under 16s from accessing social media. Another amendment, from another former academies minister Baroness Barran, was to ban smartphones during the school day. On social media, Nash pointed to many countries already implementing or planning bans. 鈥淲e take children鈥檚 safety seriously in areas such as smoking and alcohol; now is the time to step up to the plate on social media,鈥� he added. But Smith said while there is an 鈥渆normous amount of evidence in this area 鈥� overall, the scientific evidence on the impacts of social media and screen time on children and young people is mixed鈥�. 鈥淭here is no clear scientific consensus on a negative impact from screen time and social media use on the mental health and neurological or functional development of children and young people. ‘No clear consensus’ 鈥淭here is a large amount of discussion in this area whereby correlation is confused with causality, but that brings upon government a responsibility to build the evidence base, which is what we are doing.鈥� She said the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is 鈥渃ommissioning a systematic review to understand the impact of smartphones and social media on children鈥檚 well-being鈥�. Government is also 鈥渕onitoring and learning from wider developments internationally” and policy will 鈥渞emain agile in light of this emerging evidence base鈥�, she added. But Nash said the response 鈥渟ounds to me like statisticians wanting 100 years of evidence before they say the case is proven. The time is now. How much more evidence do we need? How much more damage do we need to see before we act?鈥�