theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Ms Stella Creasy:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out the the routes to British citizenship open to people who secure indefinite leave to remain having arrived in the UK by an irregular route after the 10 February 2025; and what estimate she has made of the cost of applying for naturalisation to this process. \p Seema Malhotra: An individual can apply for British citizenship if they believe they meet the requirements. Those wishing to naturalise will need to meet the statutory requirements set out in the British Nationality Act 1981, including to be of good character. Applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but a person who has entered the UK on irregular routes will not normally meet the good character requirement.

Details of fees for immigration and nationality applications, including the estimated unit costs, can be reviewed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-fees-transparency-data.
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Jade Botterill:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on routes into the creative sector for young people in West Yorkshire. \p Chris Bryant: The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) works closely with the Department for Education (DfE) on skills policy affecting the creative sector. This includes understanding routes into the sector for young people across the country, such as apprenticeships. As part of the DfE’s work on Growth and Skills Levy reform, new shorter apprenticeships will be available from August 2025 (subject to the legislative timetable) as a first step towards a more flexible levy.

In West Yorkshire in particular, Bradford and Kirklees have been priority areas for the Creative Careers Programme, which is designed to raise young people’s awareness of creative careers and pathways into them by providing specialist advice and information. By providing £3 million to expand the programme, DCMS will continue to boost opportunities and support for young people from backgrounds that are under-represented in the creative sector.

The Secretary of State visited Bradford in September last year for the programme launch of UK City of Culture 2025, which included speaking to members of the Bradford 2025 Youth Panel. Bradford 2025's work with young people, including an apprenticeship scheme, is encouraging the next generation of creatives with 6,000 training opportunities expected across the district. Arts Council England also provides funding to a range of organisations in West Yorkshire that supports the creative education provision for its children and young people, including In Harmony Opera North and Northern Ballet, which offer pathways into music and dance.

At the Creative Industries Growth Summit in January, the Secretary of State announced West Yorkshire as a priority region for the Creative Industries, and one of six Mayoral Combined Authorities to receive additional funding to be approved as part of the upcoming Spending Review.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings she has had with (a) the Church of England, (b) the Roman Catholic Church and (c) representatives of non-conformist churches in the last six months. \p Chris Bryant: Details of ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
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Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the planned changes to the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme on listed places of worship in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire. \p Chris Bryant: The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was established to provide grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed places of worship. 94% of applications have been under £25,000, and most claims are for under £5,000.

A total of 7 claims have been paid out to Listed Places of Worship located in the Fylde parliamentary constituency, totalling £68,994.54, since August 2022.

A total of 388 claims have been paid out to Listed Places of Worship located in the county of Lancashire, totalling £1,492,163.66, since August 2022.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish her Department's equality impact assessment in relation to changes to the Listed Places of Worship Scheme. \p Chris Bryant: We do not have any plans to publish an equality impact assessment in relation to changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to the Listed Places of Worship Scheme on the (a) restoration and (b) preservation of historic buildings. \p Chris Bryant: The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was established to provide grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed places of worship. Based on past claims we estimate that 94% of applications will not be affected by the £25,000 cap.
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Dr Al Pinkerton:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school measures to tackle (a) threatening behaviour and (b) bullying via smartphones in Surrey Heath constituency. \p Stephen Morgan: ​All schools are required, by law, to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents.

In addition, the government’s ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance supports schools on how to develop, implement and maintain a policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones throughout the school day including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime. Headteachers are responsible for implementation of guidance within their schools.

Whilst the department has not directly assessed these measures in Surrey Health constituency, the department’s National Behaviour Survey (NBS) reports can be used to monitor national perceptions of behaviour in schools over time. These can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-behaviour-survey-reports. The NBS asks panels of pupils, parents, school leaders and teachers about their perceptions on a range of topics relating to pupil behaviour, including frequency, impacts and bullying, and responses to misbehaviour.
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Alex McIntyre:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to identify children who are educated outside of school in Gloucester constituency. \p Stephen Morgan: The Children Not in School measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will place a duty on local authorities, including Gloucester, to maintain compulsory registers of all children not in school in their areas, and accompanying duties on parents and out-of-school education providers to provide information for these registers. This will support local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas, including children who are home educated, and to take action if they are not receiving a safe or suitable education.

The department is also continuing to work with local authorities to collect information from existing voluntary registers of children not in school. The department’s termly elective home education data collection is now mandatory for local authorities to submit a return, ensuring a more accurate national picture of home educated children. The department’s ‘Elective home education’ guidance for local authorities and parents includes advice for how local authorities should identify children not in school in their areas.
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James Naish:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of steps to help local authorities to reduce SEND-related travel costs. \p Catherine McKinnell: I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Rushcliffe to the answer of 27 December 2024 to Question HL3510.
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Manuela Perteghella:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on the introduction of a Natural History GCSE. \p Catherine McKinnell: I refer the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon to the answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18517.
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Jayne Kirkham:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of changing school registration forms to enable teachers to identify children born prematurely who are more at risk of special educational needs. \p Catherine McKinnell: The government does not require schools to request information from parents about whether their child was born prematurely. It does, however, expect them to put the right support in place for each child, taking account of their individual needs and schools may wish to seek this information in order to do so.
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Afzal Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to make (a) blood, (b) plasma, (c) platelet, (d) organ, (e) stem cell and (f) tissue donation a mandatory part of the curriculum for primary and secondary school children. \p Catherine McKinnell: The teaching of blood, tissue and organs is covered in the biology national curriculum at key stage 3, so is taught to pupils aged 11 to 14. While organ donation is not specifically mentioned, schools may choose to cover it here.

At primary level, schools can talk about blood and organ donation more generally, in an age-appropriate way, as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which includes content on physical health and mental wellbeing. Blood and organ donation can be covered in more detail in secondary RSHE, within the context of healthy lifestyles and the choices that individuals make in adulthood.

The Oak National Academy, an arm's length public body responsible for creating free curriculum resources, has produced a lesson that can be taught to pupils between the ages of 7 and 11 (key stage 2). This includes a section on organs, the transplant waiting list and the relevant legislation.

The department is currently reviewing the statutory RSHE curriculum, which includes considering whether any additional content is needed. Separately, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will consider how RSHE fits into the wider curriculum.
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Steve Darling:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will pause the safety valve scheme until it's review is published. \p Catherine McKinnell: Over time, 38 local authorities have been supported to manage their high needs budgets through the Safety Valve programme. We will continue to work with local authorities with Safety Valve agreements to deliver their plans, and to provide the additional funding support set out in those agreements where plans are being delivered. The department has already said that it will not enter into any more Safety Valve agreements, pending wider reform of the whole system to prioritise early intervention, properly supporting councils to bring their finances under control.
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Mrs Sureena Brackenridge:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on the Growth and Skills Levy. \p Janet Daby: The department’s levy-funded growth and skills offer, with apprenticeships at the heart, will deliver greater flexibility for learners and employers in England, aligned with our industrial strategy creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries. As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors.

Three trailblazers in the key priority sectors of green energy, healthcare and film/TV production will be among the first to pioneer, and benefit from, the flexibilities that new shorter duration apprenticeships offer. These will support more people to gain high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country.

The department is working across government on these plans including working closely with the Department for Business and Trade; and in December, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade hosted a joint CEO Broadcast with businesses to discuss the levy-funded growth and skills offer.
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Perran Moon:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the future level of skills needed to attract and train young people in the responsible extraction and recycling of critical minerals in the UK. \p Janet Daby: In February, the Critical Minerals Association, in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade, will host a workshop focusing on the challenges and opportunities in developing skills for critical mineral domestic midstream and recycling capabilities. The workshop will bring together stakeholders from across the UK critical minerals value chain to identify actionable recommendations for how the government can best support skills and development.

Skills England refers to critical minerals in its September 2024 report ‘Driving growth and widening opportunities’, where it highlights the need for physical scientists and engineers to support the UK’s clean energy sectors. In the report, Skills England also commits to providing an authoritative assessment of skills needs, gathering insights from sector stakeholders including employers, sector-owning departments, and unions. This will inform priorities for technical education funding and decision-making. In November, Skills England undertook extensive engagement with over 700 stakeholders including employers in manufacturing and clean energy industries.

There is a range of skills products which help meet the skills needs of critical minerals industries, including apprenticeships and higher education courses. These include, for instance, degree apprenticeships in mine management and geoscience, as well as the level 2 material processing plant operator apprenticeship, which can be used for mining activities. The Camborne School of Mining also offers the UK’s only Bachelor of Engineering in mining engineering.
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Alex McIntyre:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with local authorities to help (a) recruit and (b) retain foster carers in Gloucester constituency. \p Janet Daby: The government is committed to working in partnership with local authorities to recruit and retain foster carers.

This currently includes delivering 10 regional fostering recruitment and retention hubs, covering 64% of local authorities in England, including Gloucester. The hubs will transform the way people who are interested in fostering are supported, and will rollout a retention programme, Mockingbird, which offers peer-support to foster carers and the children in their care.

An additional £15 million was announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 to move towards national roll out in the 2025/26 financial year. In Gloucester, this is being delivered as part of the ‘Fostering South West’ Recruitment Hub, which launched in 2024 and comprises of 15 neighbouring local authorities including Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council, Bristol City Council, Cornwall Council, Devon County Council, Dorset Council, Gloucestershire County Council, Council of the Isles of Scilly, North Somerset Council, Plymouth City Council, Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council, Swindon Borough Council, Torbay Council and Wiltshire Council.

The government is also committed to ensuring that every child in care grows up with the love, care and support they need to achieve and thrive. All foster carers receive the National Minimum Allowance to cover the costs of looking after the children in their care. In the 2025/26 financial year, this is being uplifted by 3.55%.
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Dr Luke Evans:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2025 to Question 22689 on Carers: Social Security Benefits, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Kinship Allowance Trial on investment in kinship care; and when she plans to announce details on the process for selecting local authorities for that trial. \p Janet Daby: As previously mentioned, the government has recently announced a £40 million package to trial a new kinship allowance. The pilot will begin in 2025, and the department will evaluate the pilot to build an evidence base on how best to deliver financial support for kinship families.

The department will share further details on the process for selecting local authorities in due course.

The department’s ambition is that all kinship carers will get the support they need to care for their children. It is important that we first build the evidence base to find out how best to deliver financial support for kinship families. Decisions about future national rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation.
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Alex McIntyre:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support kinship carers in Gloucester constituency. \p Janet Daby: The government recognises the important role that kinship carers play in caring for some of the most vulnerable children. Kinship carers often take on this role at a time when they were least expecting to raise a family, and the department recognises the challenges they face.

The government is extending the delivery of over 140 peer support groups across England, available for all kinship carers to access, where they can come together to share stories, exchange advice and support each other.

Following on from the progress and positive impact from the peer-to-peer support groups have made, the department is also delivering a package of training and support that all kinship carers across England can access if they wish to.

In October 2024, the department published new Kinship Care statutory guidance for local authorities, which sets out the support and services local authorities should provide to kinship families, including reaffirming the requirement to publish their local offer of support in a clear, accessible way.

Through the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced £40 million to trial a new Kinship Allowance in some local authorities in England. We will test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of caring for a child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends. ​​We will share further details and the process for selecting local authorities in due course.​

The department understands the unique challenges kinship carers face and is committed to providing the necessary support.
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Mike Martin:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the value was of the Education and Skills Funding Agency Adult Education Budget allocated to Kent County Council in the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 financial year; and what the allocation will be in the 2025-26 financial year. \p Janet Daby: The Education and Skills Funding Agency awards adult education budget allocations on an annual basis. Allocations are based on an academic year rather than a financial year.

Allocations that span the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years have been published on GOV.UK.

‘Funding allocations to training providers: 2023 to 2024’ can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2023-to-2024.

‘Funding allocations to training providers: 2024 to 2025’ can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2024-to-2025.

Allocations for the 2025/26 academic year have not yet been finalised. The department expects to confirm these shortly.
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Jess Brown-Fuller:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will undertake a review of the maintained nursery school supplementary funding formula. \p Stephen Morgan: Additional supplementary funding is provided to local authorities for maintained nursery schools (MNS) in their areas. In the 2025/26 financial year, the initial budget for MNS supplementary funding is £92.6 million, subject to final budget update. The national average hourly rate for MNS supplementary funding in financial year 2025/26 is £5.90, the minimum supplementary funding rate is £5.27 and the cap on the hourly rate is £10.

Changes to the MNS supplementary funding formula were made in the 2023/24 financial year including an additional £10 million investment and an introduction of a minimum hourly funding rate to distribute funding evenly across all local authorities with MNS. At present, there are no plans to review the formula beyond this.
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Robbie Moore:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandatory registration on the Ofsted register for nannies. \p Stephen Morgan: Early years providers required to register with Ofsted on the Early Years Register, or with an early years childminder agency (CMA) are under a legal duty to comply with the early years foundation stage (EYFS), which includes learning and development requirements, and the quality of their provision is regulated by Ofsted or their CMA.

All other early years providers who are not required to register with Ofsted or a CMA, including nannies, do not have the same legal requirements. They are not required to implement the EYFS or provide any form of education and are not regulated or inspected by Ofsted against the EYFS, even if they choose to register on the voluntary part of Ofsted’s General Childcare Register, which they may do in order to bring them within the scope of government schemes such as Tax-Free Childcare. This enables parents for whom they are working to make use of government support.

The services that nannies provide are subject to a private arrangement with parents, and there are no plans to alter this by requiring nannies to register. However, the department is in contact with the National Nanny Association who campaign on this issue, and we continue to discuss with them matters affecting nannies and those who use them.
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Sarah Hall:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of repeat missing incidents amongst children. \p Janet Daby: The government takes the issue of missing children extremely seriously. The existing statutory guidance, ‘Children who run away or go missing from home of care’, outlines what local authorities and their partners must do to prevent and protect missing children.

For example, it mandates that local authorities must offer an independent return home interview to all children who go missing from home or care.

The department is updating its guidance on Child Sexual Exploitation, including how this affects children who go missing. We are investing over £500 million in the national rollout of the families first partnership programme which will implement family help and multi-agency child protection to ensure children have the right support at the right time, including those who go missing.
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Laura Trott:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to refer the proposed new Brighton and Hove City Council school admissions policy to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. \p Catherine McKinnell: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had discussions with Brighton and Hove City Council on its proposed new school admissions policy.

When changes are proposed to admission arrangements, paragraphs 1.45 – 1.48 of the school admissions code require admission authorities to consult for at least six weeks with relevant parties. Brighton and Hove City Council held their consultation between 6 December 2024 to 31 January 2025. The council are then required to determine (agree) the final admission arrangements by 28 February 2025. Once the council have determined their admission arrangements they must publish a copy of the determined admission arrangements on their website by 15 March 2025.

Once the admission arrangements have been determined anyone who considers them to be unfair may raise an objection to the Schools Adjudicator. Objections to admission arrangements must be referred to the Adjudicator by 15 May 2025.

The Adjudicator’s role is to consider whether the admission arrangements and consultation comply with the school admissions code and admissions law.

The Adjudicator can only act on an objection that they have received through the correct channels. Information on how to object to an admission authority’s admission arrangements can be found on the Office of the Schools Adjudicator’s website, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-admissions-arrangements.

As Brighton and Hove City Council’s admission arrangements have not yet been determined, an objection cannot be raised.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure young performers are (a) not (i) overworked and (ii) financially abused and (b) otherwise safeguarded in the context of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. \p Stephen Morgan: The existing legislation on child performance is already sufficient. Under S37 of the Children and Young Persons Act (1963), a licence must be obtained before children can take part in certain types of performance, both professional and amateur, and in paid sport and modelling.

The licensing system is administered by local authorities. A licence will only be granted by the local authority once it is assured that the child’s education, health, and wellbeing will not suffer, and the conditions of the licence will be observed.

The current system provides a check that those responsible for such activities make suitable arrangements to safeguard the children involved and that any potential risks are mitigated. The needs of children, their wellbeing and education are paramount. Indeed, producers and organisers have a responsibility to ensure that each child is kept safe and that their education does not suffer.

All schools can grant leaves of absence for pupils to participate in a regulated performance (paid or unpaid) during school hours. Schools maintained by a local authority and special schools not maintained by a local authority can only do so in the following circumstances, under regulation 11(2) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024:

On each occasion that schools take the attendance register they must record whether each registered pupil is physically present in school or, if not, the reason they are not in school by using the appropriate national attendance and absence codes from regulation 10 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024.

The Children (Performances and Activities) (England) Regulations 2014 set out details of what safeguards must be in place to ensure that children do not perform excessively, limits are placed on performance duration, and requirements for breaks are set out, as well as ensuring that children do not also work on days that they are performing. They also set out arrangements for tutoring should they be absent from school to ensure that their education does not suffer. Requirements for chaperones, travel, changing, and accommodation arrangements are also defined. The premises for any performance must also be approved by the local authority.

These regulations are vital to children performing in a safe environment whilst ensuring that their education and wellbeing does not suffer.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is also strengthening child employment legislation, giving greater opportunities for meaningful suitable employment to children, whilst ensuring it does not have a negative impact on their health, development, and education.
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Ian Byrne:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a UK-EU youth mobility scheme. \p Nick Thomas-Symonds: The Government set out clear priorities for the reset with the EU in the manifesto. There are no plans for a Youth Mobility Scheme.
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Paula Barker:To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of social media algorithms on recent trends in the level of misogynistic content targeted at (a) boys and (b) young men. \p Feryal Clark: The Online Safety Act (OSA) places safety duties on in-scope user-to-user and search services. Services must employ age-appropriate measures to protect children from legal abusive and hateful misogynistic content. Additionally, the largest services (category 1) will need to remove misogynistic content where it is prohibited in their terms of service.

Ofcom is the independent regulator for online safety and its draft codes include steps regarding algorithm design and operation. Ofcom will keep its codes under review.
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Ayoub Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to ensure people with lived experience of (a) self harm and (b) suicide are involved in the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023. \p Feryal Clark: The government engages regularly with social media and search services and is clear that they should be taking action now to make their services safe for users.

Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide and self-harm content, and children from legal content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide and self-harm.

The government are committed to continuing to engage with those with lived experience and keeping online safety policy under review and will take whatever steps are needed to protect the public.
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Ayoub Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when the Small but Risky taskforce will meet; and how the group will tackle the risk posed by dangerous online platforms. \p Feryal Clark: In September 2024, a public exchange of letters between the Secretary of State and Ofcom’s CEO outlined information about the taskforce: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/about-ofcom/public-correspondence/2024/letter-from-dame-melanie-dawes-to-the-secretary-of-state-11-september-2024.pdf?v=380026. The taskforce is a dedicated supervision team within Ofcom which is developing and delivering a workplan, focusing on high priority themes (such as terror, hate and offences against women and girls) on small but risky services. Such services will be regulated by the illegal content and child safety duties of the Act. If there is evidence of non-compliance Ofcom will undertake enforcement action.
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UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_174

Ayoub Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to increase awareness of the provisions of the Online Safety Act 2023 to help tackle suicide and self-harm content on smaller online platforms. \p Feryal Clark: The Online Safety Act will require in-scope user-to-user and search services – regardless of their size or reach – to prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide and self-harm content, and children from legal content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide and self-harm.

In September 2024, the Secretary of State wrote to Ofcom to ask them about their plans to regulate ‘small but risky’ services. Ofcom have set up a designated taskforce to supervise these services. Ofcom will undertake enforcement action against these services if they do not comply with the Act’s duties. Ofcom also has a programme of outreach work to help services understand their new duties.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_175
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_175

Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) accessibility and (b) maintenance of rural roads. \p Lilian Greenwood: This Government takes the accessibility and condition of both rural and urban roads very seriously and is determined to help local authorities tackle the maintenance backlog that results from years of underinvestment by the previous Government.

The Government has announced a highway maintenance funding uplift of £500 million for the 2025/26 financial year to help local authorities in rural and urban areas to carry out their highway maintenance responsibilities. Dorset County Council is set to receive over £25 million, an increase of over 35% from the current financial year. It is up to each authority to decide how much of this it spends on its rural roads, based on local needs and priorities.

The Department also provides Integrated Transport Block funding to local authorities to allow them to carry out accessibility and other improvements to roads in rural and urban areas and hopes to confirm 2025/26 allocations shortly. Active Travel England has also recently announced active travel funding allocations to authorities for 2024/25 and 2025/26 which will allow them to improve the accessibility of footways in both rural and urban areas, and Dorset will receive around £1 million of this funding.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_176
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_176

Sir John Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what purposes the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months. \p Lilian Greenwood: In the last 12 months, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has trialled the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot across Microsoft productivity tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams).

DVSA’s Digital, Data and Technology colleagues are also trialling GitHub copilot. DVSA is exploring this in conjunction with Government Digital Service Engineering Excellence. The trial is due to complete on 28 February 2025 and DVSA will provide feedback to the government’s Chief Technology Officer Council.

DVSA has also used artificial intelligence (AI) for the following purposes:
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_177
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_177

Dr Al Pinkerton:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support Surrey residents affected by the delayed roadworks at Junction 10 on the M25 motorway. \p Lilian Greenwood: The Department understands the concerns residents may have due to the delays of the M25 Junction 10. National Highways is focused on completing these works as soon as possible and will do everything possible to keep disruption to a minimum. The A245 is a key east-west route in Surrey, carrying heavy traffic between the A3/M25, Cobham, and key locations such as Feltonfleet school. Any work on this route is inherently disruptive, but efforts have been made to reduce the impact. National Highways has reduced the number of weekend closures, cutting the original 16 full weekend closures for the M25 and A3 down to five for the M25 and four for the A3, avoiding seven closures in total. This approach helps to minimise overall network disruption. Additionally, overnight working and close traffic monitoring are in place to reduce congestion and swiftly address any incidents. Where traffic management is necessary, National Highways uses extensive CCTV monitoring to swiftly address incidents. National Highways remains committed to ongoing engagement with key stakeholders and will continue to share plans for the remaining works.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_178
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_178

Ben Goldsborough:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the rural road network. \p Lilian Greenwood: The Government takes the condition of both rural and urban roads very seriously and is determined to help local authorities tackle the maintenance backlog that results from years of underinvestment by the previous Government. The Department for Transport has allocated Norfolk County Council over £56 million for the 2025/26 financial year to help it carry out its highway maintenance responsibilities, an increase of over 36%. It is up to Norfolk County Council to decide how much of this it spends on its rural roads, based on local needs and priorities, but the additional funding should allow it to deliver real improvements in both rural and urban areas.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_179
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_179

Manuela Perteghella:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of graduated driving licences on levels of deaths of young drivers. \p Lilian Greenwood: Whilst we are not considering Graduated Driving Licences, the Government treats road safety with the utmost seriousness, and we are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads, and we are considering measures and their potential impacts to tackle the root causes of this without unfairly penalising young drivers.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_180
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_180

Steve Witherden:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure (a) awareness and (b) compliance with Rule 215 of The Highway Code. \p Lilian Greenwood: The Government's flagship road safety campaign, THINK!, aims to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads. The THINK! Campaign plays an important role in raising awareness of, and encouraging compliance with, new road safety legislation. This has included changes made to The Highway Code in 2022, which aimed to improve road safety for people walking, cycling and horse riding – including advice on safely passing horse riders in Rule 215.

Over £2.4 million has been spent on media to raise awareness of and encourage compliance with the changes, utilising channels such as radio, digital audio, video on demand and social media advertising.

Enforcement of the law is a matter for the police who will decide on the evidence of each individual case, whether an offence has been committed and the appropriate action to take.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_181
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_181

Bell Ribeiro-Addy:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department holds data on the (a) number of cases of child sexual assault brought forward at family court in the last five years and (b) proportion of those cases (i) upheld and (ii) dismissed. \p Alex Davies-Jones: Sexual offences, including child sexual assault, are heard in the criminal courts. In some cases, the family courts will hear allegations of sexual abuse in public and private law cases but while this information would be recorded in case files it is not centrally recorded.

In order to provide this information, the Ministry of Justice would need to examine multiple individual case files. In 2023 for example (the last full year for which data is available) over 66,000 public and private law cases started in the family courts which involved over 104,000 children.(1)

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data concerning defendants dealt with at criminal courts by detailed offence codes as part of the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly series. The “outcome by offences” tool allows users to select offence descriptions as set out in legislation and the latest data is available to June 2024 - Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2024 - GOV.UK.

(1) Family_Court_Tables__Jul-Sep_2024_.ods
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_182
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_182

Michael Wheeler:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (a) how many people received awards and (b) what the value of those awards were in (i) Salford and (ii) Wigan in each of the last five years. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The table below provides the number of compensation awards paid in each of the last five calendar years to applicants living in Salford, and the value of those awards.

Salford

Calendar Year

Number of awards paid

Total value of those awards

2020

35

£194,060

2021

18

£108,830

2022

42

£332,287

2023

33

£565,719

2024

41

£296,010

The table below provides the number of compensation awards paid in each of the last five calendar years to applicants living in Wigan, and the value of those awards.

Wigan

Calendar Year

Number of awards paid

Total value of those awards

2020

81

£604,141

2021

51

£440,578

2022

53

£459,049

2023

68

£833,057

2024

65

£1,105,245

*The tables do not include archived bereavement applications because the address of the applicant is not retained. In most cases, applications are archived three years after the case has been closed.

**The above tables include all awards where the applicant named Wigan or Salford as the town in their home address in their application.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_183
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_183

Ben Goldsborough:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce overcrowding on the secure estate. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with prisons running at over 99% capacity and on the brink of total collapse. If our prisons overflowed, police would have been unable to make arrests and we would have faced the total breakdown of law and order. We had to take emergency measures in order avoid disaster. Our priority now is to ensure there is enough capacity in the prison estate in the short and longer term.

Our 10-year Prison Capacity strategy published on 11 December sets out plans to deliver 14,000 prison places and maintain the places in our estate to ensure we have sufficient accommodation and explore the acquisition of land should we need to build more prison places.

We have also launched an Independent Sentencing Review, chaired by former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke. The Review’s aim is to ensure we are never again left in a position where we have more prisoners than places available.

The Lord Chancellor also announced a series of measures in October 2024 to manage the pressures on the prison estate until longer term reforms come into effect. This includes reforming our recall practices and an extension of the maximum period offenders can spend on Home Detention Curfew from 6 – 12 months.
wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_184
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-25 conversation_184

Grahame Morris:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of probation officer salaries in the context of the (a) workload and (b) level of stress associated with this role. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: The Probation Service this Government inherited was burdened with a workload which often exceeded what staff should be expected to handle. Probation staff are drawn to the profession because it is a vocation, it is right that we recognise the resilience and dedication of our staff.

To achieve this and support our hardworking probation staff, in October, we brought forward planned increases to pay, impacting the majority of staff by six months enabling access to improved pay earlier than planned.

We shortly intend to engage with Trade Union colleagues about a new pay deal effective April 2025, following the current multi-year deal coming to an end in March 2025.