theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Sir John Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to meet the demand for specialist SEND school places in Lincolnshire. \p Catherine McKinnell: The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.

This government knows that many children and young people with SEND struggle to find a suitable school placement that is close to their home and meets their needs. We are committed to addressing this by improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools to support a range of needs, reducing the need for pupils to travel a long way to access a specialist placement, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs. Many mainstream settings are already going above and beyond to deliver specialist provision locally, including through resourced provision and special educational needs units.

The department has now published allocations for £740 million in high needs provision capital allocations for the 2025/26 financial year, to support local authorities to deliver new specialist places.

Lincolnshire Council has been allocated £10.3 million for 2025/26, and it is up to the local authority to make decisions about the places they create and to prioritise this funding to meet local needs.
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Laura Trott:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the guidance on gender-questioning children for schools. \p Catherine McKinnell: I refer the hon. Member for Sevenoaks to the answer of 28 February 2025 to Question 31690.
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Mark Pritchard:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill on faith communities. \p Catherine McKinnell: The department has published its Equalities Impact Assessment for all measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, setting out impacts across protected characteristics including religion or belief. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.
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Rachael Maskell:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were made under match funding arrangements to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund for (a) specialist assessments and (b) therapeutic support in each financial year since 2015; and what the (i) total and (ii) average value was of those applications. \p Janet Daby: The attached table provides the information requested.

Please note that the fair access limit (FAL) and match funding arrangements were introduced in October 2016. The separate FAL for specialist assessments was introduced in April 2017. However, match funding records were not captured by the department’s systems until July 2018. Because of this, prior data on match funding has been excluded.

Applications may cover funding for more than one child. Hence, average values may not align with the FAL for individual children. In addition, some applications which include match funding also fund continuation of therapy where a previous application has been submitted at below the FAL level, but then a small amount is required to top-up the therapy provided. These small top-up applications are match funded, but small in value, and therefore fall below the £5,000 average. This will also affect the average costs.

Applications made to ASGSF  (xlsx, 31.4KB)
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Rachael Maskell:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on its contract with Mott Macdonald to administer the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund in each year since 2018. \p Janet Daby: The table below shows the requested information on spending each year on Mott MacDonald for their administration of the adoption and special guardianship support fund.

Financial Year

Contract Spend (ex. VAT)

2018/19

£2,066,435.40

2019/20

£1,816,902.00

2020/21

£1,876,102.00

2021/22

£2,090,952.00

2022/23

£2,382,116.25

2023/24

£2,540,745.29
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Pippa Heylings:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she conducted an impact assessment on restrictions to support through the adoption and special guardianship support fund. \p Janet Daby: The new criteria for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund will enable as many children and families as possible to access the available funding. The department always assesses the impact of changes on vulnerable children. This includes reviewing the equalities impact assessment, which will be made available in the House Libraries in due course.
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Vikki Slade:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department plans to provide for (a) dance, (b) drama, (c) music and (d) musical theatre higher education courses in each of the next three years. \p Janet Daby: The department is determined that the higher education (HE) funding system should deliver for our economy, for universities and for students. The HE sector needs a secure financial footing, which is why, after seven years of frozen fee caps under the previous government, we took last year the difficult decision to increase maximum tuition fee limits for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation.

In return for the increased investment we are asking students to make we expect the sector to deliver the very best outcomes, both for those students and for the country.

Additionally, the government provides annual funding to the HE sector through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), which supports teaching of expensive-to-deliver subjects, access and participation and world-leading specialist providers.

My right hon. Friend, The Secretary of State for Education will shortly issue guidance to the Office for Students, setting out SPG funding for the 2025/26 academic year and her priorities for it. Funding for subsequent years will be agreed following the government’s spending review.
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Steff Aquarone:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues attending the UK-EU summit on 19 May 2025 on access to a cross-border carbon storage market. \p Miatta Fahnbulleh: As part of the EU Reset we are working with the EU to identify areas to strengthen cooperation for mutual benefit including on energy. We are aligned with the EU ambition to support industry to deploy CCUS at scale and we both see CCUS as essential to meeting our respective net zero emissions.

We see a strong opportunity to collaborate with the EU on CCUS; our global early mover status, comparative regulatory regimes such as similar CO2 storage licensing and safety standards and our extensive offshore experience mean we can be a valuable partner to the EU. This includes establishing cross-border CO2 transport and storage networks across the continent.
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Alex Easton:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure (a) oversight of and (b) international collaboration in research into solar radiation management technologies. \p Kerry McCarthy: The Government is not in favour of using Solar Radiation Modification. Given the significant uncertainty around the possible risks and impacts of deployment on the climate and environment, the Government is not deploying SRM and has no plans to do so.

The Department works closely with the international research community to evaluate the latest research on Solar Radiation Modification including participating in forums such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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Dave Doogan:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent discussions he has had with Drax Group plc on the postponement of the Cruachan II pumped hydro storage project. \p Michael Shanks: Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
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Dave Doogan:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of contract for difference projects that have recently been cancelled due to increasing cost pressures; and whether he plans to reform the contract for difference scheme given increased volatility in global inflation. \p Michael Shanks: We recognise the effect that globally high inflation and supply chain constraints are having on industry and we will work with Orsted to get Hornsea 4 back on track.

We have a strong pipeline of projects, and our mission-led approach ensures we can steer our way through global pressures and individual commercial decisions to reach our targets. The Government has consulted on reforms to the CfD scheme, with the aim of moving towards energy independence and protecting against volatile global fossil fuel prices. A full response to the consultation will be published before AR7 opens in the summer.
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Claire Young:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the average time taken is for the North Sea Transition Authority to grant gas and hydrogen storage licences. \p Michael Shanks: The NSTA assesses each application on its own merits, and as a result, the time taken to reach a decision would be dependent on a project’s unique individual characteristics and complexity.
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Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make it his policy to support future applications for sustainable mining of coal. \p Michael Shanks: The Government has committed to not granting new coal licences and has set out its policy position in a written statement on 14th November 2024 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-11-14/hcws215.
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what information his Department holds on the average cost of connecting to the electricity grid in (a) rural and (b) urban areas; and whether he plans to take steps to help reduce differences in the average cost. \p Michael Shanks: The Department does not hold data on average connection costs for rural and urban areas. Under Ofgem’s regulation through network price controls, network companies are investing to provide new electricity network capacity ahead of need. This should reduce connection costs and timelines in both rural and urban areas.
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department provides funding to rural communities for the cost of connecting to the electricity mains. \p Michael Shanks: The Department does not provide funding for connection costs specific to rural areas. Under Ofgem’s price control framework, network companies are investing in new electricity network capacity ahead of need. This should reduce both connection costs and timelines, including in rural areas.
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department plans to extend the Community Energy Fund to support additional eligible projects. \p Michael Shanks: In 2025/26 Community Energy Groups will be able to access a share of £5 million in grant funding through the Great British Energy Community Fund. This extension of the Community Energy Fund will enable both rural and urban communities across England to continue accessing funding to develop local clean energy projects for investment.

Once Great British Energy is fully operational it will develop its longer-term support offer for Community Energy Groups as well as for Local and Mayoral Strategic Authorities.
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Kirsty Blackman:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many (a) press, (b) media and (c) other communications posts there are in his Department; and what the salary band is for each post. \p Michael Shanks: In the central Communications team of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, there are a total of 86 Full Time Equivalent Government Communications Service posts.

Of this 24 work in media relations.

This is the latest available data from March 2025.
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Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst:To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the time taken to provide advice on Standard Individual Export Licence applications for dual-use goods to Ukraine on (a) UK defence technology exports and (b) Ukraine's non-military resilience; and what steps he is taking to ensure that those applications are processed in a timely manner. \p Mr Douglas Alexander: All export licence applications to Ukraine are treated with the highest priority by the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU). As with all export licence applications, assessments are made on a case-by-case basis according to the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. Assessments for Ukraine, given the situation within the country and the nature of the goods often being exported, mean these cases are some of the most complex for ECJU to process. In the most recent period covered by our official statistics in development i.e. July to September 2024, we processed 79% of SIELs for Ukraine within 20 working days, exceeding our public target of 70%.
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Sir Julian Lewis:To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will publish a list of the countries from which the coking coal required for the Scunthorpe blast furnaces will be purchased; and if he will publish the estimate of the carbon footprint which will be created by transporting the required total from each source country. \p Sarah Jones: British Steel closed its coke ovens in 2023, so is now reliant on imports of coke, a processed coal product. Since the passage of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act, British Steel has received coking coal from the United States of America, Colombia, and Australia. The company will keep its supply chains under review.

The Department for Business & Trade has not produced an assessment of the carbon footprint from the transportation of the coking coal required for the blast furnaces. However, the carbon footprint associated with transporting the coking coal to the UK can be calculated using publicly available data [such as the CarbonCare CO2 emissions calculator].
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Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Leisure travel tops charts for reasons people choose rail, published on 9 April 2025, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential implications for the tourism industry of this research. \p Simon Lightwood: The Department has not made an assessment of the potential implications for the tourism industry of the recent research findings. The research provides a snapshot of rail travel in England at the time of fieldwork, and the data will help inform DfT’s modelling and forecasting. Implications for the wider tourism industry have not been formally evaluated.
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Charlotte Cane:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to make rail fares more affordable. \p Simon Lightwood: We are overhauling the fares system to make it easier for passengers to trust that they are buying the right ticket and getting the best fare. We need to balance affordability for both passengers and taxpayers as we reform fares and deliver Great British Railways, ensuring everyone gets a fair deal.

This year's fares increase of 4.6 per cent was the lowest increase in three years and help to support the Government’s long-term plans to achieve financial sustainability of the railway. Our rail sale, celebrating the 200th anniversary of passenger train in this country, saw passengers travelling with up to 50 per cent discounts on their fares from 17 January to 31 March, accounting for just over 1 million discounted trips, bringing in £9.23 million in gross sales.
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Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to encourage active travel in (a) Slough and (b) Berkshire. \p Simon Lightwood: Slough Unitary Authority has been allocated over £415,000 for active travel in 2024/25 and 2025/26. Over £3.2 million has been allocated to local transport authorities in Berkshire for the same period. Decisions on how to use this funding to improve local cycling and walking routes would be a matter for the respective authorities.

The Government is committed to improving the safety of all road users, especially the most vulnerable such as pedestrians, horse riders and cyclists. This is a key priority for the Department which was reflected in the updated Highway Code in January 2022 with the implementation of a Hierarchy of Road Users. We are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. The Department is developing our Road Safety Strategy and will set out more details in due course.
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Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle illegal private hire taxi drivers. \p Simon Lightwood: Enforcement of the taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing regime is a matter for licensing authorities and the police.

Best Practice Guidance issued by the Department for Transport to licensing authorities in England highlights some of the actions licensing authorities should take to reduce the use of those unlicensed, uninsured and unvetted who are seeking to illegally carry passengers. These include assisting the public to recognise the difference between taxis and PHVs; taxis should be required to display a roof sign and, these should be prohibited for PHVs. Taxi marshal schemes provide an opportunity to prevent the use of unlicensed vehicle that might be plying for hire. The important role ‘test purchasing’ can play in identifying and evidencing illegal drivers that should be prosecuted is highlighted.

Licensing authorities should also recognise that unnecessary barriers to obtaining a licence can potentially restrict the availability of the licensed trade to such an extent that the public resort to the use of unlicensed drivers and vehicles.
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Sir Julian Smith:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with Eurostar on the time taken for UK-bound passengers to board trains at Gare du Nord Station. \p Simon Lightwood: The Government recognises the importance of smooth passenger flows at Paris Gare du Nord, given this is a key terminal for cross-Channel passenger services. Eurostar and SNCF1 Gare Connexions, the station operator, are delivering a project to expand the number of border control points and eGates within the current terminal footprint, which will increase border capacity. There are also longer-term plans to significantly expand the cross-Channel terminal in the station to accommodate expected growth in passenger numbers. My officials regularly engage with key European and industry partners, including Eurostar and the French authorities, including holding recent discussions to understand long-term expansion plans for the station.
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Gregory Stafford:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of expansions in clean air zones on levels of costs for road users. \p Lilian Greenwood: The Government has no plans to expand any of the Clean Air Zones, and therefore no assessment has been made.
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Dr Roz Savage:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) availability and (b) accessibility of electric vehicle charge points in (i) rural areas and villages and (ii) the South Cotswolds. \p Lilian Greenwood: The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV).

The South Cotswolds constituency will benefit from both Gloucestershire County Council’s £3.7m and Wiltshire Council’s £4.4m capital and resource funding as part of the £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, to transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking in the area. The LEVI Fund is expected to leverage significant further private investment and support the installation of at least 100,000 local chargepoints across England.

LEVI funding allocations factored in the proportion of residents within the local authority that are in rural areas. This means local authorities in rural areas were allocated additional funding compared to urban ones.

A range of Government grants are also available to support the installation of charging infrastructure in homes, workplaces and schools: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/electric-vehicle-chargepoint-grants.
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Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps her Department has taken to ensure (a) compliance with and (b) raise awareness of legal lighting requirements for cyclists at night. \p Simon Lightwood: Those who cycle have a duty to behave in a safe and responsible manner and to follow the rules set out in The Highway Code. The enforcement of cycling offences is an operational matter for the police.

We promote cycle safety advice for cyclists and motorists via the THINK! website, social channels, education resources and radio filler advertising. We continually review our campaign priorities using data and research to make sure we are addressing the most important road safety issues to help make our roads safer. The Department is developing our Road Safety Strategy and will set out more details in due course.
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Brian Mathew:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of minimum service standards for cross county bus services. \p Simon Lightwood: Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) already often work closely together when tendering routes that cross shared boundaries and in delivering their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP). There are also requirements set out in the Transport Act 2000 for LTAs to take account of the effect of an Enhanced Partnership on neighbouring areas and for bus policies on bus services in neighbouring LTA areas to be considered when developing their franchising arrangements.

The government has updated its bus franchising guidance to LTAs to make clear that they should consider cross-boundary services during any franchising assessment process, including in the commercial case where they should set out how they intend to facilitate cross-boundary services to deliver relevant BSIP outcomes and targets in both authorities’ areas.

The government introduced the Bus Services (No.2) Bill on 17 December which puts the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders, and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them right across England, including services that cross local authority boundaries.

The Bill would give franchising authorities greater scope to grant service permits to operators wishing to provide non-franchised services which enter a franchising area from another area. Franchising authorities will be able to take account of these proposed cross-boundary services’ benefits in all the areas where the service would run, not just the franchising area as before. This will enable franchising authorities to better harness the additionality the market can provide in delivering these important services and take a more holistic approach to cross-boundary bus provision.
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Grahame Morris:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the framework agreement between her Department and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency was signed; and if she will publish this agreement. \p Mike Kane: The MCA Framework agreement was published in November 2017.

The Department for Transport has recently updated the MCA framework document, which will be published shortly.
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Adam Jogee:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with the executive management team of HS2 Limited. \p Simon Lightwood: DfT Ministers regularly meet with Mark Wild and the other members of HS2’s executive team to discuss the range of issues related to the delivery of HS2. In addition, Government has re-established regular meetings of the HS2 Ministerial Task Force to ensure ministerial oversight of the project. The last meeting took place on 18 March 2025 and was chaired by the Transport Secretary, with the Rail Minister, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and senior executives from HS2 Ltd in attendance.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether appointments to the Passenger Standards Authority will be included in the Public Bodies Order in Council. \p Simon Lightwood: The public consultation on the railways bill closed in April 2025 and explored options for a new passenger watchdog. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a response in due course. As with any public body, the appropriate rules for appointments will be followed. We would therefore expect the new watchdog to be included on the Public Appointments Order in Council; and, for appointments to the board to be subject to the governance code on public appointments and regulated by the commissioner for public appointments.
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Dr Al Pinkerton:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in managing the increasing volume of utility roadworks in Surrey Heath constituency. \p Lilian Greenwood: The Department supports local authorities in several ways, including via updates to statutory guidance, supporting the roll-out of lane rental schemes and improving our Street Manager digital service which all authorities and utility companies use to plan, co-ordinate and manage works.

The Government has also announced that we are cracking down on utility companies, doubling fines and applying charges for works that overrun at weekends.
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Laurence Turner:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to her Department's press notice entitled Transport Secretary launches review of train company revenue protection practices, published on 13 November 2024, what progress the Office of Rail and Road has made on that review; and when she expects the conclusions of that review to be published. \p Simon Lightwood: The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will provide a final report to the Secretary of State no later than 15 May 2025. The review is currently in progress, and regular updates have been provided to the Department for Transport throughout. The ORR will determine when to publish the report.
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Laurence Turner:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to item 24/132 of Network Rail's Board minutes of 05 December 2024, what the proposed (a) resourcing and (b) functions were of the Shadow Great British Railways Delivery Unit; and for what reason did the then Secretary of State decided not to establish it. \p Simon Lightwood: Shadow Great British Railways has been established to bring together the leaders responsible for the operational railway working with an independent Chair to start to realise the benefits of rail reform for passengers and freight ahead of the formal creation of Great British Railways.

To maximise collaboration, we are utilising cross-organisational project teams working together, with Shadow Great British Railways drawing on existing resources and capabilities from across the department, Network Rail and DfT Operator.
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Grahame Morris:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the UK Civil Hydrography Programme. \p Mike Kane: The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency or Cabinet colleagues regarding the UK Civil Hydrography Programme.
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Steff Aquarone:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues attending the UK-EU Summit on 19 May 2025 on UK-EU rail interoperability. \p Simon Lightwood: Rail interoperability is not a focus area for the UK-EU Summit on 19 May and the Secretary of State has not had discussions on this topic with colleagues attending.
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Graeme Downie:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with stakeholders on the potential impact of US trade policy on the (a) level and (b) speed of production of sustainable aviation fuel in the UK. \p Mike Kane: The government is helping encourage the production of SAF in the UK in a number of ways. We are helping to derisk SAF projects by legislating to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism and announced £63m of funding through the Advanced Fuels Fund to help grow the UK supply of SAF. We continually monitor changes to wider global trade strategies, ensuring they are factored into policy development and delivery.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

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Graeme Downie:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with the National Wealth Fund on support for the production of sustainable aviation fuel. \p Mike Kane: The Department for Transport maintains regular engagement with the National Wealth Fund (NWF) with discussions focussing on, amongst other things, sharing information and knowledge on issues facing the transport and associated sectors. In March, the Chancellor confirmed the government’s strategic priorities for the NWF over this Parliament, explicitly mentioning low carbon fuels.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_189

Graeme Downie:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential for the former coal power station site at Longannet to be used in the production of third generation sustainable aviation fuel. \p Mike Kane: The government is encouraging the production of SAF at sites across the UK in a number of ways. We are helping to derisk SAF projects by legislating to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism. The government has also announced £63m of funding to help grow the UK supply of SAF through the Advanced Fuels Fund.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_190

Rachael Maskell:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking help reduce waiting times for support services for survivors of sexual abuse. \p Alex Davies-Jones: This Government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade.

We recognise the invaluable role support services play in the delivery of this mission. This is why the Ministry of Justice provides funding that ensures victims of sexual abuse can access the support they need.

This includes funding for the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to commission local support services for victims of all crime, including sexual abuse, based on their assessment of local need, as well as grants for specialist support organisations through the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund. Furthermore, the MOJ-commissioned 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, delivered by Rape Crisis England and Wales, provides victims and survivors 24/7 access to vital help and information, including whilst waiting for longer term support.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_191

Kate Osamor:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to support victims of AI-generated intimate images. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade.

Our VAWG strategy will be published this year and will include joint steps to tackle image-based abuse across England and Wales and protect victims. We are delivering on our manifesto commitment to ensure that perpetrators who create a deepfake intimate image of someone without their consent face prosecution, and criminalising asking someone to create an intimate image deepfake for you, regardless of where that person is based or whether the image is created. In addition, under our new offences in the Crime and Policing Bill, anyone who takes or records intimate images without consent or installs equipment with intent to do so will face up to two years’ custody.

In the year 2024/25, the Home Office increased the amount of funding provided to the Revenge Porn Helpline from £150,000 to £210,000, to provide free, high-quality support and advice to adult victims of intimate image abuse. This funding has been increased for the year 2025/26. The Ministry of Justice also provides funding for vital victim and witness support services that includes funding to Police and Crime Commissioners to commission local support services for victims of all crime, including victims of intimate image abuse, to cope and recover.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_192

Sarah Gibson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the timeliness of medication dispensing for inpatients awaiting discharge. \p Stephen Kinnock: The Department and NHS England recognise the need for patients who are ready to go home to be discharged as quickly as possible, both for their benefit and to improve the efficiency of hospitals. Pharmacy-related delays can affect timely hospital discharge for medically fit patients, impacting patient experience, patient flow, and hospital efficiency.

Work is underway nationally and locally to improve discharge processes and reduce avoidable delays. New discharge metrics are supporting providers and systems to identify the causes of delay, including those related to pharmacy, and address them.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_193

Sarah Gibson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to monitor (a) compliance with and (b) the implementation of findings and recommendations from quality improvement reports in (i) trusts and (ii) integrated care systems. \p Karin Smyth: A Quality Account is a report of the quality of services offered by a National Health Service healthcare provider. They are published annually and are an important way for local NHS services to demonstrate the effectiveness of, and show improvements in, the services they deliver.

There are several measures in place for holding NHS trusts, foundation trusts, and integrated care boards (ICBs) to account for delivery, and for supporting improvement in operational performance, quality, and patient outcomes.

NHS England oversees NHS trusts, foundation trusts, and ICBs through the NHS Oversight Framework, and has proposed updates to this in the draft NHS Performance Assessment Framework, which was published in March 2025. NHS England will shortly consult upon the revised approach, which includes quality metrics that judge how effectively organisations are delivering high quality, safe care. NHS England plans to publish a final framework by July of this year.

In addition, within their joint forward plans, ICBs are required to set out quality objectives that reflect system intelligence, with clearly aligned metrics on processes and outcomes to evidence ongoing sustainable and equitable improvement.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_194

Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of short-term models to ensure dental access in (a) rural and (b) coastal areas with no current NHS dental practices. \p Stephen Kinnock: We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, particularly in rural and coastal areas. The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England.

The additional 700,000 urgent dental appointments will be available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These targets are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.

ICBs have started to advertise posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_195

Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce regional differences in access to pharmacies. \p Stephen Kinnock: For 2025/26, funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework has been increased to £3.073 billion. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.

The Pharmacy Access Scheme provides additional funding to support pharmacies in areas where there are fewer. Community pharmacies are private businesses that provide NHS funded services. There are 10,407 community pharmacies as of 31 March 2025.

Most pharmacies are not directly commissioned or contracted by the NHS, instead contractors apply to gain entry to the NHS pharmaceutical list, and if an application is approved, a pharmacy can open and start providing services.

Local authorities are required to undertake a pharmaceutical needs assessment (PNA) every three years to assess whether their population is adequately served by local pharmacies, and must keep these assessments under review. Integrated care boards (ICBs) give regard to the PNAs when reviewing applications from the new contractors. Contractors can also apply to open a new pharmacy to offer benefits to patients that were not foreseen by the PNA. If there is a need for a new local pharmacy to open and no contractors apply to open a pharmacy and fill the gap, ICBs can commission a new pharmacy to open outside of the market entry processes, and fund the contract from ICBs’ budgets.

The Pharmacy Access Scheme helps protect access to pharmacies in areas where there are fewer pharmacies and higher health needs, so that no area is left without access to local, physical NHS pharmaceutical services.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_196

Mr Clive Betts:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to issue guidance to integrated care boards requiring them to protect the local place parts of their organisations when they are making their required spending reductions. \p Karin Smyth: As part of the necessary changes to support the National Health Service to recover, NHS England has indicated that integrated care boards (ICBs) should reduce in size. The Government is supportive of NHS England’s decision and will work with NHS England to make the necessary choices that are needed to get the NHS back on its feet. We expect ICBs to continue to deliver their responsibilities, including the planning and delivery of health and care services. Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to ensure that the expected hundreds of millions of pounds savings made will be reinvested into frontline services to deliver better care for patients.

Further detail on the future of ICBs was provided in a letter issued to all ICBs and NHS trusts and foundation trusts on 1 April 2025. This letter is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/

Places are crucial for supporting the delivery of neighbourhood health, the three shifts, and the Health Mission. The Government continues to see place as a vital commissioning footprint within integrated care systems. Further details on this will be set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-13)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-05-13 conversation_197

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of dentistry in Great Yarmouth constituency. \p Stephen Kinnock: Dental Statistics - England 2023/24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324

As Lord Darzi made clear in his independent investigation of the National Health Service in England, there are wide variations in the number of NHS dentists per population in different areas of the country. Rural and coastal communities particularly lack access to NHS dentistry. This is certainly the case in Norfolk and Waveney, where the integrated care board has 31.5 dentists per 100,000 population, compared to an average of 49.5 per 100,000 across England.

We have announced a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.