Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many representations her Department has received from Manchester City Council on the (a) funding and (b) quality of SEND provision in Greater Manchester in the last five years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach in collaboration with local area partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs.

Manchester City Council (MCC) is one of ten local authorities making up Greater Manchester. Following their SEND inspection, which found no Written Statement of Action was necessary in November 2021, the department has continued to liaise with MCC through regular meetings updating on any key issues or risks in the area. MCC are a lead partner of the SEND Change Programme and provide insights to the department including sharing learning on SEND provision in Manchester.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce poverty for people on the lowest incomes.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are committed to tackling poverty and supporting people into good work will be the foundation of our approach. Our plan to Make Work Pay will tackle poor working conditions, poor job security and low pay.

To take crucial steps towards the creation of a genuine living wage that supports families the Government increased the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates on 1 April 2025, delivering a pay rise to over three million workers.

Our Get Britain Working White Paper, backed by £240 million investment, will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health and skills support to meet the needs of local communities.

Alongside this, we are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to do, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We have begun this work with the announcement of the Fair Repayment Rate in April, giving 1.2 million of the poorest households an average of £420 per year. Furthermore, in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we announced that we will improve the adequacy of the standard allowance with the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced.

To further support struggling households, funding of £742 million has been provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 in England, plus additional funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of (a) climate change and (b) new oil and gas production on the economy.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Illustrative analysis in the OBR's 2024 Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report suggests that UK GDP could be around 3% lower by 2074 under a below 2°C warming scenario and around 5% lower under a below 3°C warming scenario.

For decades, the North Sea’s workers, businesses and communities have been at the heart of Britain’s energy future - something they will continue to do for decades to come. This Government will not revoke existing licences and will partner with businesses and workers to manage our existing fields for the entirety of their lifespans

This Government is engaging industry via the ‘Building the North Sea’s Energy Future’ consultation to develop and set out the next steps for the overarching objective for the North Sea. Scaling up industries that will shape the future of the North Sea (including offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and decommissioning), will be vital for delivering the best outcomes for workers and communities, energy security, and sustainable economic growth.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she will consider including funding for homelessness services as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

HMT will consider departmental budget requests as part of the Spending Review process and set out funding for future years at Phase 2 of the Spending Review. The government has already made steps to tackle homelessness through: funding at Autumn Budget 2024 where we announced an additional £233 million of resource funding for services in 2025/26; a commitment to the delivery of the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament and through protecting renters by abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to sports facilities for disabled people in Greater Manchester.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is dedicated to making sport in this country accessible and inclusive for everyone. The Government has announced a further £100 million in funding to deliver new and improved multi-sport grassroots facilities and pitches across the whole of the UK. The Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme’s aims include regular, weekly use by under-represented groups, including disabled people, so that everyone has the opportunity to participate. In 2024/25 the programme invested £2,706,842 in Greater Manchester.

Sport England, the Government’s Arm’s Length Body for grassroots sport, is committed to increasing participation in sport and physical activity for disabled people and improving their access to sport facilities. Sport England also has partnerships with organisations such as Disability Rights UK, Activity Alliance, Aspire, and Sense, to help more disabled people get active.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of poverty among people in receipt of social security; and if she will introduce a statutory poverty reduction target.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on the number of people living in absolute and relative poverty in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication at  Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2024 - GOV.UK. Tables giving the percentage of individuals in relative poverty by state support received by the family are published in “table 5.9db” of “workingage-hbai-detalied-breakdown-2023-24-tables”, “table 6.6db” of “pensioners-hbai-detailed-breakdown-2023-24-tables”, and “table 4.6db” of “children-hbai-detailed-breakdown-2023-24-tables”. The latest statistics published on 27 March 2025 are for the financial period 2023/24.

The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. Guidance on how to use it can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/User-Guide.html.

The Child Poverty Taskforce is continuing its urgent work and is exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.

Our metrics must also reflect the experience of poverty in households across the UK and the urgent need to focus on those children experiencing the most severe and acute forms of poverty. The Taskforce will consider how best to measure this as the strategy develops, including through our work on the material deprivation measure following the recent review of the material deprivation survey questions carried out by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, where AI is being used in the immigration system; and whether she plans to extend the use of AI in the immigration system.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

AI is used in multiple areas within the immigration system, for example in relation to image recognition, summarisation, triage, matching and analysis. We plan to continue to test and pilot how we can use AI, where appropriate to do so, to support effective and efficient operations.

Found: Lord Alton of Liverpool (The Chair); Lord Dholakia; Tom Gordon; Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws; Afzal Khan

Found: Members present: Lord Alton of Liverpool (The Chair); Juliet Campbell; Lord Dholakia; Tom Gordon; Afzal Khan

Found: REPORT STAGE Tuesday 6 May 2025 34 _10 Alex Sobel Christine Jardine Layla Moran Yasmin Qureshi Afzal Khan