Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase uptake of foreign language GCSEs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government is committed to supporting modern foreign languages across schools, and across the languages pipeline. In our response to the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, we made a commitment to work with the sector to understand successful approaches to supporting the languages pipeline. This starts at primary by reforming the curriculum, increasing take up at GCSE, and boosting demand at A level and degree level, to meet future social and economic needs, including learning from successful local models.
Subject to the passage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are also requiring academy schools to teach the revised national curriculum, including languages programmes of study. We are also supporting the quality of languages teaching through continued investment in the National Consortium for Languages Education, which provides teachers with national high-quality professional development.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what subsidy reduction targets her department set for train operating companies in England in (a) 2024/2025 and (b) 2025/2026.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In 2024/25, the Department’s resource settlement for train operating companies was £2.4 billion, and in 2025/26 it is £2.0 billion. Business plans and net subsidy budgets for train operating companies were agreed to align with and deliver within these settlements.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the Office of Rail and Road’s decision not to extend the Rail Transparency Order to cover rail maintenance costs.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As stated by the ORR following its review of the Transparency Order, the ORR does not have the powers to vary or revoke the Transparency Order, which are powers reserved to the CMA. This includes maintenance costs, which are beyond the scope of the current remedy and would require a new market investigation by the competition authorities.
The Government recognises the value and importance of transparency in the rolling stock market, however, and its draft Rolling Stock & Infrastructure Strategy is currently looking at maintenance arrangements to see how they could be improved under GBR to deliver more reliable, better value for money trains.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate she has made of the average length of time taken by local authorities to adopt roads serving new housing developments.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The time taken for local authorities to adopt roads on new housing developments varies significantly across the country, as each authority follows its own processes and timelines. The Government recognises that road adoption rates for new developments have been declining in recent years. To address this, we are undertaking research to better understand the causes of this trend and to identify how the adoption process can be improved going forward.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of families who will benefit from the financial support package to cover travel costs to and from cancer appointments in (a) Bedfordshire and (b) England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families across the United Kingdom.
Through the National Cancer Plan, the Government is committing up to £10 million a year to a new fund open to all children and young people in England with cancer and their families regardless of income, to support them with the cost of travelling to and from treatment. This commitment sits alongside wider action to transform cancer care for children and young people.
The Department has not made a formal estimate of the number of families who will benefit from the financial support package to cover travel costs to and from treatment in Bedfordshire specifically. However, the Department’s work to-date estimates that approximately 3,100 young cancer patients will benefit across England.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans her Department has make it easier for passengers to receive Delay Repay compensation.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ten of the 14 Department for Transport contracted operators now offer delay repay schemes that provide automated, one-click delay repay, and we are also developing plans to make it even easier and more convenient to claim Delay Repay, including through the upcoming Great British Railways website and app.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to revise his Department’s autism strategy when the current one expires in July 2026, in the context of the provisions of section 1 of the Autism Act 2009.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 23 January 2026, we published our response to the House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Inquiry Committee’s report Time to deliver: The Autism Act 2009 and the new autism strategy. We welcomed the committee’s report, and are carefully considering its recommendations, as well as our approach to developing a new national autism strategy, and we will set out a position, including our plans to engage with stakeholders, in due course.
We recognise that a large amount of evidence was gathered by the committee and we will consider this evidence, along with evidence from various other reviews, papers, and reports. We recognise that meaningful engagement will take time, so a balance will need to be struck as to what level of further engagement is required. The current strategy will remain in effect until a revised strategy is published.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data her Department collects on the reasons given for the issuing of Penalty Fares on the rail network.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Deliberate fare evasion reduces the revenue needed to support the railway and disadvantages passengers who pay the correct fare. We are making fares easier to understand, so that passengers can buy tickets with confidence, knowing they are getting the right fare every time.
The Department does not collect data on reasons given for the issuing of Penalty Fares on the rail network; however, Train Operating Companies are required to conduct surveys to determine the percentage of passengers carrying a valid ticket. This data enables the Department to understand revenue at risk.
The Department will shortly be publishing its formal response to the Office of Rail and Road’s review of revenue protection practices.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Great British Railways will record and publish standardised data on the causes of Penalty Fares.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government’s vision for the railways will see the creation of a unified and simplified rail system with a single public rail body, Great British Railways (GBR) focused on delivering for passengers. Under GBR, passengers will enjoy a consistent, reliable offer across the entire network.
The Department cannot confirm whether GBR will publish standardised data on the causes of Penalty Fares.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions he has had with his Australian counterpart on lessons learned from Australia’s introduction of a law to ban under-16s from social media platforms.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK and Australia signed an Online Safety and Security Memorandum of Understanding in February 2024 to share learnings and approaches to online safety.
The government is looking at what is happening in Australia. The Australian government plans to monitor the impact of their ban and we are engaging closely with them on this. Both the Secretary of State and the Minister for Online Safety hope to visit Australia soon.