Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
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 increase opportunities for people to visit (a) theatres, (b) galleries and (c) museums.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government is committed to increasing opportunities for people to visit theatres, galleries, and museums.
This year the Government is delivering a £270 million Arts Everywhere package, providing a major boost for arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings to allow people across the nation to benefit from access to the arts and culture on their doorstep. The package includes:
A new Creative Foundations Fund to invest £85 million to support arts and cultural organisations, including theatres, across England to resolve urgent issues with their estates, ensuring they can be enjoyed by visitors for many more years to come.
Support for museums through the £20m Museum Renewal Fund, £25m Museum Estate and Development Fund, and £120m Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund, supporting cherished institutions to continue providing valued opportunities for visitors.
£3.2 million for four cultural education programmes which will enhance access to the arts for children and young people.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to roll out rail-5g.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department continues to work closely with Network Rail and industry to look at solutions to improve connectivity on trains, which includes rolling out rail 5G on the rail network.
Following the spending review, funding has been made available to invest in low earth orbit satellite connectivity, to improve passenger mobile connectivity. We also continue to work closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to develop further interventions on the railway.
The department has been working with Network Rail to deliver improved connectivity on the rail corridor. Project Reach, which will renew fibre optic cables and address signals in mainline tunnels and stations was signed 26 June 2025 between Network Rail, and telecoms companies, Neos Networks and Freshwave.
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 her Department has made of the adequacy of the existing regulatory framework for open access rail operators.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government believes the existing regulatory framework that governs access to the railway is not fit for purpose. It has failed not only passengers but also freight operators as it is designed for each part of the railway to act in isolation, resulting in fragmented decision making and conflicting accountabilities. Our consultation set out proposals for fundamental reform of the framework, with Great British Railways as a single directing mind, able to strategically plan the best use of the network, implementing an achievable, reliable timetable, so that the services promised to passengers are delivered. Better coordination of the timetable will reduce delays, improve reliability, reduce costs and boost growth.
The Government will respond to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits for businesses of adopting Single/Double Summer Time.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government believes the current daylight-saving arrangements represent the optimal use of the available daylight across the UK. Therefore, we have no plans to introduce double summertime, permanent summertime, or other such changes which would require considerable planning and action by business. Since the Government does not intend to make changes to the existing system, we will not be conducting an assessment of the impact on businesses at this time.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on tackling non-exhaust emissions from road transport as a source of particulate pollution.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to meeting legal targets for air quality, including the PM2.5 targets recently set under the Environment Act 2021. My officials have regular discussions across Government about the policies needed to ensure we meet these targets, including officials in the Department for Transport on action to reduce non-exhaust emissions from road transport.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help tackle the sources of littering in (a) Bedfordshire and (b) England.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Littering is a crime that blights communities and the environment. Local councils are usually best placed to respond to littering and related problems, in a way tailored to the community in which they occur. They have a range of enforcement tools at their disposal including fixed penalty notices of up to £500 and prosecution action which can lead to a criminal record and a fine of up to £2500. We are considering how we can further support local councils.
In the meantime, we are targeting some of the more commonly littered items to reduce the presence of these on our streets. The sale of single-use vapes was banned on 1 June and a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will go live in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland in October 2027. The DRS will introduce a redeemable deposit on single-use in-scope drinks containers which can be redeemed when the empty container is returned. Litter composition data indicates that 55% of litter by volume is made up of containers in-scope of DRS. The DRS will therefore significantly reduce this form of litter.
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 close the attainment gap between (a) disadvantaged and (b) not disadvantaged pupils in areas with three-tier education.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. Disadvantaged pupils are more likely to face barriers that hold them back, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break the unfair link between background and success.
High and rising standards are the key to strengthening outcomes for every child and young person no matter their background, reducing gaps and helping them to achieve and thrive.
The department will deliver this through excellent teaching and leaders, a high-quality curriculum, strong accountability with faster school improvement and an inclusive system which removes the barriers to learning.
As one of our first steps for change, the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 expert teachers across secondary and special schools and our colleges over the course of this parliament. We have made strong initial progress to deliver this key pledge, and our investment is starting to deliver. The workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, which are the schools where they are needed most.
We have also launched a Curriculum and Assessment Review that is looking closely at the key challenges to attainment, particularly for those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
To drive standards in reading and writing, £27.7 million has been committed in the 2025/26 financial year, including new training and resources for secondary school staff to support reading in key stage 3, with a specific focus on readers who are at risk of falling behind.
The department funds a national network of Maths Hubs, including 5 covering the East of England, which aims to raise the standard of maths teaching from reception to age 18, preventing and reducing attainment gaps.
Alongside this, pupil premium funding of over £3 billion is being provided in the 2025/26 financial year to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
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 improve GCSE attainment among disadvantaged pupils in the East of England.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. Disadvantaged pupils are more likely to face barriers that hold them back, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break the unfair link between background and success.
High and rising standards are the key to strengthening outcomes for every child and young person no matter their background, reducing gaps and helping them to achieve and thrive.
The department will deliver this through excellent teaching and leaders, a high-quality curriculum, strong accountability with faster school improvement and an inclusive system which removes the barriers to learning.
As one of our first steps for change, the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 expert teachers across secondary and special schools and our colleges over the course of this parliament. We have made strong initial progress to deliver this key pledge, and our investment is starting to deliver. The workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, which are the schools where they are needed most.
We have also launched a Curriculum and Assessment Review that is looking closely at the key challenges to attainment, particularly for those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
To drive standards in reading and writing, £27.7 million has been committed in the 2025/26 financial year, including new training and resources for secondary school staff to support reading in key stage 3, with a specific focus on readers who are at risk of falling behind.
The department funds a national network of Maths Hubs, including 5 covering the East of England, which aims to raise the standard of maths teaching from reception to age 18, preventing and reducing attainment gaps.
Alongside this, pupil premium funding of over £3 billion is being provided in the 2025/26 financial year to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
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 steps his Department is taking to (a) update and (b) improve NHS IT systems.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing more than £2 billion in National Health Service technology and digital to run essential services and drive NHS productivity improvements.
In June 2023, NHS England agreed a Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is a strategic agreement between the NHS and Microsoft and underpins the national Microsoft licensing framework for NHS organisations. It delivers significant discounts and standardised licensing across the NHS and enables access to services.
Security and compliance are significantly strengthened through national access to Microsoft Defender, Office 365 security tools, and integration with the NHS Cyber Security Operations Centre. These tools standardise threat detection, data protection, and governance across the system, ensuring a consistent and elevated security posture. The MOU also supports a national IT operating model with service desks operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, centralised incident management, and streamlined onboarding.
Operationally, the MOU delivers cost savings by eliminating redundant local contracts and enabling licence reconfiguration. It also positions the NHS for future innovation, with early access to artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft Copilot already embedded in the agreement. This ensures NHS organisations can scale digital transformation efforts while maintaining alignment with national strategy and funding models.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is taking steps to introduce formal tribunal rules for traffic commissioner tribunal functions.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I understand the important role that the Traffic Commissioners perform with regards to the licensing and regulation of the HGV and PSV industries, and road-user safety.
My Department are currently considering a range of reform options aiming to ensure that the powers and functions of Traffic Commissioners remain robust and effective. The introduction of formal tribunal rules will form part of these considerations.