Alex McIntyre

We continue to engage with stakeholders as to whether a wider licencing scheme would improve standards of consumer protection. This work is progressing alongside our broader initiatives to improve consumer redress routes and to enhance competency across the construction sector through the Industry Competence Committee, ensuring a comprehensive approach to raising standards throughout the industry.

Furthermore, the Government is fully committed to implementing the Grenfell Inquiry recommendation that principal contractors working on higher-risk buildings should be licenced through a scheme managed by the Building Safety Regulator. We have accepted this recommendation as an important step in enhancing building safety standards.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) promotes and supports investment opportunities across all of the UK. In Gloucester, DBT has a strong relationship with the County Council and proactively promotes the counties sector strengths, particularly in areas such as Technology and Cyber Security, AgriTech and Advanced Manufacturing. This includes highlighting key developments like The Forum in Gloucester City Centre.

DBT recognises the strength of opportunity across the South West region for investors, both in the sectors listed above but also in Floating Offshore Wind, Critical Minerals, Nuclear, Quantum and AI. In addition, Tata’s announcement earlier this year to build a gigafactory in Somerset is expected to create further opportunities for inward investors in the region.

Government remains committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Post Office network, and as stated in our manifesto, Government will work to strengthen the network in the South West and across the country in consultation with postmasters, trade unions and customers.

Government already provides an annual £50m Network Subsidy funding to support the delivery of a minimum number of branches and a geographical spread of branches in line with published access criteria. This requires 99% of the UK population to be within three miles of their nearest Post Office outlet therefore ensuring the viability of rural and community branches. The Government-set Access Criteria ensures that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens.

As the first step towards the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next three years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency, with £1 billion of this allocated to 2025/2026.

This includes support for the most vulnerable, including those in Gloucester, to help slash fuel poverty. To fund energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating for social housing residents, lower income households, and renters, £1.29 billion has been committed to the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and £500m for the Warm Homes: Local Grant respectively. Delivery is expected to start this year.

Further details on the Warm Homes Plan will be set out in due course.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 27^th November to question UIN 15161. I hope to say more about the Government’s approach to digital inclusion in the near future.

UK Research and Innovation invested £260 million in the Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area in 2021-22.

There are two active projects based in Gloucester, with a combined value of £218,000. This includes a £122,000 Horizon Europe Guarantee award, delivered by UKRI, to the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, supporting research to enable rural communities’ actors and policy makers to design better strategies, initiatives and policies fostering sustainability transitions of rural areas. Also, £96,000 awarded to Hill Court Farm Research to provide farmers with a framework for improving nitrogen efficiency.

Digital inclusion is a priority for me and for Government. It means everyone should have the access, skills, support and confidence to participate in a modern digital society, whatever their circumstances. Work is ongoing to develop our approach to tackling digital exclusion and we hope to announce more on this soon. We look forward to working closely with the third sector, business and local authorities, including those in Gloucester, to ensure our plans are targeted to and based on individual needs.

The government primarily supports theatres predominantly through Arts Council England (ACE). Through their main funding programme, the 2023-2027 National Portfolio Investment Programme, ACE is providing over £100 million in grants per year to around 195 theatres across the country. Across all their funding programmes, including lottery schemes, for the financial year 2024-25, ACE awarded around £300 million to theatres/theatre based organisations.

From 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025, ACE will have invested a combined total of £455,613 across two 'Theatre' awards in the constituency of Gloucester - to Complicite, an internationally renowned touring theatre company who have recently relocated to Gloucester, and Strike a Light, a theatre organisation homegrown in Gloucester.

Theatres also benefit from the support that the government provides the sector through Theatre Tax Relief, and has also recently announced over £270 million investment for our arts venues, museums, libraries and our heritage sector.

The Government recognises that leisure facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to high quality facilities and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.

The ongoing responsibility for public leisure facilities lies at Local Authority level. Local Authorities work in partnership with operators who manage leisure services. The Government and Sport England continue to work closely with Local Authorities to monitor pressures in the sector and provide advice and guidance.

Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.

I understand that Gloucestershire had 32 local authority-run static libraries as of December 2023, with five of those libraries located in Gloucester itself.

The government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available £69 billion for local government, which is a 3.5% real terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.

The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home-to-school travel for eligible children. This includes children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem.

We know that challenges in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system are creating pressures on home-to-school travel. We have committed to reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. These reforms will be set out in the upcoming Schools White Paper.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review considered the extent to which the curriculum and the assessment system in England is fit for purpose and meeting the needs of children and young people. The government’s response set out key reforms to the national curriculum that we will be taking forward.

Schools are expected to organise the school day and school week in the best interests of their pupils, to provide them both with a full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude and ability, and to incorporate time for play and other activities.

The department is working to make sure that all children and young people have access to a variety of enrichment opportunities at school as an important part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity. For some schools, these opportunities may be used to encourage children and young people to play.

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This is why the department has already invested more than £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million invested in training more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.

As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services for a minimum period of three years.

Following a Joint Area SEND inspection in Gloucestershire in December 2023, leaders in the local area have developed a local strategy to improve access to educational psychologists, including a virtual service. Officials and SEND advisors from both the department and NHS England meet regularly with Gloucestershire local area leaders to monitor progress.

Officials from across a range of departments are working jointly to make progress, using evidence of what works to start to shape the Young Futures Hubs model. As part of this we are engaging with local areas, communities, statutory partners, charities, and other key stakeholders to support the design of the Young Futures Hubs and explore options for their delivery, including considering how best to engage with those young people who would benefit most from support.

To roll-out Young Futures Hubs, building on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, the government will establish a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. These early adopters and work in local areas and will inform the longer-term development of the programme, including how quickly we move to a greater number of hubs and where they may be located.

The government will set out more details in due course.

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.

The Government is continuing to progress plans to designate nine new National River Walks across England and is considering delivery options to ensure the new river walks will have the most benefits for local communities. Further details will be provided in due course.

The Government is committed to the establishment of three new forests. Good progress is being made towards establishing the first of these forests as part of our wider work to fulfil this commitment.

Local councils are usually best placed to respond to littering and fly-tipping 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 and prosecution. We are reviewing how we can further support local authorities to tackle these issues.

We are also considering how to most effectively deliver our manifesto commitment to force fly-tippers and vandals to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details in due course.

In the meantime, Defra will continue to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders such as local authorities, the Environment Agency and National Police Chiefs Council, to promote and disseminate good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping.

The Government will introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation and will bring forward plans in due course. Ministers will be considering available evidence around the use of hand-controlled e-collars and their effects on the welfare of animals.

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with local authorities on parking outside schools in Gloucester.

Responsibility for traffic management and enforcement of road traffic restrictions on local roads rests with the relevant local authority, as they are best placed to consider how local needs can be effectively met. Gloucestershire County Council has already acquired designated civil enforcement powers enabling it to issue Penalty Charge Notices in respect of contraventions of traffic restrictions which include restrictions on parking outside schools.

The Government takes road safety seriously, and we are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We are currently considering policy options in this area.

The Government’s THINK! road safety campaign, aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads. THINK! launched a major new drink driving campaign in November, highlighting the risks of drinking even a little before driving. The campaign targeted men aged 17-24, who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than drivers aged 25 and over, and who are over-represented in drink drive casualties. Paid advertising ran across social media, online video and gaming sites, radio and podcasts. The campaign also featured roadside advertising near to pubs and bars and posters and beermats in venues across England and Wales, including sites in Gloucester.

The enforcement of road traffic law and how available resources are deployed in Gloucester constituency, and other rural areas, is the responsibility of individual Chief Officers and Police and Crime Commissioners, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV). As of January 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 73,334 publicly available charging devices, up 37% on this time last year.

Gloucestershire County Council was allocated almost £3.7m capital and resource funding through the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to increase the number of local public chargepoints. The South West region has been allocated over £45.5m capital and resource funding to increase the installation of local charging infrastructure across the region.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

Local authorities are responsible for transport to education and training for 16-19 year olds. Post-16 transport guidance requires local authorities to make the necessary transport arrangements or provide financial support to ensure young people can participate in education or training. The needs of young people with SEND should be specifically considered and the arrangements put in place for each group must be documented in local authority transport policy statements.

In addition to their statutory responsibilities, many local authorities do offer some form of subsidised transport which, combined with the 16-19 bursary, has been intended to provide financial support to students from low-income households. These decisions are best made locally, in consideration of local needs, the resources available and other local circumstances.

With regard to public transport options more widely, the government wants everyone who needs it, including children and young people with SEND, to have access to public transport and is committed to improving services, so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity.

The government’s reforms to bus services typify this. On 17^th December, the government introduced a new Bus Services Bill that will give local leaders the freedom to take decisions to deliver their local transport priorities and ensure networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them, including for disabled people. The Bill includes measures which will make bus travel more accessible and inclusive.

The Secretary of State has not met with Great Western Railway representatives since 29 November 2024, however on 12 December the Rail Minister met with representatives of both Great Western Railway and Network Rail to ensure they are progressing their plans to improve services for passengers.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to safeguarding vulnerable individuals and preventing economic abuse within the welfare system. Front line staff receive mandatory domestic abuse training, including economic abuse. Specialist training is provided for teams such as Child Maintenance Service, Universal Credit, Counter Fraud and Debt, ensuring colleagues can identify, respond, and support claimants safely and appropriately.

As part of the '“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, DWP has committed to strengthening domestic abuse training for staff. We have also pledged to remove the Direct Pay service type so that the Child Maintenance Service manages and transfers payments between parents, preventing it being used as a tool of abuse.

DWP supports vulnerable customers by considering individual circumstances in debt recovery and signposting to specialist services. Our Debt Management Vulnerability Framework and annual adviser training strengthen this approach. DWP collaborates with Surviving Economic Abuse to ensure safeguards are in place for new debt recovery powers under the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Act, protecting victims of domestic abuse.

Cases on the Collect and Pay service are typically those where the paying parent has demonstrated an unwillingness to pay, or has not been compliant in a Direct Pay arrangement. For this service, a fee of 20% is added to what the paying parent needs to pay, while 4% is deducted from the amount paid out to receiving parents.

Following a public consultation on wider reforms to consolidate the Child Maintenance Service into a single service type where the CMS collects and transfers payments, the Government published its response setting out plans to reform the CMS. This includes plans to reduce fees to 2% for both receiving parents and paying parents, maintaining the 20% rate for non-compliant paying parents on top of their calculated maintenance amount.

We believe fees are an important part of the service, offsetting the cost of the service and investment needed to make the reforms, reducing the burden on the taxpayer. The proposed fee structure is also intended to incentivise compliance by the paying parent.

As part of the Get Britain Working White Paper, which was published in November 2024, we set out our aspirations, backed by a £55million investment for 2025/26, to transform Jobcentre Plus and create a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone, including parents and single parents in Gloucester to access support to find good, meaningful work, and to help people to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers.

The Get Britain Working White Paper also committed DWP to supporting and providing all areas in England with resource to produce a local Get Britain Working Plans. We are asking local areas to develop detailed plans that address the challenges related to labour force participation (employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity) and progression in work. Local Get Britain Working plans will enable all areas to take the lead in shaping a coherent offer of support for their local citizens, including the offer of support for parents, across work, health, and skills.

Parents have existing support from Work Coaches, who provide individual, tailored help to all customers across the country, this includes supporting the development of skills needed to look for and obtain sustained employment, advice to parents on childcare support or help to address their skills gaps to aid career progression.

We are also considering how we can improve our support to help parents into work as part of our Child Poverty Strategy which will be published later this year.

DWP continues to work closely with MHCLG as part of the Inter Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, supporting the development of a strategy to get back on track to ending homelessness. I represent the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to ensure accountability for our part in the strategy.

DWP provides over £30bn of housing support each year, as well as £100m of Discretionary Housing Payments for those entitled to housing support who may face a shortfall in meeting their rental costs. In addition, work coaches provide personalised employment support for those with additional vulnerabilities such as homelessness.

The local Jobcentre team in Gloucestershire are committed to ensuring that all customers, including those claiming Universal Credit, have ample support in accessing employment opportunities and training. They take a multifaceted approach that draws on locally gathered information and data to deliver a bespoke service to meet the needs of customers and employers.

Through employer networking events and visits to local businesses the team communicate how they can support employers with their recruitment needs, including advice on streamlining hiring practices and application processes to take account of diverse capabilities and health challenges, as well as offering space in the Jobcentre for job interviews, support with redundancy and retention, and disability awareness.

Monthly recruitment events are held in Gloucester, in collaboration with trusted partners, showcasing a range of vacancies and pre-employment opportunities with local and national employers, with an event at GL1 Leisure Centre on 13 February. The team also hold monthly drop-in sessions on employment support in venues across the community, including Noah’s Ark in Tewkesbury and Bespoke Mentoring in Lydney. Furthermore, the 100 Futures program provides 6-week work placements for young individuals, offering valuable workplace insights and development across several employment sectors. We are working with NHS Integrated Care Boards to collaborate on the Volunteer to Career Scheme, with the first cohort starting this month.

In terms of training and provision, Gloucester Jobcentre actively collaborate with partners to offer support, including Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Movement to Work, meeting regularly with Employment and Training leads at Gloucester County Council, to share information and discuss priorities and plans. The National Careers Service deliver career advice and training support in every Jobcentre. The Restart program offers intensive employment support and in addition to Work Coach support, customers aged 50 and over can benefit from a 12-week employability support program, run in collaboration with Forest Green Rovers and the Employment and Skills Hub. We also deliver outreach services in locations across Gloucestershire, including Cinderford, Coleford and Stroud.

These initiatives ensure that customers in Gloucester receive the necessary support to access employment opportunities and training, fostering a pathway to sustainable employment, and you would be welcome to visit Gloucester Jobcentre to see this work at first hand.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Gloucester constituency, this is the Gloucestershire ICB.

We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available since April 2025.

ICBs are recruiting dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

We are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, on 16 December we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on quality and payment reforms to the NHS dental contract. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with greatest need first, incentivising urgent care and complex treatments. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms/outcome/government-response-to-consultation-on-nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms

Data for the Gloucester constituency is not available, as workforce information is not collected at a parliamentary constituency level.

Between June 2024 and October 2025, the NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board saw an increase of 128 full‑time equivalent mental health staff, rising from 1,416 to 1,544, representing 9.1% growth, compared with 5% nationally over the same period.

NHS England began publishing data on 12-hour accident and emergency waits at a site level from October 2025. Figures for the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2025-26/

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements this winter and beyond. We are aiming for 78% of patients to be seen in four hours this year, meaning over 800,000 people will receive more timely care.

We are investing £250 million into expanding same day and urgent care services, helping avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital and supporting faster diagnosis, treatment, and discharge for patients.

We have also introduced new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care to support better hospital flow. These set minimum expectations for timely review, availability of advice, and coordinated care when multiple specialist teams are involved.

In advance of the 10-Year Health Plan’s publication, the Government confirmed an allocation of up to £10 billion for National Health Service digital, data, and technology through the Spending Review. This is a nearly 50% uplift on current investment, with a 3% real terms uplift overall.

That investment will support delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan, while yielding substantial improvements in the public experience of using the NHS, and in the experience of staff working for it. It will also make a material contribution to achieving the 2% productivity target and wider efficiency targets.