Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve safety on rural roads.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government takes road safety very seriously and reducing those killed and injured on our roads is a key priority. We do recognise that the majority of road fatalities (according to the latest statistics) occurred on rural roads (60%) with fewer fatalities on urban roads (35%) and motorways (5%).
The Department’s Safer Roads Fund has awarded local authorities £185.8 million of funding between 2017 and 2024 to improve the safety of England's most high risk 'A' roads. To date, it has funded 445.3 miles of safety improvements on rural roads, making up 62.4% of all funded routes.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Universal Credit reimbursement processes on claimants having to pay childcare fees upfront in a lump sum.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit customers can claim up to 3 months of future childcare costs at a time with these costs reimbursed month by month.
Universal Credit childcare element, when claimed together with upfront childcare costs, means that customers receive up to 185% of the first month of childcare costs to ease them into the Universal Credit childcare costs payment cycle.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the creation of a National Care Service.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to building consensus on the long-term reform needed to create a National Care Service, including by engaging cross-party and with people who draw on care and support.
Alongside our plan for health, we will create a 10-year plan for social care which recognises the importance of social care in its own right, as well as its role in the success of the National Health Service. On 10 October, we took a critical step by introducing legislation to establish the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for care professionals to ensure care workers are recognised and fairly rewarded for the important work they do.
To stabilise the system in the short term, we are providing at least £600 million of new grant funding for social care to support local authorities. This is part of a broader real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of approximately 3.2%.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department plans to give parents of children with SEN to access transport to school in Stoke-on-Trent South constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s home to school travel policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home to school travel for children of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. There are extended rights to free travel for children from low-income families.
The department is aware that challenges within the wider special educational needs and disabilities system are creating pressure on home to school travel. The government is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, with specialist provision supporting children with the most complex needs, so fewer children need to travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. This will reduce the pressure on home to school travel. I am keen to understand how well home to school transport supports children to access educational opportunity and will be working with departmental officials on this.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to tackle rough sleeping in (a) Stoke-on-Trent South constituency and (b) the rest of England.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Rough Sleeping levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected. We will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness, and have announced at the Spending Review that funding for homelessness and rough sleeping is increasing by £233 million next year compared to 2024/25.
From April 2022 to March 2025 Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been allocated over £3.5 million as part of £547 million Rough Sleeping Initiative funding to tackle rough sleeping across England.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on preparing legislation to ban trail hunting.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter with regard to Scotland and Northern Ireland; hunting with dogs is a reserved matter with respect to Wales and therefore, the information provided relates to England and Wales only.
The Government made a manifesto commitment to ban Trail Hunting as part of a set of measures to improve animal welfare. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing. Further announcements will be made in due course.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to introduce legislation to ban trail hunting.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter with regard to Scotland and Northern Ireland; hunting with dogs is a reserved matter with respect to Wales and therefore, the information provided relates to England and Wales only.
The Government made a manifesto commitment to ban Trail Hunting as part of a set of measures to improve animal welfare. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing. Further announcements will be made in due course.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 increase the provision of ADHD services across North Staffordshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is currently considering next steps to improve access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services. It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including ADHD care pathways, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
We are supporting a taskforce that NHS England is establishing to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, and to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB advises that it has commissioned a new adult ADHD diagnostic and treatment pathway which began in July 2023. The ICB is working closely with its provider trusts to implement the new pathway.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on reviewing the funding of research to improve (a) treatment and (b) outcomes for people diagnosed with lobular breast cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department spends £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer being the largest area of spend at over £121.8 million in 2022/23. The NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group, reflecting its high priority. Our investments in cancer, including lobular breast cancer, are pivotal to informing efforts to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and outcomes.
We are proud to have invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. This is complemented by wider investments into breast cancer research including, for example, a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, again including lobular breast cancer.
The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome applications for research into any aspect of human health, including lobular breast cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department (a) provides and (b) plans to provide for apprentices who are required to purchase equipment to fulfil their apprenticeship.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships are jobs and the department expects employers to provide apprentices with the support, tools and resources they need for a high quality experience.
Where additional costs are anticipated, the department provides employers and apprenticeship providers with additional funding to support more apprenticeship opportunities. The department provides two payments of £500 to employers and providers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, and up to age 24 for apprentices with an education, health and care plan or who have been in local authority care. These payments are used in many cases to support costs such as work equipment, uniforms or travel.
Apprentices may also be eligible for local discounted travel schemes. For example, apprentices over 18, living in a London borough and in the first year of an apprenticeship can get discounted travel with an Oyster photocard. Apprentices aged under 25 who have been in local authority care may be eligible for a £3,000 bursary, as well as wages from their employer. The bursary is not subject to tax and is not treated as income for benefits purposes.
As the department implements the Growth and Skills Levy to expand the range of in-work training available, we will ensure that people from low-income backgrounds are supported to access all opportunities.