Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of compliance with the Mental Health Investment Standard by ICBs in each of the last four years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of integrated care boards (ICBs), formerly clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard, meaning that their investment in mental health services increased in line with their overall increase in funding for the year, from 2020/21 to 2024/25:
Year | Number of CCGs/ICBs meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard |
2020/21 | 135 out of 135 CCGs |
2021/22 | 106 out of 106 CCGs |
2022/23 | 41 out of 42 ICBs |
2023/24 | 42 out of 42 ICBs |
2024/25 | Information not yet available |
Source: NHS Mental Health Dashboard, NHS England
Note: between 2020/21 and 2021/22 there was a methodology change in how ICB/CCG base allocation was calculated.
The calculation of the Mental Health Investment Standard does not include spend on learning disabilities, autism, dementia, and specialised commissioning.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the Land Registry to (a) record and (b) publish a property owner's Company Registration Number on title register documents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
HM Land Registry (HMLR) requires that the registration number of a company is supplied when a UK company is being registered. Company registration numbers are recorded in the proprietorship entry of the title register.
Copies of title registers are normally available from HMLR’s Search for land and property information page on gov.uk here.
HMLR publishes information about registered land and property in England and Wales owned by UK companies on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
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 help safeguard young people from (a) drug and (b) alcohol addiction.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The most effective and sustainable approach to safeguarding children and young people from drug and alcohol harm is by giving them the best start in life, and by keeping them safe, well, and happy. Our mission-based approach will ensure that every child has the best start in life and that we create the healthiest generation of children ever.
Statutory guidance on relationships, sex, and health education requires all primary and secondary schools to ensure that pupils know the key facts and risks associated with alcohol and drug use, as well as how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. The Department has worked with the Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education Association to develop lesson plans on alcohol and drugs and has commissioned an update of the resources to be published later this year.
The Government also has an alcohol and drug information and advice service called Talk to FRANK, which aims to reduce alcohol and drug use and its harms by providing awareness to young people, parents, and concerned others. Further information is available on the Talk to FRANK website, which is available at the following link:
Children and families affected by parental alcohol and/or drug use can experience adverse health, social, and economic outcomes, which can continue for generations without effective interventions to break the cycle. The Department is continuing to invest in improvements to local alcohol and drug treatment services to ensure that those in need can access high quality help and support.
In addition to the Public Health Grant, local authorities have had a further £267 million from the Department this year to improve the quality and capacity of treatment. This is alongside the additional investment of £105 million made available by the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government to improve treatment pathways and recovery, housing, and employment outcomes for people affected by alcohol and drug use.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including political education in the national curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
For secondary schools, democracy and politics is currently taught through the national curriculum for citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, which covers parliamentary democracy, the key elements of the constitution of the United Kingdom, the power of government and how citizens and parliament hold it to account. Primary schools can choose to teach citizenship, using non-statutory programmes of study at key stages 1 and 2.
Support for curriculum delivery is available through optional, free and adaptable resources from Oak National Academy (Oak). Oak launched its new curriculum sequences for secondary citizenship earlier this academic year, with the full package of curriculum resources expected to be available by this autumn. Oak resources can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.
The Review Group has now published its interim findings and clarified that its next phase of work will consider coverage of key knowledge and skills within every subject. The interim report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report.
The government will respond to the review’s final recommendations in the autumn.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help protect young people from drink spiking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the public's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out. It can happen to anybody regardless of age, gender or sexuality. We are taking tough new action to prevent spiking incidents, ensure that victims of spiking receive enhanced protection and support when they are out and about - creating a safer night out for everyone.
The Government has introduced new legislation, as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, to strengthen the response to these appalling incidents.
We have also rolled out specialist spiking training for staff in the night-time economy to ensure they have the skills to detect possible spiking incidents, support victims who have been spiked and to support law enforcement with evidence collection.
Additionally, we are committed to supporting the Office for Students and Department for Education in implementing a new registration condition which, from August 2025, will require all higher education providers to implement policies and procedures to prevent and tackle sexual misconduct and other forms of harassment affecting their students; including all forms of spiking.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a national water fluoridation strategy.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Water fluoridation is an effective population measure that reduces tooth decay. It should be used to complement other effective methods of increasing fluoride use, as set out in the statement by the UK Chief Medical Officers, which is available at the following link:
On 7 March 2025, we confirmed plans, following public consultation, to expand provision of water fluoridation in the north east of England. The outcome report is available at the following link:
There are no current plans for a national water fluoridation strategy. Any decisions on the future expansion of water fluoridation will be based on oral health needs, funding, and will be subject to public consultation.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the potential merits of conducting cross-conditional testing in the NHS when assessing for a neurodivergent condition to determine the potential co-occurrence of (a) autism and (b) ADHD to help (i) increase early diagnosis rates and (b) improve outcomes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The framework notes that autism should not be assessed without also considering the possibility of differential or co-occurring diagnoses.
In respect of ADHD, we are supportive of a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision and support across sectors, and their impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, including timely access to services and support. The ADHD taskforce will also work closely with the Department for Education’s neurodivergence task and finish group.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made recent progress on implementing section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government inherited a broken water system. These systemic issues require a proper reset with a reformed water sector in a new partnership with the Government to bring in the investment that is needed. The Government is committed to using legislation to reform the water sector and will continue to do so where necessary.
The Government recognises that current arrangements of sewer adoption need to be reviewed, which is why private sewerage has been included in the terms of reference of the ongoing review of the water sector, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe to recommend reforms to reset the water sector regulatory system.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of persistent school absences in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England; and what steps her Department is taking to improve school attendance in those areas.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at regional and local authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases.
The department does not publish attendance data at the constituency level, so we are unable to provide data specifically for the Mid Cheshire constituency. However, local authority, regional, and national absence data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england. Additionally, the department publishes more frequent experimental attendance data on a fortnightly basis, which you can access here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools, or via the dashboard here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/pupil-attendance-in-schools/.
This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence which is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts, although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons.
Central to the department’s approach are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024 and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services, including across the Mid Cheshire constituency, should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support, including where a pupil is not attending due to special educational needs.
Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.
The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why the department set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, who have offered support to 2000 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools, including in Cheshire, and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance. Bringing together best practice from the hubs, we have also published an attendance toolkit which aims to support schools to identify the drivers of absence in their setting and address these. This toolkit is available here: https://attendancetoolkit.blob.core.windows.net/toolkit-doc/Attendance%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf.
In addition to this work, the department also aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.
From early 2025, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will support all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice across areas, including attendance, and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another. For schools requiring more intensive support, RISE teams and supporting organisations will work collaboratively with their responsible body to agree bespoke packages of targeted support, based on a school’s particular circumstances.
School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs, across all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department is working across government on plans to provide a range of measures, including access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs which include access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. The department will also initiate new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance and off-rolling.
Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the number of unfilled teacher posts in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire, (c) the North West and (d) England in each of the last five years; and what steps she is taking to (i) fill those vacancies and (ii) improve teacher recruitment and retention in those areas.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.
Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, and can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
This includes the number and rate of unfilled teacher posts in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for the North West and England are published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3eb0c32-ece8-4c6e-778a-08dd2da39723.
The attached table provides the number and rate of unfilled teacher posts in the Mid Cheshire and Cheshire constituencies, aggregated from local authority level data, in each of the last five academic years, as at November each year.
The growing number of teacher shortages is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across schools, both mainstream and specialist, and colleges over the course of this Parliament.
The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, key to which is ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. The department has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, the department has made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.
In addition to recruiting expert teachers, the department wants existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession. New teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a Targeted Retention Incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for Targeted Retention Incentives.
To further support retention, the department has made available workload and wellbeing resources, developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service, and continues to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.
The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, providing professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted so far, with support continuing to be available through Education Support’s website.
The department is also committed to supporting schools in implementing flexible working practices, including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.
The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering Initial Teacher Training, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Cheshire Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester.