Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that adequate levels of infrastructure are provided alongside new housing developments.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 65505 on 14 July 2025.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support is available to help young people (a) develop skills and (b) access opportunities in South East Cornwall constituency.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As announced in the spending review, the department is making over £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/29.

This will support and grow the wide range of technical routes and work-based training available for people of all ages, across the country, including South-East Cornwall. This includes:

• Widening the apprenticeships offer into a growth and skills offer, including new foundation apprenticeships, which will give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working life.
• T Levels, a high quality technical education option for young people, including a valuable workplace industry placement which prepares them work.
• Higher Technical Qualifications, occupation-focused level 4-5 qualifications, approved and quality marked as providing the skills demanded in the workplace by employers.

There are ​a number of post-16 education and training providers in Cornwall ​delivering further education and skills provision. The largest of these is Cornwall College, ​judged as overall Outstanding in their latest Ofsted inspection, and which has campuses throughout Cornwall.

We have also strengthened legislation to ensure all secondary pupils have multiple opportunities for meaningful encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to ensure that funding allocations for (a) rural and (b) coastal communities adequately (i) recognise and (i) reflect the additional costs of delivering services in those areas.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

From 2026-27 we want to fundamentally improve the way we fund local authorities and direct funding to where it is needed most.

The Fair Funding Review 2.0 set out a proposal for an updated assessment that will effectively account for the different needs felt by communities across the country including considering the impact of remoteness on costs faced by rural and coastal communities, and the impact of commuters and tourists on major cities and coastal towns alike.

The consultation invited respondents to provide additional evidence for the impact of remoteness on the cost of delivering services.

We are reviewing responses and will publish more details in the consultation response in Autumn, followed by the provisional local government finance settlement.

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 it her policy to ensure that funding allocations for coastal communities adequately (a) recognise and (b) reflect the (i) circumstances of and (ii) impact of seasonality on public services in those communities.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

From 2026-27 we want to fundamentally improve the way we fund local authorities and direct funding to where it is needed most.

The Fair Funding Review 2.0 set out a proposal for an updated assessment that will effectively account for the different needs felt by communities across the country including considering the impact of remoteness on costs faced by rural and coastal communities, and the impact of commuters and tourists on major cities and coastal towns alike.

The consultation invited respondents to provide additional evidence for the impact of remoteness on the cost of delivering services.

We are reviewing responses and will publish more details in the consultation response in Autumn, followed by the provisional local government finance settlement.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of awarding Qualified Teacher Status to PhD holders without requiring completion of a Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Qualified teacher status (QTS) is the professional qualification for teachers in primary and secondary schools. Having a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) is not required to become a qualified teacher but many Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses also offer an academic award such as a PGCE.

QTS is usually achieved following successful completion of an ITT Course. All ITT courses leading to QTS must incorporate the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework in full. This framework is underpinned by the best independently verified evidence about what makes great teaching.

To achieve QTS, individuals must demonstrate all Teachers’ Standards. Subject expertise is a critical part of great teaching, but teachers also need to understand how children learn; how to plan a curriculum and structure lessons; how to adapt their teaching to the needs of the children in their classes, including those with special educational needs; and how to manage behaviour effectively.

Evidence shows that high-quality teaching is the most important in-school factor that improves outcomes for children, which is why we think it is right that only teachers who have met the Teachers’ Standards are awarded QTS.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review the disparity in targeted funding for young people experiencing homelessness.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government has increased funding for homelessness services this year by £233 million to a total of £1 billion. Local authorities can use this funding flexibly to meet the needs of people experiencing and at risk of homelessness in their area, including young people, according to local need.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Foot and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of compliance with conservation obligations on scheduled monuments located within agricultural land; and what steps he is taking to ensure that land management practices are compatible with heritage protection legislation.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Scheduled Monuments are protected via the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. Since 2013, positive management of Scheduled Monuments located within agricultural land, promoted through Defra’s agri-environment schemes, has helped to remove approximately 700 from Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier has measures to support such practices, further information is available at Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) police forces and (b) local partnerships to protect (i) hospitality and (ii) high street businesses during peak seasons.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government wants town centres to be vibrant, welcoming places where businesses thrive and people feel safe and come to shop, socialise and live.

Police and Crime Commissioners are leading on targeted action to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour that blights our town centres and high streets as part of the Safer Streets Summer Initiative. The work is being delivered in partnership with councils, schools, health services, business, transport providers and community groups all playing a role over the summer. Under the initiative, partners have used targeted enforcement, visible policing and place-based interventions to reduce retail and street crime and anti-social behaviour in over 500 town centres and high streets across England and Wales.

Devon and Cornwall Police have listed 30 locations as part of the Safer Streets Summer Initiative and have delivered interventions to tackle retail crime including Safer Business Action Days, targeted training for police and shop staff, and wider adoption of ShopWatch and DISC radio communication systems.

In addition, the Home Office is also providing £66.3 million funding in 2025-26 to all 43 forces in England and Wales to deliver high visibility patrols in the areas worst affected by knife crime, serious violence and anti-social behaviour. As part of this funding, Devon and Cornwall Police are in receipt of £1m.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the prevalence of modern slavery and labour exploitation in the hospitality sector.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government takes reports of labour exploitation in the hospitality sector very seriously, and we remain committed to tackling the crime of modern slavery – wherever it occurs.

The Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) has a statutory duty under the Immigration Act 2016 to undertake an annual assessment of the scale and nature of non-compliance in the labour market. Sectors which include hospitality were not identified as a high risk for non-compliance in the DLME’s 2025-26 annual Labour Market Enforcement Strategy.

The Government is establishing the Fair Work Agency (FWA) through the Employment Rights Bill. The FWA will bring together the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and HMRC’s National Minimum Wage Team. This will ensure a more cohesive and streamlined response to exploitation. The Fair Work Agency will have strong powers to investigate and take action against a range of labour market abuses, including serious exploitation and modern slavery in the hospitality sector. Once established, the FWA will take on the DLME’s role of assessing non-compliance in the labour market.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of seasonal visitor surges on levels of (a) shop theft and (b) antisocial behaviour in rural and coastal constituencies.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government recognises the great harm and misery that anti-social behaviour (ASB) and shop theft causes our communities, including during seasonal visitor peaks in coastal and rural areas.That is why tackling anti-social behaviour and shop theft are top priorities for this Government, and at the heart of our Safer Streets Mission.

We are providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police tackle retail crime. We are supporting the implementation of the new ‘Tackling Retail Crime Together’ strategy, published by policing, retail sector representatives and industry as part of collective efforts to combat shop theft.

As part of our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for ASB, who will work with communities to develop a local ASB action plan.

And we are legislating through the Crime and Policing Bill to strengthen powers available to the police to tackle ASB and shop theft.​ This includes new Respect Orders to tackle persistent adult ASB offenders, powers for the police to seize nuisance off-road bikes, repealing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence and introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps she plans to take to support the (a) stability and (b) off-season resilience of the hospitality workforce.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality sector.

The Government is committed to ending one-sided flexibility ensuring that all jobs provide a baseline of security and predictability, which includes ending exploitative zero hours contracts. We will deliver this commitment through two measures: a right to guaranteed hours, where the number of hours offered reflects the hours worked by the worker during a reference period and new rights to reasonable notice of shift, with proportionate payment for shifts cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice. These additional rights and protections will support stability and off-season resilience for hospitality workers.

In addition, as part of Get Britain Working, and in partnership with UKHospitality, the Government is expanding a Hospitality Sector Work-based Academy Programme pilot to 26 areas, which will help fill vacancies in the hospitality industry.

The Government has been clear that the best way to support workers is to stimulate growth, and we are implementing a number of initiatives to achieve this. For example, we established the Licensing Taskforce and will soon issue call for evidence on a National Licensing Policy Framework which will set out national direction for licensing authorities to consider economic growth and cultural value. The English Devolution Bill will protect businesses from upward only rent clauses, and we are introducing a strong new ‘Community Right to Buy’ to help communities safeguard valued community assets.

Recognising the important role the hospitality sector plays in the visitor economy, the Government has set an ambitious goal to grow inbound tourism to 50 million visitors annually by 2030. To help achieve this, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has established a new Visitor Economy Advisory Council, which is currently helping to co-create a Visitor Economy Growth Strategy, due to be published in the autumn.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of times that teaching assistants have delivered unsupervised classroom teaching in place of qualified supply staff in (a) academies and (b) other state schools in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department does not hold information regarding the number of times that teaching assistants have delivered unsupervised classroom teaching in place of qualified supply staff.

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Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department plans to take to help improve bus services in (a) South East Cornwall constituency and (b) other rural areas.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government knows how important, reliable and affordable bus services are enabling people to access education, work and vital services. The Government is committed to delivering better bus services across the country, including South East Cornwall and other rural areas right across England.

The government introduced the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill on 17 December as part of its ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill will put passenger needs, reliable services and local accountability at the heart of the industry by putting the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, including in rural areas. The Bill includes a measure on socially necessary services so that local authorities and bus operators have to have regard for alternatives to changing or cancelling services.

As part of the Autumn 2024 Budget, the government allocated £955 million to support and improve bus services in 2025/26. This includes £712 million for local authorities that can be used to expand services and improve reliability, which are currently massive obstacles for too many people. Cornwall Council has been allocated £10.5 million of this funding. Funding allocated to local authorities to deliver better bus services can be used in whichever way they wish to improve services for passengers, including expanding services and improving reliability.

The government reaffirmed its commitment to investing in bus services long-term in this Spending Review. On 11 June, the government confirmed additional £900m funding per year from 2026/27 to maintain and improve bus services, including taking forward franchising pilots and extending the £3 bus fare cap until March 2027.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to resolve delays in payments under the Sustainable Farming Incentive due to designated site complications such as underlying archaeology.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Rural Payments Agency are working at pace with customers to resolve those agreements identified where herbal lays have been applied to land containing historic features which impacted their eligibility.

With over 85% of these payments now been released, we are continuing to work with the affected customers to ensure any remaining payments due are made as soon as possible.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support is in place for farmers who are unable to access SFI agreements between the scheme’s closure in March 2025 and the planned re opening in mid 2026.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

There are currently record numbers of farmers taking part in farming schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. As of April 2025, these schemes supported 885,000 hectares of arable land being farmed without insecticides; 330,000 hectares of low input grassland being managed sustainably; and 85,000 kilometres of hedgerows being protected and restored.

In the recent spending review, we committed to carrying on the transition towards paying to deliver public goods for the environment. We have allocated a record £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that will better target SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Further information about the reformed SFI will be provided shortly.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will (a) publish in full the final version of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s updated Code of Practice before it is laid for approval and (b) allow parliamentary debate on the Code’s provisions prior to ministerial sign-off.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following the six week consultation and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities.

The Parliamentary process for laying the Code in Parliament is set out in the Equality Act 2006. The Government will consider the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the minister will lay it before Parliament. Parliament will then have a 40 day period to consider the Code at which point it will be published.

Found: Shrewsbury) Dr Ellie Chowns (Green Party; North Herefordshire) Barry Gardiner (Labour; Brent West) Anna Gelderd

Found: November 2024 Members present: Mr Toby Perkins, in the Chair Ellie Chowns Barry Gardiner Anna Gelderd

Submit Evidence (by 4 Nov 2025)

This Environmental Audit Committee inquiry will examine the Climate Change Committee's advice on the Seventh Carbon Budget. It will consider the assumptions and costs underpinning the CCC’s recommendations, explore the balance between emerging and established technologies, the policy choices facing Government, and the potential impacts on households, businesses and the wider economy. The inquiry will also look at how the Government should communicate choices and trade-offs, and how Parliament and the public can best scrutinise delivery plans and progress.