Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to speech and language therapists in schools.

Answered by David Johnston

The department’s vision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), is the same as it is for all children and young people. The department wants them to achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives and to experience choice and control.

The first response when any child is falling behind in school is good quality teaching. To support with this, the department is developing a suite of Practitioner standards, called ’Practice Guides‘ in the SEND and alternative provision Improvement Plan, which will set out the best available evidence to help professionals in mainstream settings, including early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, including for those with speech and language needs.

In some cases, additional, specialist support may be required to meet the needs of a child, including support provided by speech and language therapists. The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning. The department established a steering group in 2023 to oversee this work, which is intended to be completed by 2025. The government is also backing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take over the next 15 years to meet the needs of the changing population. This includes increasing the number of allied health professionals such as speech and language therapists.

In addition, working with NHS England, the department is funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within the department’s Change Programme until 2025. The project will fund nine Integrated Care Boards and local areas within each of the nine Change Programme Partnerships to trial new ways of working to better identify and support children with SLCN in early years and primary school settings.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority on ensuring local independent retailers are not adversely affected by restrictive practices with regard to choice of stock by wholesale suppliers.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Responsibility for investigating individual and market-wide competition issues falls to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s independent competition authority. The Government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers to investigate and act if it finds that businesses are behaving anti-competitively in a market.As an independent authority, the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which, according to its prioritisation principles, it considers most appropriate.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the restraint of council tax precepts set by (a) town and (b) parish councils.

Answered by Simon Hoare

Precept levels are decided by individual town and parish councils and the Government has been clear that proposed increases should be well evidenced and justified. The Government expects the sector to take all available steps to mitigate the need for council tax increases and will take into account councils’ decisions when considering future action.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate she has made of the average cost per household of replacing a telecare system to accommodate the BT Digital Voice migration in (a) a private residence, (b) a retirement housing community and (c) a care home; and whether these costs include the provision of (i) battery backup systems and (ii) replacement of associated systems such as (A) lift alarms, (B) fire safety alarms and (C) intercom equipment.

Answered by Julia Lopez

Given the range of telecare systems, lifeline alarm systems or remote ringers available on the market, we cannot definitively provide cost estimates for replacing a device. Telecare devices can come with a range of potential add-ons that may increase costs, including but not limited to additional power resilience (such as multi-SIM connectivity solutions); personalised support (such as a dedicated helpline); and/or additional monitoring (such as tracking health data like heart rate or blood pressure).

It should be noted that the migration from analogue to digital landlines (also known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration) is not specific to BT; other telecoms providers are also upgrading their analogue lines. Furthermore, the telecoms industry is not responsible for the provision or maintenance of telecare devices.

The government is working closely with telecoms companies, Local Authorities and telecare services providers to understand how the migration may impact telecare users and what more can be done to mitigate risks associated with the migration. For example, all major communications providers (including BT and Virgin Media O2) have signed up to a PSTN Charter where they commit not to migrate telecare users without a full confirmation that they have a compatible and functioning telecare solution in place.

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 opening a recreational catch and release fishery for bluefin tuna by summer 2024.

Answered by Mark Spencer

Legislation to enable a UK bluefin recreational fishery was laid in Parliament on 14 March 2024. If the legislation is enacted it will support the opening of a recreational fishery in English waters this summer.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 22 April 2024 to Question 21381 on Telemedicine: Older People, whether her Department undertook an economic impact assessment of Public Switched Telephone Network migration.

Answered by Julia Lopez

Ofcom and DSIT have not conducted an economic impact assessment for the transition to digital landline services. The decision to make this transition was made by telecoms companies, not the Government.

The UK’s telecoms regulator released its positioning statement in 2019 which reviewed various regulatory considerations. Ofcom is responsible for the monitoring process of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration. Ofcom in its statement captured issues related to consumer impact, downstream service providers, and the wider impact on the future of fixed telephone services. Ofcom and DSIT recognise the necessity in upgrading the PSTN. The network is increasingly unreliable and prone to failure; therefore, it is imperative for the PSTN to undergo the necessary upgrades to keep pace with modern-use of telecommunications services.

While this is an industry-led process, Ofcom and Government are working together to monitor how Communication Providers approach the migration, with the protection of vulnerable customers being the top priority.

Found: Conservative, Burnley ) Jane Hunt MP (Conservative, Loughborough ) Ian Lavery MP (Labour, Wansbeck) Anthony

Found: Nov 2022) 0 of 1 (0.0%) Ian Lavery (Labour, Wansbeck) (added 29 Nov 2022) 1 of 1 (100.0%) Anthony

Found: 2022) 2 of 16 (12.5%) Ian Lavery (Labour, Wansbeck) (added 29 Nov 2022) 13 of 16 (81.2%) Anthony

Found: Anthony Mangnall made representations. Q6 Chair: Anthony, welcome.

Found: Q319 Anthony Mangnall: You mentioned these external hires.

Found: Conservative, Burnley ) Jane Hunt MP (Conservative, Loughborough ) Ian Lavery MP (Labour, Wansbeck) Anthony

Found: Anthony Mangnall made representations.

Found: Business and Trade Committee Member also present: Anthony Mangnall.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Douglas Chapman; Jane Hunt; Ian Lavery; Anthony

Found: Q226 Anthony Mangnall: Is the management of UK-EU trade well undertaken by the FCDO?

Found: Andrew Rosindell Sir Simon Clarke Mr Philip Hollobone Sir James Duddridge Miss Sarah Dines Anthony

Found: Not called _NC1 Anthony Mangnall Bob Blackman [R] Mr Marcus Fysh Sir Desmond Swayne [R] Nick

Found: _NC1 Anthony Mangnall Bob Blackman [R] Mr Marcus Fysh Sir Desmond Swayne [R] Nick Fletcher

Found: Anthony Mangnall NC1 To move the following Clause— “Repeal of requirement for selective licensing

Found: _NC1 Anthony Mangnall Bob Blackman [R] Mr Marcus Fysh Sir Desmond Swayne [R] Nick Fletcher

Found: Some positive comments on the Procurement Act by Anthony Mangnall MP (I note that does not apply to