Aphra Brandreth

Carbon monoxide alarms should be properly tested before they can be placed on the UK market. British Standard EN 50291-1:2018 outlines the test methods and performance requirements of carbon monoxide alarms used in a domestic setting, and British Standard EN 50291:2:2019 outlines the same for carbon monoxide alarms used in recreational vehicles and similar premises.

The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, which is going through Parliament at the moment, will provide the powers needed to keep our wide and technical product regulation framework up to date, enabling the UK to maintain its high product standards.

Nuclear can play an important role in helping to achieve energy security and clean power while securing thousands of skilled jobs. As a site which has previously hosted a nuclear power station, and is now owned by Great British Nuclear, we want Wylfa to play an important role in new nuclear in the UK, and we will set out our plans for the site in due course.

I refer the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury to the answer of 24 June 2025 to Question 58507.

The department is committed to supporting the UK net-zero carbon targets. Since 2021, the department’s own building standards require that all new school buildings delivered by the department are net-zero carbon in operation and are adapted to climate change.

Additionally, the department recently announced the £80 million Great British Energy Solar Accelerator Programme, in partnership with GB Energy, that will install solar and other technologies, such as electric vehicle (EV) chargers, in 200 targeted schools and colleges, prioritising those in areas of deprivation, to start in 2025/26.

The department is providing support for all schools and colleges to start on their journey towards net zero via our new online sustainability support for education platform and our climate ambassador programme. Where schools are considering options to become more sustainable, including considering decarbonisation of their energy supply, our ‘Get help for buying’ service provides support to ensure that schemes procured are of high-quality and value to the sector. More information can be found at: https://gethelpbuyingforschools.campaign.gov.uk/.

Details of other government funding available to public bodies for sustainability, prepared by the Crown Commercial Service can be found at: https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/social-value/carbon-net-zero/funding-and-grants.

Capital funding allocated to the school sector each year can also be used for projects that improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of school buildings, as well as improving the condition of the estate to keep schools safe and operational.

The department has allocated £2.1 billion in condition funding for the 2025/26 financial year, which is £300 million more than the previous year.

An announcement on funding for the adoption and special guardianship support fund will be made as soon as possible. All future decisions will be considered as part of the next spending review.

The Cass Review was an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, so did not make any specific recommendations in respect of schools and local authorities. However, the final report highlighted the importance of what happens in school, and that guidance for schools should utilise the principles and evidence from the review.

It is crucial that schools and colleges receive guidance on these matters, which is why the government is looking carefully at the consultation responses for the draft guidance on gender questioning children, discussing with stakeholders and considering the evidence, including the Cass Review, before setting out next steps.

I refer the honourable member to the answers given on X June 2025 to PQs 61013 and 61014 regarding the potential impact of bluetongue regulations in North Shropshire.

Disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the devolved administrations to assess their disease risks and impacts in relation to their national herds, alongside the impacts of controls, and respond accordingly.

This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.

Food security requires a long-term picture of resilience to shocks. Over 37,000 businesses are already being supported through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) with their live agreements, with more in other schemes.

We will provide further details about the reformed SFI in summer 2025 which will support farmers, deliver for nature and target public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature.

The farming blog published on Wednesday 12 March set out Defra’s spend over the next two years (24/25 and 25/26). These are not ring-fenced figures and have the potential to change.

This showed that as of 11 March, £1.05 billion had been paid to farmers or committed for payment through existing agreements or submitted applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

The high uptake of the SFI scheme means it is fully subscribed. The decision to close the scheme to new applications was taken at that point.

As of the 24 March, of the applications that had been submitted for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 14,191 had received an agreement offers and 3,700 had not yet received an agreement offer.

As with all demand-led schemes there comes a point when they are fully-subscribed. We ensured farmers and their representative bodies were made aware when that happened.

Transport is an essential part of our mission to rebuild Britain, and we are absolutely committed to improving rail connectivity across the North and working with local leaders. Our Budget in October 2024 confirmed we are progressing planning and design work to support future delivery of our plans for northern rail connectivity and, following the cancellation of HS2 Phase 2, we are considering how to address capacity and connectivity issues north of Birmingham.

We are also going beyond the government’s promise to fix an additional 1 million potholes per year and providing a £500 million cash increase on 2024-25 local roads maintenance baseline funding, for 2025-26. Chester South and Eddisbury Parliamentary constituency is across two local authority areas, Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East. For 2025-26, Cheshire West and Chester will receive an uplift in highways maintenance funding of £4,084,000 for a total of £15,515,000, and Cheshire East will receive an uplift of £5,546,000 for a total of £21,030,000.

Future funding for capital investment in transport will be determined as part of DfT’s spending review, scheduled for spring 2025. This process will involve assessing national priorities and allocating resources accordingly to address critical infrastructure needs.

Whoever they are and wherever they live, we want individuals to secure appropriate work as we know that work is generally good for health and overall financial well being. We must ensure that disabled people and individuals with health conditions have the opportunity to work. The Keep Britain Working review, is an independent review looking at the role of employers in reducing health-related inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces. The lead reviewer, Sir Charlie Mayfield, is expected to bring forward recommendations in Autumn 2025. This review is backed by £240m investment, announced as part of the Get Britain Working White Paper to drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate.

Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. DWP have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care and WorkWell.

We recognise that for some people, treatment through medication may not be the best option, which is why we are continuing to expand access to alternative forms of treatment through NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes. This demonstrates our commitment to addressing the root causes of mental health issues and to providing support for people to contribute to the economy by remaining in or returning to work.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we are recruiting 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services to help ease pressure on busy services.

We continue to work with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment, alongside publishing a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade. There are a wide range of factors that will affect this future growth of the NHS mental health workforce, and we will provide an update in due course.

Individual health care providers are responsible for ensuring that their staff have the knowledge, skills, and competence to meet the specific needs of the communities they serve. To support this, NHS England offers a wide range of training opportunities designed to help mental health professionals identify and address the possible causes of mental distress.

These programmes cover a variety of settings, from early intervention and preventative psychological therapies services, such as Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges and Talking Therapies for adults, to crisis services for individuals with severe mental health conditions who may be at risk of harming themselves or others. In addition, NHS England provides training for staff working in physical health, accident, and urgent care centres, ensuring they are equipped to support individuals presenting with mental distress across demographics.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has received the application for tofersen and is currently reviewing it rapidly for quality, safety, and efficacy, for use in the United Kingdom.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources.

The NICE has selected tofersen for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by SOD1 gene mutations as a topic for guidance development through its Highly Specialised Technology (HST) programme. The HST programme appraises medicines for the treatment of very rare, and often very severe diseases, and evaluates whether they can be considered a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources.

Companies may put in place Early Access Programmes (EAPs) to allow early access to new medicines that do not yet have a marketing authorisation. Participation in EAPs is decided at an individual NHS trust level, and under these programmes, the cost of the drug is free to both the patients taking part in it, and to the NHS, although NHS trusts must still cover the administration costs and provide clinical resources to deliver the EAP.

There has been no such consideration. Foundation training and medical speciality training involve different responsibilities, expectations, and levels of experience. The two-year foundation programme acts as a bridge between medical school and specialty training. The programme provides trainees with the defined practical skills, competencies, and sound knowledge of how to manage acutely ill patients that prepares them for entry into specialty training.

There has been no recent assessment. Under the UK Foundation Programme curriculum, foundation doctors should receive career guidance and advice from educational supervisors, along with the opportunity to explore potential careers.

A variety of other tools and support are available to support resident doctors with their career development and job searches. This includes an e-learning for healthcare course on career planning, and guidance on training pathways and career opportunities for doctors on the NHS Health Careers website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/doctors

The UK is a leading bilateral donor to Ukraine. In 2022-23, UK Official Developmental Assistance (ODA) spend for Ukraine was £210.11 million and in 2023-2024 it was £222.95 million.

The UK allocated £236.7 million of ODA financing for Ukraine in the 2024/25 financial year. The final outturn and future planned allocations will be published in the 2024-25 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Annual Report and Accounts in summer 2025 (https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-02-06/hcws421 5 February 2025).

Recovery and reconstruction in Ukraine is estimated to require a total cost of $524 billion over the next decade. Given the scale of the damage, the UK's aim is to use its Official Developmental Assistance resources to deliver impact directly, mobilise other financing and facilitate the UK private sector to engage in supporting the recovery process.

Through initiatives like the Foundations for Infrastructure and Recovery (FIRE) programme, we are helping the Government of Ukraine to lay the foundations for a robust approach to infrastructure identification, appraisal, project preparation, design, and delivery in support of Ukraine's reconstruction.

Through the UK-led multi-donor programme Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), we support local Ukrainian authorities with direct assistance to enable the repair of critical services in regions on the front line. In its first phase, PFRU completed 401 rapid recovery interventions to improve service delivery across eight oblasts in front line areas, enabling more than 2 million residents to regain access to priority services such as healthcare, education, power, and water supplies. Our funding remains prioritised to those in greatest need.

We are proud of our fast, flexible, and responsive support to Ukrainians living through Russia's invasion. The UK has provided £477 million in humanitarian support to Ukraine and the region since the start of the full-scale invasion. The Prime Minister has recently said in Parliament that we will continue to support Ukraine's humanitarian needs. Funding allocation decisions for the current financial year are ongoing, which will prioritise support for those most in need. We continue to work with Ukrainian government systems, local organisations, international partners, and non-governmental organisations to respond to those needs.

Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have reaffirmed the need to support Ukraine's needs over the long term as a priority for our future development assistance. Detailed decisions on how the Official Developmental Assistance budget will be used are being worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review based on various factors including impact assessments. Funding allocation decisions for the current financial year are ongoing and will prioritise support for those most in need, including for Ukraine.

Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have reaffirmed the need to support Ukraine's needs over the long term as a priority for our future development assistance. Detailed decisions on how the Official Developmental Assistance budget will be used are being worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review based on various factors including impact assessments. Funding allocation decisions for the current financial year are ongoing and will prioritise support for those most in need, including for Ukraine.

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances.

Legislation implementing this policy will be brought forward in the Finance Bill ahead of the measure taking effect.

The Government published the White Paper ‘Restoring Control over the immigration System’ on 12 May 2025. The White Paper set out its intention to introduce a Temporary Shortage List to replace the Immigration Salary List (previously known as the Shortage Occupation List).

The list will initially be comprised of occupations where the MAC have previously identified as in shortage and those which are key to the Industrial Strategy. The Government will set out in due course the composition of that list.

Licenced establishments are responsible for the welfare of employees at animal testing facilities.

The Regulator has published extensive guidance for the regulated community on the operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The published guidance includes information on the operation of named roles whose responsibilities include ensuring that those dealing with animals are adequately educated, trained and supervised until they are competent and ensuring that those dealing with animals have access to the information they need.

The Home Office holds regular, scheduled, meetings with stakeholders from the regulated community to discuss their concerns.