Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the press release entitled Prime Minister unveils new opportunities for young people to re-connect with their communities, published on 5 August 2025, how much additional funding will be available in Bedfordshire.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS and the National Lottery Community Fund launched Phase 3 of the Million Hours Fund, a £19 million joint investment, to provide youth organisations with funding to deliver additional hours of positive activities for young people in areas with higher levels of anti-social behaviour. Wards who were eligible for the Million Hours Fund in Bedfordshire can be found here.
Additionally, organisations in Bedfordshire are eligible to apply to the Adventures Away from Home Fund which will support organisations to deliver outdoor learning experiences for disadvantaged or vulnerable young people. Funding by area will be known once all awards have been made. Applications are open until Friday 26th Sept 2025 through the UK Youth website.
Bedfordshire is not eligible to apply for the Better Youth Spaces Fund nor a participant in the pilot phase of the Local Youth Transformation programme. However, local areas who were not selected this year may not be excluded from participating in any future rounds depending on geographical eligibility.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the value for money of the (a) economic growth contribution and (b) research output provided by each university.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the vital role universities play in driving economic growth, producing world-leading research, and delivering value for money to students. Frameworks like the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) help ensure accountability for public research funding and demonstrate the quality and value of the research and knowledge exchange delivered by UK universities.
For each £1 of publicly funded research income, the UK higher education (HE) sector’s research and knowledge exchange activities generate approximately £9.9 in economic impact across the UK (2021/22). For every £1 of public funding for its teaching activities, the UK HE sector generates approximately £13 in economic impact from these activities across the UK (2021/22).
For students, the Office for Students (OfS) monitors outcomes including continuation, completion, progression and graduate earnings, helping ensure that public investment in HE delivers high quality outcomes for both individuals and society.
The department continues to work closely with the OfS and other bodies to support universities in delivering positive impacts for students and the wider economy.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the value for money to students of each UK university.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the vital role universities play in driving economic growth, producing world-leading research, and delivering value for money to students. Frameworks like the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) help ensure accountability for public research funding and demonstrate the quality and value of the research and knowledge exchange delivered by UK universities.
For each £1 of publicly funded research income, the UK higher education (HE) sector’s research and knowledge exchange activities generate approximately £9.9 in economic impact across the UK (2021/22). For every £1 of public funding for its teaching activities, the UK HE sector generates approximately £13 in economic impact from these activities across the UK (2021/22).
For students, the Office for Students (OfS) monitors outcomes including continuation, completion, progression and graduate earnings, helping ensure that public investment in HE delivers high quality outcomes for both individuals and society.
The department continues to work closely with the OfS and other bodies to support universities in delivering positive impacts for students and the wider economy.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 82 of the NHS Ten Year Plan, whether ICBs undergoing re-organisation will be further re-organised if their boundaries are not coterminous with new strategic authorities.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To deliver a reduction in running costs, a number of integrated care boards (ICBs) will cluster together to share leadership and functions. Clustering ICBs remain legally separate organisations with their own financial allocations. It will mean that during this financial year, the number of ICB senior leadership teams will go from 42 to 26. These have been published on the NHS England website, available at the following link:
In the long term, there will be fewer, larger ICBs enabling them to harness a shared budget of sufficient size to improve efficiency and reduce running costs.
In areas where the boundaries of strategic authorities are not known, ICBs, including those that have clustered, may undergo future boundary changes to allow for alignment with newly created strategic authorities, and newly established unitary authorities resulting from local government reorganisation. Our aim throughout will be to deliver the best solutions for patients and citizens.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of US tariffs on economic growth.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
My department has been assessing the impact of US tariffs on the UK economy, in a rapidly changing global trading environment. We are constantly engaging directly with businesses from across all sectors to gather real time intelligence on the impact of tariffs to directly inform our discussions with the US. This analysis underpinned our agreement of the Economic Prosperity Deal, which protects jobs in the automotive, steel, aluminium, pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors - sectors that employ over 320,000 people across the UK.
By securing and implementing this deal, we are supporting the conditions necessary for economic growth.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the sectoral economic impact of US tariffs.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
My department has been assessing the impact of US tariffs on the economy. This includes sector-by-sector impact assessments and scenario modelling. We are constantly engaging directly with businesses from across all sectors to gather real time intelligence on the impact of tariffs to directly inform our discussions with the US and the ways that we support UK businesses in this rapidly changing environment.
This analysis underpinned our agreement of the Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD), which protects jobs in the automotive, steel, aluminium, pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors - sectors that employ over 320,000 people across the UK.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has conducted an impact assessment for the UK-India trade deal.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the member for Mid Bedfordshire to the answer my predecessor gave to UIN 73978 on 5 September 2025.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction on levels of fishing at the Blue Hole in the South Atlantic.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in conjunction with the Falkland Islands Government, continue to collaborate closely to assess the implications of the Agreement on fishing in the South Atlantic. During the Informal Consultations of State Parties to the UN Fish Stocks Agreement (ICSP-18), held at the UN in May 2025, Defra colleagues recommended initiating further multilateral discussions to explore the implications of the Agreement. In parallel, both departments are continuing to work with the Falkland Islands Government to address concerns around unregulated fishing in the Blue Hole and to ensure their interests are represented in international fisheries meetings.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 require New Towns Development Corporations to produce a design code for new towns.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has been clear that the next generation of new towns must be well-connected, well-designed, sustainable, and attractive places where people want to live and have all the infrastructure, amenities, and services necessary to sustain thriving communities.
Building on lessons learned from past initiatives, the New Towns Taskforce developed draft placemaking principles. These were set out in the Taskforce’s interim update on the new towns programme which can be found on gov.uk here. They highlighted the importance of long-term vision and stewardship, as well as the central role of local communities in shaping the place they live in. Importantly, the principles also include a 40% affordable housing target, with an emphasis on homes for social rent.
The Taskforce has now submitted its final report to the government. This includes its final recommendations on design and placemaking. The government will now take a short period to consider carefully the Taskforce's recommendations and we will then publish both the report and a formal response.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2025 to Question 61248 on Green Belt: Maps, whether local authorities will be required to publish a map of grey belt areas within their areas during the local plan process.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
It is for individual local planning authorities to undertake the necessary assessments to identify if land is grey belt, either through plan making or through considering specific applications that come forward.
Similarly, it is for authorities to determine whether and how to evidence, justify, amend, and set out Green Belt boundaries through the preparation or updating of statutory plans.