Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of maintaining regional livery designs as railway franchises are brought back into public ownership.

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

The Department has not assessed the potential merits of maintaining regional livery designs as railway franchises are brought back into public ownership.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer of 25 November 2024 to Question 14940, on Project Gigabit and Shared Rural Network, how Ofcom tests areas for compliance with their standard for good coverage.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Ofcom’s approach to testing compliance is available on Ofcom’s website. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/cellular-coverage/

It involves a combination of desk-based assessment against the mobile network operators (MNO) coverage predictions and drive testing in a sample of locations across the UK.

Ofcom uses scanners installed in vehicles to capture a range of information including mobile signal strength across the UK’s road network. This provides signal strength measurement samples for each MNO across different regions and terrains. This data is then used for comparison at an aggregated level with the coverage predictions the MNOs supply to Ofcom.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of students with Turing grants who are eligible for free school meals attend an independent school.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Turing Scheme is the UK Government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. The Turing Scheme provides additional funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them to participate in international placements. All students from disadvantaged backgrounds can get funding for travel-related costs. This includes visa application fees, vaccines, medical certificates, passports, and related travel insurance. Students with special educational needs and disabilities can also get funding for their support needs.

Schools identify students from a disadvantaged background using the following criteria:

• Someone with an annual household income of £25,000 or less.
• Someone who has been entitled to free school meals (FSM) at any point in the past six years because of being in a low-income household.
• Someone with experience of being in care or who is a care leaver, including anyone who is or has been in care or from a looked after background at any stage of their life.
• A refugee or an asylum seeker.
• Someone who is receiving Universal Credit or income related benefits themselves, or lives with someone who does.

Receiving FSM in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England or primary 1 to 5 in Scotland does not automatically meet the criteria for funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This list is not exhaustive. If a school identifies pupils who do not precisely meet these criteria but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, they may include them in their application.

As the department does not gather data on which criteria students meet to be considered as being from a disadvantaged background, the department is not able to provide a breakdown of the number of participants in the Turing Scheme who are in receipt of FSM.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) schools and (b) students with Turing grants receive free school meals.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Turing Scheme is the UK Government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. The Turing Scheme provides additional funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them to participate in international placements. All students from disadvantaged backgrounds can get funding for travel-related costs. This includes visa application fees, vaccines, medical certificates, passports, and related travel insurance. Students with special educational needs and disabilities can also get funding for their support needs.

Schools identify students from a disadvantaged background using the following criteria:

• Someone with an annual household income of £25,000 or less.
• Someone who has been entitled to free school meals (FSM) at any point in the past six years because of being in a low-income household.
• Someone with experience of being in care or who is a care leaver, including anyone who is or has been in care or from a looked after background at any stage of their life.
• A refugee or an asylum seeker.
• Someone who is receiving Universal Credit or income related benefits themselves, or lives with someone who does.

Receiving FSM in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England or primary 1 to 5 in Scotland does not automatically meet the criteria for funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This list is not exhaustive. If a school identifies pupils who do not precisely meet these criteria but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, they may include them in their application.

As the department does not gather data on which criteria students meet to be considered as being from a disadvantaged background, the department is not able to provide a breakdown of the number of participants in the Turing Scheme who are in receipt of FSM.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November to Question 13473 and the Answer of 20 November 2024 to Question 14457 and 16158 on London North Eastern Railway: WiFi, what proportion of complaints about facilities on board were about wifi; and what the evidential basis is for the conclusion that wifi is not a significant cause of customer dissatisfaction.

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

For the period July to September 2024 London North Eastern Railway received 64 complaints relating to Wi-Fi reliability which equates to 0.75 per cent of all complaints received in that period.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help improve the accessibility of information at bus stops for disabled people.

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

The government wants everyone to have access to public transport and is   committed to improving services so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. On October 1st, the first phase of the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 came into force, meaning that newer vehicles providing local services must provide audible and visible information on stops, destinations and diversions. The majority of services will need to comply by October 2026.

Local authorities are responsible for the bus stops and shelters in their area, however the government will work with the sector to help drive improvements to real time information at bus stops as part of the government’s wider plans to deliver better bus services for passengers.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11881 on Research Finance, what proportion of the £335m allocated to his Department for spend on research and development in 2025-26 will be classified as official development assistance.

Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Following the spending review phase one settlement letters from HM Treasury (to which PQ 11881 refers), the FCDO is running an internal process to be agreed with Ministers, to decide on internal allocations for 2025-26. This will include allocations of Official Development Assistance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 16156 on Turing Scheme: Free School Meals, how many and what proportion of students with Turing grants are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Through the Turing Scheme, in the 2024/25 academic year, education providers and other eligible organisations from across the UK and British Overseas Territories have been allocated over £105 million to send their students on more than 43,000 study and work placements across the globe. Around 23,000 (53%) of these opportunities will be for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Information on the number and proportion of disadvantaged students in previous years of the Turing Scheme is available at the following links:

• 2021/22 Academic Year: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/funding-opportunities/funding-results-2021-to-2022/.
• 2022/23 Academic Year: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/funding-opportunities/funding-results-2022-23/.
• 2023/24 Academic Year: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/funding-opportunities/funding-results-2023-to-2024/.

For the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, the figures are subject to change following quality assurance of providers’ final reports of the placements that took place. This data will be published in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help improve the provision of real time information at bus stops.

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

The government knows how important it is that passengers have better access to information about bus services. In 2020, the Public Service Vehicles (Open Data) (England) Regulations were passed which utilised the powers from the Bus Services Act to require bus operators in England outside of London to share high-quality, accurate and up-to-date timetables, fares and location data. To facilitate this, the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) was subsequently launched in 2020.

Local authorities are responsible for the bus stops and shelters in their area, however the government will work with the sector to help drive improvements to real time information at bus stops as part of the government’s wider plans to deliver better bus services for passengers.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 between Microsoft and the Crown Commercial Service, what guidance is available to civil servants on securing official documents held online.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Everyone who works with government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards. The ‘Government Security Classifications Policy’ and ‘Guidance 1.1: Working at OFFICIAL’ set a range of baseline security behaviours and controls for all civil servants to follow on how to process OFFICIAL information securely, wherever it is collected, stored, processed or shared across HMG (electronically, in hardcopy or verbally) and with the wider public sector and external partners. Government departments and other public sector organisations are responsible for ensuring civil servants understand their duties and responsibilities.

Departments have Knowledge and Information Management professionals, and Digital and Data professionals, to help configure access permissions and other protections within their cloud based systems, such as within Microsoft 365.

Microsoft has produced various pieces of guidance for the UK government, in partnership with the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), Government Security Group and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). These have been created to support government organisations that use Microsoft 365. They outline how to configure the Microsoft 365 platform to enable a secure and interoperable experience for civil servants operating at the OFFICIAL tier.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which Minister is responsible for the interface between innovation and business to drive growth.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation is responsible for Innovation across the Missions, including the Growth Mission. However, a wide range of DSIT’s policy areas support businesses and contribute to innovation-led growth, and therefore all Ministers will have an interest. A full list of Ministerial responsibilities is at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-ministers-and-responsibilities.

Found: Innovation and Technology 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ www.gov.uk/dsit Chi Onwurah

Found: Yours sincerely, Chi Onwurah MP Chair – Science, Innovation and Technology Committee

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Chi Onwurah (Chair); Emily Darlington; George Freeman; Dr Allison

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