Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with Police and Crime Commissioners on tackling vehicle nuisance in residential areas.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any form of anti-social, dangerous or inconsiderate behaviour involving vehicles is a serious issue.
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for the Government, and a key part of the Safer Streets Mission.
On 25 February 2025, the Crime and Policing Bill was introduced to Parliament. The Bill includes proposals to give the police greater powers to clamp down on vehicles involved in anti-social behaviour, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing these vehicles.
This will strengthen the law and send a clear message that antisocial vehicles will not be tolerated.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to give powers to the police to tackle illegally modified exhausts for (a) cars and (b) motorcycles.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any form of anti-social, dangerous or inconsiderate behaviour involving vehicles is a serious issue.
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for the Government, and a key part of the Safer Streets Mission.
On 25 February 2025, the Crime and Policing Bill was introduced to Parliament. The Bill includes proposals to give the police greater powers to clamp down on vehicles involved in anti-social behaviour, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing these vehicles.
This will strengthen the law and send a clear message that antisocial vehicles will not be tolerated.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May to Question HL6929 on Roads: Cameras, if she will issue guidance to (a) police and (b) local authorities on how roadside noise cameras may be used to tackle noise-related anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not currently have plans to produce further guidance on noise cameras but is keeping up to date with any advancements in this technology.
It is ultimately for local authorities and the police to consider what the most appropriate enforcement routes may be for addressing issues with excessive vehicle noise within their area. The use of noise camera technology has already been taken forward by some local authorities.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the contribution from the apprenticeship levy to level 7 apprenticeships provided by (a) schools, (b) other bodies in the education sector and (c) bodies in the children’s social care sector to apprentices (i) under 21 (ii) over 21 in (A) 2023/24 (B) 2024/25 (C) 2025/26 and (D) 2026/27.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy is collected by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. HMRC publish overall levy receipts at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
The department is responsible for apprenticeships in England only. The funding for apprenticeship training comes from the annual protected apprenticeship budget agreed at Spending Reviews. Although closely linked, this is distinct from the total levy income collected and the funds in employer accounts.
The department is therefore not able to provide information about how individual levy contributions link to the amount of the budget that is spent supporting level 7 apprenticeships in specific bodies.
The department publishes official statistics on apprenticeships that include information on apprenticeship starts by sector, level, standard and age at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships/2024-25.
Details of apprenticeship standards by route at level 7 can be found at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeships/?levels=7&includeApprovedForDelivery=true.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the contribution from the apprenticeship levy to level 7 apprenticeships provided by (a) the NHS and (b) other bodies in the health and social care sector to apprentices (i) under 21 (ii) over 21 in (A) 2023/24 (B) 2024/25 (C) 2025/26 and (D) 2026/27.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy is collected by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. HMRC publish overall levy receipts at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
The department is responsible for apprenticeships in England only. The funding for apprenticeship training comes from the annual protected apprenticeship budget agreed at Spending Reviews. Although closely linked, this is distinct from the total levy income collected and the funds in employer accounts.
The department is therefore not able to provide information about how individual levy contributions link to the amount of the budget that is spent supporting level 7 apprenticeships in specific bodies.
The department publishes official statistics on apprenticeships that include information on apprenticeship starts by sector, level, standard and age at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships/2024-25.
Details of apprenticeship standards by route at level 7 can be found at: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeships/?levels=7&includeApprovedForDelivery=true.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much (a) set up, (b) other one-off, (c) food, (d) staffing and (e) other operating cost funding has been allocated to schools for school breakfast pilots in total; and what estimate she has made of the (i) number of eligible children and (ii) average number of breakfasts to be taken per eligible child over the period.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government tripled its investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million in the 2025/26 financial year to help ensure children are ready to learn at the start of the school day.
From the start of the 2025 summer term, the first 750 free breakfast clubs with early adopter schools are opening in towns and cities across the country.
Allocated funding covers early adopter food, delivery and staffing costs. It is based on previous breakfast club schemes, and discussions with schools who run breakfast clubs, and standard school staffing rates. All schools have received £500 to cover initial set-up costs and will receive a lump sum of at least £1,000 a term, regardless of how many pupils will be in attendance. Schools will then receive an arrears payment based on the number of pupils who accessed the club, the characteristics of the pupils with and with an additional daily rate for FSM6 pupils at the school. For special schools, there is a daily rate of £3.23 per day per child who attends the club. An average primary school, with 50% take-up, will receive over £23,000 for a full year for an early adopter Breakfast Club more than £21,000 above what was provided to schools under the previous government’s National School Breakfast Programme which failed to cover all food or staffing costs.
One function of the early adopters is to test how schools utilise the funding and how many pupils access the offer. The department has a robust strategy to capture and analyse this data.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 22 May 2025 on Childhood Obesity, HCWS652, what his distinction is between a product and a brand.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.
Advertising restrictions for less healthy food or drink will be determined by whether a television channel or video-on-demand service is regulated by Ofcom. All Ofcom-regulated services, whether broadcast or delivered over the internet, will be subject to a 9:00pm watershed. All other internet-delivered television services will be subject to the 24-hour restriction.
We announced in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament on 22 May that the Government will set out in legislation an explicit brand exemption from the advertising restrictions for brand advertising that does not identify a less healthy food or drink product. This will provide legal clarification on this aspect of the existing policy as it was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the Health and Care Bill, following extensive consultation.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 22 May 2025 on Childhood Obesity, HCWS652, whether the output of TV channels not viewed as live broadcast TV will count as (a) TV and (b) online.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.
Advertising restrictions for less healthy food or drink will be determined by whether a television channel or video-on-demand service is regulated by Ofcom. All Ofcom-regulated services, whether broadcast or delivered over the internet, will be subject to a 9:00pm watershed. All other internet-delivered television services will be subject to the 24-hour restriction.
We announced in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament on 22 May that the Government will set out in legislation an explicit brand exemption from the advertising restrictions for brand advertising that does not identify a less healthy food or drink product. This will provide legal clarification on this aspect of the existing policy as it was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the Health and Care Bill, following extensive consultation.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of school costs that is directly related to the number of pupils.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Every year the department publishes the schools’ costs technical note to help the sector to understand school costs and funding. Our analysis considers pupil demographic changes alongside other factors.
The department allocates most mainstream funding through the schools national funding formula (NFF). In the 2025/26 financial year, 92% of total schools NFF funding is being distributed through “pupil led” factors, which are based on pupil numbers and pupil characteristics, such as eligibility for pupil premium and special educational needs and disabilities.
Real terms per pupil comparisons are only one way in which the department communicates funding changes, and schools and local authorities can also see their funding as total cash amounts. The total size of the core schools budget in the 2025/26 financial year is £65.3 billion, a £3.7 billion increase over 2024/25. This represents a 6.0% rise in cash terms, or 3.3% increase in real terms.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received on the effectiveness of the change in the real terms per pupil funding measure as an indicator of growth or otherwise in school budgets when pupil numbers are declining.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Every year the department publishes the schools’ costs technical note to help the sector to understand school costs and funding. Our analysis considers pupil demographic changes alongside other factors.
The department allocates most mainstream funding through the schools national funding formula (NFF). In the 2025/26 financial year, 92% of total schools NFF funding is being distributed through “pupil led” factors, which are based on pupil numbers and pupil characteristics, such as eligibility for pupil premium and special educational needs and disabilities.
Real terms per pupil comparisons are only one way in which the department communicates funding changes, and schools and local authorities can also see their funding as total cash amounts. The total size of the core schools budget in the 2025/26 financial year is £65.3 billion, a £3.7 billion increase over 2024/25. This represents a 6.0% rise in cash terms, or 3.3% increase in real terms.