Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support hospices to provide high quality end-of-life care.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.

We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.

I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local integrated care boards on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26.  This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.

In the long-term, the Government and the NHS will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to extend the rollout of Young Futures Hubs.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

In order to start the roll-out of Young Futures Hubs, up to £2m is being made available for 8 Early Adopters Local Authorities, so that the first Young Futures Hubs will be operational later this financial year.

As the Prime Minister stated in his speech on 15th July, we have plans to open 50 hubs over the next four years. The design and implementation of the programme will be informed by our work with early adopters, and they will be located where they will have the most impact.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the steps she has taken to help (a) improve school attendance and (b) reduce the numbers of pupils persistently absent.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

This government is determined to tackle the challenge of school absence. Missing school regularly is harmful to children’s attainment and wellbeing.

We are continuing our focus on improving school attendance through a ‘support first’ approach as set out in our statutory guidance. We have also developed real-time data tools that allows schools to compare attendance against similar schools and enable earlier intervention. Alongside this, we are investing in targeted support, including £15 million to set up the attendance mentors programme supporting 10,800 pupils and establishing 90 attendance and behaviour hubs that will support thousands of schools around the country.

Thanks to the efforts of schools, absence is moving in the right direction, with children attending over 5.31 million more days this year compared to last. However, around one in five pupils are still missing 10% or more of school, which is why the department is continuing to drive further improvement.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase access to higher technical qualifications and degree courses by low-income students.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Post-16 White Paper sets out our vision for a reformed system that helps everyone with the desire and aptitude to access higher education (HE), breaking down barriers to opportunity and supporting growth.

Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are a key route into HE for disadvantaged learners. At Level 5, 54% of learners come from the 40% most deprived areas. As of September 2025, 281 qualifications have been approved as HTQs across 13 occupational routes, and the growth of HTQs will help to address key skills gaps.

We aim to reform regulation of Access and Participation Plans, allowing the Office for Students (OfS) to be more risk-based. There will be greater accountability for providers lagging behind in supporting disadvantaged students, and reduced bureaucracy for those doing well, with a greater focus on continuous improvement.

We will introduce targeted maintenance grants to support students from low-income households studying courses at Levels 4 to 6, including technical qualifications and degrees, aligned with the government’s missions and the Industrial Strategy. The department is also introducing the lifelong learning entitlement, to help people study flexibly in a way that suits their needs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of pupils who were persistently absent from school in (a) north east Somerset and (b) South Gloucestershire between September 2024 and July 2025.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department publishes figures from the school census on pupil absence in England. The latest data covers the autumn and spring terms of the 2024/25 academic year and is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2024-25-autumn-and-spring-term. This data has been available since 23 October 2025.

The published data includes numbers and rates of persistent absence by local authority, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/917c09ab-3598-4b7e-95ac-08de11382822. Absence data from the school census is not yet available for the full 2024/25 academic year.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her department is taking to increase access to grassroots sport facilities in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone should have access to, and benefit from, quality sport facilities. They provide important community hubs for people of all ages to be active and connect people to the places in which they live.

That is why, we are investing £98 million through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Fund and have committed a further £400 million through this Spending Review period into new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities in communities right across the UK. This funding will be invested in new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities that promote health and wellbeing and remove the barriers to physical activity for under-represented groups. We are now working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need and will then set out further plans.

Over the last four years, the constituency of North East Somerset and Hanham has received a total of £621,712.80 through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Fund to fund sixteen projects.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the delivery of youth services in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we are committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. This is why we are developing a National Youth Strategy to set out a new long-term vision for young people and an action plan for delivering this. This strategy will cover youth services, provision and policy at local, regional and national levels. We will publish the Strategy later in the year.

Additionally, outdoor learning providers in North East Somerset and Hanham were eligible to apply for this year’s Adventures Away from Home fund. This £4.7 million investment is delivered by UK Youth and supports organisations to deliver outdoor learning experiences for disadvantaged or vulnerable young people.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will set out his Department’s plans to provide support to help sick and disabled people into work.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 is driving 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. We therefore 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, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, WorkWell and NHS Health and Growth Accelerators.

In our March Green Paper, we set out our Pathways to Work Guarantee, backed by £1 billion a year of new additional funding by 2030. We will build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits.

In recognition of employers’ vital role in addressing health-related economic activity, we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent Keep Britain Working Review. The Report was published on 5 November. In partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), we are immediately launching Vanguards to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work and develop a Healthy Workplace Standard, putting Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action from day one.

Additionally, the DWP and DHSC Joint Work and Health Directorate has developed a digital information service for employers, continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme, and continues to increase access to Occupational Health.

The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It also outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) pubs, (b) bars and (c) venues.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We recognise that hospitality businesses are at the beating heart of communities, providing not just a place to socialise but essential services and local jobs. That’s why we’re investing £440,000 with Pub is The Hub to help rural pubs diversify, aiming to support rural communities, create new jobs and services.

In April, we launched a Taskforce to review premises licensing and develop proposals for a more balanced system that safeguards communities while supporting responsible businesses. These reforms form part of the Small Business Strategy, which is designed to tackle late payments, improve access to finance and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens.

We are also creating a fairer business rates system, including permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a rateable value under £500,000. We continue to work closely with the sector through the Hospitality Sector Council to address challenges.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the expected financial impact on families of the Warm Homes Discount this winter.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government recognises that we need to support households struggling with bills whilst we transition to clean power by 2030. This is why we delivered the Warm Home Discount to around 3 million eligible low-income households last winter. On 19 June we announced that we are expanding the Warm Home Discount to around an additional 2.7 million households. This means that from this winter, around 6 million low-income households will receive the £150 support to help with their energy bills.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce levels of rough sleeping.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government has increased funding for homelessness services by £316 million to a total of more than £1 billion this year to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping.

This includes an additional £69.9 million announced last month for the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, taking total investment through this grant to more than £255 million this year. We will publish our cross-Government homelessness strategy later this year which will set out the actions needed across central and local government and the homelessness sector to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.