Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on improving flood defences.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 – the largest flood programme in history – a record investment that’s projected to better protect nearly 900,000 properties. We are already making a difference. We delivered 151 schemes in our first year in government and we redirected £108 million into urgent flood and coastal defence maintenance to halt the decline of flood asset condition following years of under-investment.
Following consultation in October, the government announced major changes to its flood and coastal erosion funding policy. The new funding policy will optimise funding between building new flood projects and maintaining existing defences and will ensure that deprived communities continue to receive vital investment. We will use government funding to unlock investment from public, private and charitable sources, making every £1 of Government investment go further.
The government also set up its Floods Resilience Taskforce, providing oversight of national and local flood resilience, and improve preparedness ahead of the autumn and winter flood season.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the number of holiday lets in the West of England.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is developing a registration scheme to collect data on short-term lets across England. The Scheme, which is launching in 2026, will give the Government and local authorities valuable insights on the number of short-term lets in local areas.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of families which will receive 30 hours of free childcare in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency in 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The latest January 2025 statistics relating to funded early education and childcare were published on 11 July 2025. Statistics at constituency level are not readily available. Figures on the number of 3 and 4 year-olds registered for the 30-hour working parent entitlement in Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/440c7635-9b30-45ae-7a83-08de11c58191.
Following the expansion from September 2025, figures on the number of children aged 9 months to 2 years registered for the 30-hour working parent entitlement, at local authority, regional, and national level, will be published in next year’s January 2026 statistics on GOV.UK.