David Taylor

The Secretary of State recently met with water company bosses, including Thames Water, to make it clear that water firms will be held accountable for their performance for customers and the environment. Furthermore, after writing to Ofwat, the Secretary of State has secured agreement that funding for vital infrastructure investment is ringfenced and can only be spent on upgrades benefiting customers and the environment. Ofwat will also ensure that when money for investment is not spent, companies refund customers, with money never allowed to be diverted for bonuses, dividends or salary increases.

The Government also announced a new Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will turn around the performance of water companies, in the King’s Speech. The Bill will strengthen regulation, give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met and increase accountability for water executives. These are the first critical steps in enabling a long-term and transformative reset of the entire water sector.

I would also refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement made by the Secretary of State on 18 July, HCWS3.

The Environment Agency will publish the 2024 Event Duration Monitoring data, showing how long and how often storm overflows have been used, in March 2025. The data for previous years is available here.

The Government is clear that performance on the West Coast Main Line has not been good enough with too many cancellations and delays.

Ministers recently met with the Managing Director of Avanti West Coast and the Network Rail West Coast South Route Director to challenge them on poor performance and demand immediate action to deliver urgent improvements relating to service reliability. Ministers will be meeting them again next month to follow-up and to ensure progress.

In their capacity as the independent safety regulator, the Office of Rail and Road has not raised any concerns regarding signalling safety on the West Coast Mainline.

The Adult Social Care Activity Report is published annually by NHS England. This statistics publication is the main data source for our analysis of adult social care expenditure. It includes statistics about overall levels of spending and breaks these down by setting, primary support reason, and age group. It also includes statistics about the unit costs of different types of adult social care.

No specific assessment has been made. The appropriate provision and configuration of local services to best meet the needs of the local population and patients is a matter for National Health Service commissioners to consider.

The Government has been clear that NHS services are currently not meeting the high standards that patients should expect, and is committed to supporting the NHS to return to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution.

As a first step, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has appointed the Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of NHS performance, which will report in September 2024.

This government is working hard to ensure the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea FC reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine as quickly as possible, in line with the UK's unilateral declaration. The government is fully committed to that position, as part of our iron-clad support for Ukraine. UK officials continue to hold discussions with Mr Abramovich's representatives, experts and international partners, and we are doubling down on our efforts to reach a resolution.

The UK is appalled by reports that Ukrainian children living under Russian occupation and Ukrainian children who have been forcibly deported to Russia are being forced to take Russian citizenship, as well as subsequent reports that these children are being adopted into Russian families. The UK was pleased to participate in the most recent meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children on 1 October. We will continue to raise Russia's attempts to erase the Ukrainian identity of these children at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the UN and the Human Rights Council.

The UK continues to track Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children, which is a clear violation of international law. We were pleased to see another group of children returned via Qatari mediation in September, and are grateful for Qatar's continued engagement on this issue. The UK participated in the most recent meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children on 1 October and continues to work closely with the Ukrainian government on this issue. We have also raised Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the UN and the Human Rights Council.

The UK uses its position as penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council to call for coordinated, international action to bring an end to the conflict. On 18 September, the UK called an urgent council session to address escalation in El Fasher, where we called on the Rapid Support Forces to halt its siege of the area and reiterated our calls to both warring parties to return to negotiations in good faith. The UK will have the Security Council Presidency in November where Sudan will feature on the agenda. We look forward to the Secretary-General's recommendations on Protection of Civilians and will work closely with the UN, Council Members, and international partners to build momentum towards their implementation.

My Rt Hon. Friend the Home Secretary is committed to bringing order to the asylum system and has taken steps to unblock the backlog of claims. Official Development Assistance spending on demand-driven refugee costs is within international rules set by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. My Rt Hon. Friend the Chancellor will set out the Government’s spending plans, including ODA, at the Budget.

The Government will update the House in due course on the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending, including ODA-eligible spending to support asylum seekers and refugees within the UK.

The Government has engaged with people affected by the Ban throughout the response to the Independent Review; the response can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lgbt-veterans-independent-review-government-response.

Defence has worked closely with key stakeholders on the design of the scheme, enabling the voices of the veterans to be heard. Indications of interest were invited through the application process for non-financial restorative measures, aiding Defence in understanding more about the affected community and ensuring that the scheme considers the needs of the community. Further information regarding the restorative measures can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lgbt-veterans-apply-for-restorative-measures.

I recently held a briefing in which I welcomed questions and listened to the concerns of veterans directly from their MPs. This Government is committed to holding a Parliamentary debate to ensure Parliamentary scrutiny is given to the design of the scheme and that all veterans concerns may be represented.

Further information about available support and next steps can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/lgbt-veterans-support-and-next-steps

The Ministry of Defence has prioritised its support to Ukraine, including establishing processes to ensure equipment that is retiring, or is surplus to UK military requirements, is considered for donation to Ukraine. Similarly, the Ministry of Defence has enabled the transfer of donated equipment e.g. vehicles, to Ukraine from private organisations, or Other Government Departments such as the Home Office.

We will continue to support and enable donations of equipment.

We welcome support for Ukraine from across civil soceity. In coordination with the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) cohere donation offers from Industry and assists companies in achieving this goal. DBT regularly meets with defence and security trade associations to discuss requirements, based on Ukraine’s specific requests for equipment.