Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to issue updated guidance to local authorities to ensure (a) fair and (b) consistent access for young people to homelessness support services.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people. Youth homelessness will be considered as part of our long-term, cross-government strategy to get us back on track to ending homelessness for good. Local authorities need to consider homelessness support for young people as part of the Homelessness Code of Guidance (Homelessness code of guidance for local authorities - Guidance - GOV.UK), which includes the duties, and obligations on local authorities towards people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is considering replacing the Dance and Drama Awards scheme with the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will not be replacing the Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) grant scheme. The LLE will provide individuals with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years’ post-18 education to use over their working lives (£38,140 in today’s fees). The LLE will eventually be replacing the advanced learner loans scheme for levels 4 to 6.
To offer LLE provision, providers will need to be registered with the Office for Students. Funding for the 2026/27 academic year will be subject to confirmation in the government’s spending review.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve NHS staff (a) working conditions and (b) wellbeing.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government inherited a broken National Health Service with an overworked and demoralised workforce.
We hugely value all NHS staff and are committed to improving working conditions, so we can keep staff healthy, motivated, and retain valuable skills. That is why one of our first actions was to give NHS staff an above inflation pay rise.
Local employers across the NHS have in place arrangements for supporting staff, including occupational health provision, employee support programmes, and a focus on healthy working environments. At a national level, NHS England has made available additional emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support. They have also set out a roadmap for the NHS and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for NHS staff.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what are the retention rates for NHS staff for each year since 2020.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes quarterly information on the turnover of National Health Service staff within their NHS Workforce Statistics publication, with further information available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
This covers the rate of staff joining and leaving active service in English NHS trusts and other core organisations over annual periods. Rates include staff going on, or returning from, periods of unpaid leave, such as career and maternity breaks, and will also include staff remaining in their professions but undertaking roles in other sectors such as primary care, social care, or independent provision. This data is available at national and regional levels, as well as for individual staffing groups. The latest release, which covers the year to December 2024, can be found at the following link:
The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, to ensure we retain more of our skilled and dedicated staff. NHS England is leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to require the Environment Agency to revise environmental permits to enforce compliance with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations 1994.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) enforces the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations (UWWTR) through environmental permits. These set discharge limits, nutrient removal standards, and monitoring and reporting requirements, based on population size and receiving water sensitivity. Operators must regularly report data, which the EA assesses for compliance. Enforcement action is taken for breaches. Under the Environmental Permitting Regulations, the EA also reviews permits periodically to ensure they stay aligned with UWWTR, capturing changes in population, treatment standards, or sensitive area designations. This ensures permits remain current, effective, and protective of the environment.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is is taking to help tackle delays in the transfer of care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Department to tackle delays in the transfer of care, and to ensure that people receive the care that they need.
On 30 January 2025, the Government published a revised policy framework for the £9 billion Better Care Fund. The new BCF Policy Framework for the 2025-2026 financial year supports local areas to use pooled funding in way that delivers greater impact for those receiving integrated health and social care.
Under the new framework, local authorities and National Health Service integrated care boards are accountable for providing timely and joined-up support for people with more complex health and care needs, and for achieving more timely and effective discharge from acute, community, and mental health hospital settings.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, on (a) benefits advisory services and (b) charities.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published here Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
There will be no immediate changes. Changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility and the rebalancing of Universal Credit (UC) are not coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval.
We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met.
We have also announced a wider review of the PIP assessment which I will lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed welfare reforms on the capacity of the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published here Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
The Government has extended the Household Support Fund by a further year, from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026. This will ensure vulnerable households in the most need can continue to access support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. No decision has been made at this stage on funding beyond the end of March 2026. As with all other government programmes, any such funding will be considered in the round at Phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had discussions with the Office for Students on introducing greater flexibility for specialist conservatoire-style performing arts institutions.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All registered providers are expected to meet the same conditions of registration. It is important that all students benefit from the same level of protection, no matter where or how they choose to study. The Office for Students (OfS) takes a provider’s context into account when making its regulatory judgements.
The OfS welcomes specific feedback from providers where they feel they are experiencing disproportionate regulatory burden to ensure they can find the right balance.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Level 6 Trinity Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre will be in scope of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement when it is introduced.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will transform the post-18 student finance system to create a single funding system.
The LLE will replace higher education student finance loans and eventually replace the Advanced Learner Loan (ALL) scheme for levels 4 to 6. In the first instance, some courses will transfer from being ALL-funded to being LLE-funded upon the LLE’s introduction. This is the case for the Level 6 Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre, which will transfer and therefore be in scope for the LLE. For courses which are being transferred for LLE launch, the relevant providers, including the awarding organisation, Trinity College London, were notified of the transfer outcomes in March 2025.
The ‘List of Qualifications approved for funding’ can be found at the following link by filtering by LLE: https://www.qualifications.education.gov.uk/.