Ian Lavery

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 25th February is attached.

The Hospitality Sector Council’s Terms of Reference is publicly available, outlining that membership is by invitation only and is subject to final agreement by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) Ministers in consultation with the joint chairs. Members are selected to provide a breadth of knowledge and experience across the hospitality sector and Government. All members are selected in a personal capacity and will be expected to speak for their areas of expertise rather than the specific interests of their organisation.

Membership is reviewed by DBT and it may be amended to take account of changing priorities in the sector to ensure appropriate representation and expertise is maintained.

We understand that this will be a concerning time for workers at TGI Fridays, and we stand ready to support those impacted. Affected employees will be able to access Government support, including Universal Credit and Job Centre Plus to help them find new jobs, through its Rapid Response Service. DBT officials are monitoring developments and are in touch with administrators.

Through the recently introduced Employment Rights Bill, we are amending existing legislation to ensure employers accept flexible working requests, except where they are not reasonably feasible. These changes will support employees to access flexible working, including women. We know flexible working is particularly important supporting women who combine work with caring responsibilities.

The Government greatly values kinship carers who come forward to care for children who cannot live with their parents. The Government has committed in the Plan to Make Work Pay to review the system of parental leave to ensure that it better supports working families. We will set out more information in due course.

We do not hold any contracts for this supplier “Altrad”.

Although standing charges are a commercial matter for suppliers, and are regulated by Ofgem, we know that too much of the burden of the bill is placed on them. The Government has worked constructively with the regulator on the issue of standing charges, and we are committed to lowering the cost of them.

The Government understands that there is a degree of variance in electricity standing charges across the country. This arises from a regional variation in electricity distribution costs and reflects the different costs of maintaining and upgrading the distribution network in a specific area, and the number of consumers those costs are spread across.

Ofgem’s recently published discussion paper sets out the options for how standing charges could be reduced, including by moving some supplier operational costs off standing charges onto the unit rate, increasing the variety of tariffs available for consumer in the market, and in the longer term, reviewing how system costs are allocated. Ofgem's publication can be found here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/call-for-input/standing-charges-domestic-retail-options. The Government will continue to support Ofgem in this work and ensure that standing charges are reduced.

Our Manifesto committed to reviewing the surplus sharing arrangements and work is already underway to initiate that process. We are committed to transferring the Investment Reserve and ending the injustice of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme.

Museums and galleries play a crucial role in our civic life, and delivering central and local government priorities. Their programmes and activities promote education and wellbeing, and they are central to the vibrancy of our towns, cities and communities. We encourage all councils to continue investing in and partnering with local cultural providers, to safeguard communities’ access to museums and their heritage.

The government is committed to stabilising local government funding. We look forward to engaging further with sector stakeholders, metro mayors, and across Whitehall, to promote the value of museums to society and their role in delivering our policy priorities.

Birkbeck University’s Mapping Museums project monitors museum openings and closures across the UK. In the last ten years, data indicates that 29 Arts Council England Accredited museum sites have closed in England.

I look forward to engaging further with sector stakeholders, and across Whitehall, to promote the value of museums to society and their role in delivering our policy priorities.

All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. However, we know that too many children and young people face barriers to learning. This is not acceptable, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break down barriers and the unfair link between background and success, helping all children achieve and thrive wherever they are in the country.

High and rising standards in every school are at the heart of this mission. The department aims to deliver these improvements through excellent teaching and leadership, a high-quality curriculum, and a system which removes the barriers to learning that hold too many children back.

To ensure all children and young people have expert qualified teachers driving high and rising standards across our schools and colleges, the department is committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers.

Teaching School Hubs have been established across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework, national professional qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Three Rivers Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence which delivers teacher training and development across Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland.

We have also launched the Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at key challenges to attainment, and the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve.

The department is strengthening our tools for faster and more effective school improvement by launching the new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams. Supported by over £20 million, these teams will provide both mandatory, targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve, and a universal service, acting as a catalyst for a self-improving system for all schools.

The department has also introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to give every family the certainty that they will be able to access a good local school for their child, where they can achieve and thrive, regardless of where they live.

Absence is one of the biggest barriers to success for children and young people. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. This government is determined to tackle this and have a comprehensive strategy in place.

This includes our attendance mentoring programme, which multiple areas in the north, including Middlesborough, Blackpool and Hartlepool, are benefiting from. Backed by over £15 million investment, the programme provides targeted one-to-one support for students who are persistently absence.

To enable the sharing of good practice across the sector, we also have a network of Attendance Hubs led by a school with good attendance practices. Each hub has a broad geographical spread, and schools are clustered with similar schools. There are currently 31 hubs across England working with 2,000 schools.

Teacher and leader workload is unacceptably high. This is why the department is committed to working with the sector to eliminate unnecessary workload.

We know that reducing teacher workload will play a key role in recruiting and retaining excellent school staff and will support the government’s mission to transform the education system so that all children and young people get the skills, care and opportunities they deserve.

Work is underway across the department to help reduce burdens, including through the reform of accountability, curriculum and assessment and the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and through the government’s child poverty taskforce.

We are working with the sector to identify where we can go further to address unnecessary workload, including through the Improving Education Together agreement.

Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, contains a range of supportive resources for schools to review and reduce workload, and improve staff wellbeing.

The department worked in partnership with the education sector and mental health experts to develop the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter.

The charter sets out commitments from the department, Ofsted, and schools and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff, including an explicit commitment to continue to support schools to drive down unnecessary workload. Over 4,000 schools and colleges have signed up to the charter.

In addition, we are working with a group of colleges to pilot a suite of funding and audit simplifications to make the system more efficient and less bureaucratic to support the further education (FE) workforce to reduce burdens. We have given these colleges more flexibility by reducing FE funding rules, simplifying funding calculations, and removing some individual ringfences within adult skills funding and 16-19 funding. We are testing how we can make audit and assurance processes simpler, make it easier for colleges to deliver Skills Bootcamps, and are testing improvements to apprenticeships.

High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

Attaining proficient standards in language development and the reading and writing of English are the keys to unlocking the rest of the curriculum and key indicators for future success in further education, higher education and employment.

The English Hubs programme was launched in 2018 with the aim of improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. So far, over £90 million has been invested in the English Hubs programme, and a further £23 million has been committed for academic year 2024/25.

One Excellence English Hub (formerly St Michael’s Church of England English Hub) supports schools in Northumberland. The hub has intensively supported 81 schools in their region since the start of the programme, including a number of schools in Northumberland. It has delivered over 700 days of intensive literacy specialist support and has funded over 120 schools to purchase phonics programmes and resources. In addition, it has supported over 1,300 schools across its region with reading teaching training, with over 40 of these schools being in Northumberland specifically.

The Reading Framework, published in 2023, provides guidance to help schools improve reading for all pupils so they leave primary able to engage confidently with reading in all subjects at secondary school. The department’s Maths Hubs are providing local school to school expertise, advice and training on how to strengthen outcomes in mathematics. This programme aims to improve the teaching of mathematics through the provision of continuing professional development, as the department knows that the quality of teaching is the biggest educational factor in determining children’s outcomes. This includes through the Mastering Number programme, which helps children in the first years of primary school master the basics of arithmetic, including number bonds and times tables. The Great North Maths Hub supports schools in Northumberland and has worked with 91% of primary schools in in the area, with 64% having participated in the Mastering Number programme.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, in line with the government’s ambition for a curriculum that delivers excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics.

The review group will publish an interim report in early 2025 setting out their interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work. The final review with recommendations will be published in autumn 2025.

Regional Improvement for Standards of Excellence (RISE) teams will be in place early this year, offering a targeted and bespoke service to schools that Ofsted identify as needing to improve. RISE teams and supporting organisations will work collaboratively with the school and their responsible body to rapidly and sustainably put in place targeted interventions, based on the school’s particular circumstances.

To improve standards, all schools will also be able to draw on RISE teams for help in understanding the most effective practice, with RISE teams encouraging schools in their local area to work together and learn from one another.

The department publishes figures from the school census on suspensions and permanent exclusions from state-funded schools in England. The most recent release, covering the 2023/24 autumn term, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england.

School level data is available in this release in the data catalogue section, in the file ‘Suspensions and permanent exclusions – full year school level’. This file includes the school URN number, local authority establishment (laestab) number, school name and local authority. Parliamentary constituency can be identified by using the Get Information About Schools website, available here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

This website gives many details of schools, including the school URN number, laestab number and Parliamentary constituency. Suspension and permanent exclusion data is not yet available for the 2023/24 academic year, this is expected to be published in July 2025.

The government does not set or recommend pay in further education (FE). This remains the responsibility of individual colleges who are free to implement pay arrangements in line with their local needs.

The government recognises the vital role that FE teachers play in developing the skills needed to drive our missions to improve opportunity and economic growth. That is why the department is investing around £600 million in FE across the financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26. This includes extending retention payments of up to £6,000 after tax to eligible early career FE teachers in key subject areas. The department also continues to support recruitment and retention with teacher training bursaries worth up to £30,000 tax-free in certain key subject areas and with support for industry professionals to enter the teaching workforce through our Taking Teaching Further programme.

My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced a Budget on 30 October, to be followed by a multi-year Spending Review in the spring of next year. Decisions about future post-16 funding and capital programmes will be subject to the outcomes of these fiscal events.

This Government is committed to delivering net zero by 2050 and we will work in collaboration with farmers and others with a stake in our food system towards this.

The transition to more climate friendly practices will work hand in hand with food security and farm productivity. We will support farmers to adopt low carbon farming practices, increasing the carbon stored on their land while boosting profitability.

The information to answer these questions can be found on Stat-Xplore in the Benefit Combinations - Data from May 2019 for England and Wales dataset. The most recent month for which data is available is August 2024. The data can be filtered by Benefit to include PIP Claimants only. The data can also be broken down by Additional Claim Details to include ESA Payment type and UC Health Journey information, and for a range of geographical areas.

Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here. An account is not required to use Stat-Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.

In 2022/23 in Northumberland there were 10,858 children living in relative poverty before housing costs. Figures on an after housing costs basis are not available below region level. Source: Children in Low Income Families statistics

In 2022/23 in the North East there were 0.1m children living in relative poverty on a before housing costs basis and 0.2m children living in relative poverty on an after housing costs basis. Source: Households Below Average Income statistics

In 2022/23 in the UK there were 3.2m children living in relative low poverty on a before housing costs basis and 4.3m children living in relative poverty on an after housing costs basis. Source: Households Below Average Income statistics

2023/24 figures will be published in March 2025.

The Government believes in the vital importance of equality of opportunity and of treatment in the workplace. The plan to Make Work Pay includes clear action to place equality, diversity and inclusion issues on a statutory footing. This includes requiring large employers to publish plans detailing the action they're taking to improve gender equality and support employees during the menopause. Alongside this, the Government has appointed a Menopause Employment Ambassador who will work with employers to improve the support for women experiencing menopause symptoms at work.

This Government is committed to pensioners. Everyone in our society, no matter their working history or savings deserves a comfortable and dignified retirement. We will do this through protecting the triple lock, keeping energy bills low through our Warm Homes Plan, and bringing real stability to people’s lives.

However, given the substantial pressures faced by the public finances this year and next, the Government has had to make hard choices to bring the public finances back under control.

The Government is committed to a preventative approach to public health. Keeping people warm and well at home and improving the quality of new and existing homes will play an essential part in enabling people to live longer, healthier lives and reducing pressures on the NHS.

The Household Support Fund (HSF) is also being extended for a further six months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025. An additional £421 million will be provided to enable the extension of the HSF in England, plus funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion, as usual.

We are supporting consumers, including pensioners, through our Warm Homes Plan which will transform homes across the country by making them cleaner and cheaper to run. The Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation, low carbon heating and other home improvements to cut bills.

Additionally, there are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures to low income and fuel poor households. Schemes include the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) and the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS).

Pensioners if eligible may also receive the Warm Home Discount which provides a £150 annual rebate off energy bills for eligible low-income households until 2025/26.

Guidance to help people stay safe in cold weather has been published by UKHSA. This will help ensure that organisations and staff are prompted to signpost those vulnerable to cold weather to sources of support for keeping their home warm, with cost of living support, including help to manage energy bills, as needed. As well as advice on simple measures to improve home energy efficiency and safety to reduce risks that may increase in cold weather (for example from carbon monoxide exposure).

Details of excess winter deaths in England and Wales can be found at: Winter mortality in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).

The number of Universal Credit households affected by the policy to provide support to a maximum of 2 children, in Blyth and Ashington in April 2024 was 770.

The equivalent figure for Child Tax Credits is not held by this department as it is administered by HM Revenue & Customs.

Notes:

1. The new 2024 Parliamentary Constituencies are derived by using postcode lookup data against the claimant address however, this is only available for England and Wales and is not present for all households in this data source.

2. 2024 Parliamentary Constituencies are approximate and therefore figures may not match exactly with the previous 2019 Parliamentary Constituencies they correspond to.

There are no official published statistics on poverty-related deaths. Statistics on deaths from specific causes are based on the medical causes of death recorded on a death certificate, which are coded using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Although poverty is included within the ICD it is rarely coded as a cause of death.

Estimates of the number of deaths due to some factors that influence mortality but are not always stated as a cause of death, such as smoking, can be made. However, there is no agreed definition of a poverty-related death for use within Government, and no official statistics on potential numbers.

The Department monitors and manages medicine supply at a national level so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. Information on stock levels within the North East of England is not held centrally.

Most supply issues can be managed to avoid shortages, and while we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we do have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise, to mitigate risks to patients.

The resilience of the United Kingdom’s supply chains is a key priority, and the Department and NHS England are committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. We are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages. The Department, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to improve our ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen our resilience. As part of that work, we continue to engage with industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver solutions.

Patients can visit either their general practice (GP), or a sexual health clinic, for support with erectile dysfunction. Anyone experiencing mental health issues, including those related to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use, is encouraged to seek help by consulting to their GP or by self-referring to their local NHS Talking Therapies service.

The product information for individual SSRI medicines describe a range of side-effects, including potential sexual dysfunction during treatment. Some products specifically note that these symptoms may persist even after discontinuing the medication. Patients are encouraged to discuss the benefits and risks associated with medicines with their prescriber for individual support.

As with all medicines, the evidence available for the safety of antidepressants remains under continual review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency after they are authorised for use. In response to patient and family feedback, an Expert Working Group under the Commission of Human Medicines has been established. This group is currently considering the risk minimisation measures for antidepressants in relation to suicide and suicidal behaviour. The scope of this review has been expanded to include the risk of persistent sexual dysfunction after stopping the medication for all 30 antidepressants currently marketed in the United Kingdom.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has funded previous studies focused on the effects of antidepressant medication on sexual function. For example, a systematic review to determine the effectiveness of management strategies for sexual dysfunction caused by antidepressants, and to determine the adverse effects and acceptability of these different management strategies.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has funded previous studies focused on the effects of antidepressant medication on sexual function. For example, a systematic review to determine the effectiveness of management strategies for sexual dysfunction caused by antidepressants, and to determine the adverse effects and acceptability of these different management strategies. The NIHR is not currently funding any research with a focus on the permanency of antidepressant induced sexual dysfunction. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including antidepressant-associated sexual dysfunction.

The data requested is not held by NHS England, as poverty is not a metric used for the classification of illness. Although poverty is not a direct cause of specific health conditions, it can be a risk factor for physical and mental ill health. The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children in history. This will include delivery of an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start at life.

Qualifying offenders (i.e., those convicted for an offence in Schedule 3 to the Sexual Offences Act 2003) are required to notify personal details to the police. This system is often referred to as the ‘sex offenders’ register’ and requires offenders to provide specified details annually and whenever those details change. Registered sex offenders with no fixed abode are required to notify their details every seven days.

The information provided to the police, and other relevant information, is stored on the ViSOR database which allows for the recording and sharing of information relevant to an offender’s risk between the police and other relevant agencies. The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistics about (the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). The most recent statistics were published on 31 October and showed that on 31 March 2024, 70,052 sex offenders were managed under MAPPA. Those statistics relate to MAPPA as a system: the volumes of offenders managed at the three different risk levels, or the volumes of risk management tools (such as sexual harm prevention orders) made by a court in the reporting year. There are no plans to include information about offenders with no fixed abode in this publication.

Accommodation outcomes for prison leavers are recorded against the categories of settled accommodation, other housed, bail/probation accommodation, homeless (not rough sleeping) and rough sleeping, rather than ‘no fixed address’. Outcomes against these accommodation categories in 2023-24 can be found in Table 2 of the ‘Housed on Release from Custody Data Tables’ which form part of the Offender Accommodation Outcomes publication (Offender Accommodation Outcomes, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK).  The notes that accompany the tables provide definitions for each accommodation category.

Data on the number of people who re-offended who are homeless are published as part of the Proven Reoffending Quarterly Statistics Bulletin. Details can be found in Table C3 at the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/671f7c4b34853837d7fc4097/proven-reoffending-oct22-dec22-3-monthly.ods.

Prison leavers at risk of becoming homeless and who are supervised by probation can be offered up to 12 weeks of basic accommodation on release by HM Prisons and Probation Service, with support to move to settled accommodation. This programme has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 12,200 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless.

Accommodation outcomes for prison leavers are recorded against the categories of settled accommodation, other housed, bail/probation accommodation, homeless (not rough sleeping) and rough sleeping, rather than ‘no fixed address’. Outcomes against these accommodation categories in 2023-24 can be found in Table 2 of the ‘Housed on Release from Custody Data Tables’ which form part of the Offender Accommodation Outcomes publication (Offender Accommodation Outcomes, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK).  The notes that accompany the tables provide definitions for each accommodation category.

Data on the number of people who re-offended who are homeless are published as part of the Proven Reoffending Quarterly Statistics Bulletin. Details can be found in Table C3 at the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/671f7c4b34853837d7fc4097/proven-reoffending-oct22-dec22-3-monthly.ods.

Prison leavers at risk of becoming homeless and who are supervised by probation can be offered up to 12 weeks of basic accommodation on release by HM Prisons and Probation Service, with support to move to settled accommodation. This programme has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 12,200 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless.

The Government inherited a prison system in crisis, in which the remand prison population has risen to record highs. We are committed to working with partners across the criminal justice system to ensure this is effectively managed, including looking at resettlement support to those who have served a period of time on remand and were subsequently acquitted. The rehabilitation contracts for specialist accommodation support have been extended to include remanded and unsentenced people in prison, including those who are un-convicted, held on remand and then acquitted. We know that a settled place to live is key to help people reintegrate with communities and reduce the likelihood of reoffending, as prison leavers without settled accommodation on release are almost 50 percent more likely to reoffend than those with settled accommodation.

Data on accommodation outcomes on release from prison are published annually and include total releases and settled accommodation outcomes. Monthly and annual data for the period April 2019 – March 2024 is in the ‘Housed on Release from Custody’ tables, available here: Offender Accommodation Outcomes, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK. The data for April 2024 - March 2025 is due for publication in July 2025.

Accommodation outcomes for prison leavers are recorded against the categories of settled accommodation, other housed, bail/probation accommodation, homeless (not rough sleeping) and rough sleeping, rather than ‘no fixed address’. An individual’s risk of serious harm level is determined in accordance with the Risk of Serious Harm guidance, available here: Risk of Serious Harm Guidance. In the year to March 2024, 4.7% of the total caseload of offenders were high risk of harm offenders and released homeless or rough sleeping.

Prison leavers at risk of becoming homeless and who are supervised by probation can be offered up to 12 weeks of basic accommodation on release by HM Prisons and Probation, with support to move to settled accommodation. This programme has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 12,200 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless.

Information on staffing numbers of directly employed staff in HM Prison and Probation Service in England and Wales is published quarterly on GOV.UK.

The most recent data can be found at: HM Prison & Probation Service workforce quarterly: September 2024 - GOV.UK.

Details of the number of offenders released and those recalled, including the reasons for recall, are published quarterly Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

The Government’s absolute focus is on public protection. Offenders on licence can be swiftly recalled to prison if they breach their licence conditions.