Imran Hussain

No recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of current legislation governing the sale and use of fireworks in England and Wales including the purchase from registered sellers during specific dates.

Enforcement powers exist for local authorities to take action when fireworks are unsafe, sold illegally or misused. Local authorities and the police also have powers to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by the misuse of fireworks. It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers, based on their circumstances.

No recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of current legislation governing the sale and use of fireworks in England and Wales including the purchase from registered sellers during specific dates.

Enforcement powers exist for local authorities to take action when fireworks are unsafe, sold illegally or misused. Local authorities and the police also have powers to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by the misuse of fireworks. It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers, based on their circumstances.

No recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of current legislation governing the sale and use of fireworks in England and Wales including the purchase from registered sellers during specific dates.

Enforcement powers exist for local authorities to take action when fireworks are unsafe, sold illegally or misused. Local authorities and the police also have powers to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by the misuse of fireworks. It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers, based on their circumstances.

The Government have launched a public campaign on fireworks safety for this year’s fireworks season which encourages the use of low noise fireworks. The campaign also features new guidance for those running community fireworks events which recommends the use of low-noise fireworks to reduce the impact on communities, as well as social media materials that emphasise the risks from the misuse of fireworks. The campaign materials are being shared widely to increase their impact.

The UK is fully committed to international law and fully respects the independence of the International Court of Justice.  We continue to consider the Court’s Advisory Opinion carefully, with the seriousness and rigour it deserves.

The F35 programme has a significant dependence on the UK, which provides unique and critical components. At the present time, any suspension of F-35 components to Israel through the programme is not possible without undermining the programme overall, and the government’s judgement is that this would have a significant negative impact on international peace and security. Therefore, at the present time, exports to the F-35 programme are excluded from the current suspension of export licences. We are keeping this under close review.

Since July 2024, over £52 billion of private investment has already been announced into the UK’s clean energy industries for projects and plans over the coming years.

Recent projects supported by Government include two district heat networks in West Yorkshire which have received funding from the Local Net Zero Accelerator programme, Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 benefitting projects like the Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen project and GBE placing solar panels on NHS sites in Bradford and beyond.

As part of the Industrial Strategy, the Government is committed to devolving significant powers to Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) across England, giving them the tools they need to grow their sectoral clusters and improve the local business environment.

Local Growth Plans are a cornerstone of the place-based approach. These locally owned, 10-year strategies will set out how MCAs will use their devolved powers and funding to drive growth in their region.

The government’s Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan set out how the UK will reduce emissions and benefit from lower bills, skilled jobs, warmer homes and cleaner air. We are working across government on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan, which will be a major step forward to cut energy bills for good. Scaling up new clean energy industries will create opportunities to actively reduce inequalities and create good jobs. We will continue to invest in clean low-cost energy. Our approach to the transition is built on fairness, ensuring everyone reaps the benefits and that no one is left behind.

The Government is working on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan for households, including those in Bradford, to cut energy bills for good and will publish more details soon.

No estimates have been made on the delays of home insulation programmes since 2019. We know improving the energy efficiency of our homes is an important step in reducing fuel poverty.

There are several government energy efficiency schemes and households can access the government's home retrofit tool on GOV.UK (www.gov.uk/improve-energy-efficiency), which allows users to get tailored recommendations for home improvements that could make their property cheaper to heat and keep warm.

This government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan will transform homes across the country by making them cleaner and cheaper to run, from installing new insulation to rolling out solar and heat pumps. We will publish more details soon.

In 2023, 18.7% of households in the Bradford East parliamentary constituency were estimated to be in fuel poverty.

It is imperative that fuel poor homes benefit from the transition to net zero. We are working across government on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan for households to cut energy bills for good and will publish more details soon. We will upgrade up to 5 million homes across the country, including those in Bradford, and the transition to warmer, decarbonised homes. This will include support for the most vulnerable to help slash fuel poverty.

There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating to low income and fuel poor households. Schemes include the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, and the new Warm Homes: Local Grant.

Support is also available through the Warm Home Discount schemes which provide eligible low-income households across Great Britain with £150 off their winter energy bill. 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 bill costs.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) plays a crucial role incentivising collaboration and knowledge exchange between universities and other sectors and has supported numerous high-impact collaborations in artificial intelligence. For example, Higher Education Innovation Funding supports engagement with the space industry through the University of Bradford’s Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI.

UKRI also supports partnerships between universities and businesses through opportunities like Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and consortia investments such as the AI research hubs, AI centres for doctoral training and the flagship BridgeAI programme, catalysing local partnerships and driving local innovation and prosperity.

The AI Action Plan emphasises building a robust AI ecosystem that supports research, skills development, and business engagement, and at Spending Review £2 billion was allocated to implement the Action Plan.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) plays a crucial role incentivising collaboration and knowledge exchange between universities and other sectors and has supported numerous high-impact collaborations in artificial intelligence. For example, Higher Education Innovation Funding supports engagement with the space industry through the University of Bradford’s Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI.

UKRI also supports partnerships between universities and businesses through opportunities like Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and consortia investments such as the AI research hubs, AI centres for doctoral training and the flagship BridgeAI programme, catalysing local partnerships and driving local innovation and prosperity.

The AI Action Plan emphasises building a robust AI ecosystem that supports research, skills development, and business engagement, and at Spending Review £2 billion was allocated to implement the Action Plan.

Government is investing up to £500 million in the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, a new programme to grow high potential innovation clusters across the UK. This will empower local partnerships of government, universities and businesses to decide how to target R&D investment in their region and unleash their full innovation potential. Alongside this, UKRI continues to support knowledge transfer and AI adoption through consortia of universities and local businesses across the UK. Investments such as the AI research hubs, AI centres for doctoral training and flagship BridgeAI programme are already catalysing local partnerships and driving local innovation and prosperity.

The government has committed to invest more than £86 billion on research and innovation over financial years 26/27-29/30, supporting the UK’s scientific excellence and its full economic potential around the country, including in areas such as AI and data science. This funding will support the UK’s top scientists and innovators in business, universities and R&D organisations. DSIT will share further details of how its £58.5bn settlement over the Spending Review period will be invested once multi-year business planning allocations conclude this Autumn.

The UK is an Associated Country to Horizon Europe. UK applicants are eligible to apply to Horizon Europe calls both now and in the future. The Government strongly encourages researchers to do so.

Horizon Europe funding calls are set by the EU, who then evaluate applications and award funding accordingly. As Horizon Europe is a competitive fund, UK entities bid into the programme directly.

As a result of the UK’s association to Horizon Europe, institutions and organisations in Bradford and West Yorkshire have been awarded €10 million and €74 million, respectively, as of 13 June 2025. These figures include funding from the UK Government’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme.

The government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child. The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty, which has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low income family. That is why the government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a ministerial taskforce has been set up to begin work on the Child Poverty Strategy.

Under current programmes, disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools, as well as 16 to 18 year-old students in further education, are entitled to receive free meals on the basis of low income. 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive free school meals (FSM) and a further 90,000 are registered to receive further education free meals. In addition, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England's state-funded schools are entitled to universal infant free school meals, which benefits around 1.3 million pupils.

Additionally, the government is committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, to set children up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn, while supporting parents and carers to work.

As with all government programmes, the department will keep the approach to FSM under review.

No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of high-decibel fireworks on animal welfare or the merits of reducing the permissible noise limits of fireworks used for public and private functions.

However, the Government is continuing to engage with businesses, consumer groups and charities, including animal welfare stakeholders, to gather evidence on the issues with and impacts of fireworks to inform any future action.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Port Health Authority (PHA) are the competent authorities for the purposes of the Sea Fishing (Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) Order 2009. PHAs are responsible for receiving and checking catch certificates and other supplementary IUU documents that accompany consignments of fishery products at the UK border and have the power to stop and detain consignments for further investigation and refuse imports where necessary. There is a total of 28 PHAs that receive fishery products from the EU and the rest of the world, each of which assess their own resource requirements.

MMO's IUU Team comprises of 10 FTE who provide advice and training to PHAs on the UK’s IUU Regulation for importation and are the conduit for further information needed on an import through formal verification between the PHAs and 3rd country authorities.

The Government fully supports the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s ambition to deliver Mass Transit in the region, boosting connectivity and unlocking growth and opportunity for the people of West Yorkshire. That is why we have allocated funding for the project as part of West Yorkshire’s £2.1 billion Transport for City Regions funding between 2027 and 2032. I am pleased to confirm that Lord Hendy, Minister of State for Rail, will be working alongside the Mayor to support her in delivering the programme.

WYCA plan to submit their first business case for approval to the Government in 2026

As the body responsible for developing and delivering the project, it is for West Yorkshire Combined Authority to undertake any assessment of impacts on communities as the plans for mass transit develop.

The Government fully supports the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s ambition to deliver Mass Transit in the region, boosting connectivity and unlocking growth and opportunity for the people of West Yorkshire. That is why we have allocated funding for the project as part of West Yorkshire’s £2.1 billion Transport for City Regions funding between 2027 and 2032. I am pleased to confirm that Lord Hendy, Minister of State for Rail, will be working alongside the Mayor to support her in delivering the programme.

WYCA plan to submit their first business case for approval to the Government in 2026

As the body responsible for developing and delivering the project, it is for West Yorkshire Combined Authority to undertake any assessment of impacts on communities as the plans for mass transit develop.

The Government fully supports the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s ambition to deliver Mass Transit in the region, boosting connectivity and unlocking growth and opportunity for the people of West Yorkshire. That is why we have allocated funding for the project as part of West Yorkshire’s £2.1 billion Transport for City Regions funding between 2027 and 2032. I am pleased to confirm that Lord Hendy, Minister of State for Rail, will be working alongside the Mayor to support her in delivering the programme.

WYCA plan to submit their first business case for approval to the Government in 2026

As the body responsible for developing and delivering the project, it is for West Yorkshire Combined Authority to undertake any assessment of impacts on communities as the plans for mass transit develop.

The Government fully supports the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s ambition to deliver Mass Transit in the region, boosting connectivity and unlocking growth and opportunity for the people of West Yorkshire. That is why we have allocated funding for the project as part of West Yorkshire’s £2.1 billion Transport for City Regions funding between 2027 and 2032. I am pleased to confirm that Lord Hendy, Minister of State for Rail, will be working alongside the Mayor to support her in delivering the programme.

WYCA plan to submit their first business case for approval to the Government in 2026

As the body responsible for developing and delivering the project, it is for West Yorkshire Combined Authority to undertake any assessment of impacts on communities as the plans for mass transit develop.

The Government fully supports the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s ambition to deliver Mass Transit in the region, boosting connectivity and unlocking growth and opportunity for the people of West Yorkshire. That is why we have allocated funding for the project as part of West Yorkshire’s £2.1 billion Transport for City Regions funding between 2027 and 2032. I am pleased to confirm that Lord Hendy, Minister of State for Rail, will be working alongside the Mayor to support her in delivering the programme.

WYCA plan to submit their first business case for approval to the Government in 2026

As the body responsible for developing and delivering the project, it is for West Yorkshire Combined Authority to undertake any assessment of impacts on communities as the plans for mass transit develop.