Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what plans his Department has to for hydrogen-related funding in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) West Yorkshire, in the context of his Department's Net Zero Strategy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK Government is committed to supporting the growth of the hydrogen economy through its Hydrogen Allocation Rounds (HARs). In the first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1), announced in December 2023, 11 projects were selected to receive over £2 billion in revenue support for green hydrogen production. Additionally, £90 million in capital grant funding was awarded, with the potential to create up to 760 new jobs.
This includes Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen, located in Bradford city centre, which will produce hydrogen for diggers and buses. Published subsidy award details for this project include a Direct Grant of £13 million and £396 million under the Hydrogen Production Business Model. The exact amount of funding will depend on the hydrogen produced at the site over a 15 year period.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support community-based knife crime prevention programmes in Bradford.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission. Driving down youth-related violence across the UK, including in Bradford, will play a key role in meeting this ambition.
Through the Young Futures Programme, the Government will introduce Prevention Partnerships across the country, including in West Yorkshire, to intervene earlier and ensure that children and young people vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.
As we design the Young Futures Programme, we will ensure that it learns from and builds on the work of the Violence Reduction Units (VRUs). VRUs bring together partners, including from the voluntary and community sector, to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area.
In 2025/26 the Home Office is investing over £4.3m in grant funding to the West Yorkshire VRU, alongside £169k to continue the implementation of the Serious Violence Duty. This funding will support delivery of a range of early intervention and prevention programmes.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to expand access to community-based rehabilitation services.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Probation Service will receive up to £700 million more by 2028/29, a 45 percent increase on current spending. It will see tens of thousands more offenders tagged, monitored and rehabilitated. We are currently in the process of re-procuring our commissioned rehabilitative services contracts. Our new contracts will improve on our current offering with expanded and improved consistency of service availability in both custody and community. However, decisions on the future scale of accessibility to these services will be determined by departmental funding allocation decisions following the Spending Review.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of (a) staffing and (b) caseloads in the probation service.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This Government inherited a justice system in crisis, but we are gripping the situation and have taken immediate action. Both staffing levels and caseload are regularly monitored and analysed, and we remain committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting the most vital work are a priority.
Following recent recruitment campaigns the Probation Service has seen an increase in staffing levels (from 20,412 FTE to 21,022 FTE between March 2024 and March 2025). We are committed to onboarding 1,300 trainee Probation Officers in 2025/26, in addition to the 1,057 onboarded in 2024/25, and have secured £8 million in the Spring Statement to invest in new technology for front line staff.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much of the UK humanitarian aid budget has been spent on projects relating to support for Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, since 2020.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a leading donor to the Rohingya response. We have provided over £126.7 million to support the Rohingya and host communities since 2020, including food provision, clean water, healthcare and protection services. UK funding is providing support to the refugees in the main refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, delivered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme, the International Organisation for Migration and other agencies that work on refugee issues. We will continue to work closely with UN agencies and the Interim Government of Bangladesh to support the Rohingya and provide basic services.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to take steps to improve (a) knowledge transfer and (b) applied AI research through regional university-business partnerships.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what plans his Department has to support university-led innovation programmes that boost (a) AI capacity and (b) research and development activity activity in partnership with local businesses in (i) West Yorkshire and (ii) other regional economies.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent steps his Department has taken to strengthen collaboration between (a) higher education institutions and (b) local SMEs in the field of AI research and commercialisation in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what (a) formula and (b) criteria is used by UK Research and Innovation to determine the distribution of Horizon Europe funding; and how much funding has been allocated to (i) institutions and (ii) organisations in (A) Bradford and (B) West Yorkshire since the programme began.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to increase (a) core funding and (b) grant opportunities for universities in the north of England conducting AI and data science research as part of its strategy to support regional growth.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.