James MacCleary

The Government engages with the European Commission on a range of border issues, including the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES). The system is expected to increase processing times at Schengen Area border crossing points, and the Government therefore continues to work with EU Member States, industry and operators to understand the possible impacts and support their plans to mitigate disruption for travellers and businesses. To support this, I have been having regular meetings with other HMG Ministers to progress cross-government efforts for EES, including communications to the travelling public. However, implementation of EES is a matter for the EU and EU Member States.

The Prime Minister and the president of the European Commission met in Brussels on 2 October and agreed to strengthen the relationship between the EU and the UK, putting it on a more solid, stable footing. We are committed to finding constructive ways to work together and deliver for the British people.

We are not going to give a running commentary on negotiations. We will obviously look at EU proposals on a range of issues, but we will not return to freedom of movement.

Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) technology has been proven in many countries across the world, and the Climate Change Committee have described it as a “necessity not an option” for reaching Net Zero. As a part of the initial assessment for choosing the first CCUS clusters, projects were assessed against five criteria including deliverability, under which technical viability was considered. It enables the lowest cost pathway to Net Zero and is a tried and tested technology that has been deployed across industry and power generation at scale. Geological carbon storage is a proven technology that has been in operation globally for decades.

As sustainable biomass is a limited resource, the Government expects to prioritise its use in sectors like aviation which have fewest options to decarbonise. Renewable liquid heating fuels (RLHF) are also much more expensive to use than other heating solutions.

Before taking decisions on whether to support the use of RLHFs, like hydrotreated vegetable oil, in heating, the Government would require stronger evidence on their affordability for consumers, and the availability of sustainable feedstocks.

The guarantee of surcharge-free roaming with the EU ceased at the end of the Brexit Transition Period. Against this background, my Department, in close coordination with the Department for Business and Trade, is considering the Government’s approach to the issue of roaming fees for people travelling in Europe to ensure we deliver the best outcomes to promote competition and protect consumers.

The guarantee of surcharge-free roaming with the EU ceased at the end of the Brexit Transition Period. Against this background, my Department, in close coordination with the Department for Business and Trade, is considering the Government’s approach to the issue of roaming fees for people travelling in Europe to ensure we deliver the best outcomes to promote competition and protect consumers.

Horizon Europe runs from 2021 to 2027. Data on UK receipts from the Framework Programmes between 2010 and 2020 is available via the EU’s Horizon Dashboard.

The UK associated to Horizon Europe in January 2024, and with a small number of exceptions, UK organisations have not received any funding from prior to association. UK participation between 2021 and 2023 was funded by the UK Guarantee, and the funding data is available on the UK Research and Innovation website. As 2024 data becomes available, this will be published via the Dashboard.

Framework Programme 10 is still being developed by the EU.

DSIT does not hold this information. That information is held by the European Commission and available on the Horizon Dashboard for the period between 2010 and 2020.

The UK associated to Horizon Europe in January 2024, and with a small number of exceptions, UK organisations have not received any funding prior to association. UK participation in Horizon Europe between 2021 and 2023 was funded by the UK Horizon Guarantee, and the funding data is available on the UK Research and Innovation website.

As 2024 data becomes available, this will be published via the European Commission’s dashboard.

The Department monitors the implementation and impact of the grant scheme through the regular reporting of the grant administrator. Since 2010, the grant scheme has returned over £350 million to listed places of worship including churches.

Departmental settlements have been set following the Budget announcement on October 30. Individual programmes will now be assessed during the departmental Business Planning process.

We are introducing a registration scheme for short-term lets in England. Our aim is to reap the benefits of a thriving tourist economy whilst protecting the spirit and fabric of communities, including by giving local authorities valuable data on short-term lets in their area to help address housing impacts through the scheme.

The registration scheme will work to create a level playing field across the guest accommodations sector and ensure short-term lets are set to the same standards as more traditional accommodations such as hotels and B&Bs.

The scheme will support operators of short-term lets by boosting the reputation of England’s guest accommodation sector and attracting more visitors by giving visible assurance we have a high-quality, safe guest accommodation offer.

Helping children and young people to both achieve and thrive, including through work on mentoring and supporting wellbeing, is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity – one of the five missions of this government.

The department is investing £17 million across two mentoring projects that will support the school attendance of at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally. The first project is set to conclude this academic year, while the second, larger pilot will continue until 2028.

To support mental health and wellbeing, the government has also committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England.

The department has also launched a targeted mental wellbeing support toolkit to further help schools select the most effective targeted support options. This covers a range of evidence-based interventions, including mentoring, which we recognise can be a useful component of a whole school approach to wellbeing.

The government is committed to deliver on its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary aged children. We have made early progress towards this, including announcing that up to 750 early adopters will be delivering these new breakfast clubs by April 2025. Breakfast clubs offer much more than just food. They can serve as a welcoming space for children, providing valuable opportunities for them to play, learn, and socialise at the beginning of the school day.

Across government, we are also supporting a variety of other schemes with a focus on mentoring and wellbeing for young people in wider communities.

Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to help improve the way that children and young people can access opportunities and support in their local communities, in doing so, promoting their development, improving mental health, and preventing young people being drawn into crime. Expertise has been brought together from across government departments to deliver on this manifesto commitment, and the government will be engaging with national and local partners, local communities and children and young people to co-design and explore options for the design and delivery of the hubs.

There are currently around 65 locally funded early support hubs in England open to those aged 11 to 25. These are open to anyone who may not meet the threshold to receive NHS support. This means children and young people experiencing feelings of anxiety or stress will have a physical space to go to in their community when their problems first emerge without the need for a referral. Early support hubs also offer advice on wider issues which may affect a young person’s mental health, including careers advice, educational support or support with their financial circumstances. In 2024/25, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is also running a Shared Outcomes Fund project, backed by £8 million, to boost and evaluate the impact of 24 existing early support hubs.

In the wider healthcare system, DHSC will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

Supporting mentoring in wider communities, Youth Futures Foundation receives funding through the Dormant Assets Scheme, which is led by industry and backed by the government, for their ‘Building Futures’ programme with the Football Beyond Borders as their year 1 partner, which will enable thousands of vulnerable young people to access crucial mentoring support.

I refer the hon. Member for Lewes to the answer of 29 October 2024 to Question 10604.

Information on the further education (FE) workforce, including numbers of teaching staff employed in the sector, is published in the ‘Further education workforce’ statistical publication, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-workforce.

For the 2022/23 academic year, the total number of teaching staff in general FE colleges, including tertiary and sixth form colleges in England, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/2c50762e-50c3-4b6f-a8da-08dce6ed00e6.

The government does not set or recommend pay in FE. The pay and conditions of FE staff remains the responsibility of individual colleges and providers, who are free to implement pay arrangements in line with their local needs.

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.

I refer the Honourable Member to the reply I gave to PQ 958.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government will introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation. As outlined in our manifesto, we will bring an end to the use of snare traps. We are considering the most effective way to deliver this commitment and will be setting out next steps in due course

This is a devolved matter with regard to Scotland and NI; hunting with dogs is a reserved matter with respect to Wales and therefore, the information provided relates to England and Wales.

The Government is committed to enacting a ban on Trail Hunting, and work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing. Further announcements will be made in due course.

This Government shares the British public’s high regard for animal welfare. Foie gras production using force feeding has been banned in the UK for 17 years and it is not compatible with our animal welfare legislation.

This Labour Government will introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation.

Ministers are reviewing policies, which will be announced in due course.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate’s (DWI) current guideline limit on individual types of PFAS of 100 nanograms per litre for treated drinking water was set in 2021 based on an assessment of existing scientific knowledge. These limits were agreed with the UK Health Security Agency to be robust levels with an appropriate margin to ensure our drinking water is not a danger to human health. Work now continues across Government to assess levels of PFAS to safeguard current high drinking water quality and ensure our regulations remain fit for purpose.

More widely, as we look to improve and maintain our water quality standards, this Government has been clear that vital infrastructure investment is ringfenced and can only be spent on upgrades benefiting customers and the environment. When money for investment is not spent, companies must refund customers, with money never allowed to be diverted for bonuses, dividends or salary increases.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will also deliver on the Government’s manifesto commitment to put water companies under special measures to clean up our water. Through the Bill, we will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.

Measures in place to reduce waiting times for customers at all driving test centres (DTC), include the recruitment of new driving examiners (DE), conducting tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from DEs.

DVSA also continues to deploy DEs from areas with lower waiting times into those where waiting times are longer.

Investment in cycling is crucial to supporting the economy, with recent evidence indicating that 3.6%, or over a million people, usually cycle to work and contributes about £5.4 billion to the British economy annually, with £4.1 billion resulting from reductions in mortality, pollution and congestion. The average benefit-cost ratio for Active Travel Fund 4 estimated that for every £1 of investment in active travel infrastructure schemes, there would be a return £2.40 of economic, social, and environmental benefits.

Building on this evidence, Active Travel England is delivering a national active travel evaluation that will seek to include a proportionate assessment of the impact of active travel investment on employment.

We have no current plans to raise the PCN levels. It is important to strike the right balance between deterrence and fairness on this issue.

No discussions on this subject have taken place with HSBC. The design of a pension offered as part of an employer’s reward package is a matter for that employer, provided that it meets the relevant legal requirements.

NHS England’s Three Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal services sets out how the National Health Service will make care safer, more personalised, and equitable. The plan includes a commitment to provide compassionate and high-quality care for bereaved families.

To deliver on this commitment, NHS England has made additional funding available to ensure all trusts can offer a seven day a week bereavement service. NHS England has also invested in Maternal Mental Health Services to provide care for women with moderate to complex or severe mental health difficulties, and published the Core Competency Framework for providers, to address known variation in multi-professional training and competency assessment, including for bereavement care.

Additionally, the National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) aims to reduce the variation in the quality of bereavement care provided by the NHS to ensure that parents receive quality and consistent care after pregnancy or baby loss. The pathway acts as a set of standards and guidance that trusts should follow when a patient has suffered a pregnancy or baby loss, with the aim of ensuring that all bereaved parents are offered equal, high quality, individualised, safe, and sensitive care. Since June 2024, all NHS England trusts had signed up to the NBCP.

To support NHS staff to handle a range of difficult situations, NHS England has also launched an e-learning module, Handling difficult situations – Caring for yourself and others with compassion, for NHS staff in frontline, patient facing roles. This e-learning module, which is available for free, aims to help upskill colleagues in how to handle difficult situations with compassion, using appropriate communication techniques and active listening skills.

We are committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, such as heart disease, which includes cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and stroke.

The NHS Health Check, England’s flagship CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.3 million people each year and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes. To improve access and engagement to this life saving check, we are developing a digital NHS Health Check, a service which people can use at home to understand and act on their CVD risk, providing people with a more flexible, accessible, and convenient service. We are also piloting a new programme to deliver more than 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in workplaces across the country.

The NHS Long Term Plan (NHS LTP) is committed to improving the care and outcomes for people with CVD through enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning, and increased access to disease-specific rehabilitation. NHS England’s stroke priorities include rapid diagnosis and increased access to time-dependent acute stroke care, as well as facilitating ambulance service use of pre-hospital telemedicine, and supporting access to the use of artificial intelligence decision support tools for brain imaging.

The Department does not hold the information requested. NHS England publishes a compendium of NHS Vacancy Statistics each quarter. Whilst none of the data published is the exact number of vacancies advertised in the National Health Service, the information does currently provide three measures of the level of vacancies in the NHS. Detailed information on the definition of collected data and the available timeseries, along with the measure’s strengths and weaknesses, is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey

The earliest data within this collection is from 2016, and no data is held prior to this period. Due to the complex nature of how NHS vacancy data is defined and collected, all data sources should be treated with a degree of caution.

The Department does not collect data on where staff working in the National Health Service were born. However, NHS England publishes quarterly data on the number of staff split by nationality in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. The following table shows the number of staff working in the NHS in England with nationalities from the European Union, each September from 2010 until June 2024, the most recent data point available:

All staff within NHS trusts and commissioning bodies provide a self-reported nationality which is recorded on the Electronic Staff Record system. This may reflect an individual’s cultural heritage rather than their country of birth, with some individuals choosing not to specify it.

In May 2024, a three-month emergency order restricting the sale and supply of Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues (puberty blockers) was introduced in Great Britain and was due to expire on 2 September 2024.

On 22 August 2024, the Government laid a further Order to renew the restrictions in Great Britain. As the Northern Ireland First Minister and Deputy First Minister provided their agreement for the Minister of Health to co-sign the order, the restrictions also extend to Northern Ireland for the first time.

Ensuring that care is safe, evidence-based and appropriate was the driving force behind the decision by my rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The Cass Review was categorically clear that there is not enough evidence on the long-term impact of using puberty blockers to treat gender incongruence to know whether they are safe or if children benefit from them.

The Order prohibits the sale and supply of puberty blockers for any purposes to those under 18 against prescriptions from prescribers registered in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland. For private prescriptions issued from registered prescribers in the United Kingdom, the Order prohibits the sale or supply of puberty blockers for gender incongruence or dysphoria to children under 18 years old not already on a course of treatment with them. Patients receiving these medicines for other uses, for example precocious puberty, can continue to access them.

If a young person has already been prescribed these medicines, for gender dysphoria or incongruence in the six months prior to 3 June 2024 in Great Britain or 27 August 2024 in Northern Ireland, they can continue to do so, providing their prescription is now issued by a UK registered prescriber. They are strongly advised to meet with their prescribing clinician to fully understand the safety risks. For those patients accessing prescriptions from an EEA registered prescriber, they can seek help from a UK private provider or see their general practitioner.

This Government is committed to helping first time buyers own their own home, and will do this by building 1.5 million more homes.

The Government keeps savings policy under review, any changes of this kind would be made at a relevant fiscal event.

The Government recognises the devastating impact financial and economic abuse can have on victims, which extends far beyond the impact to their finances and includes the use of joint mortgages to control or exploit victims.

We continue to work closely with and fund organisations that seek to promote awareness of economic abuse to improve the public and private sector’s response. This includes funding Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), which supports victims of economic and financial abuse, with £200,000 this year to help improve the response to economic abuse and provide vital support and economic safety for victims.

The Government keeps the Seasonal Worker route under close ongoing review and is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.

The Home Office and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) monitor the scheme closely to ensure they are operating in the best interests of the UK when it comes to future recruitment. This Government recognises and values the important contribution workers from overseas make to our economy and public services throughout the UK. Legal migration must be controlled and managed through a fair system.

The Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) provides valuable cultural exchange opportunities for young people aged 18-30 (or 18-35 for some nationalities) to experience life in another country for up to two or three years, and to make lifelong ties and friendships overseas.

Each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal arrangement designed to offer cultural exchange. It is therefore not designed, nor intended, to be a route for economic growth or to address any specific labour shortages, although individuals participating in the scheme are able to work if they wish to do so.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and Sussex Police are operationally independent. The prompt completion of enhanced DBS checks is an important part of the safeguarding system, and I understand that several measures have already been introduced to reduce application turnaround times at Sussex Police.

These include the DBS funding additional staff to manage increases in volumes of checks referred to Sussex Police, whilst also funding overtime at the force to minimise the impact while new staff are recruited and trained. Further support is provided through the implementation of training groups and buddies to progress staff through training stages more effectively, the funding of a dedicated training/assessor, and assistance from other forces where appropriate.

The DBS is closely monitoring the performance of Sussex Police and will continue to implement support wherever possible to ensure delays are minimised.

The UK currently operates 13 bilateral Youth Mobility Scheme arrangements, which allow young people aged 18-30 (18-35 for some nationals), to live, work and study in the UK for up to two years, with some nationals eligible to apply for a third year. Each country is subject to an annual quota, based on a yearly review of outbound UK participants of the scheme.

The European Commission has not approached the UK to consider a new European Youth Mobility Scheme. We will look at proposals on a range of issues, but we will not return to free movement and our focus is on reducing net migration after it rose to record highs.

No licences have yet been issued for trail hunting on the Ministry of Defence Estate for the 2024–2025 season.

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 11995 on 6 November 2024.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected, especially children. Too many families are spending years in temporary accommodation, at a point in a child’s life when they need space to play and develop, nutritious food to thrive and access to education.

We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness once and for all. This includes a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, bringing together ministers from across government.

More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament. The government is also abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

We are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. As announced at the Budget, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). This increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings total spend to nearly £1 billion in 25/26. Allocations for individual local authorities in England will be set out later in December.

The department regularly collects homelessness data, including on out of area placements, which can be found here in table TA 1 and are published quarterly: Statutory homelessness in England: April to June 2024 - GOV.UK. Records on the location of accommodation where accommodation is secured to end the prevention or relief duties, including where that accommodation is out of area, are published annually and can be found in tables P4 and R4 here: Detailed_LA_20232024.xlsx.

The government recognises that community-led housing delivers a wide range of benefits, including additional housing supply, empowering communities, achieving high quality design and strengthening the co-operative economy.

Our recent consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework specifically included proposals designed to strengthen support for community-led housing, including changes to the size limit on community-led exception sites and a broadening of the definition of organisations able to deliver community-led housing. The consultation closed on the 24 September and officials in my department are currently analysing responses with a view to publishing a government response before the end of the year.

I am committed to working with representatives of the sector to consider how the government may support the growth of community led housing over the long term and I recently met with the Chief Executive of the Community Land Trust Network and other stakeholders to that end.

The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that substantial weight should be given to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements in planning policies and decisions, and that opportunities should be taken to remediate despoiled, degraded, derelict, contaminated or unstable land.

As part of our recent consultation on reforms to the Framework, we set out proposals to broaden the existing definition of brownfield land, set a strengthened expectation that applications on brownfield land will be approved, and make clear that plans should promote an uplift in density in urban areas. On 22 September we published a ‘brownfield passport’ policy paper inviting views on how we might further prioritise and fast-track building on previously used urban land.

Local authorities already have various compulsory purchase powers to acquire and develop land which could include stalled development sites with planning permission. The Government is keen for authorities to make greater use of their compulsory purchase powers to support the regeneration and growth of their areas where appropriate, provided there is a compelling case in the public interest. To assist local authorities in using their powers, this Government has recently published updated guidance on the compulsory purchase process reforms introduced by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. This can be found at here.