James Wild

Our mission is for clean power by 2030 because this is the best way to achieve energy independence and protect billpayers. New, clean renewable energy will reduce our exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets. As part of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) programme, the Government is considering what further steps can be taken to shield consumers from the impacts of potential price spikes and to ensure they benefit from lower cost renewable energy.

Since 2 September 2024, eligible working parents of children from nine months old can access 15 hours of government-funded early education per week.

Take up from parents is roughly in line with the position at this point in time prior to the April phase of the rollout for eligible working parents of two year olds. Internal figures show a similar trajectory, with over 200,000 entitlement codes validated by providers, meaning parents have secured a place. Thanks to the hard work of local authorities and childcare providers, the department is confident delivery is on track.

The department has not published figures yet because it normally takes a few weeks for local authorities and providers to have validated codes following the 31 August application deadline. The department will be publishing data on codes issued and codes validated for September 2024 in due course.

Expanding access to affordable and high quality childcare is key to breaking down barriers to opportunity and is one of the driving missions of this government.

From 2 September 2024, hundreds of thousands of eligible working parents of children from nine months old have begun to access 15 hours of government-funded early education per week.

The department is looking ahead to delivering the expansion to 30 funded hours from next September. Eligible working parents of children aged nine months and above will be able to access 30 hours (over 38 weeks a year) from the term following their child turning nine months to when they start school.

The department is already taking action to help deliver the additional places needed for the next phase and to deliver the remainder of the promised 3,000 school-based nurseries from 2026 onwards, with a greater focus on more disadvantaged families.

Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high quality childcare is a top priority. The department’s focus in reforming the system will be to ensure that there are greater and more equal opportunities to access early education for every family, and that there are greater opportunities for children to thrive and develop. As an initial step, the department is working to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will help deliver the expansion in childcare entitlements and ensure that a variety of different types of provision are available that suit the needs of different parents.

Based on assumptions around take-up, likely hours used and whether children are new or existing users of childcare, there is estimated to be demand of an additional 15,000 places for September 2024.

Thousands of children, aged from nine months, will get government-funded childcare for the first time, allowing them to access 15 hours a week, over 38 weeks a year, of high quality, accessible childcare.

Further information on the underpinning assumptions behind these estimates was published in the 2023 Spring Budget Policy costing information note: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66221ba8252f0d71cf757d2b/Spring_budget_2023_childcare_expansion_costing_note_information.pdf.

The department will continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare provision through regular conversations with local authorities.

Ensuring that parents are able to access affordable and high quality childcare is a top priority. The department’s focus in reforming the system will be to ensure that there are greater and more equal opportunities to access early education for every family, and that there are greater opportunities for children to thrive and develop. As an initial step, the department is working to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will help deliver the expansion in childcare entitlements and ensure that a variety of different types of provision are available that suit the needs of different parents.

Based on assumptions around take-up, likely hours used and whether children are new or existing users of childcare, there is estimated to be demand of an additional 15,000 places for September 2024.

Thousands of children, aged from nine months, will get government-funded childcare for the first time, allowing them to access 15 hours a week, over 38 weeks a year, of high quality, accessible childcare.

Further information on the underpinning assumptions behind these estimates was published in the 2023 Spring Budget Policy costing information note: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66221ba8252f0d71cf757d2b/Spring_budget_2023_childcare_expansion_costing_note_information.pdf.

The department will continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare provision through regular conversations with local authorities.

The department knows that to deliver the expanded early years entitlements, the sector will need additional staff. In total, the department estimated that compared to 2023, the new entitlements will create an increased need for workers in the region of 9,000 in September 2024.

In 2023, the number of staff increased by 12,900 (4%), from 334,400 in 2022, to 34,300 in 2023. This was before the department introduced interventions to support the growth of the workforce.

I thank the Honorable Member for his continued support for the scheme. Officials are working closely with Norfolk County Council on the outline business case submitted to the Department. When they have completed their assessment, they will put advice to Ministers.

Both the Rail Minister and I are early in our tenure as Transport Ministers. As such, he is yet to speak to Network Rail regarding the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement. However, we do recognise the benefits the scheme could bring for freight and passenger rail services in East Anglia. The Department looks forward to discussing these proposals with Network Rail, and other stakeholders, in the near future.

Annual statistics on the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients and households by local authority and by Westminster parliamentary constituency are made publicly available via GOV.UK. The latest release contains data on individual and household level statistics for winter 2022 to 2023. For Winter 2022 to 2023, 24,157 people received a Winter Fuel Payment in North West Norfolk constituency.

Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.

Other means-tested benefits available to pensioners to enable them to receive a Winter Fuel Payment are: Income Support, Jobseekers’ Allowance (income-based), Employment and Support Allowance (income-related), and Universal Credit. Take-up statistics for Universal Credit are not available. Since the introduction of Universal Credit, it is no longer possible to make a new claim to other legacy means-tested benefits. We are therefore unable to estimate the number of pensioners who are eligible to claim other means-tested benefits.

The Department is currently considering the next steps to improve diagnostic assessments and support for autistic people and people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and ADHD services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

In respect of ADHD, we are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has launched into challenges in ADHD service provision, to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.

The Department is currently considering the next steps to improve diagnostic assessments and support for autistic people and people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and ADHD services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

In respect of ADHD, we are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has launched into challenges in ADHD service provision, to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.

The Department is currently considering the next steps to improve diagnostic assessments and support for autistic people and people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and ADHD services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

In respect of ADHD, we are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has launched into challenges in ADHD service provision, to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.

The Department is currently considering the next steps to improve diagnostic assessments and support for autistic people and people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and ADHD services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

In respect of ADHD, we are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has launched into challenges in ADHD service provision, to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.

On 22 November 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education, and NHS England launched a joint project, Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools. This project had £13 million of funding to test an innovative delivery model to improve access to specialist support in mainstream primary schools, upskilling those settings to meet a range of neurodiverse needs. The programme is ongoing, with delivery due to be completed by 31 March 2025. The programme is being evaluated, and learning will inform future policy development around how schools support neurodiverse children.

On 29 July 2024, the Chancellor published the results of the spending audit carried out by the Treasury in a document titled ‘Fixing the Foundations – Public spending audit 2024-25’.

The Chancellor has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare a full economic and fiscal forecast to be presented alongside a Budget on 30 October.