Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department will take to ensure high levels of UK content in tidal stream projects.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government continues to engage with the tidal stream industry to support high levels of UK content in projects, which currently stands at around 80 per cent, including through the Marine Energy Taskforce’s sub group on supply chains.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when draft updated statutory guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions will be published.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has committed to ensuring that schools are equipped to support pupils with medical conditions effectively and inclusively. The current statutory guidance, ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions,’ will be updated to reflect best practice and recent developments.
We intend to consult later this year on revised guidance. This consultation will seek views from schools, parents, health professionals, and other stakeholders on proposals to strengthen how schools meet their duties, including improvements to allergy safety and broader medical condition management.
Our aim is to ensure that every child can access education safely and confidently, regardless of their health needs.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children's homes that are privately owned and operated.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As at 31 March 2025, 84% (3,360) of all children’s homes were privately owned and operated.
Ofsted publish annual data on children’s social care in England. This includes data on the number of homes and the different types of social care providers. The latest data is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childrens-social-care-in-england-2025.
The government is taking forward work to reshape the children’s social care placement’s market, including increasing the number of foster carers so that more children can be looked after in family-based environments and encouraging more non-profit, local authority, and social investment backed providers to enter the market.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when guidance on clinical delegation will be published.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The regulators of registered healthcare professionals, including the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), are independent of the Government, are directly accountable to Parliament, and are responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of their statutory duties. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
The GMC has published the guidance ‘Delegation and referral’ while the NMC has published its guidance ‘Delegation and accountability’. Both regulators expect their registrants to follow the appropriate guidance when delegating clinical work.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason he proposes the inclusion of holiday lets within the Energy Performance Certificate regime; and whether sector-specific data, including occupancy patterns, energy consumption profiles, and seasonal variations, has been analysed prior to progressing towards regulation.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
EPCs help owners better understand the energy performance of their buildings and identify opportunities to improve them. We consulted on proposals to regulate short-term rental properties to have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) at the point of being let, irrespective of whether the occupier is responsible for energy costs, to provide clarity on existing guidance for when furnished holiday lets require EPCs.
The impact assessment published alongside our consultation (accessible here: Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime: impact assessment) considered the effects of our proposals for short-term and holiday lets. We are analysing responses to the consultation, including from the short-term let sector, and will publish the Government’s response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the 10,910 additional urgent dental appointments allocated to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board have been delivered since April 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have asked the integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.
Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.
Data on delivery of urgent dental care, including additional delivery, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the dependents of doctors eligible for the earned settlement scheme will be able to qualify for faster settlement routes.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.
A Fairer Pathway to Settlement proposes a reduction in qualifying period for settlement for those in public service occupations.
However, full details of the earned settlement scheme, including treatment of dependants, will be finalised following that consultation.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to his Department's policy paper on the UK methane action plan, published on 29 October 2025, what his planned timeline is for implementing a transitional support mechanism for landfill gas to energy operators supported by the RO scheme.
Answered by Katie White - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government is aware that support under the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme will end for existing landfill gas generators from April 2027, which could affect the commercial viability of these generators.
We recognise the importance of providing commercial clarity to the sector and will provide an update in the new year. That is why, as set out in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, Government is exploring the implementation of long-term methane capture schemes, with suitable transitional arrangements.
We recognise the importance of providing commercial clarity to the sector and will provide an update in the new year.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the sum of money was resulting from a) deductions and b) sanctions applied to Universal Credit claims in Truro and Falmouth constituency in the most recent 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
a) The Deductions policy in Universal Credit (UC) is to support customers by providing a repayment method for arrears of essential services, such as, housing, electricity, and gas and enable customers with a child maintenance liability meet their obligation to make child maintenance payments. The deductions policy also enables obligations, such as, paying Court Fines and Council Tax arrears to be enforced when other repayment methods have failed, or are not cost effective, and ensures that benefit debt is recovered in a cost-effective manner.
From April 2025 the Government introduced the Fair Repayment Rate which reduced the level of deduction taken from Universal Credit from 25% to 15%, and meant that 1.2m households retained on average £420 per year enabling these UC households to have more of their award to meet their day-to-day needs.
Universal Credit deductions statistics are published quarterly with the latest figures available in table 6, row 491 in Universal Credit deductions statistics, September 2024 to August 2025, supplementary data tables, at Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 9 October 2025 - GOV.UK
b) The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a yellow card warning system in place of immediate benefit sanctions for certain groups of claimants.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no such plans.
Details on the Department’s assessment and position on a number of benefit sanctions related matters, including the potential use of warnings, can be found in our recent response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on Recommendation 4 of its report Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres (HC 653) (https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50172/documents/270724/default/).
As indicated, we have set out our plans to reform Jobcentre Plus in the Get Britain Working White Paper and this new service will shift the focus of the customer-work coach relationship to constructive, personalised, and career-focused discussions. In our Pathfinder in Wakefield, we have already begun to explore alternative approaches to how claimants demonstrate they're meeting their conditionality requirements with the aim of giving them more choice and empowerment on their journey into work.