Jess Brown-Fuller

Ancillary orders, including Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs), play an important work in delivering justice, especially for victims of crime.

When submitting a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in cases where it is appropriate to seek a CBO, the police are required to provide information to justify the making of a CBO. As with other ancillary orders, prosecutors apply for CBOs where the law enables them to do so, considering all the facts and circumstances in a case.

In the Government’s response to the Independent Sentencing Review, the Ministry of Justice announced plans to expand ancillary orders and to explore wider powers for judges to enable them to use these orders more effectively and punish offenders. The CPS is working with the Ministry of Justice to provide prosecutorial insight in support of this work.

The impact of a Hepatitis infection can range from very mild to very severe, including liver failure and death as a direct result of the infection. In its second interim report, the Infected Blood Inquiry recommended that the compensation scheme should reflect the different impacts of infection by developing severity bandings.

The Expert Group provided the Government with clinical advice on the distinctions between these impacts. This meant the Government could set severity bands for Hepatitis infections based on clear clinical markers.

As set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, where someone’s experience of Hepatitis, whether it is historic or in the present day, has been more severe, they will receive more compensation. In its Additional Report, published 9 July, the Inquiry stated that “that tiers are relevant to Hepatitis in a way in which they are not in cases of HIV.”

The impact of a Hepatitis infection can range from very mild to very severe, including liver failure and death as a direct result of the infection. In its second interim report, the Infected Blood Inquiry recommended that the compensation scheme should reflect the different impacts of infection by developing severity bandings.

The Expert Group provided the Government with clinical advice on the distinctions between these impacts. This meant the Government could set severity bands for Hepatitis infections based on clear clinical markers.

As set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, where someone’s experience of Hepatitis, whether it is historic or in the present day, has been more severe, they will receive more compensation. In its Additional Report, published 9 July, the Inquiry stated that “that tiers are relevant to Hepatitis in a way in which they are not in cases of HIV.”

Limonene and linalool are used in various consumer products including cosmetics and household cleaners. The use of these chemicals in cosmetics is regulated by the UK Cosmetic Regulation and both chemicals are currently included in the list of restricted ingredients for use in cosmetics.

Both chemicals are also found in household cleaners, which are regulated by the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR). These regulations require that only safe products can be sold.

The government is confident that the current restrictions are sufficient to ensure that products are safe. However, we keep our regulations under review to ensure that products remain safe.

The Government welcomes the Competition and Markets Authority’s final market study report on infant formula and follow-on formula. We are working with the Devolved Governments closely to consider its recommendations, and relevant Ministers will agree a formal response collectively. We will work to ensure that any outcomes are in the best interest of consumers and public health.

The safety of commercial aerosols is regulated by the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), and other sector specific regulations. GPSR provides a baseline of safety for applicable products, requiring that only safe products, can be sold. Additionally, limonene is also used in cosmetics and is included in the list of restricted ingredients under the UK Cosmetic Regulation.

The government is confident that the current restrictions on limonene are sufficient to ensure that products are safe. However, to ensure that products remain safe, the government keeps the regulatory framework under constant review, including the use of specific chemicals in particular products.

Ofcom’s improved online mobile coverage checker went live on 26 June, which I would encourage the Hon Member to consult.

Our ambition is for all populated areas to have higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. We continue to work with industry to deliver this and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment into mobile networks and competition in the market.

The data protection fees fund the Information Commissioner’s statutory responsibilities in relation to data protection and privacy and electronic communications. There are three tiers of fees payable, based on the size and turnover of organisations. Small organisations typically pay £52 or £78 annually (compared to £3763 for large organisations), with charities always classified in the lowest tier. A £5 discount also applies to payments made by direct debit. The Government will keep the fees under review to ascertain whether they remain fit for purpose and ensure that the income generated is proportionate and sufficient.

The Government is considering options for ratifying the Beijing Treaty and will announce its intended approach in due course.

​​I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 1 August 2025 to Question 61402.

High and rising standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances.

A high-quality curriculum and assessment system is key to ensuring that every child receives an excellent education, which includes providing a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative mathematics curriculum.

The Review is specifically considering how to remove existing blocks to progress and ensure good outcomes for children and young people, including those who are from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and those who have a special educational need or disability.

During its ongoing work, the Review Group are seeking to address the challenges in particular subjects, including the mathematics curriculum, enabling all students to master high-quality content.

The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in the autumn.

On 7 July, the government published ‘Giving every child the Best Start in Life’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life. This outlines the government’s commitment to deliver a new Best Start Family Service to bring together parenting, healthcare and education support services, as well as creating and funding Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services. The department will provide over half a billion pounds of investment in the Best Start Family Service over the 2026/29 spending review period.

Best Start Family Hubs will provide both universal and targeted support, with open-access activities and referral routes for families with complex needs. They will bring together professionals from health, education, early years, and community services, prioritising delivery in areas of disadvantage, where families face the greatest barriers to support. Each Best Start Family Hub will have a children and family services professional specifically trained in working to support inclusion for children with additional needs.

On 7 July, the government published ‘Giving every child the Best Start in Life’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life. This outlines the government’s commitment to deliver a new Best Start Family Service to bring together parenting, healthcare and education support services, as well as creating and funding Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services. The department will provide over half a billion pounds of investment in the Best Start Family Service over the 2026/29 spending review period.

Best Start Family Hubs will provide both universal and targeted support, with open-access activities and referral routes for families with complex needs. They will bring together professionals from health, education, early years, and community services, prioritising delivery in areas of disadvantage, where families face the greatest barriers to support. Each Best Start Family Hub will have a children and family services professional specifically trained in working to support inclusion for children with additional needs.

All education settings have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. Part 6 of the Equality Act outlines that schools must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.

The government announced £740 million of high needs capital for the 2025/26 financial year to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and/or who are in alternative provision. This funding can be used to adapt classrooms to better meet the needs of all children, including the provision of sensory equipment within mainstream schools, alongside continuing to provide and adapt spaces to support pupils with the most complex needs in special schools. Local authorities may additionally wish to consider using this funding to invest in assistive technology interventions as a means of supporting pupils in mainstream schools.

The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission for West Sussex was in November 2023, which found inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against the five areas for improvement highlighted by the report, including one area specific to the sufficiency of high quality provision, and the progress made by children and young people with SEND.

The Government is not considering the adoption of a units-based metric. In accordance with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, Extender Producer Responsibility disposal fees for packaging are calculated in £ per tonne of household packaging placed on the market. Producers report the packaging they supply on a weight basis, and the costs for managing different material types, such as glass, are apportioned according to relevant cost drivers for their collection and management, including the volume of the container in bins and collection vehicles. This ensures the fair apportionment of costs between material types in line with the regulations.

The RAM has been used by producers to assess packaging recyclability from January 2025.  The RAM is an important aspect of pEPR as it will determine the modulation sub-category, and therefore the level of fees applicable to that material, with higher fees applied to less sustainable packaging.

Fee modulation will begin from year two of the scheme for payments in the 2026/27 financial year, based on 2025 producer data.

We have made a full impact assessment of implementing packaging extended producer responsibility will have which we published when The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 were laid before parliament.

The Government will continue to monitor modulation to ensure fees reward improved recyclability.

Restoring our chalk streams to better ecological health must be part of our holistic programme of reforms for the water sector, including:

The Government’s wider agenda to reset the water sector and fix the systemic issues in the water framework, continued investment in actual projects at the catchment level, committing to end damaging abstraction of water from rivers and groundwater, driving home the responsibilities for responsible authorities around protected landscapes, many of which feature chalk streams.

Local councils are responsible for taking enforcement action in most fly-tipping incidents. Their powers include issuing fixed penalty notices of up to £1000, prosecution action and seizing vehicles. We encourage councils to make good use of their powers, and we are taking steps to develop statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance. We have also announced a review of local authority powers to seize and crush the vehicles of suspected fly-tippers, to identify how we could help councils make better use of this tool.

We also committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.

Defra continues to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders such as local authorities and the National Police Chiefs Council to promote good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping, including on private land. Various practical tools, such as a guidance on how local authorities can present robust cases to court, are available from their webpage at: https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/national-fly-tipping-prevention-group#.

Since the introduction of Smoke Control Areas in 1956 emissions from domestic combustion have reduced significantly. However, domestic combustion is a major source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in the UK, and wood stove ownership is increasing.

Whilst we are not required to carry out an assessment of the effectiveness of Smoke Control Areas or Ecodesign regulation we have commissioned reports in both areas.

Kantar prepared a report on Burning in UK Homes and Gardens for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2020. This report included an analysis of burning in Smoke Control Areas, and can be found at Report: Burning in UK homes and gardens (plus a number of annexes) - Defra, UK

Ricardo prepared reports on Emission Factors for Domestic Solid Fuels Project which for Defra in 2024. These include details of emission factors using Ecodesign-compliant stoves compared to other types of stoves. These can be found at WP1 - Report: Emission Factors for Domestic Solid Fuels Project - Work Package 1 Report - Defra, UK and Ricardo report template The final report in this series is due to be published shortly on Air Quality Library - Defra, UK.

The government knows how important affordable and reliable bus services are in enabling people to get to education, work and access vital services.

On 1 January, we introduced a £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London to help passengers continue to access cheaper bus services and better opportunities. At the Spending Review we announced the cap would be extended until March 2027.

The majority of bus services operate on a commercial basis by private operators, and any decisions regarding the level at which fares are set outside the scope of the £3 bus fare cap are commercial decisions for operators. Bus operators can choose to offer discounted fares for young people, and in the year ending March 2025, youth discounts were offered by at least one commercial bus operator in 73 out of 85 local authority areas in England outside London.

The government introduced the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill on 17 December as part of our ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill will put passenger needs, reliable services and local accountability at the heart of the industry by putting the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, including in rural areas. The Bill includes a measure on socially necessary services so that local authorities and bus operators have to have regard for alternatives to changing or cancelling services.

In addition, we have confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country, of which West Sussex Council was allocated £9.6 million.  Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent, protect crucial bus routes and introducing new fares initiatives, including for young people, to reduce the cost of bus travel further.

The government reaffirmed its commitment to investing in bus services long-term in this Spending Review. On 11 June, the government confirmed additional funding per year from 2026/27 to maintain and improve bus services, including extending the £3 bus fare cap until March 2027.

The Air Navigation Guidance 2017 states that National Parks and Areas of Natural Beauty are designated areas with specific statutory purposes to ensure their continued protection in relation to landscape and scenic beauty. Given the finite amount of airspace available, it will not always be possible to avoid overflying these areas, and there are no legislative requirements to do so.

When airspace changes are being considered, the guidance states that local circumstances, including community views on specific areas that should be avoided, should be taken into account where possible. This applies to controlled airspace, although most pleasure flights by small aircraft use uncontrolled airspace, which does not contain restrictions for flying over National Parks and Areas of Natural Beauty. However, all airspace users must follow the Rules of the Air 2007.

Currently there are no plans to formally limit the number of small aircraft over residential areas. However, all airspace users must follow The Rules of the Air Regulations 2007 which set out minimum heights for flight above built-up areas.

Everyone who rides or drives, including delivery couriers, has a duty to behave in a safe and responsible manner, and to follow the rules set out in The Highway Code. I have no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of withdrawing the right of provisional licence holders to ride while working.

The Department worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to update the joint DfT/HSE guidance on work related road safety. The revised guidance, published in September 2021 and called Driving and riding safely for work, clearly sets out what commercial organisations and their employees must do to manage work related road safety and what their obligations are under law.

Improving road safety is one of my highest priorities. Dangerous or unsafe behaviour by anyone on our roads is unacceptable. Too many people are killed and seriously injured in road traffic collisions, and this Government will work hard to prevent these tragedies for all road users. My department is developing the Government’s Road Safety Strategy and will set out more details in due course.

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 11 June 2025, this Government will deliver notable improvements to people’s everyday travel by providing £24 billion of capital funding between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to maintain and improve roads across the country. We will provide updates on what this means for specific schemes and routes in due course.