Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the minimum (a) English and (b) maths requirements are to complete (i) apprenticeships and (ii) vocational courses; and whether he plans to review those requirements.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Since February 2025, adults aged 19 and over no longer need to achieve a standalone English and maths qualification on top of their apprenticeship, where their employer agrees that this is not an essential part of their training. Young apprentices who are aged 16-18 at the start of their apprenticeship will continue to be required to achieve English and maths qualifications to put them in the best position to progress in their life and careers.

Upskilling in English and maths will continue to remain a key feature of all apprenticeships. All apprentices will continue to be required to secure and be assessed on the job-specific English and maths skills they need as part of the apprenticeship standard.

Regarding wider vocational courses, any student on a 16 to 19 study programme or T Level, who has not yet achieved an English and/or maths GCSE grade 4 or higher, must continue to be taught these subjects. However, the award of a qualification for these vocational courses is not contingent on their achievement of a grade 4.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of criteria for (a) parental and (b) professional involvement in decision-making for young people who lack the capacity to make the appropriate decisions to keep themselves safe after they turn 18.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

People over the age of 18 years old come under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, which has the statutory principle that an individual must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established otherwise. All practicable steps must be taken to help any individual above 18 years old to make a decision by themselves, and if unsuccessful, then all decisions made on their behalf must be in their best interests.

On 18 October 2025, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced the intention to launch a public consultation on the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) in the first half of 2026. The consultation will cover a revised Code of Practice and will incorporate changes in case law, legislation, and good practice in application of the MCA.

The LPS, as introduced by the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019, aims to deliver greater involvement of families and professionals in providing care to vulnerable people in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of levels of public understanding of winter illness (a) transmission and (b) prevention; and if he will consider a public information campaign on infection prevention, in addition to vaccination programmes.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Public Perceptions Tracker provides insight into public attitudes and behaviours in relation to priority public health issues. It is a quarterly online survey, with a sample of approximately 1,000 participants per wave. The sample is representative of the following groups in England: gender identity; age; region; and social grade; interlocked with ethnicity.

In addition to vaccine campaigns, the UKHSA runs annual no-cost public information campaigns each winter, focused on promoting infection prevention behaviours. The campaign includes social media content, downloadable digital assets, and stakeholder engagement.

The UKHSA produces 'Virus Watch' which includes 60-second expert videos, explanatory infographics, and data summaries. This aims to help people understand which viruses are circulating and take the right actions to protect their health and prevent spread.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of schools being required to have specialist allergy nurses.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions and have policies and processes in place to ensure these can be well managed. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training. School nursing services provide health and wellbeing support for children and young people from age 4 up to 19. They provide specialist advice to schools on the management of medical conditions, including allergies.

Schools must have regard to the ‘Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school’ statutory guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.

The department has committed to reviewing this guidance and intends to issue a consultation on an updated version of this statutory guidance.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that planning policy adequately reflects the potential risks posed by dynamic environments such as a) estuaries, b) floodplains and c) coastlines.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Chapter 14 of the National Planning Policy Framework sets out a holistic approach to meeting the challenges of climate change, coastal change, and flooding. It makes clear that the planning system should take full account of all climate impacts, including coastal change and flood risk.

The Framework outlines a sequential approach to flood risk management, requiring inappropriate development to be directed away from areas at highest risk, and providing strong safeguards where development is necessary in these areas. It also specifies that local planning authorities should limit the planned lifetime of development in Coastal Change Management Areas through temporary permissions and restoration conditions if necessary to reduce unacceptable levels of future risk to people or development.

The government is considering whether further changes are required to sufficiently reflect the risks to such areas and we intend to consult on a new suite of national policies for decision making before the end of this year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) help reduce delays in continuing healthcare reviews for previously unassessed periods of care and (b) reduce the associated administration.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department and NHS England published guidance in 2023 for assessing requests for Previously Unassessed Periods of Care (PUPoC). This guidance sets out how integrated care boards (ICBs) should approach and address PUPoC assessment requests. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/continuing-healthcare-previously-unassessed-periods-of-care/dealing-with-requests-for-assessments-of-previously-unassessed-periods-of-care-from-1-april-2012

The guidance states that ICBs should set their own reasonable and proportionate timeframes for responding to requests. It provides best practice examples for how ICBs should complete PUPoC requests, based on the timeframe for the unassessed period of care and the completion of the required application and consent forms.

NHS England publishes quarterly statistics relating to the activity of NHS Continuing Healthcare and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care which includes PUPoC data, reporting on the number of cases agreed eligible, both total and per 50,000. This is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/nhs-chc-fnc/

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that households without signal are able to access the smart meter network.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Data Communications Company (DCC) is obligated under the conditions of its licence to provide Wide Area Network (WAN) coverage to at least 99.25% of premises across Great Britain.

The DCC is also required by licence conditions to seek to provide coverage to all premises where it is practicable and cost proportionate, and to assess opportunities to increase the overall level of coverage. For the minority of premises that currently do not receive WAN coverage, a new solution will be trialled early next year which will involve harnessing, with their consent, customers’ broadband connections to carry smart metering communications.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of access to specialist endometriosis services for young people aged 17 and under.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We know that girls and women deserve better, which is why we are renewing the Women’s Health Strategy, to assess the progress that has been made so far and to continue progressing delivery while empowering women with information about heavy menstrual bleeding and reproductive health conditions.

All hospitals providing specialised care and treatment for endometriosis for patients aged 17 and under must have a paediatric gynaecologist as part of their multi-disciplinary team, who will be a part of the treatment planning and decision-making process. The individual’s parents or a person with parental responsibility must also be involved where applicable. If this is not available, these patients must be referred to a paediatric and adolescent gynaecology service.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will direct electricity providers to periodically conduct Electrical Installation Condition Reports.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 80904 on 10 October 2025.

Electricity providers, the electricity network operators and electricity suppliers, the companies who distribute and supply electricity to homes and businesses, have no role in electrical safety inspections and are not responsible for electrical safety in homes and businesses.

For social rented homes we have introduced regulations, that came into force this month, requiring all landlords to have the electrical installations in their properties inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every five years. This is in line with regulations already in place in the private rented sector. Social landlords must also have the electrical equipment that they provide under the tenancy checked by a qualified person at least every five years.

NHS Food Scanner App and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition Guidance

Protections for the welfare of wild animals in tourism

Britain’s canals and rivers

Government proposals for mandatory digital ID

Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week 2025

Armed Forces Training Contract and Elbit Systems

Sewage discharge in the Severn and Avon

Improving equestrian road safety awareness

Buying community energy locally

Fly-tipping and illegal waste dumping by criminal gangs

Safeguarding pubs, brewers and one million jobs

Gambling executives' profits

Access to banks

Neurodivergent service personnel in the armed forces

Tackling van and tool theft

Water scarcity and agricultural reservoirs

National Tree Week 2025

Conduct of Sir Robbie Gibb and the independence of the BBC Board

Release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah and the plight of British nationals arbitrarily detained abroad

Support for the UK-Ukraine Trauma and Recovery Collaborative

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2025

Cancer waiting times

Mouth Cancer Action Month

World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week 2025

UK access to the EU SAFE defence fund

110 years of the Women's Institute

50th Anniversary of women’s right to independent mortgages

Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day on 20 November 2025

UK Youth Parliament 2025

UK–EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement

President Trump’s 20-point peace plan

Local Housing Allowance

Cumulative disruption proposals and the right to protest