Jo White

The Online Safety Act requires services to protect all users from illegal misogynistic content, and children from harmful misogynistic content including content which is violent, hateful or abusive.

The largest services (category 1) will also need to remove misogynistic content prohibited in their terms of service and have effective, accessible mechanisms to report abuse.

The number of scheme members in each constituency is listed in the attached table. This information is from the scheme trustees and correct as at 30 October 2024. Some of these scheme members will not yet be in receipt of their pension, but we do not have a breakdown of that information at constituency level.

On 16^th January 2025, the Government announced £410 million investment to accelerate development of fusion energy and kickstart economic growth as part of its Plan for Change. The funding will support the rapid development of the UK fusion energy sector over 2025 to 2026 with investment in the skills needed for scientists, engineers, welders and programme managers to enter the cutting-edge industry. Fusion already supports thousands of jobs in the UK, with thousands more to follow as the technology advances.

Every constituency in the country has at least one person in receipt of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme. The number of scheme members in each constituency is listed in the table below. This information is from the scheme trustees and correct as at 30 October 2024. Some of these scheme members will not yet be in receipt of their pension, but we do not have a breakdown of that information at constituency level.

The Apprenticeship Accountability Framework (AAF) is the department’s main tool for improving apprenticeship quality. The AAF evaluates Qualification Achievement Rates alongside nine other quality indicators, such as Ofsted outcomes, withdrawal rates and feedback from apprentices and employers, using updated data throughout the year.

The AAF sets minimum thresholds for each quality indicator, reflecting the department's baseline expectations for apprenticeship quality. If a provider's performance falls below these thresholds, it triggers a management conversation between the department and the provider, rather than an automatic cessation of starts on a standard.

The quality indicators and their minimum thresholds are detailed in the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework and Specification, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-training-provider-accountability-framework/apprenticeship-training-provider-accountability-framework-and-specification--2#accountability-policy-for-apprenticeship-training-providers. The department will continually review these indicators and thresholds, using the latest available data from the current and previous academic years, while considering sector consultation and feedback to ensure they are appropriately set.

Any changes to the AAF, including updates to quality indicators and their minimum thresholds, will be communicated to the sector.

The government has devolved approximately 60% of the Adult Skills Fund to the nine Mayoral Strategic Authorities of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, South Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West Midlands, West of England, and West Yorkshire, and delegated to the Greater London Authority.

Devolved authorities are responsible for ensuring learners have access to the training they require to progress in life. It is therefore at the discretion of devolved authorities on what training or funding their learners have access to.

The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to help promote and deliver supervised toothbrushing programmes for 3 to 5-year-olds in the most deprived communities.

The department recognises that prevention is better than cure. For this reason, we will be targeting the areas of highest need to have the greatest impact on young children’s oral health.

Further information on the implementation timetable will be confirmed in due course.

Currently all state-funded schools in England are required to teach about good oral hygiene as part of the statutory health education set out within relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

The below table shows the number of apprenticeship service employers accounts with apprenticeship starts in the 2023/24 academic year.

The figures are for the number of employer accounts instead of employers. An employer may have more than one apprenticeship service employer account.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Basstettlaw to the answer of 14 October 2024 to question 7255.

This Government will always back British farmers who produce some of the highest quality food in the world, contribute billions to our economy, and are the custodians of our countryside. We want more people to be able to access nutritious, and locally sourced food.

Our ambition, set out in our election manifesto, is for half of all food supplied into the public sector to be from local British producers, or certified to higher environmental standards whilst being in line with World Trade Organisation and domestic procurement obligations.

The department strongly supports retailer efforts to promote British food. Defra officials regularly engage with major supermarkets to understand their work to promote British produce.

In addition, the Government currently protects 93 British food and drink product names through its Geographical Indications schemes and welcomes further applications from British producers. Consumers can find these products with unique links to Britain’s gastronomic heritage by looking out for the black and gold ‘Protected Designation of Origin’, ‘Protected Geographical Origin,’ and ‘Traditional Specialty Guaranteed’ logos.

The Blue Badge scheme is primarily about helping people with a long-term disability, that affects their capacity to access the goods and services they need to use. Anyone may be entitled to a badge if they meet the eligibility criteria.

The Department has issued local authorities with advice on how they could use existing powers to provide locally determined parking concessions within their areas. For example, some local authorities grant parking concessions to assist their elderly residents. The same powers could be used to help those with temporary disabilities.

Where a court has decided that someone has committed a criminal offence but that they should say be sent to hospital rather than receiving a custodial sentence in prison, the length of their stay is determined by their recovery and the extent to which they are no longer a risk to themselves or others. Psychiatrist, and in some cases a Mental Health Tribunal or the Secretary of State for Justice, determine when they will be released. All patients in hospital are entitled to benefits. DWP keeps all benefits under review.

In the 2023/24 financial year, 37 integrated care boards (ICBs) reimbursed at least one dental practice for over 100%, and up to 110%, of their General Dental Services contract value. These ICBs are as follows:

• Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB;
• South Yorkshire ICB;
• Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB;
• Mid and South Essex ICB;
• Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB;
• Birmingham and Sihull ICB;
• Northeast and North Cumbria ICB;
• Derby and Derbyshire ICB;
• Suffolk and Northeast Essex ICB;
• Devon ICB;
• Lincolnshire ICB;
• Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB;
• Southeast London ICB;
• Kent And Medway ICB;
• Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB;
• Northeast London ICB;
• North Central London ICB;
• Norfolk and Waveney ICB;
• Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB;
• Frimley ICB;
• Sussex ICB;
• Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB;
• Greater Manchester ICB;
• Humber and North Yorkshire ICB;
• Bath and Northeast Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB;
• Northamptonshire ICB;
• Gloucestershire ICB;
• Hampshire and Isle Of Wight ICB;
• Northwest London ICB;
• Somerset ICB;
• Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB;
• Cornwall and the Isles Of Scilly ICB;
• Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB;
• Black Country ICB;
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB;
• Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB;
• Dorset ICB;
• Southwest London ICB;
• West Yorkshire ICB;
• Coventry and Warwickshire ICB;
• Surrey Heartlands ICB; and
• Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.

The review of the Green Book will report back at the conclusion of the Spending Review in June.

The Apprenticeship Levy (AL) is currently paid by large employers, charged at a rate of 0.5% on an employer’s annual pay bill of over £3 million. The annual apprenticeship budget is then set by HMT, which funds training and assessment costs for apprenticeships.

This government is committed to transform the Apprenticeship Levy into a Growth and Skills Levy, which will allow employers to invest in a wider range of training.

The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on visas granted, by year, visa route, and nationality are published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance visas detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data cover the period up to the end of September 2024.

The Home Office applies Service Credits as per the contracts performance management framework, but disclosure of this information is commercially sensitive.

The Home Office holds detailed information on the compliance of its contractors with the requirements set out in Schedule 2 of the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC). The Home Office monitors Serco’s performance through a robust performance management framework. Performance data is published periodically and includes performance against key contractual obligations and key performance indicators.

The Home Office regularly publishes statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily.

Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.

We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation and they will be swiftly removed from the country.

In order to reduce the FNO prison population and support the MoJ in alleviating current prison capacity issues, we are focussing resources on those cases currently serving custodial sentences and maximising returns directly from prison.

We recognise the importance of allotments and the immense contribution they make to the health, wellbeing and spirit of communities. We have not made an assessment of the potential merits of reforming the Small Holdings and Allotments Act.

The Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 requires local authorities including parish councils to provide enough allotments if they deem there is sufficient demand from the local population. They must also consider local representations submitted under this Act requesting the provision of allotments. There are currently no plans to prescribe a timeframe for local authorities to respond to these requests.

The Government considers that the current local government standards regime is broadly ineffectual, inconsistently applied, and lacking in adequate powers to effectively sanction members found in serious breach of their codes of conduct.

We are actively considering options to strengthen the standards regime for local government and provide councils with more effective means to address serious misconduct by elected members, including a proposal to allow for the suspension of members who violate codes of conduct. We will be consulting with local authorities, sector representative bodies, and other key stakeholders in due course to ensure a wide range of views are heard.

We are unable to provide the requested prisoner release figures at this time, as they form a subset of prisoner releases data scheduled for future publication. Numbers of custodial releases for the period covering July 2024 to September 2024 will be published on 30 January 2025, here: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

All foreign national offenders in receipt of custodial sentences are referred to the Home Office to be considered for deportation. The Home Office make all final decisions relating to deportation, taking into account individual circumstances in each case, meaning it is not possible to predict future deportation numbers.