Jodie Gosling

This government recognises that equality and opportunity are at the heart of our programme of national renewal, this includes in our workplaces. The best employers understand that an inclusive workplace, where employees are supported to succeed, is good for productivity and good for the business.

Under the landmark Employment Rights Bill we are taking steps to ensure that all workplaces follow the fantastic example set by some of our leading businesses. This includes requiring large employers to publish plans setting out how they are tackling the gender pay gap and supporting employees during the menopause. Through this process we expect to be able to highlight those employers exhibiting best practice, and ensure that they can share their experiences for other businesses to learn from.

The King’s Speech announced our intention to publish draft legislation this session that will introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers (those with 250 or more employees).

Pay gap reporting can help businesses better understand their workforce, which can lead to them adopting policies and changes which support improved productivity and improved rates of progression and retention, ensuring they make the most of the skills of their employees.

The work of the Insolvency Service is kept under continual review by the Department and Ministers.

The Insolvency Service, on behalf of the Secretary of State, performs a crucial function in overseeing the Recognised Professional Bodies’ regulation of Insolvency Practitioners. The regulation of Insolvency Practitioners was subject to a public consultation in 2021, and the Government is considering the introduction of reforms in this area.

The Government supports the deployment of solar on rooftops, including those of car parks and other buildings. Many smaller-scale commercial rooftop projects are covered by permitted development rights, which allow them to be installed without applying for planning consent. These include solar canopies in non-domestic, off-street car parks, and rooftop projects of any size on non-domestic buildings. From next year, Future Homes and Buildings Standards will ensure that all newly-built homes and commercial buildings are fit for a net zero future.

This government has a driving mission to break down barriers to opportunity. As part of this, we want to ensure that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships.

The department continues to pay additional funding to employers and training providers to support them to take on young apprentices, apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities, and care leavers.

The department has begun work to develop new foundation apprenticeships, providing high quality entry pathways for young people. We will engage with relevant stakeholders to inform our thinking to maximise the positive impact on young people, including those in disadvantaged areas. More detail on foundation apprenticeships will be set out in due course.

The department has no current plans to make eligibility for the pupil premium a mandatory oversubscription criteria in school admission arrangements.

However, through the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, the department is planning to legislate on requiring all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions, special educational needs and disabilities inclusion and place planning, by giving local authorities greater powers to help them deliver their functions on school admissions and ensure admissions decisions account for the needs of communities.

We expect this will require taking forward changes to the School Admissions Code. As part of this, the department will also consider any wider changes necessary to ensure fair access to school for all. Any changes to the Code will require a statutory process, including a full public consultation and parliamentary approval.

The government is driving an agenda of change to break down the barriers to opportunity and to reduce child poverty, working across local and national government.

Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low income family. That is why the government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackling the root causes, and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new Ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in the spring.

The department is also committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that all children have the freedom to achieve and thrive in education. To support this aim, the government is committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school to set children up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn, while supporting parents and carers to work.

Disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools, as well as 16 to 18-year-old students in further education (FE), are entitled to receive free meals on the basis of low income. 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive free school meals (FSM) and a further 90,000 are registered to receive FE free meals. In addition, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England's state-funded schools are entitled to Universal Infant Free School Meals, which benefits around 1.3 million pupils.

As with all government programmes, we will keep our approach to FSM under review.

The government’s Opportunity Mission aims to give all children the best start in life, breaking the link between young people’s background and future success.

This means supporting strong family relationships and stable home environments, providing access to family services that provide the right help at the right time, alongside quality early education.

Family hubs do great work to help families access vital services. The Autumn Budget 2024 included an announcement of £69 million to continue delivery of the existing network of family hubs for 2025/26. More than 400 family hubs opened under the existing programme, targeted at the most disadvantaged areas.

The department’s long term intention is to reform the early years system and improve family services to provide the foundation of opportunity and improved life chances for children.

The department is considering how best to achieve these aims under the terms of the subsequent muti-year spending review.

The department needs to ensure that the student funding system is financially sustainable. The department recognises the impact that the cost-of-living crisis has had on students, which is why the highest levels of support are targeted at students with household incomes of £25,000 or less.

For the 2025/26 academic year, the department will be increasing loans for living costs by 3.1%, which is in line with the forecast rate of inflation based on the RPI All Items Excl Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation measure. Vulnerable groups of students eligible for benefits, such as lone parents and some disabled students, qualify for higher rates of loans for living costs. This ensures that most support is targeted at students from the lowest income families, while keeping the student finance system financially sustainable.

There is much more to do to expand access and improve outcomes for disadvantaged students. That is why the department has announced that it expects the higher education sector to do more to support students by working with the government and the Office for Students and by making the most of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement. The department will be setting out longer term plans for the sector next year.

Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers and set out how they plan to do this through Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). To develop their plans, water companies must consult local authorities and consider all demand management and supply options available to meet future water needs, including those for new homes.

Sewerage undertakers have a statutory obligation to prepare, publish and maintain a Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP), detailing the actions the company proposes to take to meet current and future demand.

The government wants everyone to have access to public transport and is committed to improving services so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity.

At the Budget we confirmed over £1 billion in funding to improve services, protect vital routes and keep fares down. On 17 November, we confirmed how we are distributing £955 million that funding, with £712 million for local councils to deliver bus service improvement plans (BSIP) and better meet local needs, and a further £243 million for bus operators, including funding a long-standing grant to drive down fares and drive up services.

Funding allocated to local authorities to deliver BSIPs can be used in whichever way they wish to improve services for all passengers, including disabled passengers. The Department for Transport's guidance to local authorities on developing their BSIPs makes clear that these must consider accessibility, inclusiveness, personal safety and security when deciding how to improve the experience for passengers.

The safety of our roads is a priority and we are currently developing a road safety strategy – the first in over a decade.

The DfT Chief Scientific Adviser is meeting with international experts to understand the effectiveness of a range of interventions and their implications for road safety in this country.

The delivery of High Speed Two (HS2) is expected to nearly double seat capacity between London and Birmingham, which is the most congested section of the West Coast Main Line. We are taking into consideration the recent proposal from the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands for enhancing rail connectivity between the Midlands and the North West, and will set out a clear plan to address capacity and connectivity issues in due course.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to make significant investments in improving customer communications and correspondence through digital transformation and the Service Modernisation Programme.

A proportion of the overall funding for the programme is and will continue to be used to improve the service, including response times to correspondence.

One aim of the Programme is to improve CMS response times by increasing the capability of our self-service platforms, simplifying guidance and internal systems for our colleagues, and by freeing up caseworker time.

We strive to ensure staff are equipped with the tools needed to respond quickly and comprehensively to customer correspondence, however response times can vary depending on the complexity of individual cases. We will continue to invest in improving our contact channels for customers to offer a more flexible and responsive service to all customers.

The Government is committed to putting patients back at the heart of care. This includes supporting a patient’s right to choose, if they wish, where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. Further details for patients are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework/the-nhs-choice-framework-what-choices-are-available-to-me-in-the-nhs

The Department is working closely with NHS England on plans for targeted support starting in the most disadvantaged areas. General practitioners (GPs) can see waiting time information for different providers displayed as part of the e-Referral Service. GPs and patients can also use the Manage Your Referral service, allowing patients to make an informed choice of provider online or through the NHS App following their appointment.

The Government is committed to putting patients back at the heart of care. This includes supporting a patient’s right to choose, if they wish, where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. Further details for patients are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework/the-nhs-choice-framework-what-choices-are-available-to-me-in-the-nhs

The Department is working closely with NHS England on plans for targeted support starting in the most disadvantaged areas. General practitioners (GPs) can see waiting time information for different providers displayed as part of the e-Referral Service. GPs and patients can also use the Manage Your Referral service, allowing patients to make an informed choice of provider online or through the NHS App following their appointment.

Investment in Infrastructure is crucial for delivering the government’s missions, which is why the government is fundamentally reforming how it delivers infrastructure through a 10-year infrastructure strategy, establishing the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), and delivering ambitious planning reform.

The 10-year infrastructure strategy will be published next spring, alongside the 2025 Spending Review. Government is developing the strategy working closely with the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority. The government will engage extensively with businesses, industry bodies and other stakeholders.

The scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable and this Government will treat it as the national emergency that it is. Tackling VAWG is a top priority and our mission is to halve VAWG within a decade. To achieve this ambitious aim, it is essential that we tackle domestic abuse and all forms of interpersonal abuse.

This Government’s target to halve VAWG within the next decade will only succeed if we continue to ensure children and young people are also at the heart of prevention and intervention programmes and policies. Progressing work around child to parent abuse is an important part of this and we will consider the responses to the consultation on the definition of child to parent abuse as part of our approach to addressing this issue.

The Government is committed to rolling out a network of Young Futures Hubs which will bring together services to help improve the way young people can access the support they need.

Over the coming weeks we will be engaging with local communities, the police, charities, and other key partners to support the design of the Young Futures programme, including hubs and explore options for their delivery.

This Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and prevention will be a key element of our approach.

With a mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

The government recognise that the home buying and selling process in England and Wales is inefficient and costly for consumers and professionals. We continue to review evidence from other jurisdictions, including on reservation agreements, as we consider next steps.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question 10272 on 28 October 2024.

Local authorities have strong powers and incentives to tackle empty homes. They have the discretionary powers to charge additional council tax on properties which have been left unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for one or more years. The maximum premium that a council can apply increases, depending on the length of time that the property has been empty for, with a premium of up to 300% on homes left empty for over ten years.

Local authorities can also use powers to take over the management of long-term empty homes to bring them back into use in the private rented sector. Local authorities can apply for an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) when a property has been empty for more than two years, subject to the production of evidence that the property has been causing a nuisance to the community and evidence of community support for their proposal. More information can be found here.

Existing combined county authority legislation provides that only upper tier local authorities in the area of a combined county authority can be constituent members. District councils are an important part of local government, and as non-constituent members can play an active role in any combined county authority in their area, should they wish.

It is important that all local authorities are engaged and actively involved in improving their areas, working across all levels of government for the interests of the local community.

There are no buildings in the Nuneaton constituency that have been identified with unsafe cladding.

Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent courts. Courts take into account the specific facts of each case and have a statutory obligation to follow any relevant sentencing guidelines. The Sentencing Council’s guideline on domestic abuse, published in 2018, makes clear that the domestic context of an offence increases its severity. This is because it represents a violation of trust and security that normally exists in an intimate or family relationship.

We know, however, that sentences which offenders receive often do not make sense either to victims or the wider public, and this is particularly worrying for offences against women and girls. That is why this Government has committed to carry out a review of sentencing, to ensure it is consistent and makes sense to victims and the public.

We are also aware that there are specific issues in relation to domestic homicide sentencing, due to the effects of the 25-year starting point for murders committed with a knife or other weapon taken to the scene with intent. In opposition, this Government welcomed the legislation introduced by the previous administration which implemented some of Clare Wade KC’s independent Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review recommendations. We recognise, however, that there is more to be done and Ministers are continuing to meet stakeholders on this complex issue.