Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many apprentices her Department recruited in 2025, compared to i) 2022 ii) 2023 and iii) 2024.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO) is part of the Cabinet Office. No external apprentices were recruited specifically into OEO in either 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025.
Although we did not recruit any apprentices, OEO remains committed to professional development; during this period, existing staff members have undertaken apprenticeships alongside their roles to support their career progression and technical expertise.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to ensure that the UK's approach to crop protection authorisation is safeguarded under the proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK-EU SPS agreement is under negotiation and pesticides regulations are in scope. The Common Understanding sets out that the United Kingdom, acting in respect of Great Britain, will dynamically align with all the relevant European Union rules. The Common Understanding further sets out that the UK will be involved at an early stage to contribute to the decision-shaping process on areas within scope of the Agreement.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to secure assurances from the European Union on a permanent carve-out for products authorised under the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 in any new Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to implementing the Precision Breeding Act and enabling the safe development of innovative genetic technologies.
Under the UK‑EU Common Understanding, it is recognised that there will be areas where the UK will retain its own rules. The detail of those is subject to ongoing negotiations, and it would not be appropriate to comment further.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether a carve-out for precision bred organisms from dynamic alignment under the proposed UK-EU SPS agreement has been agreed with the EU.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to implementing the Precision Breeding Act and enabling the safe development of innovative genetic technologies.
Under the UK‑EU Common Understanding, it is recognised that there will be areas where the UK will retain its own rules. The detail of those is subject to ongoing negotiations, and it would not be appropriate to comment further.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what consideration he has given to the findings of the British Council Scotland and Universities Scotland report entitled Scotland’s Higher Education: Partnering for Global Impact on the importance of international collaboration in university research; and what steps his Department is taking to support such collaboration.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department acknowledges the British Council Scotland and Universities Scotland report, which presents the globally competitive strength of Scotland’s higher education system and its importance in tackling shared global challenges. The Department supports international research collaboration through UK wide activity, including the promotion of universities and the wider research and innovation sector through the UK’s Science & Technology Network, through access to funding support such as Horizon Europe, the International Science Partnerships Fund and our core support to UK research institutions, and through bilateral and multilateral science and technology cooperation. These measures support research excellence and knowledge exchange across the UK, including in Scotland.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the priorities set out in the British Council Scotland and Universities Scotland report entitled Scotland’s Higher Education: Partnering for Global Impact have informed the Government’s approach to the International Education Strategy; and what steps she is taking to strengthen international partnerships with UK universities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK Government recognises the important contribution that universities across the UK make to our economic growth, innovation and international standing. Our recently published International Education Strategy supports strong and sustainable long-term international partnerships for UK universities by promoting the whole of the UK’s education offer overseas, including research collaboration and driving growth through high quality UK transitional education.
The department will continue to work with the UK’s education sector, devolved governments and key partners such as the British Council to support the contribution of British universities, including in Scotland, to growth, innovation and international partnerships. Steps to strengthen this collaboration include the ministerially-chaired Education Sector Action Group, which brings together stakeholders to identify opportunities and remove barriers to growth, and the recent publication of the sector-led brochure ‘Advancing Talent with UK Education – Building Global Partnerships’.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the findings of the British Council Scotland and Universities Scotland report, entitled Scotland’s Higher Education: Partnering for Global Impact, on the contribution of universities to economic growth and innovation; and what steps her Department is taking to support that contribution across the UK.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK Government recognises the important contribution that universities across the UK make to our economic growth, innovation and international standing. Our recently published International Education Strategy supports strong and sustainable long-term international partnerships for UK universities by promoting the whole of the UK’s education offer overseas, including research collaboration and driving growth through high quality UK transitional education.
The department will continue to work with the UK’s education sector, devolved governments and key partners such as the British Council to support the contribution of British universities, including in Scotland, to growth, innovation and international partnerships. Steps to strengthen this collaboration include the ministerially-chaired Education Sector Action Group, which brings together stakeholders to identify opportunities and remove barriers to growth, and the recent publication of the sector-led brochure ‘Advancing Talent with UK Education – Building Global Partnerships’.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Policy paper entitled Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan of 17 March 2026, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of a 14-day cooling-off period on the effectiveness of local and regional news publishers in adopting a digital-first and sustainable future.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government is committed to ensuring a healthy and plural local media for the benefit of communities and citizens across the UK. We have launched a Local Media Action Plan to help local newsrooms across the country innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high quality, trustworthy news.
We have consulted on how the subscriptions regime will be implemented and Ministers and officials have engaged with representatives from the news media sector. We are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to reflect on the issues raised and a Government Response will be published in due course.
The impact assessment for the subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together, the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net direct cost to businesses is £171m per year.
Sector-specific analysis has not been conducted.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when his Department plans to engage with stakeholders on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This government is committed to protecting consumers who enter subscription contracts. We have consulted on the implementation of the new subscriptions regime (Consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime - GOV.UK) which included meeting with interested stakeholders. After carefully analysing responses a full Government Response is to be published in due course.
We have engaged with consumer advocacy groups, enforcers and business representatives from across the economy and will continue to do so in advance of the regime’s commencement.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many apprentices her Department recruited in 2025, compared to i) 2022 ii) 2023 and iii) 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport (central), excluding its executive agencies, recruited the following number of external apprentices:
The figures reflect candidates at the ‘ready to hire’ stage, having completed pre‑employment checks and accepted formal offers via the Civil Service recruitment portal.
Source of data: These figures are sourced directly from the Department for Transport’s recruitment platform, Oleeo VX, which feeds applicant information into the Civil Service Jobs system.