Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to to tackle county lines gangs targeting children to act as drug runners.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government is committed to halving knife crime and tackling violent and exploitative county lines gangs is crucial to achieving this. That is why we are investing more than £34 million in 26/27 in the County Lines Programme, to pursue violent line holders and safeguard children and vulnerable people.

The success and impact of the County Lines Programme is clear. Since July 2024, the Programme has resulted in more than 3,000 deal lines closed, 8,200 arrests, (including the arrest and subsequent charge of over 1,600 deal line holders), 4,300 safeguarding referrals of children and vulnerable people, and 900 knives seized. More than 620 children and young people have also received dedicated specialist support through our county lines support service in the same period.

Independent evaluation of the Programme has shown it is having a significant impact, reducing hospitalisations due to knife stabbings by 25% and drug misuse hospitalisations by 29% in the Programme taskforce areas. The latest Strategic Assessment by the National County Lines Coordination Centre also shows that the number of children involved in county lines has reduced by 17% since 22/23.

As committed to in the Government’s manifesto, we have also introduced a new offence of criminal exploitation of children in the Crime and Policing Bill to go after the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime. As part of this legislation, we are delivering new civil preventative orders to disrupt and prevent child criminal exploitation from occurring or re-occurring.

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 support children's hospices in Lincolnshire.

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

We recognise that access to high-quality, personalised palliative care can make all the difference for seriously ill children and their families.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB), including NHS Lincolnshire ICB, must commission.

Whilst the majority of palliative care and end-of-life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children and young people’s hospices, also play in providing support to seriously ill children at the end of life and their loved ones.

Children and young people’s hospices received £26 million in revenue funding in 2025/26. This was a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant. From this funding, Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People in Loughborough, and Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, which serve Lincolnshire, received £1,462,000 and £673,000 respectively.

In 2025/26, we announced the continuation of this funding for a further three financial years. This funding will see at least £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, covering 2026/27 to 2028/29, amounting to approximately £80 million over the three-year period.

Children and young people’s hospices and ICBs have recently been informed of their allocations for 2026/27 although we are not yet in a position to share those individual allocations publicly. Communication regarding future allocations, for 2027/28 and 2028/29, will be sent once the 2026/27 process is complete.

We also supported both the children and young people, and adult, hospice sectors with a £125 million capital funding boost to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. From that funding stream, Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People in Loughborough, and Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice received £740,169 and £410,308 respectively in total.

For the long-term, the Government is developing a Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care for England, with a planned publication date of autumn 2026. Through our MSF, we will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end-of-life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, and we will also consider contracting and commissioning arrangements as part of this work.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Land Use Framework on Best and Most Versatile farmland in Lincolnshire.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The National Planning Policy Framework safeguards the best and most versatile land, which is the land most valuable for food production.

Where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has paid for followers on social media platforms it uses.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The department has not paid for followers on its social media platforms.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many businesses were found guilty of employing illegal workers, and how much were they fined in 2025.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Information on illegal working civil penalty statistics has been published since 2016 as part of the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Transparency Data. This can be found at immigration-enforcement-data-oct-dec-2025 on tab CP02.

This publication covers the period up to 31 December 2025 and includes both limited companies and sole traders.

100th anniversary of the birth of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what was the total value of non-contractual severance payments across the department in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

I refer the hon. Member to the response provided to Question 121694 on 25 March 2026 to the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes).

Figures for financial year 2025-26 will be published later this year in the Departmental Annual Report and Accounts.