Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of classifying Access to Work expenditure as Annually Managed Expenditure to help ensure the scheme can respond to demand from new and sustained employment of disabled people.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Access to Work is an important programme that supports many people to start and stay in work. We are committed to ensuring it can respond to demand. That is why we announced in May that we would recruit and train 480 additional staff to speed up decisions and tackle the existing backlog by September 2027. That is a 72.5% increase to the existing 658 staff already working on Access to Work.
Access to Work is funded within DWP’s Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) to support effective management of expenditure. Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) is generally reserved for spending that is particularly volatile or cannot reasonably be managed within departmental DEL budgets.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 potential implications for his policies of recent findings by UCL, City St George’s and Carers Trust that young adult carers are more than twice as likely as non-carers to be 'Persistently NEET' for two years or more.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Government recognises the valuable contribution of unpaid carers, including young adult carers, and the challenges that caring responsibilities can present for education, training, and employment.
The Department has noted the recent research by University College London City St George’s and the Carers Trust, which contributes to the evidence base and will inform policy development. The Government continues to work across departments to support unpaid carers, including young adult carers, to access the support they need to balance caring responsibilities with education, employment, and their own health and wellbeing.
On 14 July 2026, the Government published the Cross-Government Action Plan for Unpaid Carers, setting out measures to improve recognition of unpaid carers, connect them with the right support, and help them balance caring with work, education, health, and everyday life.
The Government is also committed to improving opportunities for young people to access education, training, and employment. Through the Youth Guarantee and wider skills and employment reforms, the Government is investing £2.5 billion over the next three years to support young people into opportunities to learn and earn.
The Government will continue to review the evidence, including this research, as it develops policies to improve outcomes for unpaid carers and young people.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has designated a team responsible for agri-tech as a frontier industry under the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department of Business and Trade has expertise committed to delivering economic growth in the agri-tech sector and helping to deliver the outcomes of the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much public funding has been allocated through the Industrial Strategy to support agri-tech as a frontier industry; and how this compares with the funding allocated to each other frontier industry identified in the Strategy.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In the Industrial Strategy, Government set out an ambition to drive innovation in agriculture. We committed to invest at least £200 million in the Farming Innovation Programme by 2030, with £123 million available for competitions in 2026-27. To date, the programme has supported more than 300 projects, including innovations in fruit crop protection and dairy health in Horsham. Frontier industries are supported through a range of interventions tailored to their specific growth opportunities and barriers, rather than through directly comparable funding allocations. Progress is reported through our Quarterly Updates and recent one-year Industrial Strategy delivery update.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to add young carers to the data which local authorities must provide in relation to 'Participation in education, training and NEET' for 16 and 17 year olds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities already have statutory duties to identify, track and support young people, including those not in education, employment or training (NEET). They collect characteristic data such as sex, ethnicity, special educational needs and young carer status.
We are implementing measures to reduce the number of young people who become NEET, building on the existing guarantee of a post-16 education place. This includes working with local authorities, strategic authorities, schools and further education (FE) providers to improve the identification, tracking and sharing of information on young people, while strengthening local oversight and accountability.
To support earlier intervention, we are investing in better data sharing, introducing new Risk of NEET indicator tools, and enhancing attendance monitoring in FE settings. These measures are intended to help identify at-risk young people sooner and provide timely support.