Lee Anderson

Public Sector funding for research and development has been found to leverage additional private investment in R&D. Each pound of public R&D investment is estimated to leverage, on average, £2 of private R&D investment in the long run and some studies estimate even higher levels of private investment.

Businesses grow faster because of public R&D grants. In the 6 years after receiving their first R&D grant funding, employment increases in the average business by 21% and turnover grows by 23%.

Engagement with the Office for Budget Responsibility is led by HM Treasury. The Department engages with HM Treasury on a regular basis to discuss a wide number of topics.

Public R&D generates significant benefits for the UK, with each pound of public R&D investment estimated to leverage, on average, £2 of private R&D investment in the long run. We know businesses grow faster because of public R&D. In the 6 years after receiving their first R&D grant funding, employment increases in the average business by 21% and turnover grows by 23%.

The measurable returns of R&D projects will vary, depending on the specific area of research. Returns for closer-to-market research are generally less challenging to quantify than those for fundamental, curiosity-driven research. To ensure that public R&D investments continue to have high impact all new significant DSIT investments are assessed for their value for money and the Department evaluates programmes’ impact.

The Government will accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world class science, research and development. Advanced science and engineering in fields such as clean energy, AI and quantum technologies support economic growth and the industrial strategy. University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University were both recognised for their world leading research including in engineering in REF2021. Decisions about public investment of R&D funding are made by experts on behalf of UK Research and Innovation in line with the Haldane Principle. For example, University of Nottingham has been awarded £6.4m to lead an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training on Resilient Chemistry which will tackle challenges including synthetic fuels and next generation battery materials.

The UK has a longstanding and proud tradition of providing a safe haven to those who have no choice but to leave their home country because of endangerment to their lives or to those of their families. Higher education student support is available to those recognised as refugees, as well as their spouses, civil partners and children who were family members on the date the refugee applied for asylum, provided they have been ordinarily (i.e. lawfully) resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) since being recognised by the government as a refugee and are ordinarily resident in England on the course start date. They are exempt from the three-year ordinary residence requirement.

4,948 students with refugee status received student support from Student Finance England in the 2023/24 academic year to support their studies on full time undergraduate courses.

Individuals seeking asylum are not entitled to student support in England, whilst they are seeking asylum.

The department does not hold information on students who have self-funded their studies.

Nottinghamshire received a joint local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2023 under the current Area SEND Inspection framework. Ofsted and the CQC found widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND which the local area partnership must address urgently. The report, which was published on 16 May 2023, included two areas for priority action (APA). The local area submitted a Priority Action Plan to Ofsted and the CQC to address these APAs, which was approved on 14 July 2023.

The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against the APAs found by inspectors and the progress made by children and young people with SEND. Nottinghamshire County Council is committed to working closely with the department to improve services.

The department has appointed a SEND Advisor to work collaboratively with an NHS England Adviser to challenge, support and work alongside Nottinghamshire County Council and the local area partnership. In addition, the department commissioned the Council for Disabled Children, which is part of the Research and Improvement for SEND Excellence Consortium contract, to deliver a bespoke package, supporting the local area to develop an outcome-based framework to underpin their new SEND strategy. This is available here: https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send/special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send/nottinghamshire-local-area-send-strategy.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. The department is committed to taking a community wide approach in collaboration with local area partnerships, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs.

Ashfield Comprehensive School is currently in the feasibility stage of the School Rebuilding Programme. The feasibility will determine the scope of the project, programme and the budget. Once the feasibility is concluded the department will procure a contractor to undertake the detailed design of the scheme and secure planning permission.

The department currently anticipates appointing a contractor in spring 2025, with construction beginning from autumn/winter 2025.

Keeping children safe is a top priority for this government. Education plays a key role in ensuring children can lead safe and fulfilling lives, and it provides opportunity to intervene early, to prevent young people being drawn into crime.

Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) includes content on the situations that often lead young people to carry weapons such as knives, including criminal exploitation though involvement in gangs and county lines drugs operations and in particular the grooming relationships that often accompany this. Issues around gun and knife crime can also still be taught as part of a school’s wider curriculum. For example, schools can choose to include this content as part of their personal, social, health and economic education or citizenship curriculum.

Additionally, school-led Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed (‘SAFE’) taskforces have been established in 10 hotspot areas in England. The taskforces are investing in and delivering evidence-based interventions such as mentoring and social skills training to reach young people early, get them back on track with their education and reduce their vulnerability to serious violence. In alternative provision (AP), our Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces programme enables teams of specialists such as speech and language therapists, youth justice workers and family workers to provide integrated, child-centred support in 22 APs in hotspot areas.

Youth Endowment Fund’s Toolkit, backed by Home Office funding, supports schools and wider services to take evidence based interventions to tackle serious violence. More information on this toolkit is available here: http://www.youthendowmentfund.org.uk/toolkit/.

The entitlements work on a termly basis, so children become eligible from the termly date after they reach the relevant age or after they or their parents first meet the eligibility criteria. The dates on which the terms start are 1 September, 1 January or 1 April. Therefore, depending on when a child is born or when the eligibility criteria is first met, there will be differing periods to wait until the relevant termly date.

The termly basis also allows local authorities and childcare providers to plan and ensure sufficient early years places are available for parents each term, as there are clear periods at which children are likely to enter a place.

Currently, there are no plans to amend the eligibility criteria, but this may be considered in the future.

The Government’s commitment to our farmers remains steadfast. We are reforming the Agricultural Property Relief on Inheritance Tax in way which protects small family farms. Changes are expected to only affect around 500 claims for agricultural property relief in 2026-27.

The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years – more money than ever for sustainable food production. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8bn for environmental land management schemes in 2025/26. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.

Environmental Land Management schemes will remain at the centre of our offer for family-owned farms and other farmers, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing. These offer funding streams for farmers to make their businesses more sustainable and resilient, including those who have been often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenant farmers. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.

The Government will invest a further £2.4bn over the next two years to protect communities across the country from the devastating impacts of flooding by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.

This range of support forms part of the government's New Deal for Farmers. The Government is also supporting family-owned farms and other farmers by protecting them from being undercut by low welfare and low standards in trade deals, by lowering energy bills for farmers by switching on GB Energy, and by using the Government’s own purchasing power to back British produce so that 50% of food brought in hospitals, army bases and prisons is locally produced or certified to high environmental standards.

The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network. Nottinghamshire County Council is the local highway authority for the Ashfield and Mansfield constituency, and they are therefore responsible for the condition of their local network.

This Government has a commitment to enable local highway authorities in England to fix up to a million more potholes a year. At Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of nearly 50% compared to the current financial year exceeding this Government’s manifesto commitment on repairing local roads.

The Government will confirm funding allocations to English local highway authorities and mayoral combined authorities, including the East Midlands Combined Authority of which Nottinghamshire County Council is a constituent member, in due course.

Improving local bus services is a key part of this government’s growth mission. The government will introduce a Buses Bill later this Parliamentary session. This will put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, including in Ashfield and Mansfield, to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising, high-quality partnerships with private operators or local authority ownership.

Under franchising, the local authority has control of the bus network including setting routes, timetables and fares.

In addition, the government has confirmed £925 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. Local authorities can use the £925 million to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.

The government will continue working closely with local transport authorities including Nottinghamshire County Council, and others, to deliver better bus services throughout England.

The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local road network.

Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) is the local highway authority for the Ashfield constituency, and it is therefore responsible for the maintenance of the local road network in its area. NCC is a part of the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCA), and for this financial year the Department for Transport is providing EMCA with £53.9 million of capital funding for local highway maintenance across its area. It is a matter for EMCA to determine how much of this funding to allocate to each of its constituent authorities.

Funding decisions for highways maintenance beyond 2024/25 will be made at the forthcoming Spending Review.

The Government is committed to ensuring the safety of our roads for all road users. Cyclists, whether riding an e-bike or a conventional pedal cycle, have a duty to behave in a safe and responsible manner and follow the rules set out in The Highway Code. The enforcement of cycling offences, such as cycling on the pavement or cycling without due care or attention, is a matter for the police.

There is no requirement to carry out a cost benefit analysis for all policy changes. A policy costing will be published as standard following the Autumn Budget 2024. An equality analysis was produced as part of Ministerial decision making in line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

No definitive estimate has yet been made as to the full cost of this policy. The Department has already begun working with local authorities to ensure that take-up of Pension Credit is maximised and implementation is appropriately planned. This work will help further our understanding of the costs so we deliver consistent and high quality support to pensioners.

Pension Credit (and the other qualifying income-related benefits payable to pensioners) is the most practical proxy to target Winter Fuel Payments at those on a low-income. Linking entitlement to Pension Credit ensures that we can pay almost all eligible pensioners automatically, without the need to claim the WFP. This means that the Winter Fuel Payment will be better targeted to low-income pensioners who need it.

We will ensure that the poorest pensioners get the support they need. The government will work with external partners and local authorities to boost the take-up of Pension Credit and to target additional support to the poorest pensioners.

We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, and we are urging pensioners to come forward and check their eligibility for Pension Credit to ensure as many people in need as possible have access to this support. This will passport them to receive Winter Fuel Payment alongside other benefits – hundreds of pounds that could really help them.

It is estimated that around 15,800 pensioners in Ashfield Constituency (2024 boundaries) will be impacted by the decision to amend the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-Xplore and the Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which are available via GOV.UK.

This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of people claiming Pension Credit in Ashfield Constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in Ashfield Constituency. It is possible to use the Pension Credit statistics, to give a minimum estimate of the number who may be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments. Therefore, the above estimation is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients who are not claiming Pension Credit pre-policy change, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment.

Please note that the above estimation would not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up that we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or Local Authorities.

The published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals in respect of whom Pension Credit is paid will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where a claimant has a partner and / or dependents.)

In addition, while Pension Credit claimants constitute the majority of those that will be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, pensioners who claim other qualifying means-tested benefits will also be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. It is not, however, possible to include those on other qualifying means-tested benefits in these figures.

It is estimated that around 15,800 pensioners in Ashfield Constituency (2024 boundaries) will be impacted by the decision to amend the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-Xplore and the Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of people claiming Pension Credit in Ashfield Constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in Ashfield Constituency. It is possible to use the Pension Credit statistics, to give a minimum estimate of the number who may be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments. Therefore, the above estimation is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients who are not claiming Pension Credit pre-policy change, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment.

Please note that the above estimation would not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up that we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or Local Authorities.

The published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals in respect of whom Pension Credit is paid will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where a claimant has a partner and / or dependents.)

In addition, while Pension Credit claimants constitute the majority of those that will be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, pensioners who claim other qualifying means-tested benefits will also be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. It is not, however, possible to include those on other qualifying means-tested benefits in these figures.