Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 98528 on Schools: Speech and Language Therapy, what progress her Department has made in extending the Early Language Support for Every Child programme; and how her Department is assessing the programme's impact on early identification and support for children with speech, language and communication needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In partnership with NHS England, the department has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child (ELSEC) programme for the 2025/26 academic year, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings and primary schools.
The interim independent programme evaluation, due to be published this month, will assess the programme’s impact and allow the department to explore insights into the effectiveness of ELSEC delivery at a local level.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of mitigating the impact of the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit for pensioners with incomes just above the Standard Minimum Guarantee level.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Pension Credit provides direct financial support to pensioner households on the lowest incomes, ensuring that they receive a guaranteed minimum level of income – the Standard Minimum Guarantee (SMG). The Standard Minimum Guarantee is subject to the Secretary of State’s annual statutory review of State Pension and benefit rates, and it will increase by 4.8% from April.
Pensioners with incomes just above their Pension Credit level may still benefit from a range of wider support, depending on their circumstances, including help with housing costs, Council Tax, health related support, and other means tested assistance available across the welfare system.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the student loan repayment system, including interest accrual, on borrowers who take extended periods out of the labour market due to caring responsibilities; and whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential differential impact of this system on women.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Interest accrues on loan balances until the loan has been repaid in full or cancelled, but interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by borrowers.
Borrowers on Plan 5 student loans only accrue interest at Retail Price Index (RPI) (currently 3.2%) meaning graduates will not repay more than they borrow in real terms. Borrowers on Plan 2 terms have interest applied at RPI only if earnings fall below the repayment threshold, or when out of the labour market, such as with caring responsibilities, ensuring that the loan’s debt value will not grow in real terms. Additionally, borrowers, regardless of their plan, earning under the repayment threshold are not required to make repayments.
Graduates only begin repaying once their earnings exceed the earnings threshold, paying 9% of income above that level. If a graduate becomes disabled and permanently unfit for work, loan balances, including interest may be written off.
For all borrowers, any outstanding loan, including interest accrued, will be cancelled after the loan term ends, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to prevent economic abuse of women occurring through child maintenance; what safeguards the Child Maintenance Service has in place to identify and respond to such cases; whether he plans to introduce further measures; and what the timetable is for implementing measures to strengthen protections for affected women and children.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The CMS has access to resources which help caseworkers provide signposting to supporting organisations that support victims and survivors of domestic abuse. All CMS caseworkers receive extensive training and follow a well-managed process and domestic abuse plan which includes steps to support and recognise domestic abuse, including economic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour.
The Government’s focus is to deliver a policy that meaningfully protects parents who are victims of domestic abuse. We believe the best way to achieve that is through the removal of the Direct Pay service. Under the reformed service, all cases will be managed in a single service where the CMS monitors and transfers all payments. Reforms to the CMS will provide a safer service for victims and survivors by preventing unwanted contact with the other parent and removing opportunities for abuse that currently exist in Direct Pay, including the need for receiving parents to report non-compliance.
Our intention remains to remove Direct Pay, and we will do so as soon as parliamentary time allows. In the meantime, we are strengthening our support for victims/survivors, for example by making it easier for parents to switch to the Collect and Pay service and being clearer in our communication about what support is available for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and how to access it.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help halve violence against women and girls in Eastleigh constituency within a decade; how much funding has been allocated for this purpose in Eastleigh constituency; and what metrics her Department is using to monitor progress.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls” was published on 18th December 2025 and sets out the strategic direction and concrete actions to prevent violence and abuse, pursue perpetrators, and support victims, and to deliver our unprecedented commitment to halve VAWG in a decade. Commitments in the VAWG Strategy apply across England, including in the Eastleigh constituency.
The Strategy is backed by at least £1 billion funding across government over the spending review period. This is alongside much wider investment across the whole of government. Funding for VAWG related services is generally allocated at a national, regional, or local authority level rather than by parliamentary constituency. As such, the Home Office does not hold separate figures for Eastleigh constituency.
The headline metric we are using to measure progress against our ambition is through a combined estimate of the proportion of people aged 16 and over who have experienced any of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking in the previous 12 months, based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales. We will track supporting headline metrics for female homicide, repeat domestic abuse, and the prevalence of sexual harassment, as well as a further set of sub-metrics to monitor progress across Government, which are detailed in the Strategy.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what is planned timetable is for a decision on the inclusion of woodland and peatland carbon codes within the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is working to integrate greenhouse gas removals into the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), and is considering whether this should include high integrity woodland, such as Woodland Carbon Units under the Woodland Carbon Code. The UK ETS Authority consulted in May 2024, and in July 2025 set out further evidence on the potential impacts of including woodland. The Authority will make a decision on woodland inclusion in due course. As set out in July 2025, the Authority is not considering peatland restoration for inclusion in the UK ETS.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support tailored, small-cohort employability programmes for care-experienced young people that include one-to-one career coaching, work experience opportunities and in-work mentoring.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to improving employment outcomes for care‑experienced young people and ensuring they can access the personalised support they need to move into and stay in work. Our new programme, Connect to Work is a £1 billion voluntary, locally commissioned, Supported Employment programme for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing complex non-health related barriers to work which includes care experienced young people. The programme will support around 300,000 people across England and Wales by the end of the decade.
Robust international evidence shows that Supported Employment, which provides a holistic approach to supporting individuals with more complex barriers to employment, can be effective in helping these people into sustained employment.
Participants are given a dedicated, specialist employment support adviser who works alongside them to understand their career goals and help them to address any specific barriers to employment. The adviser seeks good labour market matches for the participant. Participants are supported to have conversations with prospective employers, removing the need to go through complex application processes. The employment adviser works with both the employer and the participant to ensure that the transition into work is smooth and that the workplace is inclusive.
Out of Work participants receive one-to-one support from Connect to Work for up to 12 months to help identify and fulfil employment goals that are suitable for their circumstances. In work participants who are at risk of falling out of employment or self-employment due to their disability or complex barriers can receive up to 4 months support.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that UK-based firms are able to participate in competitive procurement processes for NHS contracts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that public procurement delivers economic growth, supports small businesses, champions innovation and creates high quality jobs across the United Kingdom.
In February 2025, the Government published the National Procurement Policy Statement, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-procurement-policy-statement
The statement sets out clear priorities to maximise the impact of public spending. This came into effect alongside the commencement of the Procurement Act 2023, which modernises the procurement regime to make it simpler, more transparent, and more supportive of UK-based suppliers. The Government has also consulted on further reforms to improve domestic competitiveness and support British business. More information about the consultation is available at the following link:
The Social Value Model is a legal requirement on public bodies to consider broader economic, social, and environmental benefits, not just cost, in procurement exercises. All procurements exercises are required to apply a minimum of 10% weighting in the bid evaluation, including those in the National Health Service. This approach aligns with Government policy to support UK growth, jobs, skills pathways, and workforce wellbeing.
NHS England is also committed to improving engagement with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and helping to make it easier for them to do business with the NHS. To help ensure SMEs have a voice within the NHS, NHS England have established an SME Advisory Group, which has worked with NHS England to improve the opportunities for SMEs to engage with and compete for NHS business. In February 2024, NHS England published an SME Action Plan that outlines how the NHS will better engage, communicate with and learn from the SME community, improve visibility of NHS opportunities and encourage SME participation in commercial activity. The action plan is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/small-and-medium-enterprises-action-plan/
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of changes in UK funding to the World Food Programme since 2024 on efforts to tackle global hunger and food insecurity.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a longstanding partner of the World Food Programme (WFP) and we are in regular dialogue to monitor the landscape as global funding shifts. As a member of the Global Network Against Food Crises, the UK is also working with WFP to support analysis and reporting to help inform international responses. On levels of UK funding to WFP, I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 3 December 2025 in response to Question HL12148.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Crisis and Resilience Fund is fully operational by April 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My Department has worked closely with local authorities and other stakeholders on the detailed design of the Fund. We published scheme guidance in January, and final allocations have been confirmed to enable local authorities to prepare for delivery.
We are collaborating with local authorities through ongoing implementation activity to support readiness and effective delivery ahead of the Fund going live in April 2026.