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 social care workers to use their career experience to support their qualifications as NHS workers.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have institutional autonomy to set their own admissions criteria to healthcare profession qualifying courses. Some HEIs accredit prior experiential learning (APEL), including from working in social care, which helps reduce the time it takes to achieve a qualification in a healthcare profession working in the National Health Service. This will vary by HEI and course.

NHS England is leading a programme of work to standardise the approach to APEL across the country and maximise the opportunity from shortened programmes to deliver more professionals more quickly.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking with the Cabinet colleagues to help support Armed Forces Veterans into publicly sector jobs.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence represents veterans at Cabinet. Both he and I are working across Government and with Civil Society to strengthen the support we offer to our veterans and Armed Forces Community. This includes ensuring that the Civil Service benefits from the wide range of skills and talents the veteran community has to offer.

The ‘Great Place to Work for Veterans’ (GPTW) scheme is designed to encourage more veterans to join the Civil Service when they leave the armed forces. It is an opt-in recruitment scheme which allows those eligible, who meet the minimum standard required for a role, to progress to the next stage of the application process.

‘Going Forward into Employment’ (GFiE) is a Life Chances scheme, which provides eligible veterans, spouses, and partners with opportunities within the Civil Service in a variety of roles, most of which are for entry level and up to first line management grades. GFiE recognises that some veterans face unique barriers to employment and aims to address this by making the Civil Service application process as straightforward as possible.

Other public sector initiatives include ‘Step into Health’, which supports NHS employers in the recruitment and retention of talent from the Armed Forces community and seeks to promote the value that veterans can bring to the NHS.

A range of cross-government employment support is also available to veterans and their families after their time in service. This includes the MOD-hosted Career Transition Partnership which is the initial point of resettlement provision for veterans leaving military service, with directly provided support available for two years before and two years after leaving service.

The Government is expanding UK-wide career support for the armed forces community, ensuring support for all veterans, regardless of when they left service. The careers advice service Op ASCEND offer will include a broader range of job support for veterans, helping more into employment and boosting growth under this Government’s Plan for Change. This service will work with industry bodies to make sure businesses are set up to make the most of the talents veterans have to offer, showing how the Government is renewing the contract with those who serve and have served.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the level of Statutory Sick Pay on trends in the number of people claiming Universal Credit.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of the level of Statutory Sick Pay on trends in the number of people claiming Universal Credit.

The Department has undertaken a Regulatory Impact Assessment and an Equality Impact Assessment of the Statutory Sick Pay changes to remove the Lower Earnings Limit and remove the 3-day waiting period. Both impact assessments can be found here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6715f848386bf0964853d848/Impact_assessment_improve_access_statutory_sick_pay_removing_lower_earnings_limit_removing_waiting_period.pdf

https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2024-0716/Statutory_Sick_Pay_EA.pdf

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many projects are waiting to be connected to the National Grid in Darlington constituency.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government does not hold data on projects awaiting a grid connection on a constituency basis. The latest national register for transmission connections is available at https://www.neso.energy/data-portal/transmission-entry-capacity-tec-register/tec_register_-_25_february_2025 and for distribution connections in the North-East at https://northernpowergrid.opendatasoft.com/explore/dataset/embedded-capacity-register/information/?disjunctive.local_authority&disjunctive.point_of_connection_poc_voltage_kv

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children who are home schooled due to a lack of appropriate SEND provision.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department does not hold information on the number of children who are home educated due to a lack of appropriate special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.

The department collects data from local authorities on children in elective home education (EHE). The latest data shows that ‘School dissatisfaction SEND’ was the primary reason for EHE in 3% of cases. Breakdowns by reason for EHE are published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/ae7909de-8a16-4ea2-252c-08dd564388e8.

The department recognises that barriers to attendance are wide and complex, and this is particularly true for pupils with SEND. Addressing these barriers requires a 'support-first' approach and strong relationships between families, schools, local authorities and other relevant local services.

This is why the department has published the ’Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which became statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support-first' approach and provides detail on additional support for pupils with SEND. Where a pupil is not attending due to unmet or additional needs, this guidance sets out clear expectations on how schools, local authorities and wider services work together to access and provide the right support to improve attendance.

The department is working closely with schools and local authorities to ensure that education settings are able to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, including announcing £1 billion investment in high needs at the Autumn Budget 2024, to help ensure all children can access the high-quality education that should be their right.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions he has had with police authorities to ensure a single point of contact in the police for families affected by (a) serious trauma and (b) violent crime.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Police Family Liaison Officers provide support and information, in a sensitive and compassionate manner, securing confidence and trust of families of victims of crime (primarily homicide), road fatality, mass disaster or other critical incident, ensuring family members are given timely information in accordance with the needs of the investigation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that victims of domestic violence do not have the sentencing hearings of their abusers postponed the day before they are due to take place.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The decision on when and where a case is listed is the responsibility of the independent judiciary. Judges are guided in this task by judicial listing principles, which stipulate that cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses should be prioritised for hearing.

Judges continue to prioritise cases subject to Custody Time Limits, as well as prioritising cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses (including youth cases), domestic abuse and serious sex cases.

The courts do everything possible to ensure hearings take place for when they are listed, however, there are occasions when circumstances outside of their control result in a hearing needing to be postponed. In such circumstances, the court will notify parties as soon as possible.

The Lord Chancellor and Lady Chief Justice have concluded the Concordat process, which sets out the overall budget for HMCTS and the number of days the courts can sit, earlier, to help ensure the courts can hear more of these important cases in a timely fashion.

There are a number of factors that would mean a case can no longer go ahead, including court maintenance. This is why we have announced a boost in court maintenance and capital project funding from £120 million last year, to up to £148.5 million for 2025/26. This will help fund vital repairs across the entire court and tribunal estate and contribute to the construction of the next generation of court and tribunal buildings.

However, we recognise we must go further. That is why the Lord Chancellor has commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to undertake an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, which will consider how the criminal courts could operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. Given the scale of the challenge facing the courts we will look to act on recommendations from the review swiftly to deliver improvements as soon as possible

Found: Harriett Baldwin; Rachel Blake; Chris Coghlan; Bobby Dean; John Grady; Dame Siobhain McDonagh; Lola McEvoy

Found: Dame Harriett Baldwin; Rachel Blake; Bobby Dean; John Glen; John Grady; Dame Siobhain McDonagh; Lola McEvoy

Found: Dame Harriett Baldwin; Rachel Blake; Bobby Dean; John Glen; John Grady; Dame Siobhain McDonagh; Lola McEvoy

Found: by Josh MacAlister supported by Jess Asato, Claire Coutinho, Florence Eshalomi, Kit Malthouse, Lola McEvoy

Found: Josh MacAlister supported by Jess Asato, Claire Coutinho, Florence Eshalomi, Kit Malthouse, Lola McEvoy