Mary Kelly Foy

Our Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will include a range of measures to tackle racial inequality

We will engage with a wide range of stakeholders while developing the Bill, and will ensure that Gypsy, Traveller and Roma civil society have the opportunity to share their views.

The Scheme Rules and their operation are agreed between the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme Trustees and the Government. I will be meeting the Trustees shortly to discuss how best to deliver on our manifesto commitments.

As of today, the Government has received £4.8bn from the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme and £3.1bn from the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme since 1994.

As at June 2023, there were 756 Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme members in the City of Durham constituency and 17,483 members overall in the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme North East of England. The breakdown between former miners and widows is not available.

This Government recognises that grassroots sports clubs are at the beating heart of communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help clubs to get more people active and, by backing these clubs, the Government will support more people to get onto the pitch wherever they live.

To mark the achievements of England’s senior men’s and women’s football teams, and inspire the next generation as we look ahead to hosting UEFA EURO 2028 across the UK and Ireland, we have set out plans to strengthen our support for grassroots clubs. This includes continuing delivery of funding to build and improve pitches and facilities through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme this year, and a commitment to work with the sector to develop a funding package that will support these plans in future years.

Currently in England, the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme is delivered through the Football Foundation. The Foundation is working with local authorities (and local football associations and other partners) to refresh Local Football Facility Plans that identify the specific needs of local areas. These are used to inform the pipeline of projects which will receive funding from the Foundation.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s-length body, Sport England – which annually invests over £250 million of National Lottery and government money. Sport England’s newly established Movement Fund offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission inspected local arrangements for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in County Durham in June 2024. The report is due to be published in August 2024.

County Durham is part of the department's Delivering Better Value (DBV) programme. The DBV programme, which was established by the previous government, aims to work with selected authorities to review how services are structured and delivered to achieve better outcomes for children and young people with SEND in a sustainable way. The DBV programme achieves this by helping each of the participating local areas complete a diagnostic to work out the root causes of their challenges and identify local opportunities to sustainably improve the outcomes and experiences of the children and young people with SEND in their care.

On completion of their diagnostic, County Durham created an action plan to address their key local challenges and implement service reforms. Based on this, the department provided grant funding of £1 million to support the delivery of their plans.

This government is committed to providing the necessary support to improve the experiences for children and young people with SEND and their families. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach, to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools and alternative provision settings, and to ensure that special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.

This Government is committed to preventing the use of those neonicotinoid pesticides that threaten our vital pollinators. At this stage, officials are currently determining the most effective way to implement this commitment.

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, the Chief Statistician determines the need for new official statistics, and the development of existing statistics. User engagement is at the heart of our considerations for future statistics. These development priorities are regularly updated and published as part of the DWP Statistical Work Programme.

Whilst a full appraisal of the resources needed to enable the development and publication of statistics on the number of children living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction has not been made, our data on sanctions is for individuals and it is not possible to identify children in the households of individuals receiving a sanction without significant development of the data we hold.

DWP has a close working relationship with the police and other law enforcement agencies to enable the Department to investigate fraud. This joint working allows full exchange of information from the police to DWP and the DWP to police, under data sharing legislation.

Under the previous administration, no assessment was made of the mental health impacts of benefits sanctions. The new government will reform labour market policy and operations with the aim of increasing employment and integrating work and health support.

Sanctions are not applied to those with a severe medical health condition or disability where they have been found to have Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity following their Work Capability Assessment (WCA), or where they have a specified condition or are undergoing certain treatments ahead of their WCA.

Those subject to work-related requirements will only be sanctioned if they fail to meet the labour market requirements that they’ve agreed to with their work coach without demonstrating good reason for doing so. To ensure these requirements are realistic and achievable, they are discussed and agreed with the claimant and based on their individual capabilities and household circumstances, including any health issues, caring responsibilities, earnings, and ongoing work or volunteering.

We acknowledge that there will be times when a claimant’s circumstances are such that there their ability to carry out their labour market requirements is disrupted due to their personal circumstances. In these cases, an easement can be applied to lift these requirements completely for an agreed period of time.

To support those who demonstrates that they cannot meet their most immediate and essential needs as a result of receiving a sanction, we have a system of recoverable hardship payments. These needs can include heating, food, and hygiene.

The government is committed to reforming or replacing the Work Capability Assessment, alongside putting in place a proper plan to support disabled people into work.

We will also give disabled people the confidence to start working without fear of an immediate benefit reassessment if it does not work out. More disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve. These plans are central to our missions of kickstarting economic growth and breaking down barriers to opportunity.

This government is committed to championing the rights of disabled people and to the principle of working with them, so that their views and voices will be at the heart of all that we do.

No formal assessment has been made.

We recognise the wide-ranging causes of child poverty, and we will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government and wider society to drive forward the change our children need.

The Department is embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic within its approach to pandemic preparedness. This includes amending the approach to cover all five routes of communicable disease transmission, rather than focusing on planning for specific threats. We are working with partners in the health and social care system, including the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England, to maintain a flexible and scalable set of response capabilities that can be adapted to any future novel disease. The approach to pandemic preparedness also recognises that the underlying resilience of the health and social care system is crucial to the ability to respond to a novel disease threat.

The UK COVID-19 Inquiry published its first report on 18 July 2024, which focuses on resilience and preparedness for a pandemic, and the Department will consider the inquiry’s recommendations in full.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including support for those waiting for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, in line with the relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

We are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has launched to explore challenges in ADHD service provision and to help provide a joined-up approach for the growing numbers of people coming forward for support.

As part of our health mission, the Government is committed to ensuring people live well for longer. This includes tackling the determinants that underpin stark health inequalities to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions, and creating the healthiest generation of children ever.

Local authorities in the North East received a total of £238 million in Public Health Grant funding for 2024/25, with Durham County Council having received £53.9 million for 2024/25. This provides services such as stop smoking, drug and alcohol treatment, school health visits and nursing, and sexual health, among others, all of which contribute to addressing health inequalities. Additionally, Directors of Public Health from each local authority are working in partnership with the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board to support action to address inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes associated with health care.

Durham County Council is one of 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation, receiving funding to improve outcomes for families with babies as part of the £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme. This programme is creating a network of family hubs with services to support families from conception to the age of two years old.

The North East Mayoral Combined Authority was formed on 7 May 2024, and has also committed to creating a fairer North East, reducing inequalities, and improving health. Its priorities include work to address the causes of health inequalities, such as bringing investment into the region to boost economic growth, and improving available housing, education, inclusion, and skills. The Tees Valley Combined Authority also works to secure investment, create jobs, and grow the economy, helping to create the conditions in which health inequalities can be reduced.

The UK will continue to champion freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, globally. We are clear that incitement of violence or hatred against individuals based on their religion or belief is unacceptable. Respect for FoRB, and the promotion of interreligious dialogue, plays an important role in securing sustainable peace. Our Consulate General in Jerusalem regularly meets and discusses issues with the Christian community in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Severe drought has tipped Southern Africa into a food security crisis, where acute humanitarian needs are already emerging. The UK is a major contributor to humanitarian funds which have made allocations totalling £36 million to tackle drought and disease risks. We are a founding member and donor of Africa Risk Capacity, which has provided timely disaster risk financing pay outs to member states. The UK is adapting existing programmes to support national responses and deploying a regional adviser to improve humanitarian risk analysis and coordination. We are also raising the humanitarian needs with our international partners, maintaining focus on long-term, anticipatory solutions to climate-related crises in the region.

The UK is supporting humanitarian agencies including UNRWA, UNICEF and UK Med to provide essential healthcare to civilians in Gaza. This includes activities to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) - which is important to help prevent the spread of diseases such as polio.

The UK is also supporting the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) which, since 1988, has led global efforts to reduce Polio Virus cases by more than 99 percent. In Gaza, GPEI is working with partners including WHO, UNICEF, UNWRA and local NGOs, to plan a response campaign that will integrate polio vaccination alongside other essential health and nutrition services. This will be dependent on securing safe access and a safe environment in which to conduct the campaign, through either a ceasefire or a temporary cessation of hostilities.

There are several long-standing taxes on assets and wealth that generate substantial revenue for the government.

The government is committed to making sure everyone pays their fair share of tax, helping us to fund public services whilst staying within the Chancellor’s fiscal rules. This includes progressing the government’s manifesto policies to close tax loopholes and tackle tax avoidance. These policies will make the tax system fairer and support government priorities including funding the NHS and schools and supporting the UK’s transition to clean energy.

The estates of all individuals benefit from a £325,000 nil-rate band for inheritance tax. The residence nil-rate band is a further £175,000 for those passing on a qualifying residence on death to their direct descendants, such as children or grandchildren. Other countries recognise the relationships between parents and children with different thresholds in equivalent systems.

The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process.