Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help improve accessibility for disabled passengers on public transport in Forest of Dean constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government is committed to improving public transport services so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. On 1st October 2024, the first phase of the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 came into force, meaning that newer vehicles providing local services must provide audible and visible information on stops, destinations and diversions. The majority of services will need to comply by October 2026.
On 17th December, the government introduced a new Bus Services Bill that will give local leaders the freedom to take decisions to deliver their local transport priorities and ensure networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them, including for disabled people. The Bill includes measures which will make bus travel more accessible and inclusive.
Ensuring the rail network is also accessible is at the heart of our passenger-focused approach to improving rail services. We know that the experience for disabled people when traveling by rail too often falls short of what is expected and what passengers deserve. We are committed to improving the experience for disabled passengers and have committed to publishing an accessibility roadmap to explain the actions we are taking to improve accessibility ahead of Great British Rail.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to support small businesses with flood damage (a) prevention and (b) mitigation.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting communities and small businesses around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities.
That is why we have committed £2.4 billion to invest over the next two years to bolster the nation’s resilience, which is vital if we are to protect homes and business across the country.
As part of this investment, we are prioritising repairing and restoring critical assets to get our defences back on track and our new Flood Resilience Taskforce will play a key role in coordinating national and local flood preparation ahead of the winter flood season.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England officials on their role in supporting the development of a roll-out plan for universal Fracture Liaison Services.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) are a globally recognised care model for secondary fracture prevention. This government is committed to expanding access to these important preventative services.
FLS provision is ultimately a matter for Integrated Care Boards, who are best placed to make commissioning decisions according to local need. I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Strangford on 05/11/2024 to Question UIN 13008. Officials are continuing to work closely with NHS England on how to ensure better quality and access to FLSs – including on how best to support systems.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) quality and (b) safety of social care services for children at home.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reforming children’s social care is critical to giving hundreds of thousands of children and young people the start in life they deserve. In November, through the ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’ policy statement, this government set out its plans for the biggest overhaul to children’s social care in a generation. This includes ensuring that every child is safe inside and outside of their home and have access to the right help at the right time.
This government wants to shift the focus of the children's social care system to early support. We will continue to deliver whole-system reform to help families to overcome challenges, stay together and thrive, where appropriate, and to keep children safe and in stable loving homes, including when they cannot stay with their family. This includes through roll out of the families first for children pathfinder and family networks pilot, which includes multi-agency child protection reforms. The ‘Local Government Finance Settlement’ policy statement also sets out an additional £250 million through the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant, which will enable investment in prevention activity.
We have also set out our vision to ensure children are kept safe through changes to the existing legislative framework which are set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill. This includes improving information sharing across and within agencies through the use of a single unique identifier for children, strengthening protecting children from harm through integrated multi-agency child protection teams, placing a new duty on safeguarding partners to ensure education is sufficiently involved in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, and requiring parents to obtain consent from their local authority if they wish to home educate children where there are child protection concerns.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to tackle trade barriers to farming exports.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are supporting businesses to capitalise on strong global demand for UK food and drink products by breaking down barriers to trade and maximising access to export markets. Since Labour took office, the UK now has a network of sixteen agrifood and drink attachés covering all continents who are breaking down these barriers and creating new opportunities for the sector. We have had notable recent market access wins across the farming sector including relisting sites to export pork to China estimated by industry to be worth £80 million and securing for the first time access for UK beetroot exports to the USA.
The Government is committed to developing a trade strategy that will support economic growth and promote the highest standards of food production. We have been clear that we will protect farmers from being undercut by low welfare and low standards in trade deals. Europe remains a priority market, and we are seeking to negotiate a veterinary/Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement with the EU to boost trade and deliver benefits to businesses and consumers on both sides. The Government is ambitious and wants to move forward at pace, but delivering new agreements will take time.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Community Wealth Fund benefits (a) Cinderford West in the Forest of Dean and (b) other deprived communities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government has allocated £87.5 million of dormant assets funding to the Community Wealth Fund and is committed to ensuring it delivers meaningful benefits to communities across England. DCMS and MHCLG are working to shortly publish the government response, this will set out the final design of the Community Wealth Fund, including further information on how beneficiary communities will be selected, and other elements of its delivery.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to provide (a) grants and (b) funding support to people impacted by Storm Bert.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My thoughts remain with householders and business owners impacted by flooding after Storm Bert, flooding is a devastating experience for those affected.
Government support in the aftermath of flooding is only provided in exceptional circumstances. On this occasion, the Flood Recovery Framework was not activated following Storm Bert, due to the localised nature of the flooding. Overall, the scale of impacts was similar to that seen in many local areas this autumn and was not sufficiently significant for Government to intervene and for the Framework to be activated.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support residential properties impacted by recent flooding.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My thoughts remain with householders and business owners impacted by flooding after Storm Bert, flooding is a devastating experience for those affected.
Government support in the aftermath of flooding is only provided in exceptional circumstances. On this occasion, the Flood Recovery Framework was not activated following Storm Bert, due to the localised nature of the flooding. Overall, the scale of impacts was similar to that seen in many local areas this autumn and was not sufficiently significant for Government to intervene and for the Framework to be activated.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to financially support (a) nurseries and (b) early years providers for increases to (i) the National Minimum Wage and (ii) employer National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since July, this government has had to take some tough decisions to get our public finances back on track, but we are continuing to invest in the early years sector, supporting the delivery of the entitlements and recognising the vital role the sector plays in giving children the best start in life.
The department expects to provide over £8 billion for early years entitlements in the 2025/26 financial year, which is a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25, as the department continues to rollout the expansion of the entitlements to eligible working parents of children aged from nine months.
On 10 December, the department published details of local authorities’ early years entitlements funding for 2025 to 2026. The funding rates for 2025/26 include funding to reflect the national living wage announced at the Autumn Budget 2024.
HM Treasury are also increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,500 and expanding this to all eligible employers, meaning some smaller providers may pay no National Insurance at all in the 2025/26 financial year. The government has confirmed that public sector employers, including those in the early years sector, will be compensated for the increase in their National Insurance contributions.
On top of over £8 billion through the core funding rates, the department is also providing an additional £75 million in an expansion grant for 2025/26 to support the sector in this pivotal year to grow the places and the workforce needed to deliver the final phase of expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025. This is in addition to the largest ever uplift in the early years pupil premium, increasing rates by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child per year. This unprecedented increase is an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most to tackle childcare deserts and give children the support they need to be ‘school ready’ at age 5 and go on to achieve and thrive.
The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, supports the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure bus travel is accessible for people with disabilities.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government wants everyone to have access to public transport and is committed to improving services so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. On October 1st, the first phase of the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 came into force, meaning that newer vehicles providing local services must provide audible and visible information on stops, destinations and diversions. The majority of services will need to comply by October 2026.
The government will also shortly introduce a new Bus Services Bill that will give local leaders the freedom to take decisions to deliver their local transport priorities and ensure networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them, including disabled people.