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 plans to strengthen legislation on tackling hare coursing.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England and Wales only.
This government recognises the importance of tackling rural crimes such as Hare Coursing.
The previous Government made changes to address illegal hare coursing through a package of measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This broadened the circumstances in which police can investigate and bring charges for hare coursing related activity. There are no plans to further change the legislation of Hare Coursing.
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 she is taking to increase available social housing in the Forest of Dean.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At Spring statement, the government announced an immediate injection of £2 billion to support delivery of the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and contribute to our ambitious Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 25 November 2025 (HCWS549).
The investment made at Spring statement follows the £800 million in new in-year funding which has been made available for the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme and that will support the delivery of up to 7,800 new homes, with more than half of them being Social Rent homes.
We will set out set details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.
The government has also announced the £450m third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund, followed by an uplift of £50m, enabling councils to grow their housing stock.
We also confirmed a range of new flexibilities for councils and housing associations, both within the Affordable Homes Programme and in relation to how councils can use their Right to Buy receipts. Having reduced Right to Buy discounts to their pre-2012 regional levels, we have allowed councils to retain 100% of the receipts generated by Right to Buy sales.
The government recognise that Registered Providers need support to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply. Between 30 October 2024 and 23 December 2024, the government consulted on a new 5-year social housing rent settlement, to give Registered Providers the certainty they need to invest in new social and affordable housing.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 includes a number of changes that make the planning system more supportive of affordable housing, in particular Social Rent homes. These include new Golden Rules for development on the Green Belt. Prior to development plan policies for affordable housing being updated in accordance with the revised NPPF, the affordable housing contribution required to satisfy the ‘Golden Rules’ is 15 percentage points above the highest existing affordable housing requirement that would otherwise apply to the development, subject to a cap of 50%. We estimate that under this model, the median Green Belt local planning authority affordable housing requirement will be 50%.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the University of Manchester's blog entitled Addressing the UK’s heritage skills crisis: why we must act now, published on 23 January 2025, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) heritage skills and (b) the Sloyd method in the national curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The national curriculum focuses on the key knowledge that must be taught to children aged 5 to 16 years-old in maintained schools. The national curriculum provides a broad framework which ensures schools have flexibility to organise the content and delivery of the curriculum to meet the needs of their pupils.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.
The Review seeks to deliver a curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to thrive.
The Review Group has now published a well-evidenced, clear interim report, which sets out its interim findings and confirms the key areas for further work. This highlights the successes of the current system, making clear that the most trusted and valued aspects of our system will remain, whilst setting a positive vision for the future. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report.
The government will consider any changes it wishes to make to curriculum, assessment and qualifications whilst the Review is conducted, and will respond to the final recommendations in autumn 2025.
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, with reference to the University of Manchester's blog entitled Addressing the UK’s heritage skills crisis: why we must act now, published on 23 January 2025, what steps she is taking to preserve heritage buildings.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
My response to PQ 30997 sets out how we are considering heritage skills in relation to the University of Manchester's blog and associated report.
On preserving heritage buildings, there is funding and a protection regime in place. In particular, the Secretary of State announced in February £15 million of additional funding for Heritage at Risk, building on Historic England's existing Repair Grants for Heritage at Risk programme - providing grants for repairs and conservation to heritage buildings at risk, focusing on those sites with most need, and a new £4.85 million Heritage Revival Fund to enable local people to take ownership of heritage they love and bring historic buildings back into use. The National Lottery Heritage Fund also delivers project-based heritage funding. Since 1994, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has distributed £8.6bn of National Lottery funds to more than 47,000 projects.
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 plans to take to increase recruitment in SEND services.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department knows that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) frequently require access to additional support from a broad specialist workforce across education, health and care, including speech and language therapy and educational psychologists.
This is why the department introduced the speech and language degree apprenticeship, which is now in its third year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.
The department is working closely with NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with SEND.
The department is also investing a further £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists, who began their training in September 2023.
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 steps his Department is taking to support maternity services in the Forest of Dean constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Several steps are being taken to support maternity services in the Forest of Dean constituency, in addition to those being delivered nationally through the three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services across England. These include, but are not limited to:
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to reconvene the Police Covenant Oversight Board; and if she will include the National Association of Retired Police Officers in the membership of that Board.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Police Covenant Oversight Board was most recently convened in January, with the next meeting planned for the Spring.
Beyond the oversight board, interested organisations, such as the National Association of Retired Police Officers, are engaged on the Covenant through a consultation group.
Individual organisations may be invited to attend the oversight board, as they have in the past, where specific discussions are of particular relevance to the interests of those they represent.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that funding for early years services meets the financial needs of providers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has been clear in our commitment to the early years as our number one priority. It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent. That also means ensuring the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver the entitlements and high-quality early years provision going forward.
That is why, despite tough decisions to get our public finances back on track, the department is continuing to prioritise and invest, supporting early education and childcare providers with the costs they face.
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, this government plans to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements and we announced the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium, increasing the rate by over 45%, compared to 2024/25 financial year, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. On top of this we are providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the early years expansion grant to support the sector as they prepare to deliver the final phase of expanded childcare entitlements from September 2025, recognising the significant level of expansion needed and the effort and planning this will require.
We are also providing £25 million through the forthcoming National Insurance contributions grant for public sector employers in the early years.
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, how many people in the Forest of Dean constituency have accessed financial support through the (a) Property Flood Resilience grant and (b) Flood Recovery Framework.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the extensive flooding in 2020, the Forest of Dean District Council participated in and managed the Property Flood Resilience Grant scheme that was activated in response. 25 residential properties and 1 business property benefitted from the Grant.
The Forest of Dean District Council qualified for support under February 2020 activation of the FRF, where support was provided to 69 households and 10 businesses impacted.
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 assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the School Games Organisers in supporting school children.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our mission-led Government puts children and young people at the heart of our priorities.This includes breaking down barriers to opportunity for every child to access high-quality sport and physical activity, especially those who are less likely to be active.
The School Games Organisers (SGOs) are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity.
In the 2023/24 academic year, the country-wide network of 450 SGOs provided 2.3 million opportunities for school children to engage in local and inclusive sporting competitions across 40 different sports and activities.
We are currently undertaking a review of the School Games Organisers network, which will address the impact and value for money of a variety of school sport models in place across the network of 450 SGOs, and develop and appraise different delivery models of a future school sport network. Findings from the review will be published in due course.