Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of the Government’s SEND reforms.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Every child deserves an education that meets their needs, one that is academically stretching, where every child feels like they belong, and that sets them up for life and work.
Driving inclusion in schools will improve outcomes for all children. Our reforms will restore parents’ trust in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. We will be investing £4 billion more over three years to support implementation, including £1.8 billion so every community has experts on hand, with £1.6 billion going directly to schools for early intervention and over £200 million to train every teacher.
The department regularly publishes statistics on pupils with special educational needs, including information on educational attainment, destinations, absence, exclusions and characteristics.
We are consulting on proposals to reform the SEND system, and will set out in more detail how we will evaluate policy after the consultation closes. We will set clear expectations of our public services and hold them to account for delivering.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department monitors the impact of budget pressures on SEND outcomes.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s assessment of the impact of pressures on the outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is available in our consultation document ‘SEND Reform: putting children and young people first’, published 23 February.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of emergency response driver training standards across in the (a) police, (b) fire and (c) ambulance services.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office supports police objectives to keep the public safe and ensure that officers can provide an emergency response, rapidly and effectively, to attend incidents. Police investment in technology for vehicle safety, along with guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing on response driving, help forces to achieve rapid responses and ensure public safety.
Police drivers must undergo comprehensive training at several levels throughout their career and they have a duty to ensure that their standard of driving is consistent with their training.
The development and maintenance of police driver training standards, along with driving-related curricula, are led by the College of Policing, with support from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, both of whom have expertise in this area of police operations.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure public safety in relation to emergency response driving.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office supports police objectives to keep the public safe and ensure that officers can provide an emergency response, rapidly and effectively, to attend incidents. Police investment in technology for vehicle safety, along with guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing on response driving, help forces to achieve rapid responses and ensure public safety.
Police drivers must undergo comprehensive training at several levels throughout their career and they have a duty to ensure that their standard of driving is consistent with their training.
The development and maintenance of police driver training standards, along with driving-related curricula, are led by the College of Policing, with support from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, both of whom have expertise in this area of police operations.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the duration of the Bereavement Support Payment on the finances of bereaved parents with dependent children.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) aims to provide support during the acute period following a bereavement by way of an initial lump sum followed by up to 18 monthly instalments. Where longer-term financial support is needed, benefits such as Universal Credit have been specifically designed to provide assistance with ongoing living costs. The Government keeps the eligibility of all benefits under review.
In Autumn 2021 the previous Government carried out an evaluation on whether BSP is meeting its policy intent by supporting claimants with the immediate costs that follow a bereavement. The findings suggested that BSP is meeting this policy intent, and it also found that the current payment distribution of a lump sum and 18 monthly instalment was working well.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 improve awareness of achalasia among general practitioners and relevant hospital specialists.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving the lives of people living with rare diseases through the UK Rare Diseases Framework. One of the priorities of the framework is improving awareness of all rare diseases, including Achalasia, among healthcare professionals. In England, we published the fifth action plan updating on the progress of this priority of the UK Rare Diseases Framework on 27 February 2026.
The NHS National Genomics Education Programme provides information to health care professionals through the online resource GeNotes. Since launching in 2022, GeNotes has expanded to 12 specialties, and more than 150 rare diseases. New diseases continue to be added.
Information for families on Achalasia is available on the National Health Service website, at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/achalasia/
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Bereavement Support Payment in the context of trends in the cost of living.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) is intended to provide support during the acute period following a bereavement when people may face sudden costs or disruption. Where longer-term income support is needed for everyday living costs, qualifying individuals can access Universal Credit, which is generally increased in line with inflation.
The rate of Bereavement Support Payment is reviewed on a discretionary basis each year as part of the annual uprating process.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to her Department’s Statement of Strategic Priorities for Ofcom, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of role of the Competition and Markets Authority in sustaining network competition in the fixed broadband market.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Competition and Markets Authority’s role is to effectively investigate, as needed, mergers and anti-competitive practices in the fixed telecoms market in order to promote competition and protect consumers to drive economic growth and improve household prosperity, and works as appropriate with Ofcom as the sector regulator in doing so.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to apply the same inheritance tax treatment used for the infected blood compensation scheme to future comparable schemes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Some payments made under Government established compensation schemes will not give rise to an income tax liability. This is because payments intended to compensate individuals for personal injury would generally fall within established tax principles that treat compensation for personal injury as non-taxable. If payments are made which specifically represent loss of earnings, they will be subject to income tax under miscellaneous income rules.
Beyond this, tax exemptions for individual schemes will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Given the historic nature of the Infected Blood Scandal and the reduced life expectancy of Infected Blood recipients, many individuals will have passed away before they could receive their compensation. This means that concerns around the impacts of secondary transfers are particularly acute in the case of Infected Blood compensation. For this reason, we have taken steps to extend the inheritance tax relief for this scheme.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what criteria the Government uses to determine whether payments made under a Government compensation scheme are exempt from (a) income tax and (b) inheritance tax.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Some payments made under Government established compensation schemes will not give rise to an income tax liability. This is because payments intended to compensate individuals for personal injury would generally fall within established tax principles that treat compensation for personal injury as non-taxable. If payments are made which specifically represent loss of earnings, they will be subject to income tax under miscellaneous income rules.
Beyond this, tax exemptions for individual schemes will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Given the historic nature of the Infected Blood Scandal and the reduced life expectancy of Infected Blood recipients, many individuals will have passed away before they could receive their compensation. This means that concerns around the impacts of secondary transfers are particularly acute in the case of Infected Blood compensation. For this reason, we have taken steps to extend the inheritance tax relief for this scheme.