Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed SEND reforms on (a) adopted children and (b) children who have experienced early-life trauma.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The current system for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is failing too many children and families. Improving the life chances of children and young people with SEND is the first priority for these reforms, including for adopted children and for those who have experienced early-life trauma. Every child deserves a high-quality, inclusive education, and families should not have to battle the system for this.
During the 12-week consultation period on the proposals: ‘SEND reform, putting children and young people first’, we hosted over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables, including ‘deep dives’ conversation and discussions on the interaction between children’s social care reforms and recommendations from the Law Commission’s report into disabled children’s social care. The government will provide a full response to this report in the autumn.
The SEND reform consultation has now closed, and we are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation. We will publish a response to the consultation in due course and bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity as set out in the King’s Speech.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason maximum tuition fee levels for the 2028-29 academic year have not been published; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of publishing tuition fee levels a limited number of years in advance on families’ ability to plan financially for three-year degree courses.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The higher education (HE) sector needs a secure financial footing to face the challenges of the next decade, and to ensure that all students can be confident they will receive the world-class HE experience they deserve.
The department plans to provide long-term certainty over future funding for the sector, so that it can focus on reform. That is why we have increased tuition fee caps for all HE providers in line with forecast inflation in 2026/27 and 2027/28, and we will legislate when parliamentary time allows to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.
The government uses the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPIX inflation forecasts to determine tuition fee cap uplifts. These inflation forecasts can change over time. Using a later forecast for 2028/29 will ensure that the uplifts are fair to both students and providers.
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 he plans to take to help improve the training given to (a) hospital and (b) general practice doctors in (i) understanding and (ii) supporting patients who are in chronic pains.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
To support all healthcare professionals in the assessment and management of chronic pain, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193
The guidance includes recommendations for healthcare professionals on how to carry out a person-centred assessment when an individual presents with chronic pain, how to develop a care and support plan for a patient with chronic pain, and how to manage flare-ups of chronic pain. The guidance also includes recommendations on both pharmacological and non-pharmacological management options for chronic pain.
Building on the NICE guidelines, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has produced an e-learning course on chronic pain in adults, which is available at the following link:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/info.php?id=588
The e-learning course aims to increase understanding amongst general practitioners (GPs) about chronic pain and to educate GPs and other healthcare professionals about the physiology of pain. It gives practical advice about how the NICE guidelines can be applied to patient care. The training curriculum for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the RCGP, and has to meet the standards set by the General Medical Council.
Doctors are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by NICE, to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that foreign national offenders are deported from prison when they eligible for removal.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office faces significant and complex challenges when seeking to return those who have no right to be in the UK to their country of origin or lawful place of return. Despite these barriers, we are fully committed to making our communities safer by returning those who break our laws.
Since this Government came to power almost 10,000 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been returned, an increase of 36%, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.
FNOs are referred to the Home Office for deportation immediately following sentencing, and we make every effort to ensure that FNOs are removed directly from prison. We have delivered record numbers of FNO returns under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS), delivering 3,044 returns in the year ending January 2026, which is a 13% increase compared to the 2,700 in the same period 12 months prior.
HMPPS (HM Prisons and Probation Service) continue to work closely with the Home Office to ensure the Scheme process runs as efficiently as possible.
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 assessment he has made of whether discharge times at hospitals operated by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust are contributing to longer ambulance handover times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been no direct assessment of the impact of discharge times at hospitals operated by the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust on ambulance handover times. We are taking a whole pathway approach to improving accident and emergency performance, as we know that bottlenecks in one part of the system can cause delays elsewhere.
The NHS Medium Term Planning Framework sets out a clear trajectory to improve urgent and emergency care performance year-on-year toward the constitutional standard, reducing long waits and improving patient experience. This will be supported by investment in staff, digital triage, and community urgent care.
The plan focuses on practical steps such as expanding urgent treatment centres, improving patient flow, and reducing 12-hour waits, to make emergency departments safer and more efficient. While the constitutional standard remains our ambition, the framework prioritises sustainable progress, ensuring patients are seen more quickly and care is delivered closer to home.
We have introduced a maximum 45-minute standard for ambulance handovers through the Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, supported by the Medium-Term Planning Framework for 2026/27 to 2028/29. This ensures patients are transferred to hospital care more quickly and frees up ambulance crews for urgent calls.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Education, Health and Care Plans exceeded the statutory 20-week timescale for completion in (a) Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council area, (b) the North East and (c) England in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The number of education, health and care (EHC) plans that exceeded the statutory 20-week timescale for completion during the 2024 calendar year is available at:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025. The local authority’s statutory duty is to issue 100% of new plans within 20 weeks of the request being received unless certain limited exceptions apply.
The department does not hold information on the proportion of all adopted children who have an EHC plan. As of January 2026, 23.2% of adopted pupils at state-funded schools in England had an EHC plan (7,279 pupils). This compares with 5.9% of all pupils at state-funded schools in England having an EHC plan.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of adopted children have an Education, Health and Care Plan compared with the national average for all children.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The number of education, health and care (EHC) plans that exceeded the statutory 20-week timescale for completion during the 2024 calendar year is available at:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans/2025. The local authority’s statutory duty is to issue 100% of new plans within 20 weeks of the request being received unless certain limited exceptions apply.
The department does not hold information on the proportion of all adopted children who have an EHC plan. As of January 2026, 23.2% of adopted pupils at state-funded schools in England had an EHC plan (7,279 pupils). This compares with 5.9% of all pupils at state-funded schools in England having an EHC plan.
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, whether his Department plans to provide targeted apprenticeship incentives for sectors with a high proportion of small and micro-businesses, including hairdressing, barbering and beauty therapy.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are a number of apprenticeship standards available to support the hair and beauty sector, including the Level 2 Hairdressing Professional standard and the Level 2 Barbering Professional standard.
We are investing an additional £2.5 billion in the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy over the next three years. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
To support non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) to meet the additional costs associated with employing young people, we are introducing a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 when they take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees. Employers hiring apprentices aged 18-24 who have been on Universal Credit for over six months will also be eligible for the new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant.
We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care.
These payments can be stacked together where the employer and/or apprentice are eligible.
Additionally, the government will fully fund apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers for all eligible young people aged under 25 from the next academic year, to boost small business starts. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16 to 21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.
The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises around 3,000 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.
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 steps his Department is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships in the hair and beauty sector for young people aged 16 to 24.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are a number of apprenticeship standards available to support the hair and beauty sector, including the Level 2 Hairdressing Professional standard and the Level 2 Barbering Professional standard.
We are investing an additional £2.5 billion in the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy over the next three years. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
To support non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) to meet the additional costs associated with employing young people, we are introducing a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 when they take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees. Employers hiring apprentices aged 18-24 who have been on Universal Credit for over six months will also be eligible for the new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant.
We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care.
These payments can be stacked together where the employer and/or apprentice are eligible.
Additionally, the government will fully fund apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers for all eligible young people aged under 25 from the next academic year, to boost small business starts. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16 to 21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.
The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises around 3,000 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.
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 steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of apprenticeships in the hair and beauty sector for young people aged 16 to 24.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are a number of apprenticeship standards available to support the hair and beauty sector, including the Level 2 Hairdressing Professional standard and the Level 2 Barbering Professional standard.
We are investing an additional £2.5 billion in the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy over the next three years. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.
To support non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) to meet the additional costs associated with employing young people, we are introducing a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 when they take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees. Employers hiring apprentices aged 18-24 who have been on Universal Credit for over six months will also be eligible for the new £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant.
We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care.
These payments can be stacked together where the employer and/or apprentice are eligible.
Additionally, the government will fully fund apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers for all eligible young people aged under 25 from the next academic year, to boost small business starts. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16 to 21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.
The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises around 3,000 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.