Michael Wheeler

The Government is currently reviewing the UK’s corporate reporting framework. The aim of the review is to simplify and streamline reporting requirements to ensure reporting is focussed on providing decision-useful information to investors and creditors. The Government has no plans to introduce new reporting in relation to workforce planning and staff turnover. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is conducting research on the merits of an international corporate reporting standard on human capital-related issues. This research will inform the ISSB’s plan to develop future standards and the Government will consider any standard the ISSB develops in due course.

Smart Data Foundry research shows that small businesses, including those in the construction industry were owed on average an estimated £22,000 in late payments in 2022. This represents a significant cash flow challenge for small businesses, undermining opportunities to invest and innovate.

In September 2024 we announced a package of measures to help ensure small businesses and the self-employed are paid promptly to improve the resilience of supply chains and boost economic growth across the UK.

We will soon launch a public consultation on further measures to address late payments and long payment terms, including specific measures to address the construction contractual practice of retention payments.

Source: Smart Data Foundry (2022) – Payment Speed and Timeliness for UK Small & Micro Businesses – https://smartdatafoundry.com/resources/news/payment-speed-and-timeliness-for-uk-small-and-micro-businesses

In September 2024 we announced a package of measures to help ensure small businesses are paid promptly by the large businesses they supply.

This included the newly launched Fair Payment Code by the Small Business Commissioner, and upcoming legislation to require that large companies include payment performance reporting headlines within their annual reports.

We will soon launch a public consultation on further measures to address late payments and long payment terms, including strengthened powers for the Small Business Commissioner.

The DESNZ Advanced Nuclear Fund (ANF) is currently funding research and development of high temperature gas reactors (as part of the Advanced Modular Reactor Research, Development & Demonstration Programme), coated particle fuels (as part of the Coated Particle Fuels Programme). DESNZ is also supporting the development of small modular reactor technology through the Future Nuclear Enabling Fund and the Low-Cost Nuclear Challenge, which is delivered in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is also funding R&D in development of advanced fuel cycles work, such as research on the properties of high temperature materials, graphite and advanced fuels.

Blending low carbon hydrogen into the existing gas networks may have value, in certain circumstances, to support the early development of the hydrogen economy and the wider energy system.

The Government remains committed to assessing the case for hydrogen blending into the gas transmission network. This work aims to gather evidence on the feasibility, costs and benefits of hydrogen blending.

The UK Space Agency‘s merger with DSIT’s Space Directorate from 1 April 2026 will not affect any changes to grants, contracts, or partnerships, including to the sponsorship of Scouting Space badges which help promote awareness of the UK’s space programme and develop STEM knowledge and skills among young people.

The Government is committed to non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption later this year. While it is not yet possible to replace all animal use, we support approaches that replace, reduce and refine animal use in research, and provide human-relevant translatable data, including organ-on-chip, cell-based assays and AI. The impact of individual technical advancements are however a matter for individual regulators to consider, and the Government strategy will help facilitate the inclusion and adoption of alternative methods in these regulatory contexts.

The Government is committed to non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption later this year. While it is not yet possible to replace all animal use, we support approaches that replace, reduce and refine animal use in research, including organ-on-chip technologies. Data from alternative methods can support medicine development as part of clinical trial applications. The impact of individual technical advancements are however a matter for individual regulators to consider, and the Government strategy will help facilitate the inclusion and adoption of alternative methods in these regulatory contexts.

The Government is committed to non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption later this year. While it is not yet possible to replace all animal use, we support approaches that replace, reduce and refine animal use in research, including human Liver-Chip models. The economic impact of individual technical advancements are to be defined as these technologies are utilised more widely by industry stakeholders in drug discovery and development. The Government strategy will help facilitate the inclusion, review and adoption of these types of validated alternative methods by regulators.

The Government is committed to the development of non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption later this year. Recombinant antibodies offer enhanced reliability, consistency, and specificity compared to traditional animal-derived antibodies, strengthening studies into disease mechanisms, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Resources like the Recombinant Antibodies and Mimetics Database from the Centre for Human Specific Research are important information sources to support their wider uptake. Further steps supporting alternative methods, including any targets to phase out specific applications of animal testing, will be outlined in the upcoming strategy.

We will review this report as part of our work to develop a new National Youth Strategy. The Strategy is being co-produced with young people and stakeholders working with and for young people, and the breadth of issues it covers will be shaped by our engagement.

The strategy will aim to better coordinate youth services, as well as move away from one-size-fits all approaches from central government, bringing power back to young people and their communities and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector. We will be publishing the strategy in the autumn.

Alongside this, Defra’s food strategy will articulate the outcomes we want from the food system enabling government, civil society, and the food industry to work to shared goals and priorities. Local and place-based approaches will have a key role to play in delivery of these outcomes. The government will continue to work with partners across the food system as we develop our approach.

I refer my Honourable Friend to the answer I gave on 8 January 2025 to Question UIN 21381.

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active.

Sport England, our arm’s length body that is responsible for physical activity and sport participation in England, invests over £250 million a year into grassroots sport and physical activity. A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing organisations together at a local level including the health and sports sectors. This includes their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities.

The Government-funded School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. There are over 450 SGOs across the country who support schools in their local areas to provide physical activity both inside and outside of school, with many facilitating links to wider club and community engagement.

We are considering how we can best make all of this work for local communities as part of the Spending Review.

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active.

Sport England, our arm’s length body that is responsible for physical activity and sport participation in England, invests over £250 million a year into grassroots sport and physical activity. A large part of Sport England’s work focuses on bringing organisations together at a local level including the health and sports sectors. This includes their place partnerships work which is working in a targeted way with local areas to understand and overcome the specific barriers in their communities.

The Government-funded School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. There are over 450 SGOs across the country who support schools in their local areas to provide physical activity both inside and outside of school, with many facilitating links to wider club and community engagement.

We are considering how we can best make all of this work for local communities as part of the Spending Review.

Sport and physical activity including grassroots sports clubs play a vital role in preventing, and helping to treat and manage, a wide range of health conditions and in delivering the Government’s Health Mission.

Latest evidence provided by Sport England shows that physical activity directly prevents 3.2 million cases of long term health conditions per year, including 1.3 million cases of depression and 600,000 cases of diabetes, worth over £10 billion in healthcare savings each year.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

The latest January 2025 statistics relating to funded early education and childcare were published on 11 July 2025. These are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025.

Statistics at constituency level are not readily available. Figures on the number of children registered for the families receiving additional support, universal and working parent entitlement in Salford can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/26af6f8f-ac9d-4ccb-94e3-08de11382822.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

The latest January 2025 statistics relating to funded early education and childcare were published on 11 July 2025. These are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025.

Statistics at constituency level are not readily available. Figures on the number of children registered for the families receiving additional support, universal and working parent entitlement in Salford can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/26af6f8f-ac9d-4ccb-94e3-08de11382822.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life.

We do not retain data on school-based nursery places available in the Worsley and Eccles constituency. However, according to the department’s latest Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey for the reporting year 2024, there were 52,200 registered nursery class childcare places available in the North West region of England. The median hourly parent-paid fee for childcare in the region was £5.75 per hour for children under two, £5.60 per hour for two year-olds, and £5.50 per hour for three and four year-olds.

We do not have an estimate of the size of the waiting list for accessing early years childcare in Worsley and Eccles constituency in the 2024/25 academic year.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life.

We do not retain data on school-based nursery places available in the Worsley and Eccles constituency. However, according to the department’s latest Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey for the reporting year 2024, there were 52,200 registered nursery class childcare places available in the North West region of England. The median hourly parent-paid fee for childcare in the region was £5.75 per hour for children under two, £5.60 per hour for two year-olds, and £5.50 per hour for three and four year-olds.

We do not have an estimate of the size of the waiting list for accessing early years childcare in Worsley and Eccles constituency in the 2024/25 academic year.

It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life.

We do not retain data on school-based nursery places available in the Worsley and Eccles constituency. However, according to the department’s latest Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey for the reporting year 2024, there were 52,200 registered nursery class childcare places available in the North West region of England. The median hourly parent-paid fee for childcare in the region was £5.75 per hour for children under two, £5.60 per hour for two year-olds, and £5.50 per hour for three and four year-olds.

We do not have an estimate of the size of the waiting list for accessing early years childcare in Worsley and Eccles constituency in the 2024/25 academic year.

The food strategy will articulate the outcomes we want from the food system enabling the Government, civil society, and the food industry work to shared goals and priorities. Local and place-based approaches will have a key role to play in delivery of these outcomes. We will continue to work with partners across the food system as we develop our approach.

The Environment Agency (EA) does not have any regulatory powers for flood risk management for the Bridgewater Canal or Manchester Ship Canal which are both privately owned assets. The owners are responsible for operating and maintaining their assets.

The EA responded during the recent incident in Little Bollington, Cheshire, and continues to support this area during the recovery period.

The EA has permissive powers to undertake maintenance on Main Rivers including vegetation clearance and removal of blockages. Within this constituency there are 8 debris screens on Main Rivers that the EA own, maintain, and clear. Debris screens stop debris entering culverts which if blocked can cause flooding. Before and during heavy rainfall the EA clears debris from these screens. The EA also work closely with partners, including Salford CC and United Utilities to have a strategic overview of all sources of flooding.

Within the Worsley Brook area the EA has 4 flood warning areas where they a offer a flood warning service to over 330 properties. There are also a further 4 flood warnings areas within the wider constituency, where a further 315 properties are able to receive a flood warning enabling them to take action when flooding is expected.

Both Salford City Council and Wigan Metropolitan Borough are constituent members of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). During 2024/25, the Government allocated funds to GMCA through its City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS), which includes consolidated funding for highway maintenance funding for all its constituent authorities. In addition to this funding, during 2024/25 GMCA received a £4.4 million funding uplift as part of the previous Government’s Network North plan.

For 2025/26, GMCA will receive an Integrated Settlement from the Government, into which CRSTS will be consolidated. In addition to this funding, GMCA will receive an additional £14.8 million from the highway maintenance funding uplift announced in this Government’s 2024 Budget.

Funding allocations for CRSTS and highway maintenance are published on gov.uk.

Light rail, including the Manchester Metrolink, is devolved in England where local authorities, such as Greater Manchester Combined Authority, own and are responsible for the operations and financial sustainability of their own systems. This includes setting the costs for their own ticketing and annual fares.

As such, the Department does not hold such records information on the cost of two zones (1+2) Manchester Metrolink adult annual travelcards in 2010.

The honourable member may wish to contact Transport for Greater Manchester who are better placed to provide such information.

The price of standard class annual season tickets in 2010 for journeys from the requested stations to these Manchester stations was £741.50.

The table below shows the average waiting time as of January 2025, for driving test centres (DTCs) that serve the Worsley and Eccles constituency.

We work collaboratively with a broad range of representatives from the Social Rented Sector, with two-way communications to ensure that the customers they represent get the support they need to move safely to Universal Credit.

Help to Claim support, provided by Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland, provides support to anyone making a new Universal Credit claim, whether that is a new customer or someone moving to Universal Credit from legacy benefits. This includes helping social housing tenants to access adaptations such as direct payments to landlords, as well as navigating the claim process until the first payment is made.

For the proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants who are in work by different geographic breakdowns, please see table 1 below.

Table 1: the percentage of PIP claimants who are in work by different geographic breakdowns

Source(s): PIP Administrative Data and HMRC data

Notes:

• Figures are for March 2024 which is the latest employment data available.
• Figures only include claims made under normal rules and exclude claims made under Special Rules for End of Life (SREL).
• Figures only include claimants who are working age.
• Employment category includes self-employed as well as employees.
• Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Sports, arts and culture play a vital role in our society and economy. They create hundreds of thousands of jobs, drive economic growth, and bring joy to millions. That is why we formed our initial Youth Guarantee partnerships with the Premier League, Channel 4, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Across the country, many national and local organisations already do inspiring work with disadvantaged young people – helping them to build skills, grow in confidence, and access meaningful experiences, qualifications, and employment. DWP already works with organisations such as the English Football League, Rugby Football League, CoachCore and SportsWorks.

We are now exploring opportunities to expand initial Youth Guarantee partnerships by bringing additional organisations from the sports, arts, and culture sectors into national partnerships. For example, in the North West there is a network of grassroots sports organisations that we refer young people to for holistic support through the platform of sport.

In the North West they have found that referring to organisations such as Street League gives our young people access to mentoring, career advice, daily sport and fitness activities, and the opportunity to acquire recognised sports qualifications to pursue careers in the industry.

We continue to build relationships with grassroots and league clubs across the country to expand our network of options. Following insight with young people, we continue to work with organisations to identify gaps in their existing offers and how we can tailor programmes to better suit their needs.

These partnerships will connect young people across the country and offer a wide range of development opportunities – such as apprenticeships, work experience, training courses, and employability programmes. By engaging young people in a shared effort to enter and progress in the workforce, we aim to set them on a path to long-term success.

There is no administrative data collected or recorded when an employee takes a sickness absence. The best evidence available uses findings from the Employee Survey (Employee research Phase 2: Sickness absence and return to work. Quantitative and qualitative research: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64108286d3bf7f02f6e38078/employee-research-phase-2-sickness-absence-and-return-to-work-quantitative-qualitative.pdf.)

The survey showed that 64% of respondents had no sickness absence. Of those that do have a sickness absence, 13% of those who have a sickness absence reported an absence of more than 3 weeks. The majority of sickness absences were for up to a week (57%) followed by between 1 to 2 weeks (20%), and between 2 to 3 weeks (10%). These figures demonstrate that when workers took sickness absence, it was usually for a short period of time.

Of those who have had a sickness absence, many would receive Occupational Sick Pay. The Employee Survey findings suggest 57% of employees said they would receive OSP, while a further 9% said they would receive some combination of both SSP and OSP. 26% would receive SSP, while the remaining 8% do not know.

The estimated cost to business of SSP reforms is derived from a simulation model that incorporates raw sickness absence data from the DWP Employee Survey 2023 alongside characteristic information from the Family Resources Survey. (Family Resources Survey: financial year 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK)

As Statutory Sick Pay is administered and paid by employers, this information is not held by government. Therefore, we are not able to make an assessment of the proportion of employees who are currently receiving Statutory Sick Pay for specific periods of sickness absence.

While the Department for Education has announced that the funding arrangements for Level 7 apprenticeships are changing, we are working closely with partners to ensure that health and social care has access to the skilled workforce patients need, including specialist community public health nurses.

We will publish our 10 Year Workforce Plan by the end of this year. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.

The child health workforce, including school nurses, is central to how we support families to give their children the best start in life. We will ensure we have the staff we need so that children and their families are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. This will take time, but we are committed to building a health service fit for the future with the workforce it needs.

School nursing is part of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) and is commissioned by local authorities with funding from the Public Health Grant (PHG). In 2023/24, local authorities spent £305 million on services for children aged five to 19 years old. Data on local authorities’ PHG spending for the financial years following 2023/24 is not yet available.

The HCP includes delivery of public health promotions such as the school nurses’ championship of early intervention, mental health awareness, the uptake of immunisation offers, and engagement with wider public health objectives. We are currently refreshing the HCP guidance to strengthen service quality and reduce unwarranted regional variation in service delivery.

The Department has not conducted a 360-degree supply and demand forecast for pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT). However, the Department is in regular discussion with suppliers of PERT on the latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken to mitigate the supply issue, including what steps suppliers are taking to ensure future supplies meet the long-term needs for patients in the United Kingdom.

The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.

In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers, and if authorised, these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.

While the Department's approach for managing the supply issues with PERT is not specifically informed by the COVID-19 Vaccines Taskforce experience, as we are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues for PERT.

The Department has not conducted a 360-degree supply and demand forecast for pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT). However, the Department is in regular discussion with suppliers of PERT on the latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken to mitigate the supply issue, including what steps suppliers are taking to ensure future supplies meet the long-term needs for patients in the United Kingdom.

The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.

In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers, and if authorised, these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.

While the Department's approach for managing the supply issues with PERT is not specifically informed by the COVID-19 Vaccines Taskforce experience, as we are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues for PERT.

Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation. As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.

The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job; we will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.