Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what funding is available to leaseholders for cladding remediation works on buildings under 11 metres in height.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Funding is not currently available for buildings under 11 metres in height. However, the Department announced targeted funding for multi-occupied residential buildings under 11 metres in the Remediation Acceleration Plan update. This funding will be available in exceptional cases, where there are life-critical fire safety risks from cladding and no alternative route to funding.
Additional details about funding for exceptional cladding remediation in buildings below 11 metres in England will be shared by the Department in due course.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 encourage more people to train as youth workers.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The National Youth Strategy announced our commitment to developing and growing a skilled and sustainable paid and volunteer youth sector workforce. To achieve this, we are investing £15 million over the next three years.
The Youth Worker Bursary Fund removes financial barriers for individuals, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to gain accredited qualifications. The DCMS is continuing to fund this programme during the next financial year.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how she will assess the success of the National Youth Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The National Youth Strategy will put young people from all backgrounds in the driving seat when it comes to decisions that affect their lives.
We are committed to being accountable to young people, their parents/carers, sector partners, and the wider public to deliver this strategy. To assess the impact, we will hold an annual youth-led national hearing to discuss progress and priorities. We will also publish an interim delivery progress report in 2027.
We will also be evaluating the National Youth Strategy's delivery and impact with England-wide metrics, and DCMS reporting across programmes. This will help us identify successful approaches and areas for improvement and explore opportunities to enhance our work.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to late payment policy on (a) small and medium-sized enterprises and (b) larger businesses; and whether he plans to differentiate between transactions involving SMEs and those conducted solely between larger counterparties when introducing these changes.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
On 24 March we published our response to the Late Payments Consultation, outlining legislative measures we will introduce to tackle the scourge of late payments which costs the UK economy £11 billion each year and leads to the closure of 38 businesses every day. In line with the Better Regulation Framework, we published an Impact Assessment that considers how our measures could impact businesses of all different sizes. We have carefully designed measures to tackle late payments whilst supporting UK competitiveness, including allowing an exemption from maximum payment terms for contracts where both parties are large companies.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to work towards implementing a standardised Attendance Policy for all NHS organisations in England; and if he will set out a timeline for when this will be finalised.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not mandate a single national attendance policy for the National Health Service. Responsibility for workforce attendance management sits with individual NHS organisations who are responsible for setting and applying local attendance policies in line with employment law and good human resources practice.
Instead, NHS England has been engaging with representatives from NHS organisations and staff side partners to develop guidance on Supporting Health and Improving Attendance which will be published later this year. This guidance is intended to strengthen and align local approaches while allowing flexibility to reflect local operational circumstances and the diverse needs of our workforce. Once finalised, guidance will support NHS organisations to improve clarity, fairness, and consistency in attendance management across the service without removing local employer accountability.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential public health impact of mandatory health warning labels on alcoholic beverages, including warnings on cancer risk.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The recently published National Cancer Plan reiterated the commitment made in Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England, to strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages.
Department officials are continuing to review all available and emerging evidence of the potential public health impacts of this policy, which is informing our assessment of the different policy options. This includes examining information from countries that have explored, researched, or legislated for a range of health warnings, and engaging with national and international stakeholders.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 reduce food poverty in (a) Stockport constituency and (b) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our plan to Make Work Pay is part of the mission to grow the economy, raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all. This is why we committed in our manifesto to ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels.
The Government recognises that the level of household food insecurity in the UK is unacceptable. We have announced action to expand free school meals, support parents with the cost of healthy food in the school holidays with the Holidays and Activities and Food Programme and transform our food system to ensure it delivers access to affordable, healthy food.
From 1 April 2026, we are introducing a new Crisis and Resilience Fund. This longer-term funding approach aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities – working with the voluntary and community sector – as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis, to support our ambition to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Government’s response to the Future of the Post Office green paper consultation, (a) when the proposed cross‑government working group on the delivery of in‑person government services will be established, (b) how frequently it is expected to meet, (c) which Departments will participate in its work, and (d) whether the Government plans to provide opportunities for external organisations to contribute to the group’s considerations.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I can confirm that the cross-government working group on the delivery of in-person government services has been established with an introductory meeting held late last year. Departments invited included those involved in the delivery of key in-person services, as well as those with a policy interest in how services are provided. The regularity of future meetings and potential involvement of external organisations are yet to be decided.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment the Department has made of the potential merits of installing solar photovoltaic generation directly on railway infrastructure to provide lower cost electricity for the rail network and to reduce reliance on new national grid connections.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government has established Great British Energy and is committed to significantly increasing the amount of renewable energy generation in the UK by 2030.
Network Rail purchases electricity for the railway and is committed to transitioning to renewable energy for both the electricity it uses for its own operations, and the electricity to power trains. Network Rail already generates some of this electricity on the rail estate and is continuing the roll out of new renewable generation assets (primarily solar) on the estate.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on disabled people of leisure and cultural venues requiring paid-for access cards or third-party certification as proof of disability in order for customers to access reasonable adjustments.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has not made a specific formal assessment of the impact of leisure or cultural venues requiring paid-for access cards or third-party certification as proof of disability. However, the legal framework under the Equality Act 2010 already protects disabled people’s access to services. Under the Act, service providers, including leisure and cultural venues, have an “anticipatory duty” to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people. This duty applies regardless of whether an individual provides proof of disability.
DCMS has, however, supported Arts Council England, working in partnership with the other arts councils in the UK and Ireland, to develop All In which is a free membership scheme for disabled people designed to remove barriers and make it easier to book tickets. Disabled members will be offered the choice to provide basic access requirements or proof of their disability as part of the sign up process. All In Essentials has now been opened for venue subscriptions, and All In Plus will open for disabled people to join in the summer.