Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's green paper Pathways to work: reforming benefits and support to get Britain working, published on 18 March 2025, what sanctions will be introduced for disabled people who decline to engage in the proposed support conversation.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The support conversation will enable individuals to set out their aspirations, needs and goals, so that they can better understand what early support might be available to them and be signposted towards it.

Given the importance of the support conversation to ensuring individuals understand the help available to them, we are considering making participation a requirement (with exemptions) but we are consulting on how we should design and deliver it so that it is welcomed by individuals and is effective and, if mandated, who should be exempted.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by Young Lives vs Cancer entitled Young Cancer Patient Travel Fund, published in February 2024.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce will explore a range of issues, including patient experience alongside clinical care, to identify improvements for children and young people with cancer and their families. Young Lives vs Cancer is a valued stakeholder with a unique perspective on the issue of travel support for children and young people with cancer. We will continue to engage with Young Lives vs Cancer, as well as other children and young people cancer charity stakeholders as we progress this important work.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking through the child poverty strategy to ensure child poverty is lower in 2029 than 2024.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government and the Ministerial Taskforce is considering all children across the United Kingdom in developing a Child Poverty Strategy. The causes of child poverty are deep-rooted and complex, and the Taskforce is exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.

The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.

We have already taken steps to support families by tripling investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introducing a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increasing the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April to boost the pay of three million workers. To further support struggling households, funding of £742 million will be provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 in England, plus additional funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, on the work of the Child Poverty Task Force.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy and is exploring levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years.

As part of the Strategy's development, the Taskforce is considering the potential impact of policies across government on child poverty.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to fund (a) existing or (b) new programmes of support and training for people seeking employment from money raised from delaying the access to the health element of Universal Credit until someone is aged 22.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Pathways to Work Green Paper is an important staging post on a journey of reform. It sets out our vision, strategy and proposals for change. Before any decisions are made, we are consulting on the design options for a work, health and skills support package. We are specifically seeking input on the proposal to raise the age of eligibility for the health element of the Universal Credit (UC) award to 22. The government will actively engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, including young people with health conditions and disabilities.

As we set out at point 256 in the Pathways to Work Green Paper: “Delaying access to the UC health element would remove any potential disincentive to work during this time. Proceeding with this change would be on the basis that resources could be better spent on improving the quality and range of opportunities available to young people through the [Youth] guarantee, so they can sign up to work or training rather than long-term benefits.” Such a change could support the establishment of a distinct and active transition phase for young people, based on learning or earning for all.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of school teachers.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor to a child’s educational outcomes. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, boost the life chances for every child, reset the relationship with the sector and restore the status of the teaching profession. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers, get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues.

The department is making good progress through delivery of key initiatives to recruit and retain more high quality teachers. We announced an initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

Fair pay is key to ensuring teaching is an attractive and respected profession, which is why this government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic year, the department is also offering a Targeted Retention Incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects, in the schools and areas that need them most.

To further support retention, the department has made available a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. The department’s Improve Workload and Wellbeing for School Staff service , developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload, as well as the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which sets out commitments from the government, Ofsted, schools, and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff. The department’s improve workload and wellbeing for school staff service can be found here: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.

The department will continue to work alongside the sector to further develop our delivery plan and seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession and will share further details in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the terms and conditions of teachers in the public sector.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

There is a statutory process for making revisions to the pay and conditions of teachers, and any change must first be referred by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).

The department’s written evidence for the 2025/2026 pay round asks the STRB to consider how schools can support teachers from all backgrounds and promote flexible working, which will improve the experience of teaching and help deliver the best possible education for students.

The department is also asking the STRB to consider how additional responsibility payments can be more fairly managed for part-time teachers.

The department will also use the new powers in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to make changes to the teacher pay and conditions framework to create a pay floor with no ceiling, to enable healthy competition and innovation beyond a core framework, which will help to improve all state schools.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure that all families have access to (a) affordable and (b) quality childcare.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As part of our Plan for Change, this government is committed to giving every child the best start in life. The department has set a milestone of a record proportion – 75% – of children to be starting school ready to learn. We will measure our progress through the percentage of children reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.

To help deliver this ambition, from the start of September 2024, eligible working parents have been entitled to 15 hours a week of early education and care from the term after their child turns nine months old. The department is expanding the childcare entitlements so that, from September 2025, eligible working parents can access 30 hours of early education and childcare a week.

Parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit childcare.

Next year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, which represents a more than 30% increase compared to the 2024/25 financial year.

The early years pupil premium rate has increased by over 45% compared to the 2024/25 financial year, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. We are also providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the early years expansion grant and £25 million through the forthcoming National Insurance contributions grant for public sector employers in early years.

The government is also rolling out plans for the first phase of school based nurseries, ensuring families across the country have access to high quality childcare and early education. The first wave of up to 300 schools to be allocated nursery funding will be announced in spring.

As we grow the childcare system, it must remain fair and accessible to all parents. The department has taken action to protect parents from reported instances of very high additional charges or ‘top-up fees’ on top of their entitlement, ensuring the funded hours remain accessible and affordable for families.

The department is determined to create change in the approach to early years, focusing on high quality early education, celebrating and supporting early years careers, and embedding the sector into the wider education system. We are delivering programmes to support the sector to attract talented staff and childminders by creating conditions for improved recruitment, alongside programmes to better utilise the skills of the existing workforce.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure that childcare is affordable for working parents.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As part of our Plan for Change, this government is committed to giving every child the best start in life. The department has set a milestone of a record proportion – 75% – of children to be starting school ready to learn. We will measure our progress through the percentage of children reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028.

To help deliver this ambition, from the start of September 2024, eligible working parents have been entitled to 15 hours a week of early education and care from the term after their child turns nine months old. The department is expanding the childcare entitlements so that, from September 2025, eligible working parents can access 30 hours of early education and childcare a week.

Parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit childcare.

Next year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, which represents a more than 30% increase compared to the 2024/25 financial year.

The early years pupil premium rate has increased by over 45% compared to the 2024/25 financial year, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. We are also providing further supplementary funding of £75 million for the early years expansion grant and £25 million through the forthcoming National Insurance contributions grant for public sector employers in early years.

The government is also rolling out plans for the first phase of school based nurseries, ensuring families across the country have access to high quality childcare and early education. The first wave of up to 300 schools to be allocated nursery funding will be announced in spring.

As we grow the childcare system, it must remain fair and accessible to all parents. The department has taken action to protect parents from reported instances of very high additional charges or ‘top-up fees’ on top of their entitlement, ensuring the funded hours remain accessible and affordable for families.

The department is determined to create change in the approach to early years, focusing on high quality early education, celebrating and supporting early years careers, and embedding the sector into the wider education system. We are delivering programmes to support the sector to attract talented staff and childminders by creating conditions for improved recruitment, alongside programmes to better utilise the skills of the existing workforce.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure oversight of the welfare of trout on farms in England.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Current legislation provides protection for farmed fish. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes it an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to any protected animal, including fish, or to fail to provide for the welfare needs of a protected animal, for which that person is responsible.

Any allegations of welfare issues on trout farms in England will be investigated by the Animal and Plant Health Agency and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action will be taken.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to increase funding for the early years childcare sector.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has been clear in her commitment to early years. Despite tough decisions to get our public finances back on track, this government has increased investment in the early years sector to drive forward progress towards our plan for change target of a record number of children starting school ready to learn.

In the 2025/26 financial year alone, this government plans to spend over £8 billion on early years entitlements. We have also announced the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium, increasing the rate by over 45% compared to the 2024/25 financial year, raising it to the equivalent of 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 to provide the additional places and workforce needed by September 2025.

We are also providing £25 million through the forthcoming Employer National Insurance Contributions Grant for public sector employers in the early years.

Future spending decisions beyond the 2025/26 financial year will be announced at the next spending review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of children in poverty as a result of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on steps to ensure that offences of (a) reckless and (b) negligent behaviour which causes harm to wildlife are appropriately dealt with.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Ministry of Justice colleagues on a range of issues.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing guidance on ethical principles for licensing of wildlife management.

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 only.

Wildlife conflicts are often minor and tolerable, especially if basic avoidance measures are employed. If the problem is significant enough to warrant action, options should be explored that avoid harmful impacts on the species concerned while still resolving the problem. In the first instance, legal non-lethal measures should be considered. Only if these fail, are impractical or deemed ineffective, should available legal lethal options be considered.

Many laws in England protect and regulate how wild animals may be controlled and anyone carrying out wildlife management must ensure that they comply with the law. Many organisations have published Codes of Practice to summarise the law, as well as including information on best practice. Natural England can also offer advice on how to comply with laws that protect wildlife and the natural environment.

The Government has no current plans to assess the merits of publishing guidance on ethical principles for licensing of wildlife management.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help protect animal habitats from building developments.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Protected sites designated under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 afford a high degree of statutory protection to some of our most valuable habitats. We are committed to making sure development contributes to nature’s recovery. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill gives us an opportunity to use development to support nature’s recovery, while providing greater speed and certainty for developers. We will use the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to establish a more efficient and effective way for obligations related to our most important sites and species to be discharged at a scale that has the greatest environmental benefits.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of households that will receive (a) up to £25, (b) between £25 and £50, (c) between £50 and £75, (d) between £75 to £100 and (e) more than £100 less per week as a result of proposals in Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No such estimates have been made.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course with some information published this week alongside the Spring Statement.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

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 potential impact of the decision not to consult on all the measures listed in Annex A in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025 on disabled people's organisations.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do. We want to improve and refine our reform plans by consulting on certain measures as described in the Green Paper. The consultation will close 12 weeks after the point at which all the accessible versions are available, to ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient time to engage and that we hear from as many people as possible

However, we urgently need this reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. This means we need to take decisive action to tackle a situation in which PIP claims are set to double from 2 million to over 4.3 million this decade. We are consulting on how best to support those affected by the changes. We will also consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We will launch a wider review of the PIP indicators, which I shall lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress.

We will rebalance payments in Universal Credit, reducing the health top up for new claims and delivering the first ever permanent, above inflation rise to the standard allowance of UC – actually offering help for people to get into work as quickly as possible.

We will be bringing forward the PIP and UC changes in a Bill so Parliament can fully debate and vote on them.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to introduce robust traceability of dogs across the UK.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Compulsory dog microchipping was introduced in England in 2016. All dogs must be microchipped before they are eight weeks old and relevant information including breeder details recorded with a Defra-compliant database operator which helps support traceability.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reconvene the Responsible Dog Ownership Working Group.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is continuing to work with the police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to explore measures to reduce dog attacks and promote responsible dog ownership across all breeds of dog. We are currently considering the best way to take forward the Responsible Dog Ownership taskforce.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making Historic England a named body for the purposes of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra has made no such assessment as the Department is neither responsible for Historic England nor for the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, published on 18 March 2025, whether disabled people aged between 19 and 22 years in receipt of Universal Credit whose condition is (a) severe and (b) terminal will be required to seek employment.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper we are consulting on raising the age someone can access the UC Health Element to 22, which would remove any potential disincentive to work during this time. It would also be on the basis that resources may be better spent on improving the quality and range of opportunities available to young people through the guarantee, so they can move towards a life of learning, training or work rather than a life on benefits. However, we do understand that there may be some exceptions where this may not be possible due to a disability or health condition.

No final decision has been made on access to the UC health element and we welcome responses to the consultation.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential financial impact of Extended Producer Responsibility fees on the beer and pub sector.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In October 2024, the Government published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment did not split the assessment by sector.

The Government has worked closely with industry, including the brewing sector, throughout development of Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR). Feedback from stakeholders was factored into finalising the regulations, including formally consulting stakeholders on a draft of the pEPR regulations in 2023.

pEPR obligates brands and packaging producers to pay the costs of managing household packaging waste. In most cases, this will not be individual pubs but the business supplying the pub with packaged goods.

My officials have recently attended a number of events organised by the brewing industry, to discuss pEPR and to listen and respond to concerns raised by their members. We have provided extensive guidance to all sectors on how to comply with their obligations under pEPR and continue to work with the brewing sector and others to further refine both the guidance and the wider scheme.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of Extended Producer Responsibility fees on businesses in the UK compared to similar schemes in (a) France, (b) Germany and (c) Canada.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In October 2024, the Government published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment did not compare the impact of fees to international schemes. Illustrative base fee estimates for the UK are in the same order of magnitude of other countries’ fees. However, comparisons are not straightforward because of differences in waste infrastructure and waste management approaches.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with international counterparts on best practices for balancing the environmental benefits of Extended Producer Responsibility with economic sustainability for affected industries.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra and PackUK have engaged with multiple European and Canadian EPR schemes throughout development of pEPR, using international best practice to inform the drafting of the regulations. Many of the international EPR schemes are managed by Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO’s). Environmental benefits are considered to be enhanced by the PRO’s having direct accountability for local recycling services infrastructure and driving investment. A PRO approach is also broadly considered to drive cost efficiency and ensure that Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes provide good value for money for obligated producers. Defra officials are currently working with devolved governments to bring forward amendments to pEPR Regulations that would enable appointment of a PRO.

Households below average income

Securing habitat for endangered swifts and other cavity nesting birds

British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme

International Day of the Midwife

Israeli Defence Force attacks on humanitarian workers

News journalism and artificial intelligence tools

Libraries in state primary schools

Benefit reforms and Personal Independence Payment consultation

Royal Academy of Arts proposed job reductions

Avanti West Coast ticket offices and station staffing

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