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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps is he taking to help tackle the theft and trade of wild falcons captured in the UK.

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

Bird of prey persecution is a national wildlife crime priority and there are strong penalties in place for offences committed against them. Restrictions on the commercial use or trade of birds of prey are in place under the UK Wildlife Trade Regulations. Where any wild falcon is taken and traded illegally the full force of the law should apply to proven perpetrators of the crime.

Defra is a principal funder of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), which helps prevent and detect wildlife crime by obtaining and disseminating intelligence, undertaking analysis which highlights local or national threats and directly assisting law enforcers in their investigations. It has played a key role in securing the convictions of criminals found to have been illegally taking peregrine falcon eggs and chicks from the wild. Defra is providing 494,000 for the NWCU in 2025-2026.

Defra also provides funding to Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture to develop DNA forensic analysis for the police and other organisations investigating crimes against peregrine falcons. DNA profiling of peregrines is a critical element in deterring wild take and illegal export, and convicting criminals.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to take steps towards introducing a mandatory food labelling scheme for animal welfare.

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

As set out in the Government’s animal welfare strategy, we are committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information on how their food was produced. To support this, the Government will continue working with relevant stakeholders, including the farming and food industry, scientists and NGOs to explore how improved animal welfare food labelling could provide greater consumer transparency, support farmers and promote better animal welfare. The Government will set out next steps in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending a Northern Ireland style Substitute Teachers Register to England in respect to ensuring supply teachers are not underpaid or maltreated by their employer.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Schools, academies and local authorities are responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers, which includes deciding whether to use private supply agencies to fill temporary posts or cover teacher absence.

A supply teacher’s pay and working conditions will depend on who employs the supply teacher.

​Supply teachers employed directly by a state maintained school or local authority must be paid in accordance with the statutory arrangements for teachers laid down in the school teachers’ pay and conditions document.

​If a supply teacher is employed by a private agency or non-maintained school, the employer can set the rate of pay and conditions of employment.

Tackling unacceptable practices and excessive supplier margins within the teacher supply market is a core part of our ‘Maximising value for pupils’ programme. As part of this, we have introduced an expectation for schools to use the new iteration of the supply teachers and temporary staffing framework when sourcing agencies, which offers a list of preferred suppliers that schools can access, all of which must be transparent with schools about the rates they charge.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the size of the shortfall in NHS Consultant Dermatologists as a proportion of the total number of working Consultant Dermatologists needed by the NHS.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold data on the current shortfall, or vacancies in the National Health Service, for consultant dermatologists.

The 10-Year Health Plan for England set out that 1,000 more medical specialty training places will be created over the next three years, with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what implication the shortage of Consultant Dermatologists has for NHS waiting lists (i) nationally and (ii) in South Yorkshire.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government, including for dermatology. The Department is committed to ensuring that the proportion of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, including for dermatology services, returns to 92% by March 2029, and to 65% by March 2026.

NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is working to improve waiting times through its established Further Faster programme to transform patient pathways and improve access and waiting times for patients. Dermatology is one of 24 specialties in focus for GIRFT’s Further Faster work.

A Further Faster handbook for dermatology has been produced to share best practices, and the GIRFT team is carrying out regular visits to, and meetings with, challenged departments in order to provide support in improving performance across dermatology.

NHS England more widely is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence (AI), including autonomous AI, to manage skin cancer referrals, which now represent approximately 50% of dermatology referrals. This can free up clinicians to see more patients and help to reduce waiting lists. AI is already in use across more than 20 trusts, with seven trusts deploying autonomous AI, and further plans in place to expand adoption safely and effectively.

The Department does not hold data on the current shortfall, or vacancies in the National Health Service, for consultant dermatologists, including in South Yorkshire.

Local providers are best placed to make decisions on workforce capacity to reflect local service demand and circumstances, including management of their waiting list.

The 10-Year Health Plan for England set out that 1,000 more medical specialty training places will be created over the next three years, with a focus on specialties where there is the greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce Dermatology waiting lists (i) nationally and (ii) in South Yorkshire.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government, including for dermatology. The Department is committed to ensuring that the proportion of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, including for dermatology services, returns to 92% by March 2029, and to 65% by March 2026.

NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is working to improve waiting times through its established Further Faster programme to transform patient pathways and improve access and waiting times for patients. Dermatology is one of 24 specialties in focus for GIRFT’s Further Faster work.

A Further Faster handbook for dermatology has been produced to share best practices, and the GIRFT team is carrying out regular visits to, and meetings with, challenged departments in order to provide support in improving performance across dermatology.

NHS England more widely is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence (AI), including autonomous AI, to manage skin cancer referrals, which now represent approximately 50% of dermatology referrals. This can free up clinicians to see more patients and help to reduce waiting lists. AI is already in use across more than 20 trusts, with seven trusts deploying autonomous AI, and further plans in place to expand adoption safely and effectively.

The Department does not hold data on the current shortfall, or vacancies in the National Health Service, for consultant dermatologists, including in South Yorkshire.

Local providers are best placed to make decisions on workforce capacity to reflect local service demand and circumstances, including management of their waiting list.

The 10-Year Health Plan for England set out that 1,000 more medical specialty training places will be created over the next three years, with a focus on specialties where there is the greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of requiring lower earning parents to take the other parent to court for child maintenance payments rated on income worth more than £3000 a week.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculates maintenance using the paying parent’s gross weekly income up to £3,000, ensuring contributions are fair and lower earners are protected through flat or nil rates. Where income exceeds £3,000, the receiving parent can apply to the courts for additional “top-up” maintenance beyond the statutory cap.

The CMS formula was introduced in 2012. At that time, Parliament chose to leave securing additional maintenance assessed on income over the level of a cap set at annual earnings limit of around £156,000 to the family courts, via top-up orders, as income of this magnitude tends to be generated and invested via more complex financial mechanisms than the administrative service is designed to handle. The cap therefore ensures that the statutory scheme remains a simple, administratively efficient formula, and the courts handle bespoke, higher value disputes.

All cases can secure substantial maintenance payments via the existing administrative system, and for the vast majority of cases this will be their only source of maintenance. For the small minority where their former partner has exceptionally high income, the system is designed to ensure that court involvement is available, by limiting that involvement to cases where judicial discretion is genuinely required.

Payment of employment tribunal awards

Rosebank oil field

Government response to Israel’s West Bank annexation plan

Found: Current membership Mr Toby Perkins (Labour; Chesterfield) (Chair) Olivia Blake (Labour; Sheffield Hallam

Submit Evidence (by 6 Apr 2026)

Data centres are regarded by ministers as being central to UK economic growth and were designated critical national infrastructure (CNI) in September 2024, offering them more legal protections. But their electricity consumption is expected to quadruple by 2030, according to the National Energy System Operator, raising concerns about their sustainability