Sam Rushworth

The Faraday Battery Challenge funds battery related research, development of battery materials and technologies, and encourages investment into the UK’s world-class battery facilities.

An example of investment into UK facilities is the Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC), due to open in Q2 2025. AMBIC will provide innovation capability for the synthesis and processing of battery materials right through to the prototyping of commercially attractive batteries. The £12 million facility will bring together scalable and commercially relevant equipment into one entity to fast-track battery materials development.

All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries, and pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example specifically how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.

Schools also have the autonomy to decide how they teach first aid, including teaching additional topical content and which resources to use. Many schools incorporate additional content, which can include how pupils should deal with a first response emergency situation, including how to respond to knife wounds, drug misuse and road traffic injury.

The department’s defibrillator programme completed in 2023 and was the largest rollout of defibrillators across England to date and provided over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools, ensuring that all state-funded schools in England have access to a device.

Defibrillators are designed so they can be used by anyone with no prior training. As part of the department’s roll out, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies.

Aside from Restoring Your Railway (RYR) projects currently at the delivery stage or in construction, all remaining RYR-originated projects, including the Darlington to Weardale line, are now being considered as part of preparations for the Spending Review. Ministers have been clear that not all projects will be able to proceed to delivery due to the challenging financial situation facing the Department.

For too long, people have watched their towns and neighbourhoods’ decline. Through the Pride in Place programme, we’re cutting through bureaucracy to put money directly in the hands of local people. As it stands, almost 250 places will receive a share of £5bn from Spring next year to help them reclaim beloved local assets and drive renewal, street by street.

We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is an engine for growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. As published in the UK Defence Footprint the North East region has seen £178 million of Defence spending in 2024-25. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an 'always on' pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work. Whilst it is currently premature to comment on specific site proposals and their assessment, more detail will be available once the necessary preparatory work has been completed.

We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is an engine for growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. As published in the UK Defence Footprint the North East region has seen £178 million of Defence spending in 2024-25. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an 'always on' pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work. Whilst it is currently premature to comment on specific site proposals and their assessment, more detail will be available once the necessary preparatory work has been completed.

We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is a powerhouse for economic growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. As published in the UK Defence Footprint the North East region has seen £178 million of Defence spending in 2024-25. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an 'always on' pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work. We plan for construction of the first six new munitions factories to begin in 2026.

I refer the hon. Members to the answer given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence (Lord Coaker), on 16 September 2025 to Question number HL10176 in the House of Lords.

The Norwegian Government’s announcement on 31 August 2025, that it had selected the UK as a strategic partner for their acquisition of Type 26 warships, will sustain around 4,000 jobs across the UK’s supply chain until well into the 2030s.

This is the largest ever UK warship export deal by value and it is expected to provide a £10 billion boost to the UK economy and support more than 400 British companies across all regions, including the north east of England. It is a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s defence industry and supply chains, which are supported by small and medium enterprises.