Sarah Owen

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 March to Question 36277.

We are committed to working in partnership with regional and local authorities on AI Growth Zones (AIGZs). The selection process will open in spring 2025, and we welcome interest from areas with strong access to power infrastructure and economic potential. AIGZs will be closely aligned with wider government initiatives, including Local Growth Plans, to ensure they deliver substantial regional and national benefits.

We are committed to working in partnership with regional and local authorities on AI Growth Zones (AIGZs). The selection process will open in spring 2025, and we welcome interest from areas with strong access to power infrastructure and economic potential. AIGZs will be closely aligned with wider government initiatives, including Local Growth Plans, to ensure they deliver substantial regional and national benefits.

AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) will be closely aligned with wider government initiatives, including Local Growth Plans. This is to ensure AIGZs deliver substantial regional and national benefits, such as upskilling and employment opportunities.

The investment in AI-enabled data centres will have a spillover effect in local communities, providing construction jobs, enhancing local skills, rejuvenating areas, and therefore driving the UK’s ambition to become a global hub for AI talent and investment.

UK government and local authorities will actively seek to secure the best deal possible for local communities where data centres are built, ensuring they benefit from ongoing direct employment.

Central government will lay out a selection process, and local / regional authorities will be able to nominate themselves to host an AI Growth Zone. Important criteria will include power infrastructure or line of sight to power, along with supportive local planning authorities.

The selection process will open in spring 2025, and we welcome interest from areas with strong power infrastructure and economic potential.

The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport including football.

We are pleased to see the significant progress in the number of women and girls taking up football in recent years, and wider developments in the women’s game. In 2023, Karen Carney OBE published a major Independent Review of Women’s Football which made a series of recommendations including supporting grassroots women and girls’ football. This Government fully endorses those recommendations and looks forward to ensuring tangible progress is made.

The Government has set out its support for grassroots facilities, including through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities programme which provides funding to build and improve grassroots facilities and a commitment to support the Football Association’s ambition to double their number of gold-standard (3-star) community clubs by EURO 2028. This will deliver more opportunities for women and girls to get on the pitch.

The Football Association is a long-term partner of Sport England, and have received over £26 million of funding from them for the period 2022-27.

The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport including football.

We are pleased to see the significant progress in the number of women and girls taking up football in recent years, and wider developments in the women’s game. In 2023, Karen Carney OBE published a major Independent Review of Women’s Football which made a series of recommendations including supporting grassroots women and girls’ football. This Government fully endorses those recommendations and looks forward to ensuring tangible progress is made.

We are acting to support more players in getting onto the pitch wherever they live via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, which will invest £123 million UK-wide throughout 2024/25. All projects selected for funding through this programme are required to demonstrate how they increase access and participation levels among under-represented groups, which includes women and girls.

Following the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024, the Government confirmed its continued support for elite and grassroots sport through future investment. Further details will be confirmed in due course.

To reduce gaps in therapy, adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) applications which were received before 31 March 2025 were permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years. Where applications were approved, therapy which started up to and including March 2025 could continue into the next financial year, under previously agreed transitional funding arrangements.

Following an announcement on 1 April, the department is delighted to confirm that £50 million has been allocated to the ASGSF for the current financial year. More details on applications for funding for the 2025/26 financial year will be published shortly.

I regret that Ministers are not yet able to comment on next steps regarding accessibility projects at specific stations including at Leagrave station. However, please be assured that we are committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognise the social and economic benefits this brings to communities. Once we can confirm our approach to individual projects, DfT Ministers will of course ensure that MPs and other key stakeholders are updated.

Disability Living Allowance is aimed at providing additional help with the extra costs of disability to people who are severely disabled early, or relatively early, in life and who as a result, have had fewer opportunities to work, earn and save. Those who become disabled, or develop mobility needs, after reaching the age of 65 will have had no disadvantage on grounds of their disability during their working lives. It is normal for pensions and benefits systems to contain different provisions for people at different stages of their lives, because the help provided needs to reflect varying priorities and circumstances.

We will keep the policies of the department under review, to ensure they meet current needs.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under the age of 39 in 2019 and concluded that population screening should not be offered. More information on the recommendation is available at the following link:

https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/

The UK NSC received a submission via its 2024 annual call process to consider SCD screening in young people aged between 14 and 35 years old engaging in sport. The Committee decided to explore this proposal further and the next step will be an evidence-mapping process. Young people engaging in organised sport was one of the population groups included in the 2019 review, so the evidence map in this area will form part of the work to update the last review.

DCVax-L has not yet been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for use in the United Kingdom. The manufacturer has confirmed that it has submitted an application, and it is fully engaged with the Marketing Authorisation process. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether all new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE aims, wherever possible, to issue recommendations on new medicines close to the time of licensing by the MHRA. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. NICE is in discussions with the manufacturer of DCVax-L about a potential appraisal, subject to licensing.

Northwest Biotherapeutics has submitted a Marketing Authorization Application to the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for DCVax-L, an immunotherapy for glioblastoma. The MHRA is working with the applicant to reach a decision on this application, to ensure a thorough review that ensures quality, safety, and efficacy.

People in prison are entitled to the same range and quality of health services as they would receive in the community.

NHS England commissions healthcare services across the prison estate, ensuring that healthcare providers can prescribe all medications available to patients in community settings. As a result, topical medications that are prescribable on an NHS prescription are also available for individuals within the prison estate.

It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism assessments and diagnosis, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people and adults referred to an autism assessment service.

In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

The UK is closely monitoring the situation in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and continues to raise our concerns about reported human rights violations at the highest levels with the Governments of Rwanda and DRC, most lately by the British High Commissioner on the 13 January. The Minister for Africa also spoke with the Rwandan Foreign Minister on 9 January to emphasise the UK's concern at the recent escalation of violence in eastern DRC and ongoing violations of the current ceasefire agreement by armed groups, including M23.

As a member of the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, the UK is especially concerned by the continuing high rates of violence against women and girls in eastern DRC. We continue to encourage the Governments of Rwanda and DRC to re-commit meaningfully to the Luanda regional peace process and deliver lasting protection for civilians, including those in particularly vulnerable communities.

The UK Government continually assesses potential threats and takes the protection of individuals' rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously, including in relation to Pakistan. Any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated. Wherever we identify such threats, we will use all measures, including through our world-class police and intelligence services, to mitigate risk to individuals.

The UK Government continually assesses potential threats and takes the protection of individuals' rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously, including in relation to Pakistan. Any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated. Wherever we identify such threats, we will use all measures, including through our world-class police and intelligence services, to mitigate risk to individuals.

The UK strongly supports individuals' rights to expression without censorship, intimidation or unnecessary restriction, and we will continue to urge the Government of Pakistan to guarantee the rights of all people as laid down in Pakistan's Constitution and in accordance with international standards. I raised the importance of upholding civil and political rights with senior Ministers, including the Minister for Human Rights and Interior Minister, on my visit to Pakistan last month. The British High Commission also regularly raises these issues with the Pakistani authorities at a senior level.

We recognise that there are human rights concerns in both India-administered-Kashmir and Pakistan-administered-Kashmir. We encourage all states to ensure domestic laws are in line with international standards. Any allegation of human rights violations or abuse is deeply concerning and must be investigated thoroughly and transparently.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for additional dwellings were increased by two percentage points from 3% to 5%. This measure will ensure that those looking to move home, or purchase their first property, have a greater advantage over second home buyers, landlords, and companies purchasing residential property. The OBR certified costing estimates that increasing the higher rates of SDLT by two percentage points is expected to result in 130,000 additional transactions over the next five years by first-time buyers and other people buying a primary residence.

The selling of timeshares is outside of Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation and therefore outside of the remit of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which can only consider complaints about FCA regulated activities. Where consumers have purchased a timeshare using a product regulated by the FCA, such as consumer credit, they may have recourse to the FOS if that product was mis-sold.

When complaints are made to the FOS, these should be dealt with in a timely manner. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Handbook, which sets out the rules on how the FOS should handle complaints, states that ‘the ombudsman will attempt to resolve complaints at the earliest possible stage’.  In its Plans and Budget 2024-25, the FOS has set itself the target of resolving 90 per cent of cases within 6 months and the government will continue to hold the FOS to account on this through its regular engagement with the FOS.

The Government keeps the immigration system and fees for immigration and nationality applications under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and other stakeholders.

The Government will also continue to set fees for immigration and nationality applications at a level to ensure the migration and borders system is sustainably funded. It is right that a greater share of the cost of operating the system is borne by those applicants who directly use it, rather than the taxpayer.

A full economic Impact Assessment (IA) was produced relating to the potential impacts of changes to the eligibility of student visa holders to bring dependants. The IA is available at:
2023 changes to the student route and consequential changes to work routes: impact assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Home Office also publish monthly statistics on visas issued (including those on study visas and their dependants). These statistics do not consider the extent to which the lower volumes relative to last year are attributable to the specific policy changes in question. The monthly statistics are available at:
Monthly monitoring of entry clearance visa applications - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

On average the Ministry of Defence releases enough surplus land for over 3,500 new homes a year.

There is no policy mandating this land is released to Homes England, however, along with other Government Departments the Ministry of Defence works with Homes England where appropriate.

Homes England works closely with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, the Ministry of Defence and other landowning Departments, providing targeted and expert support to help prepare land for sale, tackling issues that have previously delayed or prevented land release.

Homes England can acquire public sector sites where this offers the best option – and value for money – to accelerate the remediation and release of a site and its build out for housing.

Recall is a vital tool to protect the public.

Recalling a child to custody is a last resort. Local Youth Offending Teams will explore other options before deciding to recall a child. This could include a curfew that is not electronically monitored but managed by Youth Offending Teams instead.

Adult offenders released on home detention curfew are still serving the custodial element of their sentence and it is a statutory requirement that the curfew is electronically monitored for at least 9 hours a day. In cases where it is no longer possible to electronically monitor offenders in the community, through no fault of their own, they will be recalled until it is possible for them to monitored in the community.