Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what analysis her Department has conducted on the UK's birth rate and the economic impact of that rate.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is the government's official independent forecaster responsible for assessing the UK economic and fiscal outlook including the impacts of government policy. Its annual publication the Fiscal Risks and Sustainability (FRS) report incorporates biennial long-term projections and analysis of major potential economic and fiscal trends, including demographics.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of business rates on the viability of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

If a property loses eligibility for Small Business Rate Relief at the 2026 Revaluation, the Supporting Small Business (SSB) scheme caps bill increases for three years at £800 per year or the relevant Transitional Relief cap.

At the Budget, the VO announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.

In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government has introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.

The Government has already started the work of reforming our business rates system by introducing new permanently lower multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.

Around a third of properties already pay no business rates as they receive 100 per cent Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR), with an additional 85,000 benefiting from reduced bills as this relief tapers. The Government has also extended the second property grace period to support small businesses as they grow, tripling the current allowance to 3 years.

As a result, over half of ratepayers see no bill increases in 2026/27, including 23 per cent whose bills go down. This also means most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what conversations she has had with stakeholders about the impact of the Government’s June 2025 Ofsted accountability and inspection reform programme.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

A robust and effective inspection system is essential to our mission to break down barriers, provide opportunities and drive high and rising standards for every child and young person. The revised Ofsted education inspection framework was published on 9 September 2025, with inspections beginning in November.

We continue to engage regularly with headteachers and sector representatives, including unions and organisations representing employees, on accountability including through forums such as the Improving Education Together group

Ofsted has a parent panel to provide regular engagement with a diverse group of parents and carers. This forum is used to explore views on inspection, reporting and how findings are communicated.

Ofsted is also undertaking ongoing activity to understand parents' views and ensure reforms reflect their priorities, and plan to evaluate its understanding of how parents engage with inspection information, with fieldwork later this year.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of small business closures in England in the last five years.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Parliamentary Question of 8th June is attached.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister of the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has conducted on the potential impact of the falling birth rate on public services and long-term demographic change.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to theParliamentary Question of 8 June is attached.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many incidents of shoplifting were reported in the North West each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon. Lady’s Parliamentary Question of 8 June is attached.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to support local authorities in tackling illegal trading on high streets.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

In 19 May 2026, the Government announced a £30 million crackdown targeting cash intensive business such as barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops operating on our high streets, over three years. This includes funding of £6million for Trading Standards to bolster the response to sham businesses in at-risk local authorities. New officer training will also be rolled out to identify suspicious businesses, strengthen business compliance and boost enforcement.

The Government has also launched the cross government High Streets Organised Crime Unit, which brings together government departments, policing partners and Trading Standards to identify what more is needed – from stronger powers to better coordination – to stop this criminal activity from happening in the first place.

As part of the Government’s work on this issue, we will shortly consult on extending the duration of Closure Orders to ensure that criminal businesses can be shut down for longer where appropriate. This will help equip Trading Standards and the police with stronger tools to tackle persistent offenders and disrupt the harm they cause to communities.

Further details about the £30 million package can be found here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-05-19/HCWS32

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support high street retailers affected by shoplifting.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The level of shop theft remains unacceptable. But our action to restore neighbourhood policing is making a difference – including delivering more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles since March 2025, two months ahead of schedule. There are signs the tide is turning, with a small fall in shop theft offences by 1% in the year ending December 2025 compared with the previous year. Shop theft charges rose 17% in just one year, showing police are taking this seriously.

We are equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that are often responsible for driving shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment into OPAL (a specialist policing unit) will supercharge intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.

We are driving close partnership between the police and retail sector through the Retail Crime Forum. This includes tackling the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem. Prolific offenders represented just 9% of the offending population but accounted for 52% of all convictions between 2000 to 2021.

We are working across Government, with police forces and the retail sector to develop a pilot model to identify, target and intervene with those individuals causing unacceptable harm in our communities.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the reasons for the declining birth rate.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Parliamentary Question of 5th June is attached.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many raids have been conducted on vape shops by law enforcement agencies in England in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

On 19 May, the Government announced a £30 million crackdown targeting cash intensive business such as barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops operating on our high streets, over three years. This includes £20million in funding towards an enhanced law enforcement response and the creation of a new cross-government High Street Organised Crime Unit to tackle this threat.

Raids are carried out by the police and local authorities. The Home Office does not hold data on the total number of raids in relation to vape shops in England in the past ten calendar years.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle knife crime across England.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

We have set a clear and ambitious target: to halve knife crime in a decade. We are already seeing results. Since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 10%, knife homicides are down 27%, at their lowest level in a decade and knife enabled robberies are down by 15%. We have also banned dangerous weapons such as ninja swords and zombie style machetes and have taken more than 63,000 knives off our streets.

But we must and will go further. Our recently published Halving Knife Crime Plan sets out a fully resourced package of measures, bringing together action across Government and wider society to stop people turning to knife crime, and to ensure that perpetrators are caught and brought to justice.^[EB1]

^[EB1]Recommend keeping this shorter as it's asking about the national picture, which is all set out in the Plan.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many phones were reported stolen in the North West in each of the last five years.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office collects data on the number of theft offences reported to the police in England and Wales. It is not currently possible to identify from these data which crimes involved the theft of a mobile phone. The Office for National Statistics publish estimates of mobile phone theft for England and Wales, but these figures are not available for smaller geographic areas. The latest Office for National Statistics estimates can be found at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/focusonpropertycrimeappendixtables

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients across the North West who attended A&E since July 2024 have been (a) admitted, (b) transferred and (c) discharged within four hours.

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

The Weekly and Monthly A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions collection reports the total number of attendances for all accident and emergency types, including urgent treatment centres, minor injury units, and walk-in centres, and of these, the number discharged, admitted, or transferred within four hours of arrival. The time to admission, transfer, or discharge is measured as one metric rather than separately. The following table shows the total attendances for each month, and the total number of patients admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours, as well as the resulting performance against the four hour standard, for the North West NHS region:

The published report can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of defibrillators in key public areas.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government’s position is that local communities are best placed to make decisions about procuring, locating, and maintaining defibrillators. Over 110,000 defibrillators are registered in the United Kingdom on The Circuit, the independent automated external defibrillator database. Over 30,000 of these have been added in the past two years, many as a result of local community-led action. For this reason, the Department has not made an assessment on this issue.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increasing police presence on levels of shoplifting.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government recognises the importance of visible neighbourhood policing in deterring crime including shoplifting. That is why we are strengthening neighbourhood policing so officers can focus on local priorities including retail crime.

We will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament. By February 2026 we had delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles. The first-year growth target was first exceeded in January 2026, two months ahead of schedule.

We are also giving the police the powers they need and have strengthened the law through the Crime and Policing Act, introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and removing the £200 threshold for shop theft.

We are providing £7 million over a three-year period covering 2025 to 2028, to support the police tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.

I Chair the Retail Crime Forum which brings together the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement agencies to ensure we understand the needs of all retailers and to promote collaboration, share best practice and to work collectively to tackle the serious issue of retail crime. This includes the implementation of a new strategy to tackle shop theft published by policing, retail sector representatives and industry as part of collective efforts to combat shop theft.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with police forces on shoplifting.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government recognises the importance of visible neighbourhood policing in deterring crime including shoplifting. That is why we are strengthening neighbourhood policing so officers can focus on local priorities including retail crime.

We will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament. By February 2026 we had delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles. The first-year growth target was first exceeded in January 2026, two months ahead of schedule.

We are also giving the police the powers they need and have strengthened the law through the Crime and Policing Act, introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and removing the £200 threshold for shop theft.

We are providing £7 million over a three-year period covering 2025 to 2028, to support the police tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.

I Chair the Retail Crime Forum which brings together the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement agencies to ensure we understand the needs of all retailers and to promote collaboration, share best practice and to work collectively to tackle the serious issue of retail crime. This includes the implementation of a new strategy to tackle shop theft published by policing, retail sector representatives and industry as part of collective efforts to combat shop theft.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with supermarkets on the financial impact of shoplifting.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government recognises the importance of visible neighbourhood policing in deterring crime including shoplifting. That is why we are strengthening neighbourhood policing so officers can focus on local priorities including retail crime.

We will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament. By February 2026 we had delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles. The first-year growth target was first exceeded in January 2026, two months ahead of schedule.

We are also giving the police the powers they need and have strengthened the law through the Crime and Policing Act, introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and removing the £200 threshold for shop theft.

We are providing £7 million over a three-year period covering 2025 to 2028, to support the police tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.

I Chair the Retail Crime Forum which brings together the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement agencies to ensure we understand the needs of all retailers and to promote collaboration, share best practice and to work collectively to tackle the serious issue of retail crime. This includes the implementation of a new strategy to tackle shop theft published by policing, retail sector representatives and industry as part of collective efforts to combat shop theft.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the installation of defibrillators in public areas.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government’s position is that local communities are best placed to make decisions about procuring, locating, and maintaining defibrillators. Over 110,000 defibrillators are registered in the United Kingdom on The Circuit, the independent automated external defibrillator database. Over 30,000 of these have been added in the past two years, many as a result of local community led action.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of enforcement officers in tackling fare evasion on public transport.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department engages regularly with the train operating companies, bus operators and local transport authorities to understand and address fare evasion and its impact on public transport finances and overall passenger experience.

The Rail Delivery Group estimates that fare evasion and ticketless travel result in at least £350 to £400 million of lost revenue on the railway each year, reducing the funding available to support services and improve the passenger experience. Fare evasion on bus services similarly reduces the revenue available to sustain local networks.

Responsibility for enforcement sits with operators and local transport authorities, which deploy a range of measures, including enforcement officers and revenue protection staff, to deter fare evasion and protect revenue. On the railways, the train operators are required to undertake Ticketless Travel Surveys, which the Department uses to assess levels of fare evasion and the effectiveness of revenue protection activity. Enforcement officers play an important role in deterring deliberate evasion and supporting compliance.

The Department works with rail partners, and supports bus operators and local transport authorities, to deliver effective and proportionate approaches to enforcement that reflect local operating contexts, treat passengers fairly, and protect the income that underpins transport service.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with rail and bus operators on the consequences of fare evasion.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department engages regularly with the train operating companies, bus operators and local transport authorities to understand and address fare evasion and its impact on public transport finances and overall passenger experience.

The Rail Delivery Group estimates that fare evasion and ticketless travel result in at least £350 to £400 million of lost revenue on the railway each year, reducing the funding available to support services and improve the passenger experience. Fare evasion on bus services similarly reduces the revenue available to sustain local networks.

Responsibility for enforcement sits with operators and local transport authorities, which deploy a range of measures, including enforcement officers and revenue protection staff, to deter fare evasion and protect revenue. On the railways, the train operators are required to undertake Ticketless Travel Surveys, which the Department uses to assess levels of fare evasion and the effectiveness of revenue protection activity. Enforcement officers play an important role in deterring deliberate evasion and supporting compliance.

The Department works with rail partners, and supports bus operators and local transport authorities, to deliver effective and proportionate approaches to enforcement that reflect local operating contexts, treat passengers fairly, and protect the income that underpins transport service.

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 further enhance the digital transition in the NHS to improve patient experience.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of its 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to moving the National Health Service from an analogue to digital service and empowering patients to have greater control and choice over their healthcare.

The Government has positioned the NHS App as the digital channel for patients to access services and enable them to see their health record and contribute to it in one place.

Over 41 million people have registered for the NHS App and it already enables patients to book general practice appointments, order repeat prescriptions, and view test results. Over the next few years, we will increase the functionality of the NHS App to increase the control that patients have over their care. Further information on the NHS App is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-app-statistics/april-2026

By 2028, the NHS App will be accessible to the whole population, including those who do not routinely use smartphones.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of childcare costs on the UK birth rate.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Coram-PACEY’s 2026 Childcare Survey shows the expansion of government funded entitlements in 2024/25 brought the cost of a part-time childcare place for eligible working parents back to what it was in 2005. They additionally found that the expansion of 30 hours of funded childcare significantly reduced costs for eligible working parents in England, in some cases making part time childcare effectively free during term time.

The department’s 2025 Childcare Experiences Survey covered the expanded entitlements and showed that 13% of parents increased their working hours after starting to claim the entitlement.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many crimes were committed by children aged 10 to 14 years in each year since 2000.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not hold this information.

Convictions are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. They publish information on convictions including by age group as part of the quarterly Criminal Justice Statistics release, which can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of fare evasion on the finances of public service transport operators.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department engages regularly with the train operating companies, bus operators and local transport authorities to understand and address fare evasion and its impact on public transport finances and overall passenger experience.

The Rail Delivery Group estimates that fare evasion and ticketless travel result in at least £350 to £400 million of lost revenue on the railway each year, reducing the funding available to support services and improve the passenger experience. Fare evasion on bus services similarly reduces the revenue available to sustain local networks.

Responsibility for enforcement sits with operators and local transport authorities, which deploy a range of measures, including enforcement officers and revenue protection staff, to deter fare evasion and protect revenue. On the railways, the train operators are required to undertake Ticketless Travel Surveys, which the Department uses to assess levels of fare evasion and the effectiveness of revenue protection activity. Enforcement officers play an important role in deterring deliberate evasion and supporting compliance.

The Department works with rail partners, and supports bus operators and local transport authorities, to deliver effective and proportionate approaches to enforcement that reflect local operating contexts, treat passengers fairly, and protect the income that underpins transport service.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has assessed the potential merits of tax breaks and financial incentives for new parents.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Government is committed to supporting new parents and keeps relevant tax breaks and financial incentives under regular review.

Available support includes Child Benefit which provides weekly payments of £27.05 for eldest children and £17.90 for subsequent children, as well as a £500 one-off payment through the Sure Start Maternity Grant to help with the costs of having a child.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of teacher shortages on secondary school outcomes.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child’s outcomes, and recruiting and retaining expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.

We have now achieved over 70% of the 6,500 additional teachers target. There are 4,654 more teachers, including 3,008 more teachers in secondary and special schools in 2025/26, and 1,646 in further education (FE), compared to the 2023/24 baseline.

We are making progress where teachers are needed most based on changing demographics, with the number of secondary school pupils now starting to fall, and more young people in FE. In secondary schools, pupil-teacher ratios remain stable with a small drop to 16.7 pupils per teacher, meaning there are slightly more teachers per pupil in secondary school in 2025/26 than there were in when this government took over. Leaver rates have also dropped to one of the lowest on record (8.5%).

The future pipeline is also positive, this year (2025/26) we saw a 13% overall increase in secondary ITT applications, and a 22% increase in STEM applications, exceeding our STEM target for the first time.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of regional variations in educational attainment across England.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper sets out our plan to tackle the unacceptable disparities in attainment across the country.

This builds on the steps set out in our ‘Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life’ strategy, to expand family services and make early education and childcare more accessible and affordable, delivering change for children across the country.

We are driving standards through a refreshed curriculum, recruiting 6,500 additional teachers and improving school attendance through the launch of our regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) attendance and behaviour hubs who have the capacity to support over 3000 schools. The RISE teams are also providing mandatory targeted intervention tailored for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve.

Alongside this, we are launching two place-focused missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal starting in Hastings and Scarborough, to transform outcomes locally, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, and provide a blueprint for national changes.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to reduce costs to consumers associated with the capping of unused gas pipes.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

We are working closely with Ofgem and the Health and Safety Executive to understand how the current disconnection framework operates and whether changes may be needed to ensure costs are fair and proportional for consumers and industry.

Ofgem have recently undertaken a review of the regulatory framework for disconnections and their findings are expected to be published this year.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of bleed control kits at key transport stations.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department is working with the rail industry, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to consider the appropriate and proportionate provision of Public Access Trauma (PAcT) kits across the rail network, including at stations and on trains. PAcT kits have been clinically standardised and are designed to be used by members of the public in an emergency, supported by clear instructions. Decisions on their provision are being informed by clinical advice and consideration of where they would be most effective.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of small independent barbershops in town centres and high streets.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government has not made a specific assessment of trends in the number of small independent barbershops in town centres and high streets.

Small independent businesses such as barbershops play a vital role in high streets, supporting local economies, creating jobs and contributing to the character and resilience of communities. That’s why we are committed to supporting these businesses, including through permanently lower business rates for eligible properties, transitional relief, and an increase in the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning many small businesses pay no employer National Insurance Contributions.

The Government also supports growth through the Small Business Plan, which improves access to finance, tackles late payments, reduces unnecessary regulation and supports digital adoption. This sits alongside wider high street regeneration measures, including the future high street strategy, aimed at increasing footfall, support local investment and helping town centres to thrive.

Exiting the European Union

Houses in multiple occupation