Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the annual cost was of the Motability Scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Motability Scheme receives no direct funding from DWP. However, it does receive the direct transfer of benefit from DWP. This is claimant benefit the claimant would otherwise be receiving, and the cost of transfer is paid for by the Motability Foundation.
The total paid to the Motability Scheme from the customers’ benefit in each financial year is as follows (inclusive of amounts for Northern Ireland Executive and Scottish Government benefits):
Financial Year | Amount |
2022/23 | c£2.121bn |
2023/24 | c£2.606bn |
2024/25 | c£3.075bn |
Please note our financial systems only hold full year data for financial years 22/3 – 24/25.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish all risk assessments conducted by his Department into the administration of puberty blockers for under 16 year-olds.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2024, NHS England published a suite of documentation relating to its decision to remove gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues as a routine treatment option in the National Health Service for children under 18 years old with gender dysphoria. This documentation included a review of the published evidence, which concluded that there is very limited evidence about safety, risks, benefits, and outcomes for the use of this medication in children with gender dysphoria.
Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. In 2024, the Government introduced an indefinite ban on the sale and supply of puberty blockers via private prescriptions for the treatment of gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria for under 18 year olds.
As part of that legislation the Government conducted a targeted consultation and sought advice on patient safety from the independent Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) and the Cass Review. The Government response to the consultation, the full report of the CHM, and the Cass review are available publicly, and respectively, at the following three links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-the-availability-of-puberty-blockers-for-under-18s/outcome/governments-response-to-the-targeted-consultation-on-proposed-changes-to-the-availability-of-puberty-blockershttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250310143633/https://cass.independent-review.uk/
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that puberty blockers are not administered to under 16 year old children with a mental illness or learning disabilities.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has introduced an indefinite ban on the sale or supply of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues, also known as puberty blockers, for gender dysphoria and/or incongruence, to under 18 year olds.
Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. That’s why we are following expert, independent advice from the Cass Review to implement a package of research to find out how the National Health Service can best support children and young people with gender incongruence.
This includes the PATHWAYS trial which has received independent scientific, ethical, and regulatory approvals as well as comprehensive review. The study design, including inclusion criteria and safety protocols, has been thoroughly scrutinised to protect young people's wellbeing. This includes demonstrating a good understanding of the intervention and the possible benefits and risks.
When making prescribing decisions, clinicians have a duty to work with their patient to decide on the best course of treatment, and must always satisfy themselves that the medicines they consider appropriate for their patients can be safely prescribed, taking into account any existing medical conditions or other factors including any disabilities.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether applications for asylum have been approved for people on the security services' watch list in the past 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first priority of government is protecting national security.
All applications for UK immigration status, including asylum claims, are subject to comprehensive security checks. Where an individual is assessed as presenting a risk to our country, we take swift and robust action.
The Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by individuals of national security interest and by individuals excluded from the UK; previously deported from the UK; or using lost, stolen or revoked documents and visas. This includes the use of domestic and international watchlists.
It is longstanding policy not to discuss either the specific data held on the watchlist, the source of the data or how it is used, as to do so would be counterproductive and harmful to the national security of the UK.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department is taking steps to prevent the sale of high-powered after-market batteries for (a) e-scooters and (b) e-bikes.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Under existing UK regulations, businesses must only place safe products, including batteries for e-bikes and e-scooters, on the market. In 2024, the Department published statutory guidelines for lithium-ion e-bike batteries, clarifying that they must protect against the risk of thermal runaway to be considered safe products. Regulators have powers to enforce these regulations. The Government has now introduced the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025, which will enable us to modernise and improve our product safety framework for products sold online and on the high street.
E-bikes must meet legal speed and power limits to be used on the road.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of victims of grooming gangs who will have convictions for prostitution expunged.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is setting up a disregards scheme for convictions and cautions issued to under 18s for persistently loitering or soliciting in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution, contrary to Section 1 of The Street Offences Act 1959.
A preliminary search of centrally held digital records suggests that 352 individuals have been cautioned or convicted for this offence while under 18, since 1995. We are legislating in the Crime and Policing Bill to disregard and pardon these convictions and cautions.
However, it is not possible to calculate the proportion of the 352 individuals who were the victim of group based child sexual exploitation.
We are aware that victims of group based child sexual exploitation may have been convicted for other offences; the Ministry of Justice is working with the Criminal Cases Review Commission to ensure it is properly resourced to review the applications of victims of Child Sexual Exploitation who believe they were unjustly convicted when their position as a victim was not properly understood.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many crimes where (a) e-scooters and (b) e-bikes were used by the perpetrator have been recorded by his Department by police force in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the number of notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales but this does not include whether or not an offence was committed with the use of e-scooters or e-bikes.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether translation (a) cards or (b) services are provided to foreign national prison officers to aid communication with prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Translation cards or services are not provided to any prison officers working in Public Sector Prisons (PSPs). The process for recruiting prison officers across all PSPs is the same for all applicants, both UK and non-UK nationals, with candidates being appointed to the role based on merit, in line with the fair and open Civil Service recruitment principles. The assessment process for prison officers includes assessments of spoken and written language skills, which will be to the same standard for all candidates, regardless of nationality, and fitness and medical checks.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners who have been wrongly released have committed a crime before being brought back to prison in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the misuse of ketamine.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling the harms caused by the use of illicit drugs is critical to delivering the Government’s key missions on safer streets and improving health outcomes, as well as contributing to the opportunity and national growth missions. We are taking an end-to-end approach to disrupt illicit drug supply chains, including working with law enforcement partners upstream and at the UK border to tackle the gangs responsible for drug trafficking.
Ketamine is a dangerous substance, which can cause irreversible bladder damage and in some cases death. Ministers are concerned about the harms ketamine causes and in January 2025 the Government asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to provide an updated harms assessment of ketamine, and advice on reducing those harms, and in particular whether ketamine should be moved from Class B to Class A within the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The ACMD carried out a public call for evidence in August and we expect to receive its report soon. We will then carefully consider its recommendations.
This activity sits as part of our work across Government to monitor and respond to emerging trends and harms, including those related to ketamine use. For example, on 16 October 2025 the Department for Health and Social Care launched a campaign to alert young people to the dangers of this drug.