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 authorised firearms officers were employed by each police force in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes annual statistics on the total number of armed officers and operationally deployable armed officers (which excludes absences) in England and Wales in the “Police use of firearms statistics” publication. The latest data, covering the year ending 31 March 2026, can be accessed on GOV.UK (at the following link):
Police use of firearms statistics, April 2025 to March 2026 - GOV.UK
Data on the number of operationally deployable armed officers, by police force area, for the last 10 years are available in the accompanying open data tables at the link above. Data on the total number of firearms officers are available at the link above from 2021/22 and by police force area from 2022/23 only. Data on total armed officers were not collected prior to 2021/22.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve educational attainment among white working-class boys in England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
White disadvantaged boys face a distinct and persistent set of challenges within the current system, including some of the lowest attainment at GCSE. Their average attainment has worsened since the pandemic, in line with declines seen across several other groups, although their outcomes remain among the lowest.
The government recognises that, especially for disadvantaged children, engagement and attainment at school is driven by high-quality teaching, a strong and inclusive school environment, and additional targeted support. The ‘Every child achieving and thriving’ White Paper sets out a coordinated programme of reform to raise standards, with a strong focus on disadvantaged pupils and white working-class children.
The independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes identified barriers to engagement and attainment, and the challenges associated with key transitions throughout the education system. Following its publication, we will continue to engage as the inquiry enters its second phase.
Our approach is comprehensive: rebuilding early family support, developing a new model for targeting disadvantage funding so it better reflects need, strengthening teaching quality and ensuring high-quality curricula are embedded across the system.
We are also launching two place-based missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, to drive sustained improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low, including for white working-class boys. These missions will bring together schools, families and local partners at place level to tackle entrenched disadvantage and raise attainment.
In parallel, the department is progressing reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system to ensure earlier identification of need and more consistent, tailored support. These reforms will support inclusion and ensure that children with special educational needs, who are disproportionately represented among disadvantaged cohorts, receive the support required to achieve and thrive.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what analysis she has conducted of the educational progress of white working-class boys in England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
White disadvantaged boys face a distinct and persistent set of challenges within the current system, including some of the lowest attainment at GCSE. Their average attainment has worsened since the pandemic, in line with declines seen across several other groups, although their outcomes remain among the lowest.
The government recognises that, especially for disadvantaged children, engagement and attainment at school is driven by high-quality teaching, a strong and inclusive school environment, and additional targeted support. The ‘Every child achieving and thriving’ White Paper sets out a coordinated programme of reform to raise standards, with a strong focus on disadvantaged pupils and white working-class children.
The independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes identified barriers to engagement and attainment, and the challenges associated with key transitions throughout the education system. Following its publication, we will continue to engage as the inquiry enters its second phase.
Our approach is comprehensive: rebuilding early family support, developing a new model for targeting disadvantage funding so it better reflects need, strengthening teaching quality and ensuring high-quality curricula are embedded across the system.
We are also launching two place-based missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, to drive sustained improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low, including for white working-class boys. These missions will bring together schools, families and local partners at place level to tackle entrenched disadvantage and raise attainment.
In parallel, the department is progressing reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system to ensure earlier identification of need and more consistent, tailored support. These reforms will support inclusion and ensure that children with special educational needs, who are disproportionately represented among disadvantaged cohorts, receive the support required to achieve and thrive.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential barriers to home ownership for first-time buyers.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This government recognises that the affordability challenges facing prospective first-time buyers mean that too many people are now locked out of homeownership.
In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, the government is supporting people into home ownership, including through the shared ownership scheme and the Lifetime ISA, and is consulting on a new first-time buyer ISA product.
First time buyers also benefit from paying no Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) up to £300,000 and are able to claim relief on purchases up to £500,000. The government has also introduced a new, permanent Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, available to support and sustain availability of low deposit mortgage products for prospective buyers.
Additionally, the Bank of England has been easing the loan-to-income limit, enabling up to 36,000 additional first-time buyers in the first year. The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ongoing review of the mortgage market means many buyers can now borrow 10% more towards a property purchase, and in June the FCA published further proposals intended to support first-time buyers. First-time buyers may also benefit from home ownership initiatives offered at the local level.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of population growth on housing demand in England.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to Question UIN 51990 on 19 May 2025.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many planning applications were approved in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Data on planning application statistics can be found in Live Table P120 on gov.uk here.
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, what assessment he has made of the availability of NHS maternity services in rural areas.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
It is important that all women and babies receive safe, equitable, and compassionate care, regardless of where they live.
Recognising the specific challenges in rural and remote areas, such as distance from services and workforce constraints, NHS England applies a targeted “remoteness adjustment” in the funding formulas for integrated care boards. This adjustment is worth £106 million in 2025/2026, including funding for maternity care within that. This supports hospitals that serve sparsely populated areas where providing care is unavoidably more costly due to lower activity levels and long travel times.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether trends in levels of UK reliance on imported cement and construction materials has been identified as a strategic risk to national resilience; and what action is being taken in response to these trends.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) is the Government’s principal tool for identifying and assessing the most serious malicious and non-malicious risks facing the United Kingdom and its interests overseas.
Whilst construction supply is not currently included as a discrete risk, critical supply chain disruption is considered from a range of causes across the NSRA.
Both the NSRA and the publicly available version, the National Risk Register (NRR), are kept under continual review to reflect the changing risk landscape. During every update, policy makers are encouraged to consider the potential implications of their risk across a range of sectors.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether levels of reliance on imported cement and construction materials has been identified as a risk to national resilience or critical infrastructure delivery.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) is the Government’s principal tool for identifying and assessing the most serious malicious and non-malicious risks facing the United Kingdom and its interests overseas.
Whilst construction supply is not currently included as a discrete risk, critical supply chain disruption is considered from a range of causes across the NSRA.
Both the NSRA and the publicly available version, the National Risk Register (NRR), are kept under continual review to reflect the changing risk landscape. During every update, policy makers are encouraged to consider the potential implications of their risk across a range of sectors.
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, how many NHS dentists have ceased providing NHS services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
National Health Service dental statistics identify dentists who performed NHS dental activity in a given financial year.
The annual NHS dental statistics published by the NHS Business Services Authority show the number of dentists who performed any amount of NHS dental activity in England in the last five financial years. This shows that 24,655 dentists performed NHS work in 2024/25.
Within these statistics a ‘leaver’ is defined as a performer who carried out NHS dental activity in the previous financial year but none in the following year. A joiner is defined as a performer who carried out NHS dental activity in the specified year but none in the previous year.
These data do not show whether a dentist has permanently left NHS practice, as a dentist may return in a later year.
The following table shows the number of dentist leavers and joiners for each year from 2020/21 to 2024/25:
Financial year | Leavers | Joiners |
2020/21 | 2,342 | 1,399 |
2021/22 | 1,412 | 1,944 |
2022/23 | 2,002 | 1,888 |
2023/24 | 1,929 | 2,085 |
2024/25 | 1,865 | 2,213 |