Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2025 to Question 36463 on Free School Meals, what arrangements are in place for transitional protections on free school meal entitlements for the 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As with all government programmes, including free school meals, we keep our approach under continued review. Support for children to access free school meals, has additionally been considered as part of the Child Poverty Taskforce’s consideration of how to:

1. Support households to increase their income including considering social security reforms that support people into work and alleviate poverty.

2. Help to bring down essential household costs, build savings and tackle problem debt.

3. Alleviate the negative experience of living in poverty, including through supporting families and the role of public services.

No pupil will see any change because of changes to traditional protections until after the summer and the department will communicate further with schools before that time.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money is held in dormant bank accounts, broken down by (a) bank and (b) region.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMT does not hold information on the level of dormant assets across UK bank accounts as this would be client information held by the banks themselves.

However, the Government does have information on the level of funds pertaining to the UK’s official Dormant Assets Scheme. The Dormant Assets scheme – legislated for in 2008, and updated in 2022 – creates a voluntary mechanism for taking dormant funds transferred from the financial sector to spend on charitable causes. The scheme was designed as a public/private partnership. The transferred funds come largely from the UK’s banking and building society sectors and are administered by a body called Reclaim Fund Limited (RFL).

Total transfers into the scheme since inception, from across the financial services sector, was £1.98bn as of March 2024. Of this total, £241m was transferred to the scheme in the financial year 2023/2024 alone, of which £219m came from the banking and building societies sectors, demonstrating the large amount of Dormant Assets held by these institutions.

There are currently 36 banks and building societies participating in the Dormant Assets Scheme, including many large banks.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in receipt of the State Pension live outside the UK have less than (a) 35, (b) 20, (c) 10 and (d) 5 years of National Insurance contributions.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The information on the years of National Insurance contributions for State Pension recipients living outside the UK is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department publishes the volumes of State Pension recipients living outside the UK on StatXplore Stat-Xplore - Log in. The latest figure, for the quarter ending August 2024, is around 1.1 million State Pension recipients living outside the UK. This is 8.5% of the overall State Pension caseload.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust and (b) Shrewsbury and Telford ICB on (i) patient safety, (ii) waiting times, (iii) value for money and (iv) regulatory compliance and improvement since July 2024.

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

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has had no discussions with the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust or the Shrewsbury and Telford Integrated Care Board about these issues since July 2024.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is in segment four of the NHS Oversight Framework. This means that the trust is in receipt of national mandated support via NHS England’s Recovery Support Programme. The National Recovery Support team is working closely with the trust and region to support the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and to ensure the delivery of improvements.

We are working closely with NHS England to monitor the situation.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to (a) enforce the Plastic Packaging Tax and (b) prevent illegal imports.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

To ensure a level playing field, importers and UK manufacturers must provide the same level of evidence to claim relief from the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT). The government continues to assess the prevalence of PPT non-compliance on imported plastic packaging and are considering options to further safeguard against this.

In the meantime, HMRC continues to develop their data and risk driven approach to compliance as the tax matures and more data comes available to profile, identify and target error and non-compliance. HMRC has a range of sanctions to promote compliance and deter non-compliance, such as penalties of up to 100% of the tax due and compulsory registration. In 2023/24 HMRC completed inquiries into 690 PPT cases with a tax yield of almost £18m.

HMRC lead tax compliance and work in policy partnership with HM Treasury officials. HMRC are committed to working closely with Defra and the Environment Agencies to share data and insight, alongside continued engagement with the sector on a range of PPT issues.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with representatives of the UK plastics industry on the enforcement of the Plastic Packaging Tax on imports.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

To ensure a level playing field, importers and UK manufacturers must provide the same level of evidence to claim relief from the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT). The government continues to assess the prevalence of PPT non-compliance on imported plastic packaging and are considering options to further safeguard against this.

In the meantime, HMRC continues to develop their data and risk driven approach to compliance as the tax matures and more data comes available to profile, identify and target error and non-compliance. HMRC has a range of sanctions to promote compliance and deter non-compliance, such as penalties of up to 100% of the tax due and compulsory registration. In 2023/24 HMRC completed inquiries into 690 PPT cases with a tax yield of almost £18m.

HMRC lead tax compliance and work in policy partnership with HM Treasury officials. HMRC are committed to working closely with Defra and the Environment Agencies to share data and insight, alongside continued engagement with the sector on a range of PPT issues.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Plastic Packaging Tax on imports.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

To ensure a level playing field, importers and UK manufacturers must provide the same level of evidence to claim relief from the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT). The government continues to assess the prevalence of PPT non-compliance on imported plastic packaging and are considering options to further safeguard against this.

In the meantime, HMRC continues to develop their data and risk driven approach to compliance as the tax matures and more data comes available to profile, identify and target error and non-compliance. HMRC has a range of sanctions to promote compliance and deter non-compliance, such as penalties of up to 100% of the tax due and compulsory registration. In 2023/24 HMRC completed inquiries into 690 PPT cases with a tax yield of almost £18m.

HMRC lead tax compliance and work in policy partnership with HM Treasury officials. HMRC are committed to working closely with Defra and the Environment Agencies to share data and insight, alongside continued engagement with the sector on a range of PPT issues.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether (a) she and (b) officials in her Department have met with (i) the Environment Agency and (ii) His Majesty's Revenue and Customs to discuss the enforcement of the Plastic Packaging Tax on imports.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

To ensure a level playing field, importers and UK manufacturers must provide the same level of evidence to claim relief from the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT). The government continues to assess the prevalence of PPT non-compliance on imported plastic packaging and are considering options to further safeguard against this.

In the meantime, HMRC continues to develop their data and risk driven approach to compliance as the tax matures and more data comes available to profile, identify and target error and non-compliance. HMRC has a range of sanctions to promote compliance and deter non-compliance, such as penalties of up to 100% of the tax due and compulsory registration. In 2023/24 HMRC completed inquiries into 690 PPT cases with a tax yield of almost £18m.

HMRC lead tax compliance and work in policy partnership with HM Treasury officials. HMRC are committed to working closely with Defra and the Environment Agencies to share data and insight, alongside continued engagement with the sector on a range of PPT issues.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to reopen court rooms at Telford Justice Centre.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

I recently visited Telford Justice Centre and observed for myself the state of the court estate. Of the eight courtrooms at Telford Justice Centre, seven are currently operational, with one courtroom temporarily out of use due to damage caused by water ingress from the roof which requires complete replacement.

HMCTS is focused on completing the works required to bring this courtroom back into operation as quickly as possible. Temporary patch repair is complete, and redecoration works are now being scheduled.

We are already progressing complete replacement of the roof as a priority project, and HMCTS is working with contractors to develop designs and final project proposals. The extensive and complex nature of the work means that commencement of this project is unlikely before March 2026.

Historical underfunding under the previous Government has resulted in challenges such as this across the court and tribunal estate. That is why this Government has announced a boost in court capital maintenance and project funding from £120 million last year, to £148.5 million for 2025/26.

Found: Bradley (Conservative, Staffordshire Moorlands) (Chair) (added 11 Sep 2024) 17 of 17 (100.0%) Shaun Davies

This inquiry will examine the drivers of extremism in the UK, with a focus on emerging trends of young people being drawn into extremism, violence and crime through online radicalisation. It will assess whether the Government’s approach is keeping pace with the evolving threat and evaluate the effectiveness of measures such as Prevent in combatting new forms of extremism.