Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve ambulance response times in (a) Leicester and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance response times have not met the high standards patients should expect.
We are determined to turn things around. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 2025/26, is backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, and commits to reducing category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes on average this year. The East Midlands Ambulance Service is investing over £4 million for additional clinicians in its control rooms to help patients with urgent care needs who call 999 to get signposted to the right care at the right time in the right place.
The latest data from December 2025 for ambulance response times for East Midlands Ambulance Service shows progress, with category 2 incidents responded to in 44 minutes 19 seconds on average, which is 21 minutes and 56 seconds faster than the same period last year.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance is issued to police forces on the investigation of suspicious animal deaths; and what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of investigative standards in such cases.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Police forces investigate suspicious animal deaths under the statutory powers provided in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which enables officers to act where there is evidence that an animal has suffered, or is likely to suffer, harm. These powers apply to circumstances involving the unexplained or potentially unlawful death of an animal.
Decisions on how such investigations are carried out are matters for individual Chief Constables, who hold operational independence and are responsible for determining the investigative approach taken by their forces. Police forces may also draw on wider investigative frameworks developed by the College of Policing, which support officers in handling cases that may involve criminal harm to animals.
Defra has not undertaken any recent formal assessment of investigative standards in relation to suspicious animal deaths.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what (a) monitoring and (b) enforcement action his Department undertakes to ensure that temporary accommodation in Leicester meets minimum health, safety and hygiene standards.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Housing authorities must, as a minimum, ensure that all temporary accommodation is free of Category 1 hazards as identified by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). Households may request a review of their accommodation if they feel it is unsuitable.
If an applicant is not satisfied with how the council has handled their case, they may complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or take legal action through the courts.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of diesel operation on the Midland Main Line north of Leicester on emissions and air quality in a) Leicester and b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Prior to the decision being made to pause the Midland Main Line Electrification programme as part of Spending Review 2025, the benefits of the scheme were being assessed. The benefits of fully electrifying the Midland Main Line (MML) are predominately those that would deliver greener transport, such as reducing carbon and improving local air quality, particularly at stations, through trains using electric traction rather than diesel.
Whilst not as clean as fully electric trains, the new intercity bi-mode trains currently being introduced by East Midland’s Railway are much cleaner and will contribute to improving air quality on the route.
Station managers in areas with poor air quality are required to develop and implement Air Quality Improvement Plans (AQIPs) which should outline feasible measures to improve air quality. The AQIPs for Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Sheffield stations on the MML have been developed and must be reviewed and updated annually.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what criteria were applied in the Spending Review for assessing proposed rail infrastructure projects.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Rail infrastructure projects are carefully considered to assess their value for money. This includes consideration of strategic, economic, social and environmental factors, the local context and regional distribution of projects, as well as affordability and the government’s wider fiscal position.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department considers the level of rail infrastructure investment in (a) Leicester and (b) the East Midlands to be proportionate to its population.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Decisions made by the Government on investment in rail infrastructure are taken to ensure that the railways are funded to operate safely and efficiently and in line with our strategic goals.
The funding identified for rail infrastructure enhancements as part of Spending Review 2025 was not apportioned regionally. Schemes were prioritised for funding on a value for money basis and we needed to make difficult decisions to reach an affordable and sustainable position.
In addition to funding for rail enhancements, the Office of Rail and Roads’ periodic review process determines Network Rail’s funding allocation for the Operation, Support, Maintenance and Renewal (OSMR) of the network. The periodic review process is undertaken on a regional basis. Funding for Network Rail to operate, maintain and renew the railway in the East Midlands during Control Period 7 (from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029) is included in their £9.6bn settlement for the Eastern region.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department has provided to Leicester City Council to support the provision of temporary accommodation for rough sleepers in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In each of the last three years the government has allocated councils funding through the Homelessness Prevention Grant, which can be used flexibly according to local need, including for temporary accommodation costs. Over this time the government has also provided specific funding to support people at risk of and experiencing rough sleeping, including through the provision of accommodation.
You can find local authority level allocations for homelessness funding through gov.uk here.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of teachers in England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The latest school workforce census reported that the workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools. This year has one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,700 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector and more teachers returning to state schools than at any point in the last ten years. The latest data showed 17,274 teachers returned to the classroom.
This government agreed a 5.5% pay award for 2024/25 and a 4% pay award for 2025/26, meaning teachers and leaders will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years. In 2024/25, we also confirmed targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax for teachers in the first five years of teaching in maths, physics, chemistry and computing in the most disadvantaged schools.
The government manages Teaching Vacancies, a website where schools can list their teaching, leadership and support vacancies. The service helps schools save money by removing advertising costs for their recruitment activities.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of levels of unemployment and underemployment among qualified teachers; and what steps she is taking to help improve increase retention and re-entry levels.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In the government’s Plan for Change, the department committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.
Delivery is already underway: retaining more skilled teachers is key to delivering our pledge and our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, provides a range of resources for schools to review and reduce workload, and improve staff wellbeing. We are also providing targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax for early career teachers in key subjects. These incentives are available alongside trainee bursaries worth up to £31,000 tax-free to improve recruitment, and a pay rise of nearly 10% over two years.
We are already seeing improvement. The workforce has grown by 2,346 Full Time Equivalent between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools. This year has one of the lowest leaver rates since 2010, with 1,700 fewer teachers leaving the state-funded sector, and more teachers are returning to state schools than at any point in the last ten years. The latest data showed 17,274 teachers returned to the classroom.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle youth knife crime and serious violence in (a) Leicester and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are already making clear progress against our ambition to halve knife crime. In our first year in Government, police-recorded knife crime offences fell by 5%.
We have banned zombie knives and ninja swords and are holding online sellers criminally responsible removing almost 60,000 knives from streets in England and Wales. We are taking a range of action in the Crime and Policing Bill to strengthen legislation on knives.
New crime mapping tools are already allowing us to identify highly specific knife crime concentrations and focus police and community safety resources where they are needed most. Further investment in cutting-edge capabilities, such as knife detection technology, improved data platforms, and live facial recognition will further enhance our ability to target knife crime.
Preventing young people from getting involved in crime is crucial to achieving our ambition. As part of the Young Futures programme, we are piloting new Young Futures Panels. These pilots proactively identify and refer children who may be falling through the gaps, to a range of different support services much earlier. More than 50 panels went operational in October and November, including in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
This financial year (2025/26), we have also allocated £47m to the network of 20 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) across England and Wales to support their valuable work. VRUs bring together partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. This includes over £1m in VRU grant funding to Leicestershire specifically. We have also allocated £194k to Leicestershire and £1.9m across the East Midlands in grant funding to continue the implementation of the Serious Violence Duty.