Sojan Joseph

As set out in the King’s Speech in July, the government is committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers. These measures will be part of the upcoming Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which will be published in draft in this parliamentary session

We will shortly be consulting on our proposals to help us shape the legislation and will announce further details on timing in due course.

This Government is committed to building on the historic achievements of the Equal Pay Act 1970 and Equality Act 2010 and tackle pay discrimination. The Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers and extend the right to make equal pay claims to ethnic minority and disabled people. Additionally, as set out in the Plan to Make Work Pay, we will put in place measures to ensure that outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay and improve enforcement by establishing an Equal Pay Regulatory and Enforcement Unit. These changes will strengthen and expand the existing legislative framework.

We are also committed to protecting the ability to draw on equal pay comparators where workers' terms and conditions can be attributed to a single source, ensuring those provisions that were previously derived from EU law remain enshrined in UK law.

The Department is introducing heat network regulation in January 2026 which aims to provide consumers with comparable protections to existing gas and electricity regulations.

Ofgem is being appointed as heat network regulator and will have powers to investigate and intervene where prices appear disproportionate or unfair.

We are exploring options on further price protections including potentially capping connection costs within heat network zones.

We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure heat network regulation works alongside existing leaseholder and tenant protections.

The Online Safety Act has been designed to be technology neutral and applies to all services which support user-to-user interactions online, including game services. Where gaming services fall in scope, they will need to take appropriate measures to protect their users against illegal harms and harms to children.

As set out in the cross-government autism strategy (2021-2026), we want to improve understanding and acceptance of autism, and for public sector services to become more autism-inclusive.

Under the Equality Act 2010, public sector organisations are required to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are accessible to disabled people as well as to everybody else.

The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) is the professional development body for the UK’s sport and physical activity sector. It is committed to supporting, developing and enabling professionals and organisations to inspire our nation to become more active.

CIMSPA provides access to many resources and training programmes which explore how people with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) can be supported in sport and physical activity.

The Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme has played an important role in promoting apprenticeships and other technical education routes over the last nine academic years. Over this period there has been a significant increase in the interest and understanding of apprenticeships and technical education pathways which has been influenced by the ASK programme and other government initiatives to raise awareness of these routes.

The Careers and Enterprise Company’s Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) shows that in 2023/24, 88% of year 13 and 80% of year 11 were aware of and understood apprenticeship related options after their education in England. FSQ also shows that students are over twice as likely to report awareness of apprenticeships between year 7 and year 11 (from 38% to 80%, almost on a par with A levels). In Kent, 77% of year 11 students reported understanding apprenticeships compared to 79% awareness of A Levels.

FSQ data also show that since the T Level programme was launched in 2020, awareness and understanding of the T Levels has increased from 37% in 2021/22 to 47% in 2023/24.

Data from the Parent, Pupil and Learner Panel Survey also shows that awareness of T Levels is growing rapidly. 50% of students in years 9 to 11 knew about a T Level in 2023, up from 14% two years earlier.

The Traineeship programme was closed on 31 July 2023 under the previous government.

The department does not collect information centrally on the number of adoptions that have been disrupted or adoptions that breakdown. We only publish information on whether children starting to be looked after in any given year were known to have been previously adopted. This information is in table C1 of the ‘Children looked after in England’ statistical release, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/92f77d0d-7e95-45a1-f1db-08dd5cc661f7.

The department is providing funding of £3 million in this financial year to Adoption England to improve adoption support services in Regional Adoption Agencies. This includes developing more multi-disciplinary teams across the country to provide specialist and therapeutic support to families, and the development of national standards for adoption support. It also includes a new framework for an early support core offer, ‘Becoming a Family’, for the first twelve to eighteen months of placement, and an Adoption Support Plan to guide assessments of a family’s support needs. All are designed to improve support and reduce the risk of an adoption breakdown.

Adoption England are also planning work to develop a national protocol on how children’s services, front door services and adoption support teams work together to better support families at risk of adoption disruption.

Adoption England and Regional Adoption Agencies work closely with adopters on all of their projects to improve adoption support services. This includes considering the latest evidence of why adoption disruptions have occurred in their agencies and across the country.

The department does not collect information centrally on the number of adoptions that have been disrupted or adoptions that breakdown. We only publish information on whether children starting to be looked after in any given year were known to have been previously adopted. This information is in table C1 of the ‘Children looked after in England’ statistical release, which can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/92f77d0d-7e95-45a1-f1db-08dd5cc661f7.

The department is providing funding of £3 million in this financial year to Adoption England to improve adoption support services in Regional Adoption Agencies. This includes developing more multi-disciplinary teams across the country to provide specialist and therapeutic support to families, and the development of national standards for adoption support. It also includes a new framework for an early support core offer, ‘Becoming a Family’, for the first twelve to eighteen months of placement, and an Adoption Support Plan to guide assessments of a family’s support needs. All are designed to improve support and reduce the risk of an adoption breakdown.

Adoption England are also planning work to develop a national protocol on how children’s services, front door services and adoption support teams work together to better support families at risk of adoption disruption.

Adoption England and Regional Adoption Agencies work closely with adopters on all of their projects to improve adoption support services. This includes considering the latest evidence of why adoption disruptions have occurred in their agencies and across the country.

As set out in the cross-government autism strategy (2021 to 2026), the government wants to improve understanding and acceptance of autism and for public sector services to become more autism-inclusive.

Under the Equality Act 2010, public sector organisations, including schools, are required to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are accessible to disabled people as well as to everybody else.

There is work underway in the department to improve autism awareness. High quality, evidence-based teaching is critical in ensuring that the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are met effectively.

The Teachers’ Standards set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. The department funds the £12 million Universal Services Programme, which helps the school and further education workforce to identify the needs of pupils with SEND earlier and more effectively. The programme includes autism training, delivered by Autism Education Trust training partners, to over 200,000 education professionals so far.

Also, following the recent review, the initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF), which was published in January 2024, contains significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND.

The department is committing to a full review of the delivery of the early career teacher (ECT) entitlement, including the content of the ITTECF, in 2027 to ensure it continues to provide the best possible support for ECTs based on the most up-to date-evidence. This review will focus on increasing support for mentors, as well as for teaching pupils with SEND.

In education settings, school staff can access a range of training as appropriate to their career stage. Training to support pupils with autism should include information on how to access health and social care as necessary.

The department wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe, and to equip them for adult life so they achieve and thrive.

The statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance makes clear that teachers should be aware of common adverse childhood experiences, including bereavement, and understand when and how these may be affecting of their pupils. This will help teachers to tailor their lessons accordingly, taking decisions on appropriate resources and support to enable them to teach the curriculum effectively. Teachers are free to draw on the support and expertise of subject associations and other providers of curriculum support.

The RSHE statutory guidance, which sets out the specific topics pupils should be taught, is currently under review. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has been clear that children's wellbeing will be the government's priority, in light of which the department is looking carefully at the responses from the period of public consultation which ended on 11 July, engage with stakeholders and consider the relevant evidence before setting out next steps. As part of this process, the department will explore whether any more or amended content is required, including on death and bereavement.

The Government committed to a hunting trophy import ban of endangered animals in its manifesto and we will deliver on this. Defra is engaging with relevant stakeholders to ensure that we can deliver on this commitment in the most effective way.

As outlined in our manifesto, we are committed to ending puppy smuggling. The Government is supporting the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, a Private Members’ Bill sponsored by the hon. Member for Winchester. The Bill will close loopholes in the non-commercial pet travel rules that are abused by unscrupulous traders and give the government powers to prevent the supply of low-welfare pets to the United Kingdom. We are fully supportive of this Bill and would like to see it pass through both Houses as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

Since 1 January 2025, water companies have been required to publish data related to discharges from all storm overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. The Secretary of State has authorised Ofwat to carry out enforcement action for this duty, in accordance with the powers conferred under sections 18 and 141DA (4) of the Water Industry Act 1991. Ofwat’s enforcement powers provide for a wide range of enforcement activity, including substantial penalties.

Ofwat is monitoring compliance with the duty to report relevant data in real time. Where it detects non-compliance, it will take appropriate enforcement action. In addition to this, the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 has introduced an equivalent duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. Once commenced, this duty will be enforced in the same way.

Fly-tipping and littering blight communities and harm the environment. Local councils are usually best placed to assess the measures in place to address the local littering and fly-tipping problems in their area. No specific assessment of the effectiveness of measures in place to tackle littering and fly-tipping in Kent has been made.

Local authorities have enforcement powers to tackle these issues, including fixed penalty notices of up to £1000 for fly-tipping and £500 for littering and prosecution action, which can lead to significant fine or even imprisonment. We encourage councils to make good use of their enforcement powers and are considering what further steps we can take to assist them in doing so.

We committed to forcing fly-tippers and vandals to clean up the mess that they have created as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour. We will provide further details on this commitment, and other actions to tackle fly-tipping, in due course.

The Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) regulations make producers responsible for the electrical products they place on the market when they become waste. As part of this producers can pay into the WEEE Compliance Fee fund that provides project funding for local authorities seeking to provide more recycling opportunities for local residents. It also funds consumer awareness campaigns highlighting the importance of properly disposing of their electrical waste. According to Material Focus, 100 local authorities in the United Kingdom operate Kerbside collection for small electricals.

Defra is continuing to engage closely with the Police, local authorities, and rescue and rehoming organisations to monitor the impacts of the XL Bully dog ban. These measures are vital to protect the public and we expect all XL Bully owners to comply with the conditions.