Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

This Government is committed to halving knife crime in the next decade as set out in our Safer Streets Mission.

From Tuesday 24 September, it will be illegal to own zombie-style knives and machetes as they will be added to the list of dangerous prohibited items already banned, including zombie knives, butterfly knives, Samurai swords, and push daggers. The Government will also legislate to ban ninja swords and strengthen rules to prevent online sales of knives.

The Crown Prosecution Service and National Police Chiefs’ Council also work closely to prevent and tackle knife crime. Guidance setting out their joint approach to knife crime offending can be found here: Offensive Weapons, Knife Crime Practical Guidance | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk).

The Cabinet Office is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence (AI) and effective use of data.

The Cabinet Office Data Strategy promotes the use of high quality data and analytics to gain insights that drive decision making and operational effectiveness.

In parallel, we are growing the department’s AI capabilities through the design and application of a range of solutions, including Redbox which is a tool to help staff perform research, drafting and reviewing faster, reducing administrative burdens and improving response times for stakeholders. Other solutions are also in development (e.g. machine learning applications and generative AI) to automate and accelerate routine business operations and policy activity.

We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.

The department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, for expert advice.

We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.

The Department for Business and Trade is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and effective use of data.

For example, we are participating in the trial of Microsoft Copilot Pro, making secure AI tools available for staff, and continue to use machine learning in internal and external products and services. Work with the Alan Turing Institute produced a governance framework to manage and monitor AI use.

Staff have access to a range of data services under continual review including CRM, central data catalogue and a data environment with dashboards and data analysis tools along with training packages.

There is a comprehensive legislative framework regulating the manufacture, storage, supply, possession and use of fireworks in the UK. Local Authorities and the Police have a wide range of powers available to them to tackle the misuse of fireworks.

To ensure people continue to use fireworks in a safe and considerate manner I have launched a fireworks campaign for this season to provide guidance on minimising the impacts of fireworks and encouraging responsible use.

To inform any future decisions on the legislative framework, I intend to engage with stakeholders to gather evidence on the issues and impacts of fireworks.

There is a comprehensive legislative framework regulating the manufacture, storage, supply, possession and use of fireworks in the UK. Local Authorities and the Police have a wide range of powers available to them to tackle the misuse of fireworks.

To ensure people continue to use fireworks in a safe and considerate manner I have launched a fireworks campaign for this season to provide guidance on minimising the impacts of fireworks and encouraging responsible use.

To inform any future decisions on the legislative framework, I intend to engage with stakeholders to gather evidence on the issues and impacts of fireworks.

DESNZ is committed to improving its productivity, including through the use of artificial intelligence and effective use of data.

All DESNZ staff have access to Copilot for the web, a work-safe generative AI tool that helps summarise and draft text. In addition, as part of a large-scale, cross-government experiment led by the CDDO, around a third of all DESNZ staff have been given a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, which allows them to utilise generative AI within tools such as Word, Excel and Outlook, and can base responses on their own data (documents, emails, and messages). The experiment began on 30 September and runs through to 29 December and will conclude with a report from the CDDO to set out the case for adopting a tool like M365 Copilot in the longer-term.

We are also building our inhouse capability to develop AI tools at DESNZ. For example, our Advanced Analytics team are currently exploring multiple use cases that allow DESNZ staff to retrieve key information needed for their work more efficiently, including information from past impact assessments, lessons learnt logs and statistics from our Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) publications.

DESNZ has an internal adoption of AI working group which leads on supporting the development of departmental use-cases for Artificial Intelligence, as well as the guardrails, rules and playbooks that govern the safe, secure and ethical use of this technology, ensuring alignment to the Central Digital and Data Office’ Generative AI Framework for Government.

DESNZ's Data Strategy and Governance team are currently developing a data strategy for DESNZ that sets out our strategic ambition for how we collect, manage and use data as a Department. This includes time-saving measures around making it easier for DESNZ staff to locate and access data, making it easier for data to be shared across organisational boundaries, reducing the time taken to ingest, process and cleanse it, and introducing standards that make it easier to aggregate and compare across policies and programmes.

We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits.

Businesses have a vital role to play in the transition to net zero, from decarbonising their own operations, to working across their sectors and supply chains.

Small and medium-sized businesses can visit the UK Business Climate Hub, which is run in partnership with government, for advice and sources of finance or support on reducing emissions.

Climate Change Agreements provide tax discounts for businesses reducing their emissions, and the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund supports industrial sites with high energy use to transition.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and effective use of data.

1. For example, approximately 1,500 staff across DSIT and arms-length bodies are participating in the cross-government Microsoft 365 Copilot experiment led by CDDO. Staff are using Copilot to summarise policy papers and briefings, support initial document drafting, to extract insights from data, and retrieve information within the department or online.
2. We use data and analysis to inform decision making in the department, identify potential improvements, and ensure optimal allocation of funding/resources. We also make use of secure data platforms and reproducible analytical pipelines for data analysis, thus enabling faster, data-driven decisions.

We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.

The department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office for expert advice.

We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.

Departmental settlements have been set following the Budget announcement on October 30. Individual programmes will now be assessed during the departmental Business Planning process.

DCMS is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and more effective use of data, with projects across our science, analytical and digital functions.

We have a number of initial small-scale AI pilots taking place, to assess potential use cases across the organisation to identify benefits of scaling such tools in the future; for example developing a model to analyse free-text responses to public consultations.

We have also used data analytics to gain insights into spend and outcomes across our sectors and public bodies, helping to better evaluate the effectiveness of our interventions. We are building our data capability to enhance our evidence base, standardise our architecture and infrastructure to expand our ability to use data to generate efficiencies and achieve more impactful outcomes.

We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage.

For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the government data quality framework, the Code of Practice for Statistics and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard. The department also has access to the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), now based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice.

We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. At the Autumn Budget, we announced £1.3 billion of extra funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement for the next financial year.

This Government recognises the vital role that youth services play in improving young people’s life chances and wellbeing. That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed.

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. At the Autumn Budget, we announced £1.3 billion of extra funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement for the next financial year.

This Government recognises the vital role that youth services play in improving young people’s life chances and wellbeing. That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed.

The department is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence (AI) and effective use of data.

For example, a Microsoft Azure Open AI sandbox environment has been enabled to limited groups of users within the department, allowing them to build and test AI models based on specific use cases in a safe and secure environment. This has allowed the department to safely and securely test 12 use cases ahead of a launch into production and wider rollout to our workforce. If testing goes well, newly-developed technologies are expected to be rolled out to staff from December 2024. We believe these will be amongst the first bespoke generative AI tools launched in government and will allow the department to deliver its services to the public at a faster pace and lower cost.

The department is also mid-way through the migration of its analysts to the new Analytical Data Access service, giving analysts and policy teams a single point of access to key departmental data. This data is fully governed, secure and discoverable using the latest cloud technology tools. This is significantly improving the speed and reliability of the department’s data to better inform holistic policy and funding considerations, and support scenario planning. It also provides a secure environment for utilising AI and large language models, where both lawful and ethical.

The department draws on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform its AI and data usage, for example, the Generative AI Framework and the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework. We also work closely with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to widen access to the data we are responsible for via the existing ONS Secure Research Service, and are also partnering with the ONS to support development and integration of department data into the new Integrated Data Service.

The department also has access to the Central Digital and Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice. We will continue to regularly review our usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.

On 11 October 2024, the department announced an additional £15 million to expand the attendance mentoring programme to at least 10,000 pupils across ten new areas.

Mentoring support is expected to begin in April 2025. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-pupils-receive-support-to-boost-school-attendance--2.

Tackling school absence is at the heart of the department’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity. However, 20.7% of children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons, and we recognise that supporting parents, guardians and children is vitally important in overcoming this.

This is why the department has published the ’Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which became statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach, setting clear expectations that schools and local authorities should work with families to address barriers to attendance in a sensitive way. To support parents, we have published a parent-facing version of the guidance and have worked with schools to strengthen communications to parents around attendance.

In addition, backed by £15 million, the government is expanding attendance mentoring to reach 10,000 more children and cover an additional ten areas. This is alongside the commitment to roll out funded breakfast clubs to all primary schools to ensure all children are ready to learn.

Mental health support is particularly important for enabling pupils to attend. The department has provided grants for all schools to train a senior mental health lead. We are also committed to delivering access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.

Poor mental health in children and young people is a significant contributing factor in school absence, and a key barrier to opportunity and learning, that the government is committed to addressing.

To tackle mental ill-health among children and young people, the government has committed to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. We need to ensure any support meets the needs of young people, teachers, parents, and carers which is why we are exploring a range of options. This includes existing programmes of support with evidence of a positive impact, such as Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

This is in addition to activity to support schools and local authorities to tackle the school absence challenge, which includes setting clear expectations for schools, trusts and local authorities to provide a ‘support first’ approach to attendance. Departmental guidance can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.

The department is also piloting attendance mentors, offering 1:1 targeted support to 10,000 persistently absent pupils and their families across 15 local authorities to identify and address barriers to education.

Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.

Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.

The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.

The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.

Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.

The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.

In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.

The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.

Defra does not hold the requested information. However, to understand the impact of dog breeding activities, including canine fertility businesses, on individual and overall breed health and welfare, Defra has commissioned an opinion from the Animal Welfare Committee. The opinion will be published in due course.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Chippenham, Sarah Gibson, on 12 September 2024, PQ 3559.

The Department for Transport has established an Organisational AI programme to effectively explore the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of our work. It is structured to ensure safe, effective and appropriately targeted adoption, to deliver the greatest possible productivity benefits. We are collaborating with the Alan Turing Institute and the Office for National Statistics to measure the opportunities for productivity gains and prioritise the introduction of AI tools where they can bring the most benefit.

The Government expects electrification to play an important role in our programme to achieve our Net Zero 2050 target, tackle air pollution, and improve the passenger experience.

My officials have been engaging regularly with Eurofima over the last two years to consider the potential for UK membership, and they continue to engage with them on this matter.

The Government is committed to developing a long-term industrial strategy for rolling stock, which supports British manufacturing and innovation and ultimately improves the offer for passengers. As part of this, my officials have been exploring the best financing structures to support this investment, in partnership with private finance, and this includes considering Eurofima finance.

Improving railway performance and driving forward rail reform is the Department’s top priority. The Secretary of State and Rail Minister are meeting with Train Operating Companies and Network Rail to hold them to account in a joined-up manner across track and train. Great British Railways (GBR) will put passengers back at the heart of our railways and the Secretary of State established Shadow GBR to kickstart those improvements prioritising performance ahead of the formal establishment of GBR.

The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence and keeps this under constant review.

The Cabinet Office publishes statistics on Departmental performance which can be found on the gov.uk website and can be viewed here.

DWP is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence and effective use of data.

The department is safely accelerating our use of AI to make a real difference for both employees and citizens. We test the feasibility of using AI technology to address business problems using an iterative, test-and-learn approach. We are exploring how AI and innovation can improve DWP’s ability to respond at pace and provide a more personalised and seamless experience for customers. An AI Delivery Board oversees DWP’s use of AI, assuring that it is safe, ethical, and transparent.

The DWP Data Strategy sets out the department’s vision, principles, and priorities, to provide a clear path to enable us to become a data-driven organisation for the greater public good. Aligned with organisational goals, it focuses on delivering excellent services, improving outcomes, reducing costs, and building trust. It will enable DWP to:

• Improve the quality, availability, and accessibility of our data.
• Enhance our data capabilities, skills, and culture.
• Strengthen our data governance, ethics, and security.
• Promote data collaboration and innovation.
• Leverage data assets for informed decision-making and policy.

With improved access to data and products, DWP will be able to make better and faster decisions. Using data to make better automated and human decisions will improve efficiency, effectiveness and our citizens’ experiences. Increased accuracy of data will support faster local decision making, based on insight on local operational pressures and local citizens’ needs. This will support DWP to reduce fraud and error incidents and improve and modernise citizen services. Business areas will be able to use data to better support citizens by making the right decision quickly and reducing burden.

Within the work of the Department's Service Modernisation Programme, opportunities to harness the potential of AI and maximise our use of data will form central parts of wider activity aimed at modernising and improving the service we provide.

The Department has secured funding for additional staffing to assist with the processing of the additional Pension Credit claims being made. The Department is significantly increasing the resource on Pension Credit to ensure it processes claims as quickly as possible, with approximately 500 additional staff to support the increase in applications generated from the successful Pension Credit take-up campaign.

This government is committed to tackling poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels.

Statistics on the proportion of people living in food insecure households at regional level are published annually in the Households Below Average Income statistics Households below average income (HBAI) statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).

In November we will be writing to approximately 120,000 pensioners who are in receipt of Housing Benefit and who may also be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and still qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

We are supporting a taskforce that NHS England is establishing to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, and to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.

Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England will continue to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.

The Department is supporting the National Health Service to deliver the three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services across England, to make care safer, personalised, and more equitable for women and babies. Improvement in the Slough and East Berkshire maternity services includes aligning with the three-year delivery plan, and involves:

• the recruitment of more midwives to significantly reduce vacancies and to have minimal shortages by 2025;
• increased access to services through a new maternity hub in Crowthorne;
• listening to women's voices through the maternity and neonatal voices partnership, with additional funding for targeted engagement with parents with a baby admitted to a neonatal unit;
• implementing an updated Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, which is a package of interventions to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal deaths, and preterm birth; and
• piloting a perinatal pelvic health service that provides women with information about pelvic health risks, signs of pelvic floor dysfunction, and prevention strategies.

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has focused on addressing inequalities by improving access to perinatal mental health services, interpreter availability, and antenatal and preconception information, with an increase in folic acid uptake in Slough.

The Department is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence (AI), and effective use of data. To make AI and data work, the Department has focused on establishing the enablers for adopting AI responsibly, ethically, and at low cost, to ensure a high return on investment via productivity gains while also maintaining or improving process outcomes. Specifically, implementing governance and delivery structures that pool internal experts from across the Department and bring the consideration of ethics, information governance, cyber security, data science, analysis, and technology in line with guidance offered by the Central Digital and Data Office.

The Department has developed proof-of-concept projects to test these structures, including a Parliamentary Intelligence tool that saves 40 hours per week of staff time and improves the quality of insights, and a partially automated approach to consultation analysis that reduces the cost and time to analyse large consultations, while respecting The Gunning Principles.

The Department draws on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard. The Department of Health and Social Care also has access to the Central Digital and Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice.

Underpinning the Department’s approach to AI is shaping a data driven culture in the Department to support and enhance data science and data analysis capabilities, providing high quality data and data products in a secure, safe, legal, and ethical way. The Department has a large and mature analytical function who put data and insights at the heart of decision making and policy development. For example, the Data Hub that collates nearly 500 metrics in 27 dashboards across 13 topic areas, providing data and insights on-demand to inform decisions. The Department does not currently have any plans to implement automated decision-making systems, and people remain in full control of decision making, with AI augmenting their work.

The Department will continue to regularly review usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.

At a national level, NHS England has a wide-ranging package of support for National Health Service staff. This includes a health and wellbeing guardian role to ensure board level scrutiny of local support systems, a focus on healthy working environments, tools, resources to support line managers to hold meaningful conversations with staff to discuss their wellbeing, and emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.

NHS England has worked with The Ambulance Staff Charity to fund the development of the Ambulance Staff Crisis phoneline which provides immediate, independent, and confidential support to ambulance staff experiencing suicidal ideation or a mental health crisis. Further information on The Ambulance Staff Charity is available at the following link:

https://www.theasc.org.uk/