Will Stone

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 13th December is attached.

There are currently no plans to bring forward legislation in relation to fireworks. However, the Government is continuing to engage with businesses, consumer groups and charities to gather evidence on the issues with and impacts of fireworks to inform any future action.

The Government has also launched a public campaign on fireworks safety for this year’s fireworks season. The campaign includes new guidance for those running community fireworks events, and new social media posts that emphasise the risks from the misuse of fireworks.

The Department for Business and Trade is committed to helping UK businesses export to Morocco. Supported by the UK-Morocco Association Agreement bilateral trade has been rising and reached £4.2 billion in 2024.

During the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Rabat on 1^st June, he co-chaired the 5th session of the UK-Morocco Strategic Dialogue with the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs. They signed a series of Memoranda of Understanding to deepen collaboration in priority sectors, including healthcare, water, transport, defence and procurement. These will enable commercial engagement, supporting UK firms expanding in Morocco’s high-growth sectors, such as digital health, infrastructure, and ports.

We carry out analyses of suitable countries, regions, and markets to identify where the appointment of a Trade Envoy can be of greatest benefit to our trade and investment objectives.

We remain committed to strengthening our long, positive and wide-ranging trading relationship with each of the Nordic Countries, but there are no plans at present to add any Nordic Countries to the Trade Envoy Programme.

Markets such as these already have significant diplomatic, trade and investment networks, as well as receiving regular high-level visits by Ministers.

The Government has made no such assessment. The criteria around the setting of the energy price cap is a matter for Ofgem.

On Wednesday 27 August, Ofgem confirmed the Q4 price cap will be set at £1,755 per year for a typical dual fuel household paying by Direct Debit – an increase of £35 from the current price cap (£1,720). This would cost households an extra £2.93 a month for three months. We know that any price rise is a concern for families. Wholesale gas costs in the price cap are 77% above their levels in the year up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is the fossil fuel penalty being paid by families, businesses and our economy.

That is why the only answer for Britain is this Government’s mission to get us off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices and onto clean, homegrown power we control, to bring down bills for good.

The Government is supporting local leaders to unlock their regions’ innovation potential. This includes Innovation Accelerator pilots, with innovation clusters sharing £100 million; the Launchpad programme, with 11 sites each receiving up to £7.5 million for innovation projects; and the Strength in Places Fund, which is investing £316 million in 12 projects to develop research and development capacity.

I understand Panettoni Park may host data centre space. The Government is reviewing and improving grid connections and exploring other ways to enable data centre capacity, with over £40 billion in private investment in new UK data centres announced since July 2024.

The Online Safety Act gives online platforms new duties to protect users from illegal content and safeguard children.

The Act stipulates that where there is a risk to children from the most harmful types of content (‘primary priority content), in-scope services including social media sites must use highly effective age assurance.

Ofcom’s draft codes also propose additional protections for under 18s to keep their accounts private and prevent them being contacted and groomed by strangers.

The Government is committed to improving access to sports and physical activity for everybody, wherever they live. Sport and physical activity is central to achieving our health and opportunity manifesto missions, with the biggest gains coming from supporting those who are inactive to move more. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they are in the country, should have access to the best possible sports provision, facilities and opportunities to get active.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. Sport England programmes target the greatest resource to areas with highest inactivity levels and greatest need.

The Government has also committed to continued funding for grassroots facilities which will help ensure that everyone no matter their age, background or ability, should be able to play sport and be active.

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. That is why we are investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in 2023.

As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to statutory assessments.

Democracy is currently taught through the national curriculum for citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, which covers parliamentary democracy, the key elements of the constitution of the United Kingdom, the power of government and how citizens and Parliament hold it to account, including through the voting system.

Support for curriculum delivery is available through optional, free and adaptable resources from Oak National Academy (Oak). The resource package will be ready by this autumn; the resources will be here: https://www.thenational.academy/.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review which seeks to deliver a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that equips young people with the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to thrive in life and work.

The changes made to the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) were made so that funding can be accessed by the maximum number of children and families. The level of funding per child in 2025/26 will still allow adoptive and kinship families to access a significant package of therapeutic support.

The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children and reviews the risks of any policy changes.

The ASGSF is an important package of support, which is why we have continued to fund it. However, it is not the only support available to adoptive and kinship families. The department is funding Adoption England with £8.8 million this year to improve adopter recruitment and support, including innovative approaches to matching and the establishment of Centres of Excellence. We are also continuing to improve the support available to kinship families, including a £40 million package to trial a new kinship allowance to support family members and friends who take in children.

Skills Bootcamps are an important offer in the skills landscape, supporting the development of crucial skills such as HGV driving.

Published statistics show that across the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years, there were 10,545 starts on HGV Skills Bootcamps, with 6,500 completions and almost 5,000 positive employment outcomes representing new jobs, promotions or increased responsibilities.

In line with our commitment to devolution, we will fund Skills Bootcamps through funding Mayoral Combined Authorities and local areas directly, supporting the government’s commitment to empower local leaders to have greater control of skills development, alongside an increased role in supporting people into work.

The department continues to support learners and employers in the HGV sector to benefit from a range of high quality skills training, including through apprenticeships such as the Urban Driver and Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) driver C + E apprenticeship standards.

Unlike 16-19 academies, sixth form colleges are part of the statutory further education (FE) sector.

The department does not set or recommend pay in FE providers, which have the freedom to make their own arrangements in line with their local circumstances.

We recognise the vital role that FE teachers and providers play in equipping learners with the opportunities and skills that they need to succeed in their education.

The October Budget set out the government’s commitment to skills, by providing an additional £300 million revenue funding for FE to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs. The department will set out in due course how this funding will be distributed.

The Secretary of State meets with stakeholders regularly such as Ofwat to discuss a range of issues.

The Government will continue to work with water sector regulators to hold water companies to account on poor performance and drive improvements which benefit customers and the environment.

As part of our Plan for Change, we’ve delivered on our promise to put water companies under special measures through the introduction of The Water (Special Measures) Act which will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry.

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.

The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the LAIA Regulations) set strict animal welfare standards that commercial sellers of pets, such as gerbils and hamsters, must adhere to.

The accompanying statutory guidance sets out specific minimum enclosure size standards for animals such as gerbils and hamsters in pet shops. Under these regulations, sellers must also ensure that any equipment being sold with an animal, including enclosures, are suitable for its’ needs.

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 also requires owners to meet the welfare needs of their pets, including the need for a suitable environment. Anyone failing to ensure that their animal’s welfare needs are met may face an unlimited fine or be sent to prison for up to six months, or both.

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only, with the potential for relevant policy to extend and apply to Wales.

While the Government has no immediate plan to introduce a close season for hares in England, the policy remains under consideration as part of the Government’s plans to introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation.

The Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) has published data for injuries, retirements and euthanasia of greyhounds from GBGB affiliated tracks and trainers each year since 2018. This data is published online at https://www.gbgb.org.uk/welfare-care/injury-and-retirement-data/(opens in a new tab).

The long-term trend for the total number of greyhounds that have died at racetracks has shown, with the exception of figures for 2023, a welcome decline. Defra will continue to monitor figures published by GBGB in the coming years to see whether any new trends are identifiable.

In September, Great Western Railway began a trial of direct services between Bristol, Bath, Swindon and Oxford. This trial is on Saturdays only with two direct services in each direction. It will run until May 2025, to understand levels of passenger demand for this service.

No decisions have yet been made on whether this service will continue beyond then and any expansion of the service would require additional rolling stock which is currently unidentified and unfunded.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) offers a range of digital services designed to support separated families. These include 'Child Maintenance Calculator’, ‘Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance’ and ‘My Child Maintenance Case’(MCMC). Through these services, parents can explore their options, calculate potential payments and submit an online application to the CMS to receive or pay child maintenance. For customers with existing cases, the online services allow them to report changes, check progress, view correspondence and make payments online 24/7.

Digital services were developed and will continue to evolve based on research and feedback from charities supporting separated families, victims of domestic abuse, and users with assisted digital needs.

• There were 7.4 million NHS Referral to Treatment (RTT) pathways where the patient was waiting to start treatment at the end of April 2025 (this includes all ages).
• The number of people (aged 16 to 64) not in work who left their job in the previous year for health reasons was 210,000 in 2023/24.
• One in every 10 working-age people in Britain is now claiming at least one type of health or disability benefit and as outlined in the Pathways to Work Green paper, when this government took office last July:

o 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness

o the number claiming health related benefits with no requirement to work has increased by 800,000 since 2019/2020.

• The Work Aspirations of Health and Disability Claimants survey found that a third (32%) of those claiming health and disability benefits believe they can work now or in future. 5% say that they would be ready now if the right job or support were available. This equates to around 200,000 individuals.

DWP and DHSC work closely, for example through the Joint Work and Health Directorate, to deliver better work outcomes and work experiences for disabled people and people with health conditions. This includes working across the whole of the customer journey to help disabled people and people with long term health conditions who want to work to be in the best position possible to do so.

The Joint Work and Health Directorate is collaborating with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to improve the evidence on the relationship between health and labour market outcomes. The ONS plans to link NHS waiting times data (that they recently acquired access to) to Census, DWP Benefits and HMRC PAYE records to analyse the relationship between waiting time duration (for various health conditions and procedures) and labour market outcomes (such as employment status, gross pay and benefit receipt) in England. This may shed light on the role of extended waiting times witnessed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic on benefit receipt, including sickness related benefit receipt. Due to many dependencies and unknowns, ONS is not able to confirm when the analysis will be available.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claim forms do not ask for an individual’s occupation, past or present as it is legally immaterial to the decision to award benefit or not. PIP is based on the daily living and mobility needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability.

We do not currently have plans to update the PIP forms.

The honourable member is welcome to write to me to set out the potential merits of the changes he envisages, including the case for a meeting to discuss them.

As part of the Great Britain Working plan, we are launching a Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship, or help to find work. The Youth Guarantee will build upon and enhance existing entitlements and provisions with the aim of tackling the rising number of young people who are not participating in education, employment or training. This spring, we will be launching trailblazers in eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities and will use the learning from the Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls-out across the rest of England.

DWP currently provides young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside our partners. For example, in Swindon DWP’s Employment Advisors are working with employers to deliver the Ready to Launch Your Career open day event on 8^th April in Swindon town centre, where the focus will be to help young people into estate-agent roles with many employers from this sector involved.

We are committed to improving women’s experiences of gynaecological procedures, such as hysteroscopies.

Women should be provided with information prior to their procedure so that they can make an informed decisions about the procedure and pain relief options, including the option of local or general anaesthetic.

The Government recognises that some procedures, such as a hysteroscopy, can result in pain, and the level of pain experienced will vary between individual women. It is important that healthcare professionals provide women with information prior to their procedure so that women can make an informed decisions about the procedure and pain relief options, including the option of local or general anaesthetic.

Clinical guidelines support healthcare professionals to provide evidence-based care. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published an updated guideline on outpatient hysteroscopy in September 2024. The updated guideline has particular reference to minimising pain and discomfort during hysteroscopy procedures. While the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ guidelines are not mandatory, they are designed to support high-quality care, and the Department and the National Health Service encourage local implementation tailored to patient needs. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.rcog.org.uk/guidance/browse-all-guidance/green-top-guidelines/outpatient-hysteroscopy-green-top-guideline-no-59/

The NHS website also provides information for patients. The page on hysteroscopy provides information on preparing for and recovering from a hysteroscopy, including pain relief options.

Under our Health Mission, the Government is committed to prioritising preventative public health measures to support people to live longer, healthier lives. The Department will continue to work across Government to better understand how we can best reduce alcohol-related harms.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer National Insurance costs only. This does not include support for the private sector, including private sector firms contracted by central or local government.

This is the usual approach the Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional employer National Insurance contribution costs, as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care and wider local government spending as part of the Spending Review process.

The Government is providing a 6.8% cash terms increase in core council spending power in 2025/26. To support social care authorities to deliver key services in light of pressures, at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement we announced a further £200 million for adult and children’s social care. This will be allocated via the Social Care Grant, bringing the total increase of this grant in 2025/26 to £880 million, meaning that up to £3.7 billion of additional funding will be provided to social care authorities in 2025/26.