Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has has with (i) the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, (ii) the Children's Commissioner, (iii) the Local Government Association and (iv) Adoption UK on waiting times for current and previously looked-after children for mental health services.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Minister of Care met with the Children’s Commissioner’s office and other stakeholders at the Care Leaver Ministerial Board in October 2025, where they discussed mental health support and ways to improve health outcomes for both current and previously looked after children. Officials have also engaged with the Local Government Association on similar issues.
In addition, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health took part in a care leavers advisory group meeting in October 2024, where conversations focused on care leavers’ health, their mental health needs, and waiting times for services.
We have not engaged with Adoption UK on this particular issue.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of potential data processing measures to enable automatic registration for free school meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We want to make sure that every family that needs support can access it.
We are introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026. This will make it easier for parents to know whether their children are entitled to receive free meals. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals, pulling 100,000 children out of poverty and putting £500 back in families’ pockets.
We are also rolling out improvements to the Eligibility Checking System, the digital portal currently used by local authorities to verify if a child meets the eligibility criteria for free lunches. Giving parents and schools access will accelerate eligibility checks, making it easier to check if children are eligible for free meals.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 13 of the Police reform white paper “From Local to National: A New Model for Policing” (CP1489), what will be the location of the new National Centre for AI in Policing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is determined to ramp up the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence across policing. We recently announced over £115 million over the next three years to support the rapid and responsible development, testing and rollout of AI tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales.
This will be spearheaded by the creation of Police.AI, a new National Centre for AI in Policing. The Home Office is now working closely with the NPCC AI portfolio to establish Police.AI. This includes securing a host organisation and establishing and agreeing an estates strategy. Police.AI will transition into the National Police Service when it is appropriate to do so.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104669 on Business Rates, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the increases in Rateable Values for (a) hotels and (b) pubs from the 2026 revaluation on the liability of those businesses for business rates from the BID levies.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Business Improvement District (BID) levies are set locally through ballot approved proposals and are not automatically affected by revaluations or new multipliers. Therefore, any adjustment is a matter for the individual BID under its governing arrangements.
The Government recognises the important role that BIDs play in improving the local trading environment in high streets and town centres. Through the Pride in Place strategy, the Government has committed to strengthening BIDs by modernising existing arrangements, raising standards, and granting new powers for the establishment of property owner BIDs throughout England.
Asked by: Terry Jermy (Labour - South West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to align apprenticeship standards, T Levels, and other vocational qualifications with future food system needs.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is strengthening technical education so that young people can gain practical skills in areas such as regenerative farming, agroecology, and sustainable horticulture. This includes a range of apprenticeships in agriculture, environmental and animal care sector such as crop technician.
Land-based colleges and institutes of technology offer applied learning experience with employer designed standards increasingly embedding regenerative and agroecological practices. Land based T Levels and technical qualifications include opportunities for hands on learning in soil health, sustainable crop production, biodiversity, and low-impact land management.
Skills England works with employers to embed real world regenerative and agroecological practices in relevant occupational and apprenticeship standards to ensure they meet ongoing skills needs.
Local Skills Improvement Plans help guide providers to match training with the priority skills needs, which include those related to agriculture and land-based industries.
Together, these measures create a strong pipeline of young people equipped for careers in regenerative, low carbon land-based sectors.
Asked by: Terry Jermy (Labour - South West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department is ensuring that young people gain practical, vocational skills in regenerative farming, agroecology, and sustainable horticulture.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is strengthening technical education so that young people can gain practical skills in areas such as regenerative farming, agroecology, and sustainable horticulture. This includes a range of apprenticeships in agriculture, environmental and animal care sector such as crop technician.
Land-based colleges and institutes of technology offer applied learning experience with employer designed standards increasingly embedding regenerative and agroecological practices. Land based T Levels and technical qualifications include opportunities for hands on learning in soil health, sustainable crop production, biodiversity, and low-impact land management.
Skills England works with employers to embed real world regenerative and agroecological practices in relevant occupational and apprenticeship standards to ensure they meet ongoing skills needs.
Local Skills Improvement Plans help guide providers to match training with the priority skills needs, which include those related to agriculture and land-based industries.
Together, these measures create a strong pipeline of young people equipped for careers in regenerative, low carbon land-based sectors.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help coordinate services between higher education institutions and NHS mental health services for students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Improving coordination between universities and NHS mental health services is a key priority. The Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce recently published Improving Student Mental Health through Higher Education-NHS Partnerships, which sets out evidenced models of effective collaboration and provides case studies showing how stronger partnerships working together can transform outcomes for students while delivering efficiencies for local health services. The government encourages any university not already involved in such a partnership to draw on these models and to work with their local integrated care board to identify an approach that meets local needs.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department undertook verification of local authorities’ representations which noted insufficient capacity because of the scheduled May 2026 elections.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Representations were received from councils with elections scheduled in May, including from councillors and political groups, and from other councils, interested organisations, Member of Parliament, and members of the public.
The Secretary of State ran a locally led process and it was for councils to make representations and assess their capacity to conduct a safe and smooth transition to new authorities at the same time as holding elections.
In reaching his decisions, the Secretary of State carefully considered all the representations made alongside departmental advice on those representations.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 104668 on council tax, how county councils which are fire authorities and do not have separate fire precepts are treated for the purposes of that methodology.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The updated distribution for the Local Government Finance Settlement includes a resource adjustment, which takes account of a local authority's ability to raise income locally.
To reflect their differing responsibilities, within the resource adjustment we apply a different tier split to Shire Counties with fire authority responsibilities than we do to Shire Counties without fire authority responsibilities.
More information can be found in the Technical Annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base).
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria his Department uses to decide whether to translate documents and communications into foreign languages.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department provides published content in additional languages where appropriate and on a case-by-case basis.