Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to provide a response to Question 93556 on Schools: Standards, tabled on 21 November 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I can confirm that a response has been submitted to the hon. Member for South Basildon and East Thurrock to Question 93556.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support people with disabilities into work in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is good for health, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 is driving forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity.
Disabled people are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.
Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care and WorkWell. We are also rolling out Connect to Work, our supported employment programme for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing more complex barriers to work.
DEAs in the Jobcentres supporting the constituency deliver in-depth Work Ability conversations, focusing on strengths, suitable work options, workplace adjustments and confidence building. Additionally, part of the constituency is served by the WorkWell West pilot in the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board.
We set out our plan for the “Pathways to Work Guarantee” in our Pathways to Work Green Paper and are building towards our guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits. The guarantee is backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by the end of the decade. We anticipate the guarantee, once fully rolled out, will include: a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement, and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support.
Additionally, we have developed a digital information service for employers, oversee the Disability Confident Scheme and continue to increase access to Occupational Health. Bath Jobcentre organised a Disability Confident job fair which was held at the Guildhall in October with Disability Confident employers, further job fairs targeting disabled people are currently in planning.
In recognition of employers’ vital role in addressing health-related economic activity, we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent Keep Britain Working Review. The Report was published on 5 November. In partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Health and Social Care, we are rapidly designing the Vanguard phase to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work and develop a Healthy Workplace Standard, putting Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action.
The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan also states the Government’s intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel about the repair of graves in the Gaza war cemetery in al-Tuffah.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided by the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa on 13 February in response to Question 111058, which - for ease of reference - is reproduced below:
The Gaza War Cemetery in al-Tuffah holds the remains of more than 3,000 men who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars, the majority from the United Kingdom, but many also from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa and other countries. As I said in the General Debate on 5 February, that includes Private William Jordan and Private Wilfrid Ogden, from my own constituency, who died during the Battles for Gaza in 1917.
There is justifiable distress in our country and elsewhere at the reports that the cemetery has been damaged by Israeli bulldozers, and we also deplore the reports that the cemetery has been used for Hamas military operations. Brave servicemen laid to rest overseas should never have had their graves defiled in this way. Alongside our international partners, we are raising our concerns about this with the Israeli authorities, and we will work with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to ensure that - when the circumstances allow - they are able to go to Gaza, assess what damage has been done, and do what is necessary to repair that damage.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of introducing zonal electricity pricing on (a) consumer energy bills in regions with high renewable generation, such as those with significant offshore wind capacity, (b) the cost to the public purse of constraint payments to wind generators and (c) future private-sector investment in energy infrastructure in areas of high demand, including the South East.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In July 2025, we announced that we would not be implementing zonal pricing as part of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) and had decided instead to retain a single Great Britain wide wholesale electricity market. We plan to set out the potential impact of zonal pricing − with respect to areas such as consumers, generators and investment, including South East England – in the REMA Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of ambulance handover times at accident and emergency departments in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Surrey Heath is served by the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAMB). The most recent National Health Service performance figures show that the average handover time in SECAMB is 18 minutes and 37 seconds. This is over two minutes faster than the same period last year.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements this winter and make services better every day, including reducing ambulance handovers to a maximum of 45 minutes, helping get more ambulances back on the road for patients, and reducing category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes on average. NHS England continues to monitor average hospital handover times, sharing data with regions to support focussed discussions and identify improvement actions with those trusts not achieving handovers in 45 minutes.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that businesses affected by the water outage receive suitable compensation in East Grinstead and Uckfield constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the disruption that consumers have suffered and takes the need for appropriate compensation to customers seriously. The Government is clear that it is the responsibility of the water company to provide compensation that is commensurate with the scale of the disruption.
The Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS) sets the minimum standards of service for all customers of water companies. Where a company fails to meet any of the standards, it is required to make a specified payment to the affected household or business customer. The Government announced a major update to the GSS as part of its initial package of water sector reforms in July 2025. The updates reformed the GSS, improving consumer protections by further protections for customers – increasing the payment values, to double or more, and by expanding the scope to include additional standards. South East Water must make mandatory payments to affected customers in line with the GSS following the water outages in East Grinstead and Uckfield.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure businesses affected by the water outage receive suitable compensation in Sussex.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the disruption that consumers have suffered and takes the need for appropriate compensation to customers seriously. The Government is clear that it is the responsibility of the water company to provide compensation that is commensurate with the scale of the disruption.
The Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS) sets the minimum standards of service for all customers of water companies. Where a company fails to meet any of the standards, it is required to make a specified payment to the affected household or business customer. The Government announced a major update to the GSS as part of its initial package of water sector reforms in July 2025. The updates reformed the GSS, improving consumer protections by further protections for customers – increasing the payment values, to double or more, and by expanding the scope to include additional standards. South East Water must make mandatory payments to affected customers in line with the GSS following the water outages in East Grinstead and Uckfield.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department holds information related to an independent comparative assessment of the potential cost to the public pursue of Thames Water's White Horse reservoir proposal with (a) the creation of a smaller reservoir, (b) Severn-Trent Transfer, and (c) a combination of both options.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Thames Water has selected the reservoir as part of its statutory Water Resources Management Plan. Water Resources South East has also conducted an options appraisal process, identifying the reservoir's necessity in its Regional Plan. The plans continue to be scrutinised by the water regulators.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what proportion of UK Export Finance-supported exporters are based in (a) the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, and (b) Essex.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has a network of Export Finance Managers (EFMs) around the whole country who are valuable points of contact for local businesses and can provide information on the range of support available. Contact details for the Essex EFM, and others can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-an-export-finance-manager.
On 26 January, UKEF announced an £11 billion lending package from five high street banks to support small businesses’ growth. Alongside funding, businesses will also benefit from advisory support through banks’ relationship managers and the EFMs.
We do not hold details of the proportion of exporters supported at constituency or county level. Full details of the businesses supported by UKEF each year are published online at: UK Export Finance: business supported - GOV.UK.
The support that UKEF provides extends beyond its immediate customers. Recently published research by Oxford Economics (available online at: UK exporters boost economy, as new study reveals major impact of export credit on UK industry - GOV.UK) shows that there are 115,000 businesses in the supply chains of businesses directly supported by UKEF.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) retention of DVSA employed driving test examiners and (b) pay of DVSA driving test examiners in comparison to the earnings of private sector driving instructors.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
To aid retention and to encourage existing driving examiners (DE) to stay in role, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is making an exceptional payment of £5,000 to DEs and eligible roles (divided into two payments) over the next 12 months. By keeping more experienced driving examiners and bringing in new ones, DVSA will lose less testing capacity from the system, making more tests available for learner drivers.
Examiner capacity is rising, with 1,542 FTE examiners now in post (the highest since 2021) as of December 2025.
DEs are civil servants and as such, their salary is determined by the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. The guidance sets out the financial parameters Civil Service departments can use to determine pay awards for their staff. DVSA cannot act independently from this guidance. DVSA continues to look at different financial incentives to recruit examiners and, indeed, to offer to existing employees conducting tests.
The attached excel spreadsheet shows the (a) average and (b) highest waiting time for driving test centres (DTC) in the North East of England, from the financial year 2015/16 to the financial year-to-date (YTD). Please note, that DVSA does not hold data for Elswick and South Shields DTCs beyond 2022/23, due to these centres closing.