Caroline Johnson

The Government attaches significant importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from MPs, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. The Department’s correspondence team has already implemented an improvement plan that will deliver a more effective and streamlined process.

The correspondence performance of all Whitehall Departments is published quarterly. The full data for 2024 is due to be published soon by the Cabinet Office. Data for Quarter 1 of 2025 will be published in due course.

The Secretary of State and Ministers meet with health Ministers regularly to discuss a range of topics. The Secretary of State and Ministers have not met with health Ministers specifically to discuss the Data (Use and Access) Bill and sex data. Official level engagement has taken place to share information regarding the ways the NHS handles medical records in the process of an individual changing gender, and ensures individuals are correctly registered for relevant screenings and other sex/specific treatment. We have used the insights from this engagement to inform our approach to the Bill.

We have always been clear that, when it comes to women's sport, biology matters. We will continue to support sports to develop policies that protect fairness and safety, particularly when it is not possible to balance those factors with inclusion. In terms of gender eligibility, National Governing Bodies set their own policies for who can participate in their sports in domestic competitions.

Our Sports Councils produce guidance to provide domestic sports bodies with the framework and support to determine the right position for their sport. Our Sports Councils are consulting with legal experts to clarify whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the guidance. The outcome of this will feed into their timescale for a planned wider review of the guidance.

In addition the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has confirmed their work to develop a revised Code of Practice which supports service providers, public bodies and associations to understand their duties under the Equality Act and put them into practice. Their revised code will incorporate the implications of the Supreme Court judgment. They hope to lay the revised code before Parliament before the summer recess.

We have always been clear that, when it comes to women's sport, biology matters. We will continue to support sports to develop policies that protect fairness and safety, particularly when it is not possible to balance those factors with inclusion.

In terms of gender eligibility, National Governing Bodies set their own policies for who can participate in their sports in domestic competitions. Our Sports Councils produce guidance to provide domestic sports bodies with the framework and support to determine the right position for their sport. Our Sports Councils are consulting with legal experts to clarify whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the guidance. The outcome of this will feed into their timescale for a planned wider review of the guidance.

Alongside this, sports need to come up with approaches to ensure everyone has the opportunity to take part somehow - and I know that sporting bodies will be considering this in light of the Supreme Court decision.

We have always been clear that, when it comes to women's sport, biology matters. We will continue to support sports to develop policies that protect fairness and safety, particularly when it is not possible to balance those factors with inclusion.

In terms of gender eligibility, National Governing Bodies set their own policies for who can participate in their sports in domestic competitions. Our Sports Councils produce guidance to provide domestic sports bodies with the framework and support to determine the right position for their sport. Our Sports Councils are consulting with legal experts to clarify whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the guidance. The outcome of this will feed into their timescale for a planned wider review of the guidance.

Alongside this, sports need to come up with approaches to ensure everyone has the opportunity to take part somehow - and I know that sporting bodies will be considering this in light of the Supreme Court decision.

Single-sex spaces based on biological sex are protected in law and will always be protected by this government.

The department is currently reviewing the draft non-statutory guidance for schools and colleges on gender questioning children, in addition to reviewing the statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education. The guidance on gender questioning children will reflect the legal protection for single-sex spaces and facilities in schools, as well as the Equality Act protection for single-sex sport in schools to ensure fairness and safety.​

​My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance and, as such, the government is looking carefully at the consultation responses, discussing with stakeholders and considering the relevant evidence, including the final report of the Cass Review which was published post-consultation, before setting out next steps.

I refer the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham to the answer of 31 March 2025 to Question 41472.

All families are eligible for universal 15 hours of free childcare for three and four year-olds, including those who earn over £100,000.

The £100,000 level was chosen to correspond with income tax thresholds and to be easily understandable for parents. Only a very small proportion of parents, 3.8% of parents of three and four year-olds in 2023/24, earn over the £100,000 threshold.

The government needs to use public funds in a way that provides value for money and considers it reasonable to target this funding at those individuals earning under £100,000 adjusted net income.

The government has agreed that public sector employers will receive support in recognition of the increase in their National Insurance contributions (NICs) from April 2025. The department is providing schools and high needs settings with over £930 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support them with their increased NICs costs. This support is additional to the £2.3 billion increase to core school funding announced at the Autumn Budget 2024. This means that the core schools budget, which includes the core revenue funding for schools and high needs, will total over £64.8 billion in the 2025/26 financial year. The amount of public sector support is based on HM Treasury analysis of the proportion of employer NICs receipts paid by public sector organisations, and allocated between departments based on headcount and wage/salary data.

The NICs grant will allocate funding to schools according to their pupil numbers, and the numbers of pupils with additional needs, along with a lump sum component for every school regardless of pupil numbers. The department’s funding system is not designed so that every school receives funding that fully matches their precise spending as that, including the NICs costs, varies between institutions because of the decisions that each school takes on its staffing.

The department has distributed this funding in proportion to the needs of the different sectors and phases of education. The department will continue to monitor cost pressures, as it usually does.

The government has agreed that public sector employers will receive support in recognition of the increase in their National Insurance contributions (NICs) from April 2025. The department is providing schools and high needs settings with over £930 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support them with their increased NICs costs. This support is additional to the £2.3 billion increase to core school funding announced at the Autumn Budget 2024. This means that the core schools budget, which includes the core revenue funding for schools and high needs, will total over £64.8 billion in the 2025/26 financial year. The amount of public sector support is based on HM Treasury analysis of the proportion of employer NICs receipts paid by public sector organisations, and allocated between departments based on headcount and wage/salary data.

The NICs grant will allocate funding to schools according to their pupil numbers, and the numbers of pupils with additional needs, along with a lump sum component for every school regardless of pupil numbers. The department’s funding system is not designed so that every school receives funding that fully matches their precise spending as that, including the NICs costs, varies between institutions because of the decisions that each school takes on its staffing.

The department has distributed this funding in proportion to the needs of the different sectors and phases of education. The department will continue to monitor cost pressures, as it usually does.

The Environment Agency maintains a public register of registered producers and approved compliance schemes under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013. There are currently 34 registered vape producers in the UK.

Distributors are not required to register under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013. There are takeback obligations on vape distributors which are enforced by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). OPSS regulates in a proportionate, evidenced and risk-based manner, that utilises a range of regulatory interventions to promote compliance. OPSS has taken no enforcement action, such as prosecutions, on vape distributors in either 2023 or 2024. OPSS has, however, been working closely checking compliance with distributors through 2024 to build the takeback network with some 10,500 points added so far this year.

Importers and manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment are required to register with their appropriate environment regulator, with companies based in England registering with the Environment Agency. OPSS does not have an enforcement role under the WEEE regulations in respect of importers and manufacturers, whether registered or not.

The Environment Agency (EA) holds a public register of battery producers and approved battery (producer) compliance schemes. Only battery producers that qualify as large producers are required to join a battery compliance scheme. Large producers are those that place more than one tonne of batteries on the UK market during a year.

There are currently 25 vape producers that are also registered as battery producers, 21 of which have joined a battery producer compliance scheme.

There is no regulatory requirement for battery distributors to register with the EA or a producer compliance scheme.

No enforcement action has been taken against vape producers or distributors under the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 in either 2023 or 2024 to date.

The information requested is in the table below. Please note that some correspondence received in January will not be due for reply until February and so that month has been excluded.

It is the responsibility of the Local Authority, Lincolnshire County Council, to provide the Department with a Full Business Case, which will be reviewed and assessed prior to a decision whether to grant full approval for the scheme.  We are expecting to see the Full Business Case in the summer of 2025 and my officials are working with the council to progress that.

As the Chancellor set out in her statement on 23 September, the Government has inherited extremely challenging fiscal conditions and a litany of unfunded commitments. The Transport Secretary is undertaking a review of the previous governments transport plans, including unfunded schemes.

The value of roads projects is assessed using the principles set out in the Green Book. Rather than assessing value and prioritisation of individual projects, the review will consider the alignment of capital schemes across mode with the Government’s priorities and provide strategic advice to the Secretary of State on how she might approach prioritisation of projects.

The Department supports people nearing the end of life through special benefit rules – called the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.

SREL applies to these benefits Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Universal Credit (UC), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Disability Living Allowance for children (DLAc) and Attendance Allowance (AA).

The department holds some data on special rules for end of life (SREL) claims for PIP and UC based on receipt of the medical evidence form, the SR1, but does not centrally collate equivalent data on SREL claims for AA, DLA and ESA, so we cannot provide the total number of SREL claimants. We have therefore provided data for UC and PIP only below.

*All figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.

The PIP data covers England and Wales and is from October 2024. The UC data covers Great Britain and is from September 2024.

The numbers above count the number of claims for each benefit, not the number of individuals. Some individuals may be counted more than once, as they may be in receipt of both benefits.

It is possible, although rare, to make a SREL claim without a SR1 form, so these data do not necessarily present the full picture in terms of total numbers of SREL claims.

‘DLA: Cases in Payment - Data from May 2018’ and ‘AA: Cases in Payment - Data from May 2018’ data is available on Stat-Xplore by ‘Main Disabling Condition’, this includes ‘Terminally Ill’ claims. This data is available by ‘Duration of Current Claim’. ESA - Data from May 2018 is available on Stat-Xplore by ‘Medical condition’ which includes ‘Neoplasms’. This data is available by ‘Duration of Current Claim’. A claimant’s main disabling condition being ‘Terminally Ill’ does not necessarily mean they are classed as an SREL claimant. Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

The Department does not keep this information centrally and therefore it is not readily available. Providing the information that the Department does hold would incur disproportionate costs.

Statistics on Pension Credit application volumes were published on 28 November 2024. This includes numbers of applications that were received, awarded and not awarded, up to 17 November 2024. Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK.

Please note, the next publication of Pension Credit application statistics is due around the end of February 2025 and will cover the data up to week commencing 10 February 2025.

Because of how we capture our operational data, information on claims received over that period which have not been paid to the claimant/refused on the grounds of the claimant being ineligible is not available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.

Statistics on Pension Credit award volumes were published on 28 November 2024. This publication includes numbers of applications that were received, awarded and not awarded, up to 17 November 2024. Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK. Please note, the next publication of Pension Credit application statistics is due around the end of February 2025 and will cover the data up to week commencing 10 February 2025.

These estimates are provided at a pensioner unit level. The estimated number of pensioner units with the gross annual incomes specified are stated in the following text. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100,000 and then displayed in millions. Individual figures have been rounded independently, so figures may not sum due to rounding.

(a) (i) lower than £23,795.20 – 4.1m, (ii) higher than £23,795.20 – 4.6m

(b) (i) lower than £12,570 – 1.0m, (ii) higher than £12,570 – 7.7m

(c) (i) lower than £50,271 – 7.4m, (ii) higher than £50,271 – 1.2m

(d) (i) lower than £125,140 – 8.5m, (ii) higher than £125,140 – 0.2m

(e) (i) lower than £60,000 – 7.9m, (ii) higher than £60,000 – 0.8m

(f) (i) lower than £70,000 – 8.2m, (ii) higher than £70,000 – 0.5m

(g) (i) lower than £24,000 – 4.2m, (ii) higher than £24,000 – 4.5m

These estimates are based on Pensioners’ Incomes data derived from the Family Resources Survey and cover private householders in the United Kingdom and the financial year 2022/23.

A pensioner unit can be a single pensioner over State Pension age, a pensioner couple where one member is over State Pension age, or a pensioner couple where both members are over State Pension age.

The information is not held in the format requested. Weekly reports with figures for food poisoning by region are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notifiable-diseases-weekly-reports-for-2025.

Following a resurgence of measles in late 2023 and 2024, there has been a decline in the number of cases from mid-July 2024, but small, localised outbreaks of measles are still affecting some regions of the United Kingdom. These ongoing outbreaks are largely due to a gradual decline in the uptake of childhood vaccines over the last decade, including the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which offers protection against measles.

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, and improve uptake across childhood immunisation programmes, the Department is working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England. The UKHSA and NHS England are supporting the National Health Service and local authorities to take steps to promote uptake by providing diverse delivery methods, to make getting vaccinated easier. This includes increasing outreach efforts to under-served groups and raising awareness of the dangers of vaccine preventable diseases, such as measles. Paid for marketing campaigns to support uptake of childhood immunisations, including MMR, have been run over the past year, with evaluation showing positive results.

In addition to this, the Department regularly meets with the UKHSA, national and regional NHS colleagues, and devolved administrations, to discuss efforts to reduce measles case numbers. The Department also stays well informed on measles trends, with the UKHSA continuing to closely monitor cases across the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England’s joint Tuberculosis (TB) Action Plan for England 2021 to 2026 contains actions to encourage the use of new tools to raise awareness of TB in at risk populations and the healthcare workforce. Full details are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tuberculosis-tb-action-plan-for-england/tuberculosis-tb-action-plan-for-england-2021-to-2026.

The UKHSA produced a TB stakeholder communications toolkit which is shared widely at a national and regional level, including by the British Chamber of Commerce. A copy of the toolkit is attached.

The UKHSA continues to raise awareness through national, regional, and specialist media coverage, as well as through community engagement through our regional health protection teams. The UKHSA also commissioned a radio campaign for the Prison Radio Association to raise the prison population’s awareness of TB in England and Wales. Further campaigns are planned.

The NHS England funded Getting It Right First Time TB report, published in March 2025, noted numerous examples of information for awareness-raising for the public from both national and locally developed sources, often in multiple languages. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/girft-review-of-tuberculosis-national-report.pdf

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England’s collaborative Tuberculosis (TB): action plan for England, 2021 to 2026 aims to reduce the numbers of cases of TB in non-United Kingdom born individuals migrating to the UK. The plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tuberculosis-tb-action-plan-for-england/tuberculosis-tb-action-plan-for-england-2021-to-2026

The UK pre-entry TB screening programme operates in 102 countries and is intended to reduce the importation of TB by screening applicants for long term visas, those greater than six months, from high TB incidence countries, those with more than 40 cases per 100,000 people. People are screened in line with the UK Technical Instructions, which are available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5cd18ae5e5274a34ee7f0275/UK_tuberculosis_technical_instructions_version_7.pdf

Identifying the contacts of people with active TB allows people who would be at high risk of developing the disease to be treated before they become ill. Enhancing contact tracing is a key pillar of the national action plan.

There is also NHS England’s Latent Tuberculosis Infection Testing and Treatment programme, for migrants from high TB burden countries within five years of entry to the UK. In 2023, 34,680 people were tested, an increase of over 100% compared with the pre- pandemic year of 2019.

In the UK, an appropriate test to confirm or discard cases is essential. As per the guidelines, all suspected measles cases reported to Health Protection Teams are sent an oral fluid kit for testing at the Virus Reference Department at UKHSA Colindale.

The UK Health Security Agency publishes national clinical and public health guidelines for the management of all suspected measles cases at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-measles-guidelines

High quality surveillance is a fundamental component of the UK measles and rubella elimination strategy, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategy

Measles is a notifiable disease and healthcare professionals are legally required to report all suspected cases to their local Health Protection Team.