Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consideration she has given to the wider rollout of air conditioning on buses in response to recent extreme temperatures.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government recognises the vital role that bus drivers play in supporting local communities and understands the importance of driver welfare, not only for the health and wellbeing of drivers themselves, but also for the safety of passengers and other road users.
The majority of bus services in England outside London are operated on a commercial basis by private companies, and operators are expected to ensure their employees have access to healthy and safe working conditions.
In addition, the Public Service Vehicles (Conditions of Fitness, Equipment, Use and Certification) Regulations 1981 sets out the requirements for public service vehicles, including buses, in relation to the equipment on board and vehicle specification. These regulations make clear that ‘adequate ventilation shall be provided for passengers and the driver without the necessity for opening any main window or windscreen’. Bus operators are required to ensure their fleet complies with these regulations.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote music education in schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government believes that music is an essential part of the well-rounded and enriching education every child deserves.
Music is a national curriculum subject from key stages 1 to 3, and all state-funded schools, including academies, will have a duty to teach the revised music programme of study from September 2028.
We continue to invest £76 million annually through the revenue grant funding for the Music Hubs network to improve equity of access to music education in schools, including for the 2026/27 academic year. We also continue to invest £25 million capital funding for musical instruments, equipment and technology.
We will establish the new National Centre for Music and Arts Education later this year to support teacher development, investing up to £13 million over three years. We will set out future funding for the Music Hub network, including to support delivery of the new national curriculum for music in all state-funded schools from September 2028.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment her Department has made of the equality impact of the exemption for those providing healthcare services under section 1.3 of the Draft Conversion Practices Bill.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The Government published its draft Conversion Practices Bill on 25 June for pre-legislative scrutiny. We welcome cross-party engagement and scrutiny on all aspects of this draft legislation, including the healthcare provisions.
Our proposed Bill will criminalise abusive, harmful acts which are intended to change a person's identity. To be clear, a conversion practice would never be legitimate healthcare and healthcare providers will be within the scope of the offence if they fall below the standards reasonably expected of a person in their position.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the EHRC’s draft Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations (2026) on the hospitality sector.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The Government has always been clear that the proper process for the Equality Act 2010 draft Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations needs to be followed, which includes understanding the potential impact on duty bearers.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has undertaken an assessment of the costs on duty bearers. The Secretary of State took this assessment into account when making her decision on the Code. The cost impact assessment and equality impact assessment are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made and assessment of the potential impact of changes to the two child benefit cap on levels of food bank use.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Although no assessment has been made regarding the impact of these changes on food bank use specifically, the reversal of the two child limit in Universal Credit demonstrates this Government’s relentless commitment to tackling child poverty by investing in the future of our children.
This measure is the most cost effective and quickest way of reducing child poverty over this Parliament and, by itself, will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament. It is not right that children were punished for choices that were not their own and we are determined to lift children out of poverty regardless of the size of their family.
Our commitment to tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s plan for national renewal - delivering more security, more opportunity, and more respect for every family and every community across the UK.
We are committed to tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels. We have already taken many decisive steps to achieve this on top of removing the two child limit. This includes the expansion of free school meals and tripling our investment in breakfast clubs. We have also confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years.
In addition, on 1 April 2026, we introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis.