Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure families from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to high quality childcare provision.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life. Low-income families, children with education, health and care plans and looked after children are eligible for 15 hours funded early education from age two until they start school. In addition to this, eligible disadvantaged children can get early years pupil premium (EYPP). This additional funding supports the delivery of high quality early education that improves disadvantaged children’s outcomes. In December 2024, the department announced an unprecedented 45% increase to EYPP from 1 April 2025.

Support for disadvantaged children is also reflected when distributing core funding for the entitlements. The early years national funding formulae (EYNFFs) are used to determine the hourly rates to fund individual local authorities for early years entitlements. The EYNFFs target funding to local authorities where it is needed most and each include an additional needs factor that accounts for 10.5% of entitlement funding. This needs factor comprises of an 8% deprivation factor, a 1.5% English as an additional language factor and a 1% Disability Allowance factor. Local authorities are responsible for setting individual provider funding rates in consultation with their providers and schools forum, and fund providers using their own local funding formula, which may include a deprivation supplement.

Local authorities are required by legislation to provide sufficient childcare places for children in their local area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. If a parent is unable to secure a place, they should contact their local authority.

The department is also supporting the creation of new places. School-based nurseries are a key part of this government’s opportunity mission, delivering on our Plan for Change by expanding high quality early education across England. We have awarded 300 primary-phase schools £37 million to repurpose spare space for new or expanded nursery provision, opening from September 2025, to support the expansion of childcare entitlements. School-based nurseries are particularly well-placed to support families in disadvantaged areas, with over a quarter of providers in the most deprived areas based in schools. For the school-based nurseries grant, applications for the grant were scored more highly if they clearly evidenced a focus on supporting children from disadvantaged families. This was validated using departmental data relating to established disadvantaged factors.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to mitigate rail congestion across East-West rail lines in the north of England.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline portfolio contains some of the most transformative and important programmes in the country such as the TransPennine Route Upgrade, which will increase capacity and improve reliability of East to West rail lines in the north of England.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to target additional judicial resources toward court settings which are at capacity in Greater Manchester.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are continuing to invest in judicial recruitment nationally, across all jurisdictions, with plans to recruit around 1000 judges and tribunal members in 2025-26; and around 2,000 magistrates in 2025-26, and annually thereafter. Following recruitment, regional and court level deployment decisions are a matter for the judiciary, and we support actions to flexibly deploy judges to maximise capacity where it is needed.

Our assessment is that overall there is currently sufficient judicial capacity in the courts in the North West, including Greater Manchester. Any vacancies which may arise as a result of departures are expected to be filled through planned recruitment.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure the resilience of critical transport infrastructure in the north of England.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The government is committed to ensuring the resilience of the transport network across the UK, including vital services in the North of England. We work closely with transport operators to prevent and respond to the range of risks the sector faces: and aid them in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing contingency planning arrangements.

Transport related risks to resilience are kept under review, including through the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment, and the external-facing version, the National Risk Register, to ensure that we effectively plan at the national and local levels. This includes risks around adverse weather conditions, security threats and accidents.

We are also conducting a Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) review to support our work, building our understanding of the CNI landscape and the wide variety of systems, dependencies and redundancies that keep it running. This work is strengthening our ability to plan against risks and threats and bolster our incident response capabilities, ensuring our Critical National Infrastructure is resilient and secure.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the deliverability of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

As announced in the Autumn 2024 Budget, we are maintaining momentum on Northern Powerhouse Rail by progressing planning and design works to support future delivery. This improved rail connectivity in the north is a vital step towards better linking people and jobs, creating opportunities for everyone and we will set out further details in due course.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to help promote maritime tourism for both (a) ferry and (b) cruise markets.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The UK is a leading hub for the global cruise industry, with ports such as Southampton, Dover, Greenock and Liverpool welcoming more than 3 million passengers annually.

The Department regularly engages with a range of stakeholders across the tourism sector, including the cruise industry, to understand their perspectives and challenges. As an example, the Cruise Lines International Association is a member of the Government’s Visitor Economy Advisory Council to ensure that we maximise the potential of maritime tourism to deliver growth. DCMS remains committed to maximising the benefits of cruise and ferry tourism for the UK, noting the sector’s significant contribution to the UK economy.

Found: Members present: Ruth Cadbury (Chair); Steff Aquarone; Dr Scott Arthur; Catherine Atkinson; Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Graeme Downie Frank McNally Blair McDougall Martin Rhodes Alex Easton Ms Diane Abbott Mrs Elsie Blundell