Lauren Edwards

The Government has set out a Plan for Change, outlining our ambitious yet achievable milestones, including raising living standards in every part of the United Kingdom to ensure working people have more money in their pockets.

The Government is working to ensure that public sector data is fit for purpose, trusted, ethically managed, and reused for the public good with robust safeguards for privacy, regardless of the individual departmental source.

Cabinet Office ministers are actively working with ministerial colleagues in other departments to encourage data sharing to support the delivery of the Government’s Plan for Change.

The Civil Service provides its employees with a comprehensive range of health and wellbeing tools and policies to ensure that employees remain in work or return to work as quickly as possible following absence due to ill health.

The Cabinet Office is fully committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of its civil servants, and has introduced a range of initiatives aimed at promoting good mental health.

Managers within the Cabinet Office are provided with training to identify early signs of mental health issues and offer appropriate support. Cabinet Office employees also have access to a confidential employee assistance programme (EAP), which offers mental health support, including counselling services.

The British Business Bank delivers most programmes via third parties, limiting data on gender and sectoral breakdowns, however it aims to increase gender data in 2025.

The Start Up Loans programme is an example of where gender data is held, and since 2012, it has delivered over 118,000 loans totalling more than £1.1 billion, with 40% going to female founders.

As a founding signatory of the Investing in Women Code, the Bank supports women entrepreneurs by improving access to the tools, resources and finance they need. The Bank also collects data on equity finance for female entrepreneurs and is committed to enhancing data collection of its own equity finance activities.

The Bank has also invested £50 million through existing programmes, supporting the Invest in Women Taskforce.

Cross-border cooperation with our European neighbours is vital for our energy security. Through the government’s wider reset of relations with Europe we have strengthened our relationship with key partners, and will work together to secure our safety, security and prosperity.

The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan outlines our approach to delivering a clean electricity system, including our approach to cross-border energy projects. It expects 12-14GW of electricity interconnection by 2030, up from the 9.8GW currently installed.

Under the UK-EU reset we are working with the EU to identify areas (such as electricity interconnection) where we can strengthen cooperation for mutual benefit.

GridLink’s completion is, like all interconnector projects, contingent on the project receiving approval in both connecting countries. The project has regulatory approval in GB, however the French approval process remains ongoing. The UK Government has no role in this.

The Office for Clean Energy Jobs (‘the Office’) has been established within DESNZ. The Office will focus on developing a skilled workforce in core energy and net zero sectors, crucial to meeting our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower. Recognising the critical workforce challenges within the energy transition, the Office is dedicated to ensuring that clean energy jobs are not only abundant, but also of high quality, focussing on fair pay, favourable terms, and good working conditions.

The Office is actively engaging with key stakeholders, including trade unions and industry leaders, to keep job quality at the forefront of our efforts. Grangemouth will be among the first areas that the Office will work with, as part of the joint UK and Scottish Government investment plan. DESNZ will also come on board as a strategic partner to develop a skills passport to support workers to transition to the clean energy sector.

The Office for National Statistics routinely publishes official statistics on Gross Expenditure on Research & Development (GERD), including breakdowns of expenditure by sector. These statistics show the total value of R&D performed, for each of the past five years for which data is available (2018 – 2022), was:

Current prices (£m)

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s recommendations for safeguarding children with disabilities and complex health needs in residential settings were set out in their phase 2 report published in April 2023. Recommendation 1 concerned the provision of specialist non-instructed advocacy services.

The department is determined to improve the provision of advocacy services. We will publish updated statutory guidance on the provision of effective advocacy services under the Children Act 1989 and updated national standards for children’s advocacy services, later this year. The latter will include a new standard on non-instructed advocacy for children with complex needs and learning disabilities and new requirements for advocacy services in the safeguarding of children.

The government set out this information, including its commitment to publishing revised National Standards on Children’s Advocacy, in the report ‘Tackling child sexual abuse: progress update’ which was published on 8 April 2025 and is available on the government’s website.

I refer the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood to the answer of 7 April 2025 to Question 40142.

The apprenticeship funding rules for the 2025/2026 academic year were published on 15 May 2025 on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-funding-rules-2025-to-2026.

These include guidance for employers and providers on the growth and skills offer, including on foundation and shorter duration apprenticeships. All apprenticeships starting on or after 1 August 2025 will be subject to these rules unless otherwise specified.

The apprenticeship funding rules for the 2025/2026 academic year were published on 15 May 2025 on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-funding-rules-2025-to-2026.

These include guidance for employers and providers on the growth and skills offer, including on foundation and shorter duration apprenticeships. All apprenticeships starting on or after 1 August 2025 will be subject to these rules unless otherwise specified.

I refer the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood to the answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39389.

As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this session. This will put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, ensuring networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them. The Bill will increase powers available to local leaders to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising, high-quality partnerships with private operators or local authority ownership. The Department is currently working to finalise the exact scope of the Buses Bill.

We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring that rural areas, including West Dorset, have the resources to continue serving their patients. To address this, we will increase capacity in general practice (GP) and ensure rural areas have the necessary workforce to provide integrated, patient-centred services.

We are committed to training thousands more GPs across the country, including in rural areas. We have also committed to recruiting over 1,000 newly qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which will increase the number of appointments delivered in GPs. This will increase capacity, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.

As set out in my previous response, it is a decision for EU authorities whether to extend further the Article 25 EMIR decision for UK CCPs. As the Bank of England has noted previously, there are financial stability risks which might arise from EU firms having to exit from UK CCPs at pace. HM Treasury, alongside the financial services regulators, will therefore continue to monitor the situation.

The EU took the decision in early 2022 to extend its equivalence decision for UK central counterparties, made under Article 25 of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, until June 2025. Equivalence decisions are made on a unilateral basis by EU authorities and it is therefore a decision for EU authorities on whether this is extended. The UK Government is committed to maintain and strengthen our high standards for CCP regulation.

The Home Office does not publish data on the number of referrals made to the Prevent programme below regional levels because it could enable a threat picture to be built which could be used for terrorist purposes.

The number of referrals made to the Prevent programme in the South-East region, in which the areas the Hon Member has asked about are contained, is provided in the table below.

Number of individuals referred to the Prevent Programme within the South East region each year since the financial year ending 2020

Further information on the individuals referred to Prevent can be found in the published annual statistics on GOV.UK: Individuals referred to Prevent: to March 2024.

The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to anti-social behaviour, including acts of vandalism and criminal damage.

It is for local areas and individual police forces to decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances of each case, but the Government is determined to restore the neighbourhood policing that enables local forces to respond visibly and effectively to incidents of crime in our country’s high streets and town centres, including putting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and community support officers back on the beat in local communities to help lead that fight.

On 5 February I formally invited unitary proposals from all the councils in two tier areas and their neighbouring small unitaries. It is for councils to develop robust and sustainable proposals that are in the best interests of their whole area. Local government reorganisation is a complex process, and we are at the beginning of this journey. We will continue to reset the relationship and work in partnership with the sector to ensure they receive the necessary support as we work together to deliver this ambitious agenda. Councils need our full backing and support to drive these changes forward and this government is acutely aware of the difficult financial situation facing all councils. On 24 March I announced that £7.6 million will be made available in the form of local government reorganisation proposal development contributions, to be split across these 21 areas, and I will provide further information on how this is to be allocated shortly.

On 5^th February 2025 I formally invited unitary proposals from all the councils in two tier areas and their neighbouring small unitaries. In this invitation I set out the timelines for the submission of proposals for each area.

Once proposals have been submitted it will be for the government to decide on taking a proposal forward to consult on as required by statute. We will take a phased approach, and expect that Government will take decisions on proposals between summer 2025 and spring 2026, ahead of delivering new unitary authorities in April 2027 and 2028.

The potential impact of local government reorganisation on individual areas will be a matter for local councils to consider as they develop their proposals for reorganisation. It is essential that councils developing proposals for reorganisation continue to deliver their business-as-usual services and duties, which remain unchanged up until such time as the reorganisation process is complete. This duty may include arrangements around third party contracts that deliver or support the delivery of statutory services.

Until a decision about any new councils is made and legislation is in place councils are encouraged to consider voluntary arrangements to help balance the decisions needed now to maintain service delivery and ensure value for money for council taxpayers, with those key decisions that will affect the future success of any new councils in the area.