Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report published in June 2025, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen taxi and private hire vehicle licensing regulations.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government response to Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse committed to legislate to tackle the inconsistent standards of taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) driver licensing. As a first step, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill seeks a power for the Secretary of State to set national standards for taxi and PHV licensing and to enable the suspension, with immediate effect, of any licence issued by any authority in whose area it is being used if such action is needed to protect public safety.
If passed, this would enable government to set robust standards for licensing right across England and provide licensing authorities with greater powers to keep vulnerable children and, indeed, all members of the public safe, wherever they live or travel.
The Department continues to consider further options for reform, including out-of-area working and enforcement. We need to ensure that taxis and PHVs are able to work in a way that facilitates the journeys passengers want and need to make, in a consistently safe way, whilst achieving the best overall outcomes for passenger safety.
The Government is currently consulting on making all local transport authorities responsible for taxi and PHV licensing. Administering licensing across larger areas would further increase consistency in licensing and enable better resourced authorities to make better use of their current and proposed enforcement powers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 118868 on Personal Independence Payment, when he expects additional health professionals to be recruited.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department continues to work closely with its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment suppliers to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place to meet operational demand. Recruitment of health professionals is a continuous activity undertaken by suppliers in line with contractual requirements and the need to maintain appropriate levels of trained staff.
Staffing levels are managed continuously by suppliers to respond to regional demand and ensure service quality.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to ensure electrical devices built in the UK are made to high durability standards.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to ensuring products made in the UK are to a high standard. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is not responsible for device durability standards. The Department for Business and Trade works closely with domestic manufacturers and industry bodies to strengthen standards and support shoppers in identifying high quality UK made products.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve support in the court system for victims of (a) rape and (b) sexual violence.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
To ensure that victims, including those of rape and sexual violence, receive the right and timely support, the Ministry of Justice has announced record investment of £550 million in victim support services over the next three years of this Spending Review period.
In addition, this Government is also taking decisive action to address long-standing issues that impact victims of rape and sexual violence. This includes:
Funding a record number of sitting days and uncapping Crown Court sitting days in 26/27, so that more rape and other sexual offence cases can be heard.
Introducing the Courts & Tribunals Bill to drive down the Crown Court caseload and reduce delays.
Introducing a package of legislative measures to protect victims of sexual violence in particular from unnecessary and intrusive cross-examination about their personal lives at court.
Announcing that we will introduce free Independent Legal Advisors this year, for victims and survivors of adult rape to help them to understand their legal rights.
Testing the Operation Soteria model in courtrooms, to ensure rape cases focus on suspects, not victims.
Rolling out trauma-informed training for all court staff, so that those who come into contact with victims at court understand how best to support their experience.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure free speech is maintained on university campuses.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom. We commenced provisions from the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 on 1 August 2025 that strengthen provider duties on free speech, including a requirement to put in place free speech codes of practice, and require the Office for Students (OfS) to promote free speech, while banning non-disclosure agreements on complaints about bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.
The OfS has also issued extensive guidance to higher education (HE) providers on commencement of their duties. The OfS’ Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom continues to work with the HE sector to offer advice and share best practice, so HE providers themselves are more effectively protecting free speech and academic freedom.
The department is seeking a suitable legislative vehicle to amend and repeal elements of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has had recent correspondence with universities on the enforcement of freedom of speech guidelines.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has not had recent correspondence with universities on the enforcement of the free speech duties. This answer does not cover any correspondence which the Office for Students may have had with universities on enforcement of freedom of speech.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support mature students in universities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As autonomous institutions, higher education (HE) providers are responsible for setting their own timetabling and student support arrangements and in doing so, must take the needs of all students including mature learners, into account.
In January 2027 the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will launch and transform the HE student finance system. The LLE will give adults, up to the age of 60, access to a flexible, four year loan entitlement to use over their working lives to study full courses and individual modules. The LLE will broaden access at levels 4 to 6 for a range of learners, including those returning to education later in life or studying whilst working.
We are also reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants, providing disadvantaged students with up to £1,000 extra per year on top of existing loans for living costs from academic year 2028/29.
Together, these reforms modernise the student finance system and ensure that mature students can access the support they need to participate and succeed in HE.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support students to challenge issues of free speech on university campuses.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Higher education (HE) must be a space for robust discussion, intellectual rigour and exposure to new ideas. These expectations on our universities are long standing and not negotiable.
There are already routes of redress for students where they believe that a HE provider has breached its duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023. As we have previously set out, students can already make complaints relating to free speech to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, whose service is free at the point of use.
The Office for Students (OfS) already regulates providers in relation to free speech and academic freedom through their existing conditions of registration. The OfS has also issued extensive guidance to HE providers on commencement of their duties, which supports students navigating these issues.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase access to medication for people with IBD.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations on whether all new medicines and significant licence extensions for existing medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. In the last three years, NICE has recommended five new drugs for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, including upadacitinib, risankizumab, mirikizumab, etrasimod, and guselkumab. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve GCSE pass rates among pupils eligible for free school meals in the Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper sets out our plans to build a system that supports every child to achieve and thrive.
It sets a clear path to raising standards and broadens children’s education. This includes a refreshed curriculum, improved transitions and an enrichment entitlement for every child.
To help improve GCSE outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, we are driving standards through new RISE teams, a refreshed high-quality curriculum and assessment system, recruiting 6,500 additional teachers and piloting a new place‑based Headteacher Retention Incentive to attract and support headteachers in the areas that need them most.
Additionally, in the 2026/27 financial year, £3.2 billion of pupil premium funding will support improved outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, and the National Funding Formula will allocate £5.6 billion according to deprivation. We are also developing a new model to better target disadvantage funding at the most entrenched need.
When this generation finishes secondary school, our ambition is for all pupils to reach at least a grade 5 across their GCSEs and for the disadvantage gap to be halved, with 30,000 more disadvantaged pupils passing English and maths GCSEs.