Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to promote UK tourism in other countries.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS works with the national tourism agency, VisitBritain, to champion visits to Britain to a worldwide audience with the aim of ensuring that the economic benefits of tourism are felt by all regions and nations.
To drive more inbound visits across Britain, VisitBritain launched a global screen tourism campaign ‘’Starring Great Britain’’ in January 2025. The campaign uses the country's rich film and television history as a hook to inspire visitors to explore diverse and often rural destinations. The launch was supported by a wider advertising campaign across the UK’s largest and most valuable inbound visitor markets including Australia, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, France, Germany and the USA.
The Government is committed to supporting the sector through the forthcoming Visitor Economy Growth Plan, which will set out a long term plan to increase visitor flows across the UK, boost value, and deliver sustainable growth.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve availability of grassroots football facilities in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that communities across the UK benefit from high-quality sport facilities - including new and improved pitches, changing rooms, goalposts and floodlights - to help enable people to get active and build pride in place in local communities.
In 2024/25, the constituency of Ashfield received a total of £1,849,232 from DCMS’s Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities programme, primarily towards a new artificial grass pitch and changing pavilion at Sutton Lawn Pleasure Ground.
This programme is investing a further £98 million towards new and upgraded sports facilities across the whole of the UK in 2025/26. At least £400 million more will be invested in new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities between 2026 and 2030. DCMS is working with the sports sector and local leaders to develop plans for delivering this funding, ensuring that investment best serves the needs of local communities, in the areas which need it most across the UK.
Our delivery partner in England, the Football Foundation, plans its investment pipeline using Local Football Facility Plans (LFFPs), which are developed in partnership with local authorities in line with the needs of each community. The LFFP for Ashfield can be found at https://localplans.footballfoundation.org.uk/local-authorities-index/ashfield/ashfield-executive-summary/.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2025 to Question 73665 on Pupils: English Language, what proportion of children starting primary school cannot speak English to an acceptable standard.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not hold specific data on the proportion of children starting primary school who are unable to speak English to an acceptable standard.
Information on teacher assessments of children’s development at the end of the early years foundation stage (EYFS), specifically the end of the academic year in which a child turns five, is published as part of the annual statistical release, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-results/2023-24.
The latest data on the percentage of children at expected level for communication and language, including speaking, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/d481e08f-ef55-4809-f8d6-08de0724494a.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to remove interest rates on student loans.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Student loans are subject to interest to ensure that those who can afford to do so contribute to the full cost of their degree. To consider both students and taxpayers, and ensure the real value of the loans over the repayment term, interest rates are linked to inflation.
Interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by student loan borrowers. Student loan repayments are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or the amount borrowed. Regular repayments are based on a fixed percentage of earnings above the applicable student loan repayment threshold.
No repayments are made for earnings below the relevant student loan repayment threshold. For lower earners who will not repay much of their loan, any outstanding debt, including interest built up, is cancelled after the loan term ends or in case of death or disability, at no detriment to the borrower.
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 improve maternity safety in hospitals.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced a rapid, national, independent Investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal services, chaired by Baroness Amos, to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies and families experience unacceptable care.
The Investigation will look into maternity and neonatal services in 14 NHS trusts alongside reviewing the maternity and neonatal system, bringing together the findings of past reviews into one clear national set of actions.
The Government is also establishing a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce. The Taskforce will be chaired by the Secretary of State and will take forward the recommendations of the Investigation, forming them into a national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.
Alongside this, the Government is taking immediate action to boost accountability and safety as part of its mission to build an NHS fit for the future – including measures to hold the system to account, a system to better identify safety concerns, rolling out a programme to all trusts to tackle discrimination and racism, and new best practice standards in maternal mortality.
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, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of Personal Independence Payments claims by type of mental health condition for the last 3 years for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The complete breakdown of PIP claims by type of mental health condition from April 2013 to July 2025 (the most recent available data) is available on Stats-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml). Guidance on how to use PIP data on Stat-Xplore is also available here: Personal Independence Payment data on Stat-Xplore: user guide - GOV.UK. An account is not required to use Stat-Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.
The relevant information can be found in the ‘PIP Clearances’ dataset. To customise the reporting period, use the ‘Month’ filter to select the months you wish to include.
Next, under the ‘Disability’ category, click the arrow beside ‘Psychiatric disorders’ and select ‘Disability’. This will ensure all disabilities under psychiatric disorders are included in the output.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislation to enforce time limits for development companies of newbuild housing estates to have roads adopted by local authorities.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. and Rt Hon. Members to the answer given to Question UIN 80700 on 20 October 2025.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons prisoners can become eligible for parole before their earliest potential release date.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We have interpreted “eligible for parole” to mean that a prisoner must lawfully be referred to the Parole Board of England & Wales to assess whether they can be safely released into the community on licence.
The statutory framework on parole for both indeterminate and relevant determinate sentence cases is set out in the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
Prisoners are not eligible to be considered for parole until the end of the minimum custodial term which is their earliest possible release date. That date is known as the parole eligibility date (PED) or tariff expiry date (TED) depending on the type of sentence. The minimum custodial term is set by the courts when the sentence is imposed and cannot be changed by the Secretary of State.
There is no data on the number of prisoners who have successfully applied for parole before their minimum sentence has been served, because such releases are not permitted under legislation.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making prisoners ineligible for parole until after they have served their minimum term in prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Prisoners may only be considered for release by the Parole Board once their minimum term has been served; this is known as the parole eligibility date (or tariff expiry date for indeterminate sentences). This statutory safeguard guarantees that no prisoner will be released prior to serving the minimum period of custody established by the court. Release before this point is not permitted under legislation other than the Secretary of State’s overriding power to release any prisoner early on compassionate grounds, which is rarely used.
The recent Independent Sentencing Review proposed a progression model that would allow certain offenders, namely those serving extended determinate sentences, to earn earlier consideration for release based on behaviour and rehabilitation. However, this recommendation was rejected because we do not think it would be right to allow prisoners who have been deemed dangerous by the courts to have their parole eligibility date brought forward.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people convicted of (a) murder, (b) other violent offences, and (c) sexual offences have successfully applied for parole in each of the last 3 years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I must clarify that prisoners serving parole eligible sentences do not apply for parole. By law, the Secretary of State for Justice must refer such prisoners to the independent Parole Board at the point of earliest eligibility in line with the sentence being served.
The table below sets out the number of release directions issued by the Parole Board for the period requested, broken down by offence group:
Offence Group | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Sexual offences | 493 | 638 | 687 |
Murder | 308 | 379 | 344 |
Violent offences | 986 | 1,255 | 1,178 |
1. The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
In considering prisoners’ suitability for release, the independent Parole Board conducts a stringent assessment of risk based on a dossier of evidence. Public protection remains the number one priority and the Parole Board will only release prisoners where it is satisfied that any risks posed are able to be safely managed in the community under the supervision of the Probation Service.