Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to support police officers in tackling knife crime amongst young adults.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Preventing children and young people from becoming involved in knife crime while supporting the police to tackle offending where it occurs, is central to our mission to halve knife crime in a decade and to make our streets safer. Protecting Lives, Building Hope: A Plan to Halve Knife Crime details the full range of measures that Government is taking to tackle the root causes of knife crime among young people and to strengthen enforcement.
In February 2026, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice announced new action to tackle child knife possession. The new guidance, which came into force on 1 April 2026, ensures that Police and Youth Justice Services work together so that every child caught carrying a knife is given a mandatory targeted plan to address the root causes of their offending and help prevent further offending.
We are also supporting early intervention and prevention by investing over £66 million in the Serious Violence Reduction Programme and the Serious Violence Duty this financial year. This funding will help continue the work of Violence Reduction Units, which bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their areas, and will support the Young Futures Panel pilots, which identify young people at risk of being drawn into crime and provide early, targeted and diversionary support.
Our new Knife Crime Concentrations Fund will also invest £26.25 million this year to strengthen enforcement and prevention in the areas most affected by knife crime. Building on last year's hyperlocal knife crime pilots, we are expanding this approach across 27 police force areas, which together account for around 90% of knife crime in England and Wales. This funding will support police forces and local partners to work together to identify and tackle the specific factors driving knife crime in the locations most affected, enabling targeted and evidence-led interventions.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she is taking to prevent knife crime amongst young people.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Preventing children and young people from becoming involved in knife crime while supporting the police to tackle offending where it occurs, is central to our mission to halve knife crime in a decade and to make our streets safer. Protecting Lives, Building Hope: A Plan to Halve Knife Crime details the full range of measures that Government is taking to tackle the root causes of knife crime among young people and to strengthen enforcement.
In February 2026, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice announced new action to tackle child knife possession. The new guidance, which came into force on 1 April 2026, ensures that Police and Youth Justice Services work together so that every child caught carrying a knife is given a mandatory targeted plan to address the root causes of their offending and help prevent further offending.
We are also supporting early intervention and prevention by investing over £66 million in the Serious Violence Reduction Programme and the Serious Violence Duty this financial year. This funding will help continue the work of Violence Reduction Units, which bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their areas, and will support the Young Futures Panel pilots, which identify young people at risk of being drawn into crime and provide early, targeted and diversionary support.
Our new Knife Crime Concentrations Fund will also invest £26.25 million this year to strengthen enforcement and prevention in the areas most affected by knife crime. Building on last year's hyperlocal knife crime pilots, we are expanding this approach across 27 police force areas, which together account for around 90% of knife crime in England and Wales. This funding will support police forces and local partners to work together to identify and tackle the specific factors driving knife crime in the locations most affected, enabling targeted and evidence-led interventions.
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 improve educational outcomes for children in deindustrialised areas.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
‘Every child achieving and thriving’ establishes the department’s plan to deliver improved outcomes for all children, regardless of their background or where they live. Our ambition is for all children to achieve higher standards and for the disadvantage gap to be halved.
We will recruit 6,500 additional expert teachers, expand access to high-quality enrichment opportunities, and Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams are helping all schools navigate a pathway to improvement. We are also launching two place-focused missions to drive improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low.
The department is transforming technical education from age 14, placing technical and academic pathways on an equal footing and ensuring every young person has access to high-quality routes into skilled employment and further study. We will work with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to design locally tailored vocational pathways for students from age 14 in every region.
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 ensure SEND students in mainstream schools receive adequate additional support in their subjects.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is delivering a new, world-leading school curriculum that raises standards for all children and embeds inclusion for all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), or need additional stretch.
To support the development of a more inclusive mainstream system, we are investing £500 million per financial year over the next three years through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF) to support schools, colleges and early years settings with upfront funding to help them move towards becoming more inclusive by design.
We have published guidance for school leaders on how to develop an Inclusion Strategy and use their IMF allocations alongside core budgets to more effectively invest in inclusive approaches and activities that address barriers to learning and participation.
Additionally, we are giving teachers better tools to identify and support needs early, while ensuring specialist settings meet the needs of pupils with the most complex needs. To support this, on 16 January the government announced a new training package, backed by £200 million of new funding, so that all teachers, educators, teaching assistants, support staff and leaders across early years, schools and post-16 settings can be trained to support pupils with SEND.
The department is also investing around £1.8 billion over three years in a new Experts at Hand offer, providing mainstream settings with access to specialist expertise from health and education professionals to strengthen staff capability, improve support for pupils with SEND in the classroom, and enable earlier intervention where needs arise.
We will support schools to respond to pupils’ learning and development needs with evidence‑informed resources, helping make mainstream education more inclusive and improving outcomes. This aligns with our commitment to deliver a high‑quality, ambitious curriculum for every child, including those with SEND.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what criteria his Department has for deciding on locations for data centres.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government does not determine locations for individual data centres. Decisions on where to locate data centres are made by developers, taking account of factors such as access to power, connectivity, land availability, environmental considerations, and local planning policy. The Government’s AI Growth Zones (AIGZ) programme supports projects in areas with the energy, land and infrastructure needed to support future AI and data centre investment, while ensuring impacts on local communities and the environment are appropriately considered.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her department has made of anticipated future trends in educational attainment at (a) primary and (b) secondary level in the Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Attainment data for both key stage 2 and key stage 4 is published at parliamentary constituency, local authority, regional and national level.
‘Every child achieving and thriving’ sets the department’s our plan to deliver improved outcomes for all children, regardless of their background or where they live. Our ambition is for all children to achieve higher standards, while halving the disadvantage gap.
We are delivering this though Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams, who are supporting all schools to navigate a pathway to improvement. We are also introducing a refreshed, high-quality curriculum and assessment system and recruiting 6,500 additional teachers. Alongside this, we are addressing barriers to learning through measures to improve attendance, roll out free breakfast clubs and tackle child poverty.
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, what steps his Department is taking to ensure customers are protected from (a) injury and (b) other harm as a result of attending (i) hairdressers and (ii) barbershops.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
Businesses in the hair and beauty sector including barber shops, hairdressers and beauty salons are required to comply with the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated regulations, which place duties on businesses to assess and control the risk for employees and others affected by their work, including members of the public.
While the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are the policy lead for the hair and beauty sector, responsibility for enforcing health and safety legislation at individual businesses rests with the local authority in which the premises are located.
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 ensure that secondary schools offer a wide range of creative subjects for pupils at GCSE.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government has committed to revitalising arts in schools, and in particular widening access to arts subjects. This is supported by wide-ranging measures, including revising the national curriculum and qualifications, setting clearer expectations on schools with the recently published Enrichment Framework guidance, the removal of the EBacc secondary school performance measures and consultation on new Progress 8 measures and the establishment of a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education.
For key stage 4, all pupils in maintained schools must be offered the opportunity to study a range of subjects and obtain an approved qualification, including GCSEs. This includes an entitlement to study a qualification in at least one arts subject, art and design, music, dance, drama, and media arts, alongside an entitlement to study a qualification in design and technology. These entitlements will extend to academy-status schools following the introduction of the revised national curriculum.
Reform of the curriculum and assessment system will also support clear pathways into further study, training and high-quality careers, while maintaining high standards and the importance of both knowledge and skills. We expect there to be a public consultation on proposals for curriculum and assessment in due course.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with water companies about the steps they are taking to (a) fix leaks and (b) invest in improved infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is taking action to reduce water wastage, tackle leakage and improve water infrastructure. We have set an interim target to reduce leakage by 30% by 2032 and expect Ofwat to challenge water companies to halve leakage by 2050. Through Price Review 2024, Ofwat requires companies to reduce leakage by 17% over 2025-30, supported by around £700 million for pressure management, fixing leaks and replacing mains. A further £1.7 billion has been allowed for 10.4 million smart meters, helping companies identify leaks through more timely and accurate data. Water companies must set out how they will secure future supplies in statutory Water Resources Management Plans, including through demand reduction and new water resources infrastructure such as reservoirs, transfers desalination and water recycling. The Water White Paper also commits Government to developing statutory resilience standards, so companies make forward-looking, long-term assessments of their systems.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help improve (a) ageing and (b) insufficient water infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is taking action to reduce water wastage, tackle leakage and improve water infrastructure. We have set an interim target to reduce leakage by 30% by 2032 and expect Ofwat to challenge water companies to halve leakage by 2050. Through Price Review 2024, Ofwat requires companies to reduce leakage by 17% over 2025-30, supported by around £700 million for pressure management, fixing leaks and replacing mains. A further £1.7 billion has been allowed for 10.4 million smart meters, helping companies identify leaks through more timely and accurate data. Water companies must set out how they will secure future supplies in statutory Water Resources Management Plans, including through demand reduction and new water resources infrastructure such as reservoirs, transfers desalination and water recycling. The Water White Paper also commits Government to developing statutory resilience standards, so companies make forward-looking, long-term assessments of their systems.