Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has her department made of exisiting legislation to restrict illegal trade of birds of prey.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

All wild birds of prey and their eggs are protected under UK legislation, including the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Offences can result in up to a six-month custodial sentence and/or an unlimited fine. Restrictions on the commercial use or trade of birds of prey are also in place under the UK Wildlife Trade Regulations (UK WTRs). Options for improving protections for birds of prey under the UK WTRs are being considered following a recent government consultation.

Crimes involving birds of prey are a national wildlife crime priority. To support enforcement of legislation and help prevent and detect wildlife crime more broadly, Defra provided £494,000 to the National Wildlife Crime Unit in 2025/26.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Keep Britain Working Vanguard Taskforce will adequately factor in the challenges of living with fluctuating conditions.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are bringing together a Vanguard Taskforce to steer the Keep Britain Working Vanguard Phase and are committed to listening to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, these voices will be reflected in the outputs of the phase.

This Taskforce will advise on the development of a Healthy Working Lifecycle Standard over the Vanguard Phase. The Standard will focus developing the best practices and approaches to drive better outcomes for all those managing health conditions or living with impairments, and as such the challenges of living with fluctuating conditions will be a key consideration.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to Salary Sacrifice Pension arrangements from 2029 on employer National Insurance costs for charities.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to pensions salary sacrifice.

Everyone using salary sacrifice will still benefit from the tax advantages available up to the £2,000 cap, including employers who can make up to £320 employer NICs savings per employee. Most salary sacrifice contributions are well below the £2,000 cap. This applies for all employers, including employers in the charity sector.

Employer pension contributions outside of salary sacrifice will continue to be NICs-free.

The Government also provides support for charities via our wider tax regime. It is among the most generous anywhere in the world, with tax reliefs for charities and their donors worth just over £6 billion for the tax year to April 2024.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of Local Housing Allowance for residents in Eastleigh constituency.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) determines the maximum levels of housing support for households claiming Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit and who rent in the private rented sector. LHA is not intended to cover all rents in all areas.

In April 2024 LHA rates were increased to the 30th percentile of local market rents, (including in the Eastleigh area), costing £1.2bn across Great Britain (GB) in 2024/25 and £7bn over 5 years.

LHA rates were reviewed at Autumn Budget and will remain at current levels in 2026/27. A range of factors were considered, such as rental levels across GB, the challenging fiscal context, and the impact of current levels of housing support

For those renters who require additional support to meet a shortfall in rent costs, Discretionary Housing Payments are available from local authorities.

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 coordinate data collection across (a) police forces and (b) other public bodies to monitor dog attacks on postal workers, and if she will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a cross-government approach to protect postal workers from such attacks.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is working with the police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to help prevent dog attacks. As part of this work, the Government reconvened the Responsible Dog Ownership taskforce to explore measures to promote responsible dog ownership across all breeds of dog. The taskforce is considering improvements in data collection and reporting. We look forward to receiving its findings and recommendations in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to reduce delays in cancer diagnosis, specifically for blood cancers such as leukaemia.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes.

To tackle the late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancers earlier and treating them faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.

The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention, and research and innovation. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next 10 years. This will benefit all cancer patients, including leukaemia and myeloma patients.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the availability and quality of data held by Integrated Care Boards on the prevalence of clinically diagnosed allergic conditions and the specialist allergy workforce in their local areas; and what consideration has he given to the potential merits of establishing a National Allergy Register, embedded within the planned Single Patient Record in improving patient safety and reducing regional inequalities in allergy care.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In conducting health needs assessments to inform their commissioning decisions, integrated care boards (ICBs) will have access to a wide range of data sources, including public health data, hospital statistics, primary care data, and social care metrics.

NHS England is working with the UK Fatal Anaphylaxis Register (UKFAR) to develop a mechanism for sharing relevant patient safety anaphylaxis incidents, including the reporting of anaphylaxis in hospitals. The aim will be for the UKFAR to extract and share patient safety incidents reported to the national databases, the National Reporting and Learning System and Learn from Patient Safety Events, relating to severe allergic reactions. Work has been progressing on this.

The National Allergy Strategy Group, an external group of stakeholders, is developing a UK National Allergy Strategy 2025-2035. The Department will carefully consider and respond to it when we receive it next year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure young people from all backgrounds can pursue a career in STEM.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Following the Curriculum and Assessment review, our new national curriculum and GCSEs will have improved coherence, specificity, sequencing, and will be grounded in the most important knowledge and disciplinary skills.

We will take forward many subject-specific Review recommendations for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), including working with schools to support them in developing a triple science offer for all pupils, ahead of introducing a statutory entitlement. We will build on support for early years and year 7 maths teaching, including through Maths Hubs programmes.

Through the Careers and Enterprise Company, the department funds high quality resources to embed STEM insights into the curriculum and match over 3,500 business volunteers, including 1,400 from STEM backgrounds, with schools and colleges to provide strategic support to develop their careers programme.

These measures will ensure that every child leaves school having mastered the subjects they have been taught and is able to pursue a career in their chosen field.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of mobility associated with armed forces service on the educational continuity of the children of service personnel with special educational needs and disabilities.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is aware of the potential impact of Service related mobility on children with additional needs from Armed Forces families. December 2025 saw the publication of MOD commissioned research carried out by Oxford Brookes University entitled ‘Supporting ALL to Thrive’ (See link: https://sattproject.org.uk/|).

This project investigated the educational opportunities, experiences and outcomes of children with additional learning or support needs and/or disabilities from UK Armed Forces families. The Oxford Brookes research team have presented their findings to the Department for Education and continue to work with the MOD in developing an evidence base that can help shape future policy development.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how her Department will monitor and evaluate the effects of the DVSA’s move to individualised booking of driving tests.

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

Measures were announced on 12 November that will restrict the booking and management of practical car driving tests to learner drivers, and limit test swaps and location changes.

This decision follows a call for evidence and a public consultation that many in the driving instructor industry responded to. These measures take into account the views of those who responded to the consultation and are designed to make the test booking process fairer, providing all learners with equal access to the booking system and ensuring that everyone pays the prescribed fee.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will continually monitor the effectiveness of these measures.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of measures taken to raise public awareness of changes to the Highway Code made in 2022, and whether increasing understanding of those changes will be reflected in the implementation of the Road Safety Strategy.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Following updates to the Highway Code in 2022, the department ran a THINK! campaign to raise awareness of the changes. This was followed by broader behaviour change campaigns in 2022 and 2023, to help embed the changes and encourage understanding and uptake of the guidance.

The percentage of road users reporting to know either a little or a lot about the Highway Code changes increased from 36% in January 2022 to over 50% in August 2022 and 70% in September 2023, with 86% of road users having heard of the changes by that time.

The Government's new road safety strategy identifies that more work is needed to continue embedding these changes.

The THINK! campaign will continue to run three radio filler adverts encouraging compliance with the guidance to improve safety for those walking, cycling and horse riding. We will also continue to promote the changes via THINK! and Department for Transport social media channels, as well as through partner organisations.

The Road Safety Strategy also sets out further actions to enable safer active travel including supporting councils to provide high-quality, easily accessible active travel schemes across England, and the development of its third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS 3).

As our road environment and technologies evolve, providing education for all road users throughout their lifetime is vital to improving road safety.

To support a Lifelong Learning approach in the UK, the government will publish for the first time national guidance on the development and delivery of road safety education, training and publicity.

Alongside this, the government will publish a manual to support the implementation of a Lifelong Learning approach for road safety.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support families of disadvantaged pupils with the cost of school trips.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

It is for schools to decide whether to offer school trips to their pupils. Schools receive pupil premium funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, which may be used to support extracurricular activities, including school trips.

Schools must comply with the law on charging for school activities, which prohibits charging for education provided during school hours. This means they may not make compulsory charges for a trip which takes place during school hours but they may ask parents for voluntary contributions towards the cost of the trip.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness in meeting the 8-week processing deadline for applications under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

UKVI are currently assessing Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme (UPE) visas within the published processing times. Information on visa processing times can be found at Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support young carers in school in Eastleigh constituency.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ states that all school staff should be alert to the potential need for early help for young carers and requires designated safeguarding leads to be trained to understand and respond to their needs. These expectations apply to all schools ensuring young carers, including those in Eastleigh, are supported to thrive in education.

The department is using school census data to shine a light on the educational disadvantage faced by young carers and published data on their attainment at key stages 2 and 4 for the first time last autumn. This increased visibility will ensure they receive tailored support and do not miss out on vital educational opportunities.

Further, Ofsted’s new education inspection framework places a direct focus on their inclusion, safeguarding and personal development, with explicit reference to young carers. This will drive stronger practice, identification and support for young carers in Eastleigh and nationally.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support pubs with operating costs in Eastleigh constituency.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

My department works closely with hospitality businesses to assess impact of rising operating costs across energy, staffing, compliance and taxation.

This includes regular engagement with the sector, including through the Hospitality Sector Council which provides a formal forum to co-create solutions to pressures facing the industry.

We also maintain regular engagement with trade bodies such as UKHospitality and the British Beer and Pub Association, as well as colleagues across government, to ensure that policy decisions are informed by the latest evidence and genuinely support the sector’s long-term stability.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress his Department has made on assessing the beer market to determine potential structural barriers preventing small brewers from accessing pubs.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government recognises that independent breweries are essential to the diversity and character of our pubs. We have conducted a review of the beer market to determine whether there are any structural barriers preventing small breweries, the findings from which are currently being considered by ministers.

We’ve introduced a Hospitality Support Scheme to co-fund projects aligned with Department for Business & Trade and Hospitality Sector Council priorities, such as supporting initiatives like investing £440,000 to help rural pubs diversify as community hubs, delivered with Pub is The Hub to unlock over 40 stalled projects.

We also maintain regular engagement with trade bodies such as Society of Independent Brewers, as well as colleagues across government, to ensure that policy decisions are informed by the latest evidence and genuinely support the sector’s long-term stability.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help promote the growth of independent brewers in Eastleigh constituency.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government recognises that independent breweries are essential to the diversity and character of our pubs. We have conducted a review of the beer market to determine whether there are any structural barriers preventing small breweries, the findings from which are currently being considered by ministers.

We’ve introduced a Hospitality Support Scheme to co-fund projects aligned with Department for Business & Trade and Hospitality Sector Council priorities, such as supporting initiatives like investing £440,000 to help rural pubs diversify as community hubs, delivered with Pub is The Hub to unlock over 40 stalled projects.

We also maintain regular engagement with trade bodies such as Society of Independent Brewers, as well as colleagues across government, to ensure that policy decisions are informed by the latest evidence and genuinely support the sector’s long-term stability.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the adequacy of access to CAMHS services for children in Eastleigh constituency.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has made no assessment of the adequacy of access to children and adolescent mental health services for children in the Eastleigh constituency.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including children and young people’s mental health services in the Eastleigh constituency.

As prioritised in our Medium-Term Planning Framework, we are taking action to reduce the longest waits for specialist mental health support, tackling regional disparities, and expanding access, thereby making services more productive so children and young people spend less time waiting for the treatment they need.

We are also accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. As part of this, we are investing an additional £13 million to pilot enhanced training for staff so that they can offer more effective support to young people with complex needs, such as trauma, neurodivergence and disordered eating. With an additional 900,000 children and young people having access by this spring, 60% of all pupils will have access to this early support at school, up from 44% in spring 2024.

More widely, we are, rolling out Young Futures Hubs. The Government’s first 50 Young Futures Hubs will bring together services at a local level to support children and young people, helping to ensure that young people can access early advice and wellbeing intervention. We will work to ensure there is no wrong door for young people who need support with their mental health.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the National Fire Chiefs Council on the adequacy of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 funding formula for fire and rescue services.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government recognises that the current fire funding formula was designed over a decade ago.

In line with responses to the principles of reform consultation in December 2024, the Government updated the fire and rescue relative needs formula by using the most up-to-date data available. In the medium term, we will work with the fire sector on a comprehensive review of the formula ahead of the next Spending Review.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of GP-to-patient ratios in Eastleigh constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As of 30 November 2025, the median number of full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice per 10,000 registered patients was 5.9 in the Eastleigh constituency. The England median was 5.6 FTE.

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 help improve the recruitment and retention of staff in women’s health services in Hampshire.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.

The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals.

To support this ambition, the Government plans to introduce a new set of standards for modern employment in April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff including promoting flexible working, improving staff health and wellbeing, and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace. They will provide a framework for leaders across the NHS to build a supportive culture that embeds retention.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of potential merits of establishing a single National Dementia Care Pathway supported by minimum service standards in the forthcoming Dementia and Frailty Modern Service Framework.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

To develop the content for the modern service framework for dementia and frailty, we intend to engage with a range of partners over the coming months to enable us to build a framework which is both ambitious and practical, to ensure we can improve system performance for people with dementia both now and in the future.

We have already published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool to help simplify best practice for system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool is available at the following link:

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/nccmh/service-design-and-development/dementia-100-pathway-assessment-tool

By helping places and systems identify where improvement needs to be targeted, the tool continues the work of the Dementia Care Pathway, covering all elements of the Well Pathway from Prevention through to Dying Well. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/03/dementia-well-pathway.pdf

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she will consider establishing an Independent Commissioner to assess the claims of Equitable Life policyholders, the allocation of compensation, and the methodology used to distribute it.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Equitable Life Payment Scheme has been fully wound down and closed since 2016 under the approach put in place by the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition government.

Further guidance on the status of the Payment Scheme after closure is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equitable-life-payment-scheme#closure-of-the-scheme.

Dolly Parton's birthday

Hospices and end of life care

President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

Signing of the Hamburg Declaration

World Cancer Day

Public toilet provision

St David’s Day (Dydd Gwyl Dewi)

UK digital sovereignty strategy

Gambling harms

Horse and rider road safety

Social media for under 16s

Situation in Iran

Iran protests

Deregistration of international non-governmental organisations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Brain cancer

Public health campaign on tackling stigma towards suicide

Import of illegal meat

Commemorating National Care Leaver’s Month November 2025

Halie Selassie and Bath

Commemoration of Terry Yorath

Less Survivable Cancers Week

Use of UK bases by the United States and international law in relation to Greenland

Newborn bloodspot screening for spinal muscular atrophy

Found: present: Dame Caroline Dinenage (Chair); Mr Bayo Alaba; Vicky Foxcroft; Damian Hinds; Natasha Irons; Liz Jarvis