Lizzi Collinge

Individuals applying for compensation from IBCA have the choice between receiving their award as a single lump sum payment, or as a series of periodical payments over a 5, 10, or 25 year period. The compensation scheme indexes all future periodical payments to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to ensure that these payments hold value against inflation and provide parity between applicants that choose a lump sum or periodical payments.

The Government has consulted on proposed changes to the infected blood compensation scheme, to gather views on how the Government intends to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations. The consultation closed on 22 January. The Government is considering the responses to the consultation carefully, and we will publish our response to the consultation, which will set out our final decisions on the compensation scheme, within 12 weeks of the closing date.

The delivery of compensation is a matter for IBCA, and as of 10 February, 3,153 people have received an offer of compensation, totalling over £2.5 billion. IBCA has now opened its service to the people who are infected but not registered with an IBSS, as well as to the first claims from affected people and from estates on behalf of deceased infected people.

In December 2024, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) began making payments to people who are infected and as of 24 April, over £78 million has been paid in compensation. In March Parliament approved Regulations to give the IBCA the power to make payments to people who are affected as a result of the Infected Blood Scandal. The Government expects IBCA to begin making payments to people who are affected before the end of this year.

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority’s priority is to deliver compensation to those who are legally entitled to it under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, which includes infected people, affected people and estates of those infected people who have very sadly died. IBCA provides legal and financial advice to those who are eligible for compensation under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme. IBCA does not, however, currently fund legal advice to those who are distributing a person’s estate following the receipt of a compensation payment.

The Government treats severe space weather, including geomagnetic storms, as a national resilience risk. Preparations include continuous monitoring and forecasting by the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre, cross-Government coordination led by UK Space Agency in BIST, and sector engagement through severe space weather governance groups.

Government is refreshing the National Severe Space Weather Preparedness Strategy to strengthen preparedness, response and recovery arrangements and will publish in due course. Work is also under way with government departments, regulators, industry and international partners to improve impact assessments, contingency planning, exercising and public communications.

No assessment has been made of the potential merits of limiting the permitted dates for consumer use of fireworks. However, the Government is continuing to engage with stakeholders including consumer groups and charities to gather evidence on the issues of fireworks to inform any future action.

The Government also launched a public campaign on fireworks safety for this year’s fireworks season. The campaign includes guidance for those running community fireworks events, which encourages the use of low-noise fireworks and new social media posts that emphasise the risks from the misuse of fireworks.

This Government is delivering several important reforms in the field of employment rights, and in other areas to support the mission of growing the UK's economy.

This means that the volume of legislation before Parliament is very high and, subsequently, the Government no longer intends to bring the draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill forward for Pre-Legislative Scrutiny in this session of Parliament.

It will bring forward its planned legislation when Parliamentary time allows.

Government recognises that the expiry of Renewables Obligation support from April 2027 could affect the commercial viability of generators in a sector which supports hundreds of jobs. As set out in the Methane Action Plan, Government is exploring the implementation of a long-term methane capture scheme with appropriate transitional arrangements.

DESNZ and Defra are giving careful consideration to the potential impact of proposals on workforce capacity and undertaking a rigorous value for money assessment. No final decisions have we been made and we will consult on the proposals later this year.

Eligibility for the Warm Home Discount in England and Wales is based on receipt of a qualifying means tested benefit and being named on the energy account with a participating supplier. Receipt of Council Tax Reduction is not used as an eligibility criterion. Council Tax Reduction schemes vary across local authorities, and there is no central record of recipients, which prevents consistent eligibility and effective data matching. Households not eligible for the Warm Home Discount rebate may still receive help through Warm Home Discount funded Industry Initiatives, which can provide energy advice, debt support, financial assistance or minor energy efficiency measures, including for non-customers.

Government recently consulted on increasing minimum energy efficiency standards in the domestic private rented sector. We received a significant number of responses and we will use this feedback to inform the government response, which will be published in due course.

Support is currently available to landlords improve their properties. An eligibility tool is available at the Government webpage ‘Find Ways to Save Energy in your Home’ (www.gov.uk/improve-energy-efficiency), which provides tailored recommendations for home improvements to increase energy efficiency and clean heat.

We know that some eligible households do not have a direct relationship with an electricity supplier, so will not be able to receive a bill discount automatically. This includes households whose electricity is paid by their landlord or park home site owner. We want to ensure that these households benefit from hosting new electricity network transmission infrastructure and are putting measures in place to ensure that persons living in such properties can benefit. The exact delivery methods of financial benefit for these households are under consideration and will be subject to stakeholder consultation.

We have analysed the responses to our consultation on Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards in the non-domestic private rented sector and we are reviewing the policy design to ensure it remains fair and appropriate for landlords and tenants, and plan to publish our response in the first half of 2025.

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations Spring update, published on 8 May 2025, 4G in-vehicle coverage on UK major roads is 96% from at least one mobile network operator (MNO) and 81% from all four MNOs.

The Shared Rural Network has improved 4G mobile coverage along 16,000km of roads. The 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy (June 2025) committed to work with Ofcom and other regulators to assess the telecommunications needs of the transport sector, including the future requirements of roads, by December 2026. My officials are undertaking this assessment alongside the Department for Transport and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

Children remain eligible for the free entitlement until they either start in reception at a state-funded school or reach compulsory school age.

A child attending a state-funded reception class on a part-time basis is entitled to additional free hours at another provider if the child’s parents have a 30 hours eligibility code. The maximum number of free hours in both the school reception class and another provider is 1140 hours per year.

Children who start on a staggered basis are not considered part-time and are counted as taking up a full-time place, with full-time attendance expected by the end of September.

Parents are free to choose the childcare that is right for them and their children, and childminders are not prevented from caring for related children. However, the restriction on funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act (2006). Section 18(4) of this Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative.

This approach avoids creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis. Allowing childminders to receive funding for looking after related children would not be an effective use of public money.

A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child, but this would have to be from local authority funds independent of the Dedicated Schools Grant.

Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff-to-child ratios can be used to enable childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn.

We have no plans to change this long-standing position at this time.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale to the answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 80414.

The National Conditions of Service for Teachers in England and Wales is a national agreement between local authority school employers and teaching and headteacher unions. The government has no input into the agreement or its implementation. As it has no statutory force, while maintained schools are expected to incorporate its provisions into teachers’ contracts, there is no legal obligation for them to do so. Academies will, following the passage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, be required to “have regard” to the entirety of the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document.

High-quality teaching is the most important in-school factor to a child’s educational outcomes. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers.

The 2024/25 initial teacher training (ITT) census reported 618 trainees had begun courses in design technology, up from 334 trainees in 2021/22. The department offered a £25,000 tax-free bursary for design technology teacher training in 2024/25 and increased this to £26,000 for courses starting in 2025/26.

A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and we want to ensure teachers of all subjects and phases stay and thrive in this profession. The department agreed a 5.5% pay award for teachers in the 2024/25 academic year and has taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, and enable greater flexible working, to support retention and help re-establish teaching as an attractive profession.

High-quality continuing professional development is also key to ensuring the retention of an effective teaching workforce. The department has established teaching school hubs across the country, who play a significant role in delivering ITT, the early career framework, and national professional qualifications. Star Teaching School Hub North West Lancashire and One Cumbria Teaching School Hub are both centres of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Lancaster, Westmorland and Furness.

There is support for farmers in England to adopt Integrated Pest Management through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The SFI pays farmers and land managers to carry out actions that support the sustainable production of food while protecting and enhancing the environment. The budget for new SFI26 agreements this year was £310m. These agreements will invest a total of £930m in environmentally sustainable farming over the next 3 years.

The Government has introduced repairability requirements and minimum software-support periods for specified products, such as electronic displays, fridges and dishwashers. Similar requirements for other products will be considered over time.

Repair and reuse are fundamental tenets of a circular economy. We established a Circular Economy Task Force to co-design our approach and will outline our next steps shortly.

The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement is an important step toward coordinated global action to tackle the climate and nature crisis.  The UK Government introduced legislation on 10 September to enable the UK to implement its obligations under the BBNJ Agreement and move towards ratification. We anticipate that a Statutory Instrument (SI) is required to implement changes to domestic legislation to implement BBNJ provisions relating to Environmental Impact Assessments before the UK can ratify. This SI is being developed by Defra and will be laid before Parliament after the BBNJ Bill receives Royal Assent. Defra will consult stakeholders on the proposed approach to the SI in Autumn 2025. As part of this, Defra is working closely with both the Marine Management Organisation and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science to understand any practical aspects of implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.

This Government has engaged with public and private landowners, and Natural England, throughout the consultation process on amending The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021. The revised regulations, which were laid before Parliament on 9 September 2025, aim to make these landscapes more resilient to wildfire. We are encouraging land managers to develop good quality wildfire management plans.

We also held workshops with a wide range of land managers to inform the new Heather and Grass Management Code. This is being drafted by Natural England and will set clear standards for managing habitats including moorlands.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 12 May 2025 to the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, PQ 49603.

I understand the distress of owners who lose beloved pets and it is a great source of worry and uncertainty when they are lost.

There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.

Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, a driver is required to stop and report a collision involving specified animals including horses, cattle, asses, mules, sheep, pigs, goats or dogs, but not cats or wild animals. This requirement arises from their status as working animals rather than as domestic pets.

Although there is no obligation to report all animal deaths on roads, drivers should, if possible, make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals, such as cats, and advise them of the situation.

Having a law making it a requirement to report road collisions involving cats would be very difficult to enforce and it is not clear what difference it would make to the behaviour of drivers, who are aware that they have run over a cat and do not report it.

The Government recognises that the widespread illegal use of e-scooters is a serious issue. That is why we have committed to pursuing legislative reform for micromobility vehicles when parliamentary time allows.

No decisions have been made on licensing, registration and insurance, but we will consult on any new regulations, including on the use of converter kits, before they come into force.

We understand the importance of providing a clear legislative timeline and we are working with colleagues across Government to deliver this.

The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 require cycles to be fitted with a red rear reflector and amber pedal reflectors. These Regulations also require cycles to have white front and red rear lights lit when being ridden at night. The type of lighting, however, is not specified.

Rental e-scooters used in the Government’s e-scooter trials must be fitted with front position and rear position lamps to improve visibility.

We are using the e-scooter trials to ensure that when the time comes, we understand how best to regulate e-scooters including technical requirements such as lighting.

The Government recognises the value of greater integration between public transport modes, including in relation to ticketing, and will continue to work with local transport authorities, operators and passengers to improve the fares and ticketing offer for passengers across England.

Programmes currently under development in England recognise the aspiration for smart, multi-modal ticketing. This includes the Department for Transport working with representatives from the bus industry, Transport for West Midlands and Midlands Connect to develop a national technology solution to facilitate multi-operator ticketing on buses and trams, focusing on contactless bank card payments and enabling fares capping outside of London.

The Government takes the impact of excessive noise on health, wellbeing and the natural environment seriously. Strict noise regulations for cars and motorcycles are harmonised at an international level and require vehicles to demonstrate compliance before being placed on the market. Replacement silencers that are to be used on the road must also meet strict noise limits that are aligned with those of the original vehicle.

The Department for Transport conducted roadside trials of noise camera technology between October 2022 and February 2023. Reports of these trials, including detailed assessment of the technology’s performance and potential merits, were published on 17 March 2024. Overall, the trials demonstrated that noise cameras currently have the potential to be used for enforcement, but only when accompanied by human review of the recorded evidence, which is likely to lower the cost effectiveness of deploying the technology in many circumstances.

It is ultimately for local authorities and the police to consider what the most appropriate enforcement routes may be for addressing issues with excessive vehicle noise within their area. The use of noise camera technology has already been taken forward by some local authorities.

We aim to introduce this bursary early next year. Further information on how eligible households can apply and how the bursary will be paid will be released in due course.

We aim to introduce this bursary early next year. Further information on how eligible households can apply and how the bursary will be paid will be released in due course.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid for by employers and there is no mechanism to include the self-employed in SSP.

It is important to highlight that many self-employed people already choose to take out some form of insurance or income protection to financially support them during periods of sickness absence.

The Government does have a wider safety net to ensure self-employed people are supported through the welfare system. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and/or new style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), depending on their personal circumstances.

New Style ESA is an income-replacement benefit for people who are unable to work because of a health condition or disability and is not an in-work benefit. The aim of ESA is to provide support to individuals who are unable to work due to their disability or health condition, and to help them move towards employment if and when they are able to do so. Eligibility is dependent on satisfying the basic conditions of entitlement and contribution conditions.

The Department for Work and Pensions currently offers employment support for older jobseekers including those affected by low confidence, menopause, health and disability or caring pressures, and out of date skills or qualifications.

Through Midlife MOT reviews, delivered in Jobcentres across the UK and online, we support older people to review their health, finances and skills. We are working with key partners to develop these tools including Department of Health and Social Care, the National Health Service and the National Careers Service

The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out the Government’s approach to the employment support system to target and tackle the root causes of unemployment and inactivity and better join up health, skills and employment support based on the needs for all, including older people.

We know that employers are crucial to enhancing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive in the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme

In recognition of employers' vital role, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the Keep Britain Working Independent Review as a part of the Government's wider white paper plans to Get Britain Working. Sir Charlie Mayfield is considering recommendations to support and enable employers to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence, and recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions.

Sir Charlie Mayfield is expected to produce a final report with recommendations in autumn 2025.

The Department for Work and Pensions currently offers employment support for older jobseekers including those affected by low confidence, menopause, health and disability or caring pressures, and out of date skills or qualifications.

Through Midlife MOT reviews, delivered in Jobcentres across the UK and online, we support older people to review their health, finances and skills. We are working with key partners to develop these tools including Department of Health and Social Care, the National Health Service and the National Careers Service

The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out the Government’s approach to the employment support system to target and tackle the root causes of unemployment and inactivity and better join up health, skills and employment support based on the needs for all, including older people.

We know that employers are crucial to enhancing employment opportunities and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive in the workforce. Our support to employers includes increasing access to Occupational Health, a digital information service for employers and the Disability Confident scheme

In recognition of employers' vital role, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the Keep Britain Working Independent Review as a part of the Government's wider white paper plans to Get Britain Working. Sir Charlie Mayfield is considering recommendations to support and enable employers to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence, and recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions.

Sir Charlie Mayfield is expected to produce a final report with recommendations in autumn 2025.

I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Statement HCWS295 made by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to the House on 1 September.

We will provide a further update in due course on progress in implementing the recommendations of the Fuller Inquiry Phase 2 report.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that National Health Service organisations have the appropriate workforce to support the delivery of clinical trials, including trials of brain cancer treatments.

Decisions about the composition and deployment of clinical research teams are for individual host organisations, based on their research portfolio, clinical priorities, patient population, and workforce requirements. This may include the appointment of research nurses with specialist expertise in particular disease areas where this is appropriate.

The Government does not currently mandate a particular staffing model but provides support with funding through the National Institute of Health and Care Research to develop the capacity and capability to deliver research, expecting host organisations to ensure that they have the appropriate resources and expertise to deliver the clinical research undertaken at their sites.

We are committed to giving every child the best start in life by ensuring that all families can access consistent, high-quality and non-judgmental infant feeding support that meets their needs, regardless of how they choose to feed their baby. Informed consent and shared decision-making are established principles of healthcare and reflected in national antenatal and postnatal guidance. The guidance supports women and parents to make informed choices about infant feeding, based on relevant evidence-based information and their individual needs, circumstances, and preferences. National guidance does not prevent early supplementation while breastfeeding. Where supplementary feeds are being considered, healthcare professionals should provide relevant information and support and discuss the woman’s circumstances and preferences, and agree an appropriate feeding plan.

I refer the Hon Member to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on antenatal and postnatal care, which is available at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng201/resources/antenatal-care-pdf-66143709695941

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194/resources/postnatal-care-pdf-66142082148037

We are committed to giving every child the best start in life by ensuring that all families can access consistent, high-quality and non-judgmental infant feeding support that meets their needs, regardless of how they choose to feed their baby. Informed consent and shared decision-making are established principles of healthcare and reflected in national antenatal and postnatal guidance. The guidance supports women and parents to make informed choices about infant feeding, based on relevant evidence-based information and their individual needs, circumstances, and preferences. National guidance does not prevent early supplementation while breastfeeding. Where supplementary feeds are being considered, healthcare professionals should provide relevant information and support and discuss the woman’s circumstances and preferences, and agree an appropriate feeding plan.

I refer the Hon Member to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on antenatal and postnatal care, which is available at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng201/resources/antenatal-care-pdf-66143709695941

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194/resources/postnatal-care-pdf-66142082148037

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for City of Durham on 16 April 2026 to Question 125554.