Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support young people identified as Not in Education, Employment or Training.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Building on the December Youth Guarantee and Growth and Skills Levy announcement, the Government has committed a further £1 billion investment in young people, taking total additional investment into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy to £2.5 billion over the next three years. This investment will support almost one million young people, and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.

This includes the delivery of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, the expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain, and the introduction of a new Youth Guarantee Gateway in Jobcentres, providing more intensive support to 16-24 year olds.

This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. It will also help unlock up to 200,000 more employment opportunities, through £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant for employers who hire 18–24-year-olds who have been on Universal Credit for over six months, a new £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small and medium sized employers hiring 16–24-year-olds and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six month job.

Together these measures demonstrate the Government’s commitment to backing young people, supporting employers, and working with partners across Great Britain to create clear pathways into employment and education for young people.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital and revenue funding allocations have been made to local authorities in Lancashire for a) primary schools, b) secondary schools and c) specialist school places over the next 2 years.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Revenue funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for Lancashire in 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years are presented in the table below. Funding for 2027/28 will be confirmed later this year.

Lancashire School Funding

*Mainstream funding includes premises and excludes growth.

Local authorities meet the costs of special school places in their area through their high needs block funding in the DSG, with the total high needs funding for Lancashire set out above.

The methodology for the Inclusive Mainstream Fund was published on 25 March. This details distribution of the £400 million schools will receive in 2026/27 to prepare and deliver improved inclusion practice.

We have announced over £82 million of Basic Need capital grant funding to support Lancashire in creating mainstream school places needed due to forecasted growth in pupil numbers between May 2024 and September 2028. The £82 million will be paid across the 2023/24 to 2027/28 financial years.

In financial years 2025/26 and 2026/27, Lancashire has been allocated just under £19.7 million and just over £23.8 million respectively through High Needs Provision Capital Allocations.

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 help tackle illegal online sport gambling sites that do not hold a licence to operate in the UK.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Since April 2024, the Gambling Commission has significantly increased its disruption activity and has focused on finding innovative ways to tackle the illegal market. The Crime and Policing Bill, once passed, will give the Gambling Commission greater powers to more quickly take down illegal websites. At the budget the Gambling Commission received £26 million across three years to increase investment, resources and capacity to tackle the illegal market. We have also set up an Illegal Gambling Taskforce with key stakeholders, which considers how to tackle illegal payments, advertising, and maximising cross-agency collaboration.

We announced in February 2026, an intention to consult on cracking down on unlicensed sponsors in sport. This will ban unlicensed gambling operators from sponsoring sports in Great Britain.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the impact of rising energy prices on the AI sector in the United Kingdom.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

We are focused on continuing to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI and data centre infrastructure.

Through the AI Energy Council, we are already bringing together energy system bodies and leading technology companies, including NESO, EDF, Microsoft and Google, to address the energy implications of AI growth and ensure the system is ready to support future demand.

Alongside this, the Government is bringing forward a consultation on discounting data centres' energy costs for eligible projects in areas with excess electricity supply, including Scotland, Cumbria and the North East.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) condition and (b) availability of outdoor basketball courts; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure adequate funding for the maintenance, repair and construction of such facilities.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities. This means delivering a range of facilities across the country based on what each local community needs.

On 17 September, the Government confirmed £5 million investment in 2026/27 towards both indoor and outdoor basketball and basketball-led multi-sport facilities in England in 2026/27. This dedicated funding for basketball will be matched by the NBA, who will invest £5 million in grassroots programmes through to 2028.

We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Sport England provides long term investment of £12.6 million to Basketball England between 2022 and 2029 to support grassroots basketball.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to (a) expand and (b) ensure resiliency of the UK’s gas (i) infrastructure and storage systems and (ii) reserves.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Government works continuously with industry to improve and maintain the resilience and security of energy infrastructure to a range of evolving risks and future system changes. In 2026, DESNZ will publish an Energy Resilience Strategy to set out Government’s long-term priorities to maintain energy resilience now and in the future.

The UK benefits from diverse gas supply sources. This limits our reliance on any one type of infrastructure - in winter 24/25, gas storage provided ~8% of GB’s total gas use. We are confident this diverse portfolio will continue to meet GB’s energy needs. However, Government recognises the energy transition may change future infrastructure requirements. We recently consulted on options to safeguard gas security of supply, including measures to encourage investment in additional storage capacity if needed. A response will follow in due course.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that the green workforce is expanding at a pace sufficient to meet the growing demands of an accelerated energy transition.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

In October 2025, the Government published the Clean Energy Jobs Plan (CEJP). The CEJP sets out the workforce needed to deliver our clean energy superpower mission, and how the government will work in partnership with industry and trade unions to deliver it.

This month we have announced 5 new Clean Energy Technical Excellence Colleges to support delivery of this workforce. We have also committed to implement a Fair Work Charter alongside the Clean Industry Bonus, to help ensure that clean energy jobs are good jobs.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to minimise the risk of racial bias found in AI powered Live Facial Recognition systems.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Police forces using facial recognition must comply with existing legal obligations, including the Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010 and Data Protection Act 2018.

Facial recognition algorithms provided by or procured with Home Office funding for police use are required to be independently tested for bias. Independent testing is important because it helps determine the setting in which an algorithm can safely and fairly be used.

Where forces procure their own algorithms, forces must ensure that any facial recognition software does not present unacceptable levels of bias. For live facial recognition, this expectation is set out in the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice, which requires algorithms to be independently tested before use, with the results informing how systems are configured for safe and fair deployment.

The government intends to bring forward a new legal framework to create consistent, resilient rules and appropriate safeguards for the use of facial recognition and similar technologies.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the increasing use of artificial intelligence by criminals in conducting cyberattacks.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

As the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Security Minister set out in their letter to businesses on 15 April 2026, the cyber threat continues to change. A new generation of AI models are becoming increasingly capable at an increasing speed and scale not thought possible a year ago.

In May 2025, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) judged that cyber threat actors are almost certainly already using AI in their cyber operations. AI will almost certainly continue to make elements of cyber operations more effective and efficient, leading to an increase in frequency and intensity of cyber threats. The proliferation of AI-enabled cyber tools is thought to highly likely expand access to AI-enabled capabilities to an expanded range of cyber actors, including criminals. It is highly likely that criminal use of AI will therefore increase by 2027 as AI becomes more widely adopted in society.

The UK is not standing still in response to this threat. The government has built the AI Security Institute, the most advanced capability of any government in the world for understanding frontier AI systems. The NCSC is world-leading in defending the UK online and continues to publish practical guidance for industry and businesses to use. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which is currently progressing through Parliament, will strengthen protections for critical services, and shortly the National Cyber Action Plan will be published, setting out the steps this government will take to ensure the UK’s national security against cyber threats.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the proportion of companies paying ransoms to hackers following cyber-attacks; and what steps her Department is taking to improve cybersecurity across industry sectors.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government considers ransomware a serious threat to the UK’s national security and economic prosperity. The Home Office recently consulted on a package of proposals to reduce the threat ransomware poses to the UK economy and will continue to develop these measures in collaboration with industry. Due to under-reporting there is no single authoritative estimate of ransomware payment rates. Recent industry reports suggest that payment rates are declining. The government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey finds around half of businesses (52%) have a rule or policy to not pay ransomware demands.

Improving cyber security across industry sectors is critical to national security and the resilience of our wider economy. The government has developed a wide range of free tools, guidance, training and standards to help organisations of all sizes implement cyber security measures. The government's highly effective Cyber Essentials scheme helps organisations implement critical cyber security controls and protect against the most common cyber attacks. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will boost UK cyber defences and protect our essential and digital services. In October government ministers and senior security officials wrote an open letter to the UK’s leading companies urging them to take three specific actions to improve their cyber resilience: use the government’s Cyber Governance Code of Practice, register for the National Cyber Security Centre’s Early Warning System, and adopt Cyber Essentials in their supply chains. In 2026 the Government will publish a new National Cyber Action Plan that will set out how we will respond to the growing cyber threat and work with industry to raise cyber resilience levels across the economy.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen regulations on biomass energy production and waste incineration companies, including to ensure the sector takes responsibility for reducing its carbon emissions.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Biomass electricity generators receiving support must comply with strict sustainability criteria covering supply chain greenhouse gas emissions. The government is developing a cross-sector biomass sustainability framework to further strengthen these requirements and enable consistency between government supported sectors.

Waste incineration facilities are regulated through the relevant environmental permitting regime, which sets emissions limits and monitoring requirements. The government is committed to expanding the scope of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to waste incineration. This will price emissions from the sector and incentivise decarbonisation. The UK ETS Authority will set out final policy design in due course.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of rollout of heat pumps by boiler manufacturers.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

UK heat pump sales hit a record high in 2025, and the government expects to see continued growth over the coming years.

Manufacturers of a range of heating technologies, including fossil fuel boilers, are among the leading players in this growing market.

The government will continue to keep developments in the market under close review as heat pump uptake in existing and new homes continues to gather pace.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking steps to prevent and restrict social media sites from being used for child sex trafficking activity.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) is an abhorrent and serious crime and tackling it online is an absolute priority for this Government. The Online Safety Act places its strongest protections around children, imposing robust legal duties on online services to prevent their platforms from being used to groom, exploit and sexually abuse children.

Ofcom has set out measures in its codes of practice, including automated detection, moderation, and anti‑grooming safeguards. These duties have been in force since March last year. Ofcom keeps its approach under review, is consulting on further measures and has already carried out enforcement with a particular focus on CSEA.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to expedite the processing of asylum claims of Afghan nationals who (a) served with and (b) assisted British troops in the Afghanistan war.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Every asylum claim admitted to the UK asylum system is carefully considered on its individual merits, in line with published policies. There are clear processes in place for prioritising asylum claims on the basis of vulnerability in line with our published guidance available at: Asylum decision making prioritisation: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK.