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 take legislative steps to ensure that no future election in the UK will be subject to outside interference.

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

The Government takes any attempts to intervene in democratic processes very seriously. It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic and electoral processes, including from foreign interference.

On the 16^th of December, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics. The review will report at the end of March and will inform the forthcoming Elections Bill. This builds on the major reforms announced in the Elections Strategy in July, and the launch last month of the Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan to disrupt and deter spying from states.

The Government’s strategy for modern, secure and inclusive elections, published in July, sets out our plan to strengthen oversight of and safeguards against known and emerging threats, including foreign interference through covert political funding. We will deliver a robust and proportionate response to known risks, protecting the integrity of our system and reinforcing public trust in democracy.

This sits alongside the government’s robust toolkit of measures to investigate and disrupt the threat from foreign interference in UK politics. This includes the National Security Act 2023, the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which coordinates work to protect UK political parties, elected officials and the electoral infrastructure, and the Joint Election Security and Preparedness unit, which coordinates work across government to protect UK elections and referendums, and the Online Safety Act which requires services to take steps to remove illegal disinformation content including illegal state-sponsored disinformation in scope of the Foreign Interference Offence.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has met with his French counterparts to consider parallel legislation to prevent outside interference in domestic elections.

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

The Government takes any attempts to intervene in democratic processes very seriously. It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic and electoral processes, including from foreign interference.

We have a robust toolkit of measures including the foreign interference offence and foreign influence registration scheme introduced under the National Security Act 2023, the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which coordinates work to protect UK political parties, elected officials and electoral infrastructure from threats including foreign interference, the Joint Election Security and Preparedness unit, which coordinates work to protect UK elections and referendums, and the Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan launched last month to disrupt and deter spying from states.

Additionally, on 16 December the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics, led by Philip Rycroft. We will consider how to take forward any recommendations from the review, including through the upcoming Elections Bill.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press notice entitled £740 million allocated for 10,000 new places for pupils with SEND, published on 27 March 2025, what data she holds on how the additional funding was spent by Local Education Authorities.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The £740 million high needs capital investment in 2025/26 is on track to create around 10,000 new specialist places, in both special and mainstream schools.

Local authorities share plans for their HNPCA with the department as part of grant assurance checks. We do not publish these due to the potential commercial sensitivities, but we encourage local authorities to publish where possible to aid transparency.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will publish data on the number of ‘change of circumstances’ applications received last year from people with No Recourse to Public Funds status due to homelessness, and how many applicants gained access to public funds as a result.

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

Information on change of conditions is published at Migration transparency data - GOV.UK in the Immigration and protection dataset.

When an individual is considered for assessment of Change of Conditions, various No Recourse to Public Funds conditions are checked, with ‘destitution’ being one of these conditions.

The specific information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is considering piloting the youth guarantee scheme in London.

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

Our Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, testing innovative approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming NEET are already underway in eight areas across England. Two of our Trailblazers are being delivered by the Greater London Authority, a ‘Pan London’ Trailblazer focused on better join-up of the systems supporting NEET young people including those with mental health conditions across London, and another delivering tailored support to young care leavers in 12 Central London Boroughs. We will use learning from the Trailblazers to inform future design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee.

For long-term unemployed 18–21-year-olds on Universal Credit, the Jobs Guarantee scheme will provide six months of paid employment. This is part of the expanded Youth Guarantee, through which young people aged 16-24 across Great Britain are set to benefit from further support into employment and learning.

Delivery of the Jobs Guarantee will begin in six areas from spring 2026. No areas in London are included in this initial phase; however, this will be followed by national roll-out across Great Britain, including in London.