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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average time was between a pollution discharge notification and a public bathing water quality warning being issued during the 2024 season.

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

The Environment Agency (EA) does not record the time between notifying a Local Authority of a pollution incident that may affect a bathing water and how long it then takes the Local Authority, who have the responsibility for notifications being put up at bathing waters, to relay this to bathers.

Discharges from water company assets are reported directly through their regional storm overflow maps as well as being collated and displayed in near real time via the National Storm Overflow Hub. The EA does not have records of what information Local Authorities choose to provide to bathers in response to this discharge information.

The EA provides information to bathers, via the Swimfo website, of any pollution incidents that may affect a bathing water. Operational procedures specify that duty officers receiving information on pollution incidents consider displaying these via Swimfo if they have the potential to affect a bathing water as part of the incident recording. When this is done Swimfo will display these warnings within a couple of minutes.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the (a) length in number of applicants and (b) duration of time of the backlog in Personal Independence Payment awards.

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

As at the end of January 2025, a total of 265,000 New Claims were in progress. This figure has been rounded to the nearest 1,000.

For the average clearance times in median weeks for New Claims under Normal Rules, please see the Personal Independence Payment Official Statistics to January 2025, the information you requested can be found on Table 1A.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the (a) length in number of applicants and (b) duration of time of the backlog in Personal Independence Payment awards for appeals where a decision was previously made.

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

As of April 2025, a total of 8,900 appeals are currently in progress. This figure has been rounded to the nearest 100.

Although we hold information on the time between initial disallowance and appeal hearing, DWP is not solely responsible for this wait time. Appeals are lodged by claimants with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), which the claimant may take up to 13 months to do. DWP then have 28 days to respond to the appeal when notified by HMCTS. After this the time taken to list the appeal is dependent on HMCTS, who run tribunal hearings.

The median journey time for an appeal where the initial decision was made in December 2023, was 42 weeks. This represents time from appeal lodgement to clearance within DWP only and excludes any further time prior to Tribunal.

Data for initial decisions made from 2024 onwards has not been used, to ensure reasonable time has passed for an accurate assessment of the time between an appeal lodgement and clearance within DWP.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on confirmed cases of waterborne illness linked to exposure to (a) Salmonella and (b) Leptospira at UK bathing waters since 2020.

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

There have been no reported outbreaks of salmonella spp. associated with recreational water use in the time period requested since 2020.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) undertakes surveillance of Salmonella spp. infections. No information is available on the suspected cause of gastrointestinal infection for individual cases, unless salmonellosis cases are epidemiologically linked to an outbreak.

The UKHSA also undertakes routine surveillance for leptospirosis infections in humans, and publishes a quarterly report on the common animal-associated infections, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/common-animal-associated-infections-2024/common-animal-associated-infections-england-second-quarter-2024#leptospirosis

Exposure history is not well reported by cases. Water sources may be in the United Kingdom or abroad, and do not necessarily reflect where the infection was acquired. The following table shows the most recent figures of confirmed cases of leptospirosis in each quarter, from Quarter one of 2020 to Quarter two of 2024:

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support rural (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) further education colleges to recruit (i) sustainable and (ii) adequate levels of staff.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child and young person’s outcome in schools and colleges. 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 is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new teachers across secondary and special schools and in our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The government is announcing a 4% pay award to school teachers and leaders, accepting in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s pay recommendation and doing so earlier than at any point in the last 10 years. This comes on top of the 5.5% pay award that we announced last July which has resulted in early improvements in recruitment and retention and has put us on course to meet the pledge. Over 2,000 more people are training to become secondary school teachers this year and recruitment is on track to improve even further for the cohort set to start training in 2025/26, with 1,070 more acceptances to postgraduate and teacher degree apprenticeship initial teacher training courses in secondary subjects by the end of April 2025, compared to the same time last year. Additionally, over 2,500 more teachers are expected to stay in the profession over the next three years.

The department is doing more to continue to improve recruitment and retention. We have increased funding for training bursaries to £233 million in 2025/26, worth up to £29,000 tax-free, and initial teacher education apprenticeships to attract trainees in key subjects such as maths, physics and equivalent subjects in further education (FE) such as construction. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is also offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools and technical subjects in all FE colleges, including rural and coastal areas.

As part of our recruitment and retention strategy, it is vital that we improve the day to day experience of teachers and ensure that teaching is once again a respected and attractive profession that teachers remain and thrive in. We are supporting teachers to reduce their workload and improve their wellbeing, and enabling greater opportunities for greater flexible working.

To provide targeted regional support, including for rural areas, the department has established a network of 87 Teaching School Hubs across the country. The Hubs provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers and play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications.

We want to empower FE colleges to recruit the right teachers and subject specialists for their local areas. Our national FE recruitment campaign is targeted to raise awareness, improve perceptions and understanding, and increase consideration of a career in FE amongst industry professionals, and supports professionals to find FE jobs in their area.

We have specific programmes to support these industry experts start their careers in FE. Taking Teaching Further (TTF) is a two-year programme that supports FE providers to recruit and provide early career support to those with the relevant knowledge and/or industry experience to retrain as FE teachers, aiming to boost the quality and industry-relevance of teaching.

We are also investing over £400 million more in 16-19 education in the 2025/26 financial year and have made approximately £50 million of this funding available to colleges for April to July 2025 to respond to current priorities, such as recruitment and retention.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she made an assessment of the potential impact of removing the match-funding provision through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children in adoptive and kinship care before announcing those changes.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead to the answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49523.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision to cap the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on children in adoptive and kinship care.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead to the answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49523.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will issue guidance on raising an issue of safety on a housing development where the operators are aware of the risks.

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

The Health and Safety Executive already provide guidance on raising health and safety issues in a workplace or public space. This can be found on their website www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-us-about-a-health-and-safety-issue.htm

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the appropriateness of the duties of care homes in relation to Lasting Powers of Attorney for residents.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Evidence indicates the overall scale of abuse using lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) is low. There were just over 8 million powers of attorney on the Office of the Public Guardian’s (OPG) register in 2023/24. It completed investigations into around 2,800. 597 cases resulted in either court action or a requirement for the attorney to complete remedial action. In that context, a specific assessment at this time of the duties on care homes in relation to LPAs would not be a proportionate response.

Anyone, including care home management or staff, who has a concern about how an LPA has been made or used should raise this with the OPG. The OPG has processes to investigate such issues and take appropriate action where necessary.

Under the Care Act, where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult in the local authority’s area has needs for care and support and appears to be at risk of, or experiencing abuse or neglect, and is unable to protect themselves as a result of those needs, the local authority must carry out a safeguarding enquiry. Where necessary, this would include raising concerns with OPG for investigation where a property and affairs LPA is in place, and they believe it has been used to perpetrate abuse.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Office of the Public Guardian in investigating a person with lasting power of attorney.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has processes in place to review the performance of the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and hold it to account. The MoJ reviews OPG performance through a system based on the Cabinet Office requirements for sponsorship of public bodies.

We have no evidence OPG is failing to appropriately investigate allegations of abuse. The demand on OPG investigations has increased, so OPG is training additional investigators to meet demand, as well as process improvements to improve processing times. OPG continues to prioritise safeguarding concerns and reviews over 95% of all concerns received within 2 days. Whilst the time taken to conduct the investigation is longer than OPG’s target of 70 days, the investigations undertaken continue to be thorough and detailed, ensuring the right outcome is achieved.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on independent businesses in rural constituencies.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer National Insurance contributions (NICs). The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.

The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from these changes by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change. It means employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage without paying employer NICs.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if his Department will make an assessment of the suitability of the appointment of General Sir Gwyn Jenkins as First Sea Lord.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

General Jenkins is a proven leader with a distinguished career in both the military and at the core of Government. He brings with him a wealth of operational and organisational expertise and he will continue the modernisation of the Royal Navy, ensuring it can meet future threats and continue to safeguard our nation’s security and prosperity.

As with all Defence appointments at this seniority, there was a rigorous selection process involving a panel with the Secretary of State, the Permanent Secretary, a Non-Executive Director and an independent panel member. Final approval to appoint was granted by the Prime Minister and the King.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will meet with Ofgem to discuss poor practice in the recouping of (a) missed and (b) underpaid payments in the energy sector.

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

The Department has regular meetings with Ofgem on a number of issues.

The Government takes the issue of accurate billing very seriously. All suppliers must take all reasonable steps to reflect accurate meter readings in bills or statements sent to customers where these have been provided by a customer or obtained by the supplier. This is also laid out in the Ofgem’s licence conditions. Specifically,

• Ofgem’s Supplier Licence Conditions 21BA is clear that a back-bill can only be provided to a customer for electricity or gas used more than 12 months ago if they were not correctly billed for it at the time.
• Ofgem’s Supplier Licence Conditions 31I states that suppliers must ensure that domestic customers are provided with due notice prior to any increase in charges.

All energy suppliers must follow Ofgem’s enforceable overarching principles of the Standard Licence Conditions 0 and 0A. These are a set of broad and enforceable ‘standards of conduct’ principles that set fundamental expectations on how suppliers must ensure fair treatment of each customer. These principles guide supplier behaviour, information provision, and customer service processes.

Unpaid Care Dashboard

Impact of EU 90/180 day rule on UK citizens

Volunteers Week 2025

Reform of NHS dentistry services

Devon Day 2025

Carers Week 2025

Reform of monetary limits on charity lotteries

Long covid in children and young people

Wastewater Infrastructure and Environmental Protection in Planning Applications

Gaza (No. 2)

Use of swift bricks

Found: Abrahams Anna Sabine Alice Macdonald Leigh Ingham Cameron Thomas Zöe Franklin Edward Morello Rachel Gilmour

Found: Abrahams Anna Sabine Alice Macdonald Leigh Ingham Cameron Thomas Zöe Franklin Edward Morello Rachel Gilmour

Found: Abrahams Anna Sabine Alice Macdonald Leigh Ingham Cameron Thomas Zöe Franklin Edward Morello Rachel Gilmour