Sam Rushworth

The Faraday Battery Challenge funds battery related research, development of battery materials and technologies, and encourages investment into the UK’s world-class battery facilities.

An example of investment into UK facilities is the Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC), due to open in Q2 2025. AMBIC will provide innovation capability for the synthesis and processing of battery materials right through to the prototyping of commercially attractive batteries. The £12 million facility will bring together scalable and commercially relevant equipment into one entity to fast-track battery materials development.

All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries, and pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example specifically how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.

Schools also have the autonomy to decide how they teach first aid, including teaching additional topical content and which resources to use. Many schools incorporate additional content, which can include how pupils should deal with a first response emergency situation, including how to respond to knife wounds, drug misuse and road traffic injury.

The department’s defibrillator programme completed in 2023 and was the largest rollout of defibrillators across England to date and provided over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools, ensuring that all state-funded schools in England have access to a device.

Defibrillators are designed so they can be used by anyone with no prior training. As part of the department’s roll out, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies.

This Government is committed to ensuring everyone can access healthy, affordable food. That is why I announced the Good Food Neighbourhoods programme last month. This £10 million fund will support those communities in greatest need, to access healthier, more affordable food – giving people the room to breathe on the cost of living.

Available support includes advice and good practice provided through the National Fly-tipping Prevention Group, EA awareness raising activities, insurance products that can cover clearance costs. We encourage councils to investigate fly-tipping and prosecute offenders. Where convictions are secured, courts can order offenders to reimburse landowners' clearance costs.

Since September 2025, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has invited 903 farmers to apply for a Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) agreement. Over the same period the number of CSHT agreements that have been accepted is 431.

The RPA continues to streamline the application process and ensure that agreements are progressed as efficiently as possible.

The scheme is in an early stage “private beta” rollout where delivery times would be expected to be longer than normal. So far, the average time from invitation to apply to the Rural Payments Agency offering an agreement to the customer is around 90 daysfor what are 10-year agreements.

The length of time taken to reach agreement includes customer action and can vary considerably depending on a number of factors, including the complexity, specialist advice, site assessment, and time taken to agree management options.

The new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) service opened for applications in September 2025 for groups who had been invited to apply. This included farmers land managers with existing Higher Tier agreements due to expire in December 2025.

Not all agreement holders will have secured a new Higher Tier agreement: This is reflected by a number of factors including if the applicant has engaged in the application process taking into account their individual requirements, whether a suitable new agreement proposal can be offered and the impact of site-specific environmental requirements and assessments.

Aside from Restoring Your Railway (RYR) projects currently at the delivery stage or in construction, all remaining RYR-originated projects, including the Darlington to Weardale line, are now being considered as part of preparations for the Spending Review. Ministers have been clear that not all projects will be able to proceed to delivery due to the challenging financial situation facing the Department.

The Department regularly publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics, with the latest statistics available to September 2025, and detailed quarterly statistics on the number of CMS Arrangements available on Stat-Xplore.

The table CMS Arrangement 1: Service Type and Paying Status by Quarter shows the number of CMS arrangements by service type for each quarter from March 2016 to September 2025. The table provides figures for the number of Collect & Pay arrangements for which the Paying Parent paid some child maintenance during the quarter, and those where no payment was made.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

The information requested is not readily available and providing it would incur disproportionate cost.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply. Where parents fail to take responsibility for paying for their children, the Service will not hesitate to use the range of enforcement powers available to collect maintenance, combining robust negotiation activity with the highly effective use of its extensive range of Enforcement Powers.

CMS has a wide range of strong enforcement powers including deductions from earnings orders, removal of driving licences, disqualification from holding a passport, and committal to prison. The CMS also introduced powers to enable the deduction of child maintenance directly from a wider range of accounts, including certain joint and business accounts, and target complex earners via a calculation of notional income based on assets.

The Service is committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer of 20 October 2025 given to question 80764.

The Government is determined to see that the frozen proceeds, including the accrued interest, from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine. Restrictions imposed through UK sanctions laws will ensure that the proceeds do not benefit sanctioned individuals.

For too long, people have watched their towns and neighbourhoods’ decline. Through the Pride in Place programme, we’re cutting through bureaucracy to put money directly in the hands of local people. As it stands, almost 250 places will receive a share of £5bn from Spring next year to help them reclaim beloved local assets and drive renewal, street by street.

Rural crime can have a devastating impact on communities and the agricultural sector, particularly when machinery and equipment are stolen.

We are improving the safety of rural communities with tougher measures to clamp down on organised rural crime, equipment theft, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.

The Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 received Royal Assent in July 2023, but its substantive provisions require secondary legislation before they can take effect. The Government’s response to the Call for Evidence, published on 10 March 2026, sets out the proposed scope of that legislation. It will require all new All-Terrain Vehicles to be forensically marked, and their details recorded on a property database.

The Department has not made an assessment of trends in organised crime groups affecting rural communities, or of the impact of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 on levels of agricultural equipment theft, since the Act's provisions are not yet in force. However, the National Farmers’ Union Mutual Crime Report reported reductions in the cost of rural crime by 6% in 2025.

We recognise that organised criminal groups are involved in rural offences, including the theft of agricultural machinery, livestock and fuel. The Home Office is therefore providing over £800,000 in 2026/27 for the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit. These specialist capabilities provide operational support, intelligence, analysis and coordination to police forces across the UK, helping them to identify, disrupt and pursue offenders operating across force boundaries.

The Home Office has also worked closely with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to support the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in delivering their Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025–28. This strategy provides a framework through which policing and its partners can work together to tackle the crimes that predominantly affect rural communities, including organised criminality affecting farms and agricultural businesses.

Rural crime can have a devastating impact on communities and the agricultural sector, particularly when machinery and equipment are stolen.

We are improving the safety of rural communities with tougher measures to clamp down on organised rural crime, equipment theft, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.

The Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 received Royal Assent in July 2023, but its substantive provisions require secondary legislation before they can take effect. The Government’s response to the Call for Evidence, published on 10 March 2026, sets out the proposed scope of that legislation. It will require all new All-Terrain Vehicles to be forensically marked, and their details recorded on a property database.

The Department has not made an assessment of trends in organised crime groups affecting rural communities, or of the impact of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 on levels of agricultural equipment theft, since the Act's provisions are not yet in force. However, the National Farmers’ Union Mutual Crime Report reported reductions in the cost of rural crime by 6% in 2025.

We recognise that organised criminal groups are involved in rural offences, including the theft of agricultural machinery, livestock and fuel. The Home Office is therefore providing over £800,000 in 2026/27 for the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit. These specialist capabilities provide operational support, intelligence, analysis and coordination to police forces across the UK, helping them to identify, disrupt and pursue offenders operating across force boundaries.

The Home Office has also worked closely with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to support the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in delivering their Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025–28. This strategy provides a framework through which policing and its partners can work together to tackle the crimes that predominantly affect rural communities, including organised criminality affecting farms and agricultural businesses.

The Police Reform Bill will introduce a new framework to underpin law enforcement use of biometric and overt surveillance systems. The framework will ensure policing can innovate in a repeatable and consistent manner, supporting adoption of emerging biometric and overt surveillance technologies that improve policing effectiveness and public protection, while maintaining appropriate safeguards and oversight.

The Government response to the consultation will be published in due course and a copy of the response will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on Gov.uk.

Fuel theft undermines businesses and their workers. Those who dishonestly make off without paying can face prosecution, with the offence of making off without payment carrying a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment on conviction on indictment. Police should take firm action where criminality is reported.

We recognise that some fuel theft can involve offenders operating across force boundaries. Through police reform, the Government is strengthening the national and regional response to crime that crosses those boundaries, including through stronger national leadership, consistent standards and improved coordination.

Alongside this, the Government is committed to strong neighbourhood policing through the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, ensuring communities have named, contactable officers focused on tackling local crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Government is also supporting more effective action when drivers leave without paying. DVLA has modernised its processes to make it easier for authorised retailers and recovery agents to access registered keeper details, supporting recovery of unpaid charges.

We do not hold specific figures for fuel theft. Such offences can be recorded under different crime classifications, including making off without payment and, depending on the circumstances, other theft or burglary offences. It is therefore not possible to provide a reliable breakdown of recorded crime specifically relating to fuel theft.

The Home Office does not hold data on the level of use of off-road bikes used in criminal activity in rural areas. However, we recognise the impact that unlawful and anti-social use of off-road bikes can have on communities.

The police have a range of powers to tackle the unlawful use of off-road bikes, including powers to seize vehicles being used illegally or anti-socially. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has strengthened these powers by removing the requirement to issue a warning before a vehicle can be seized for anti-social use, enabling officers to act swiftly. We have also brought forward legislation to reduce the timeframe before a seized vehicle can be disposed of to seven days, preventing opportunities for offenders to re-offend.

Decisions on the deployment of these powers and their use in tackling damage to agricultural land in rural areas are operational matters for individual police forces. They are best placed to respond to the particular challenges in their force areas.

We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is a powerhouse for economic growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. As published in the UK Defence Footprint the North East region has seen £178 million of Defence spending in 2024-25. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an 'always on' pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work. We plan for construction of the first six new munitions factories to begin in 2026.

We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is an engine for growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. As published in the UK Defence Footprint the North East region has seen £178 million of Defence spending in 2024-25. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an 'always on' pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work. Whilst it is currently premature to comment on specific site proposals and their assessment, more detail will be available once the necessary preparatory work has been completed.

We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is an engine for growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. As published in the UK Defence Footprint the North East region has seen £178 million of Defence spending in 2024-25. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an 'always on' pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work. Whilst it is currently premature to comment on specific site proposals and their assessment, more detail will be available once the necessary preparatory work has been completed.

I refer the hon. Members to the answer given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence (Lord Coaker), on 16 September 2025 to Question number HL10176 in the House of Lords.

The Norwegian Government’s announcement on 31 August 2025, that it had selected the UK as a strategic partner for their acquisition of Type 26 warships, will sustain around 4,000 jobs across the UK’s supply chain until well into the 2030s.

This is the largest ever UK warship export deal by value and it is expected to provide a £10 billion boost to the UK economy and support more than 400 British companies across all regions, including the north east of England. It is a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s defence industry and supply chains, which are supported by small and medium enterprises.

This month has shown just how volatile the world is and the importance of the investment this Government is making in our defences.

My assessment is that the Defence Growth Deal’s potential is transformative for businesses small and large across Northern Ireland.