Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the framework or criteria used to assess police force eligibility and funding levels for neighbourhood policing allocations in 2025-26.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has provided £200 million for 2025/26 to kickstart the recruitment of 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs by the end of the Parliament. Force-level allocations have been determined using the Police Funding Formula.
The approach in 2025/26 is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands. This means the precise workforce mix in the first year of the programme is a local decision.
All 43 forces submitted delivery plans in line with their force level allocations outlining projected increase in neighbourhood officers for year one of the four-year programme. All forces’ plans are therefore informed by a force-level understanding of what can be achieved.
The specific grant allocations and projections are available for each force on gov.uk through the following link: Neighbourhood policing grant allocations and projections: 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK .
The local force baseline that growth must be achieved from has been set at 31st March 2025. Forces have developed delivery plans to benefit their neighbourhood policing teams in 25/26. The details of West Midlands Police allocations can be found on gov.uk on the link shared above.
To ensure that funding effectively contributes to neighbourhood policing aims and is limited to expenditure that is critical for the programme, funding must be used for personnel in roles that fulfil neighbourhood policing functions (defined by CIPFA Category 1A) and items that directly support them in their roles.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what methodology was used to determine the allocation of neighbourhood policing funding to each police force area as part of the 2025-26 settlement.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has provided £200 million for 2025/26 to kickstart the recruitment of 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs by the end of the Parliament. Force-level allocations have been determined using the Police Funding Formula.
The approach in 2025/26 is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands. This means the precise workforce mix in the first year of the programme is a local decision.
All 43 forces submitted delivery plans in line with their force level allocations outlining projected increase in neighbourhood officers for year one of the four-year programme. All forces’ plans are therefore informed by a force-level understanding of what can be achieved.
The specific grant allocations and projections are available for each force on gov.uk through the following link: Neighbourhood policing grant allocations and projections: 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK .
The local force baseline that growth must be achieved from has been set at 31st March 2025. Forces have developed delivery plans to benefit their neighbourhood policing teams in 25/26. The details of West Midlands Police allocations can be found on gov.uk on the link shared above.
To ensure that funding effectively contributes to neighbourhood policing aims and is limited to expenditure that is critical for the programme, funding must be used for personnel in roles that fulfil neighbourhood policing functions (defined by CIPFA Category 1A) and items that directly support them in their roles.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the educational support system for post-16 students who missed GCSE examinations due to unforeseen circumstances.
Answered by Janet Daby
If a student is unable to sit an exam or assessment for a qualification for an acceptable reason, but has completed at least one other exam or assessment in that subject, schools and colleges may be able to apply for special consideration.
When in post-16 education, students can agree a study programme with their institution that meets their needs. 16 to 19 funding is flexible in supporting a wide range of study programmes, though these need to include English and mathematics if students have not yet achieved a GCSE grade 4 in these subjects.
The 16 to 19 funding formula allocates additional funding to support students who need to continue with English and mathematics, and funding to help with the more general additional costs incurred for teaching and supporting students who have low prior attainment.
When learning programmes are designed to enable students to re-sit or retake examinations and assessments these are not generally eligible for funding as the activity has already been funded. However, when there are exceptional circumstances outside the control of the student or institution then the retake delivery hours for individual students may be included in the funded study programme hours.
In the guidance ‘16 to 19 funding: information for 2025 to 2026’, published 5 March 2025, the department announced additional 16 to 19 education funding in the 2025/26 financial year on top of the £300 million announced at the Autumn Budget 2024. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-information-for-2025-to-2026. This means that we will be spending over £400 million more to ensure enough funding is available given the very significant increase in student numbers and other pressures on the system.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of restricting eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments on levels of pensioner poverty in rural areas.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The last Labour Government lifted over one million pensioners out of poverty, and this Government – despite having to make the tough decisions to deal with our dire inheritance remains absolutely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement.
Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or other qualifying means-tested benefits or tax credits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 or over.
The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pension-credit-applications-and-awards-february-2025/pension-credit-applications-and-awards-february-2025
The statistics show that the Department received 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement – an 81% increase on the comparable period in 2023/24 and made 117,800 new Pension Credit awards – a 64% increase or 45,800 extra awards on the comparable period in 2023/24.
We are honouring our commitment to the Triple Lock. In April, the basic and new State Pensions increased by 4.1% and some 12 million pensioners will see an increase of up to £470 over this financial year. Our commitment to the Triple Lock also means that spending on State Pensions is forecast to rise by around £31 billion over this Parliament.
And while the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people, other help is also available for low-income pensioners. This includes Cold Weather Payments in England & Wales; help with energy bills via the Warm Home Discount scheme as well as the Household Support Fund in England which we extended for a further year with funding of £742 million, with corresponding funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much local highway authorities in England will receive in 2025-26 from the (a) pothole fund, (b) highways maintenance block needs, (c) highways maintenance block incentive, (d) integrated transport block, (e) Maintenance funding uplift from HS2 Euston savings, (f) Network North highways maintenance funding and (g) other repurposed HS2 funding for potholes and road maintenance.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
During 2025/26, the Department will provide a total of £1,567 million to local highway authorities in England under a new single, consolidated highway maintenance capital grant. This consolidates into one single funding stream the previous pothole fund, highway maintenance block (needs and incentive elements) and earlier Network North funding uplift, as well as the £500 million funding uplift announced in the Chancellor’s October 2024 Budget. The funding allocations to individual authorities are all on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-block-formula-allocations-2025-to-2026.
The Department will also provide £170 million of Integrated Transport Block (ITB) funding to local highway authorities in 2025/26. Allocations to individual authorities are published on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-transport-block-allocations.
None of the above figures include the £208 million or so of highway maintenance funding per annum, or the £90 million or so of ITB funding per annum, that has been consolidated into the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) that are paid to some Mayoral Combined Authority areas.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether children who attend school in a different local authority area to the one in which they reside are funded at the level of (a) the local authority their school is in or (b) the local authority where they reside.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The schools national funding formula (NFF) allocates funding for mainstream schools. The funding levels vary between local authority areas, and the funding that mainstream schools receive is determined by the local authority that they are in, rather than where their pupils live. In any given year, mainstream schools are allocated funding based on pupil numbers and characteristics at the time of the previous October census. This means that for the 2025/26 financial year, schools are allocated funding based on the pupils they had at the time of the October 2024 census.
Children with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are mainly funded by the local authority in whose area they reside. Local authorities are allocated high needs funding for this purpose and their allocations are calculated through a high needs NFF which uses data relating to the children resident in their area. The local authority allocates the majority of this high needs funding to mainstream and special schools, both those located in the authority’s area and those elsewhere, in respect of the children with SEND resident in their area for whom they have statutory responsibilities.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average funding per pupil was in mainstream schools in (a) Worsley and Eccles constituency, (b) Salford (c) Wigan (d) the North West and (e) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Local authorities receive their core funding for schools through the dedicated schools grant (DSG). Local authorities are then responsible for designing a local formula, within certain parameters, to distribute the funding that they receive from the department to schools in their area. This local formula is used to determine funding for both the maintained schools and academies in each area.
As the DSG is allocated at local authority level, DSG allocations broken down to the level of individual constituencies are not available. The individual allocations that schools within Worsley and Eccles constituency receive are determined by the local funding formula set each year by Salford and Wigan local authorities.
However, the DSG funding allocations at local authority, regional and national level for each of the last five years are set out below. The per-pupil funding figures include premises funding but exclude growth and falling rolls funding.
| One Year per-pupil funding | |||
| Salford | Wigan | North West | England |
2021/22 | £ 5,474 | £ 5,069 | £ 5,221 | £ 5,228 |
2022/23 | £ 5,638 | £ 5,199 | £ 5,366 | £ 5,374 |
2023/24 | £ 5,972 | £ 5,472 | £ 5,644 | £ 5,648 |
2024/25 | £ 6,315 | £ 5,776 | £ 5,962 | £ 5,957 |
2025/26 | £ 6,816 | £ 6,266 | £ 6,454 | £ 6,443 |
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle childhood obesity; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits introducing measures to improve access to affordable, nutritious food options.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The prevention of ill health is a clear priority for the Government, and a cornerstone of this is supporting children to live healthier lives. Under the Health Mission, the Government is committed to prevention and to tackling obesity, creating a fairer, healthier food environment.
We have already laid secondary legislation to restrict advertisements of less healthy food and drink to children on television and online, we have announced changes to the planning framework for fast food near schools, and we are taking steps to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy remains effective and fit-for-purpose. In addition, initiatives such as the Healthy Start scheme, free school meals, and the holiday activities and food programme provide access to affordable, nutritious food options.
The Healthy Start scheme, introduced in 2006, encourages a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households. Pregnant women and families with children aged over one and under four years old each receive £4.25 every week, and families with children under one years old each receive £8.50 every week. Healthy Start can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fresh, frozen, or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, or tinned pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries also have access to free Healthy Start vitamins.
Disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools, as well as 16 to 18-year-old students in further education, are entitled to receive free meals on the basis of low income. In addition, all children in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 in England's state-funded schools are entitled to universal infant free school meals. The holiday activities and food programme provides free childcare places, enriching activities, and healthy meals to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing, and learning throughout the school holidays.
We are also working collaboratively across the Government to deliver a resilient food system that promotes health and food security. The Food Strategy will work to provide healthier, more easily accessible food to help people live longer, healthier lives.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to help increase the number of women and girls participating in motorsport.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is dedicated to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport. Female role models are vital in encouraging more girls to get active and find a route into the sports they enjoy.
We welcome the continued growth of the Formula 1 Academy in providing opportunities for young female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition in motorsport, and are supportive of its focus on uncovering the next generation of young female drivers.
I also recognise the work organisations such as Motorsport UK and the British Women’s Racing Drivers Club are taking forward to increase female participation within the sport.
In the broader field of motorsport, I also recently met with Formula One to congratulate them on their amazing 75th anniversary last month. This milestone provides a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the sport’s long history in the UK, of which we are very proud, and we will continue to work closely with them to see how best we can further support the success story of Formula One in the UK.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding to Central Bedfordshire Council to help support the transition from a three to a two-tier education system.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Every year, the department uses the schools national funding formula (NFF) to distribute core funding for 5 to 16 year-old pupils, from reception to year 11, in mainstream state-funded schools in England.
In the current NFF, the vast majority of funding is distributed on the basis of pupil numbers and pupils’ characteristics. This allows funding distribution to be based on a fair and consistent assessment of need. The NFF is neutral to how schools are set up and schools are free to choose how best to spend the funding they receive.
The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. While this funding is not designed to fund transitions from a three-tier to a two-tier system, the funding is not ringfenced, subject to published conditions, and local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities. Central Bedfordshire Council will receive just under £36.1 million for places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million. Importantly, the decision to move to a two-tier system is one for the local authority to make.