Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is tacking to help tackle anti-social behaviour on the bus network.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is working across government and with partners, industry and local transport authorities, to ensure that everyone feels and is safe when travelling by bus. Through the Bus Services Act 2025 we have introduced measures to combat anti-social behaviour (ASB) on the bus network. This includes mandating training for staff working in the bus industry, introducing a power to enable the Secretary of State to publish statutory guidance on the inclusivity of bus stations and stops and giving local transport authorities the power to create byelaws and deploy officers who can deal with ASB and fare evasion on the bus network.
In addition, the Department previously provided £2.5 million to pilot five Transport Safety Officer (TSO) teams on the network. The pilots ended in March 2025, and a full evaluation of the programme will be published in due course. We have also recently published TSO practitioner guidance for local authorities wanting to implement a scheme in their area.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has her department made of the potential benefits to allowing parents of previously looked after children to make financial contributions to the Pupil Premium for therapy.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The purpose of pupil premium funding is to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England.
Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils. It is for schools to decide how to allocate the funding, after assessing the needs of their disadvantaged cohort, including previously looked after children.
To ensure that pupil premium is focused on effective approaches to raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils, schools must use their pupil premium in line with the evidence-informed 'menu of approaches'. Under the ‘wider strategies’ category this can include supporting pupil’s social and emotional needs.
Previously looked after children and young people under adoption orders, special guardianship orders and child arrangements orders are eligible for funding for therapy through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of (1) the annual cost to the economy of battery-related fires, and (2) how those costs are distributed between (a) local authorities, (b) emergency services, and (c) the waste and recycling sector.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services, with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here: Fire statistics - GOV.UK. This does not yet include data on the cost of battery-related fire incidents.
We will keep the contents of these publications under review, as part of the development of our recently rolled out Fire and Rescue Analysis Platform (FaRDaP).
Research into the economic and social cost of fire has previously been conducted, calculating the total annual economic and social cost of fires in England, which is available here: Economic and social cost of fire - GOV.UK. This analysis breaks down said costs by anticipation, consequence, and response, but does not specifically refer to the cost of battery-related fires.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the economic risks, (2) social impacts, and (3) costs, of prediction markets; and what consideration have they given to further regulation or restriction of such systems.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
In order to operate in Great Britain, any prediction market would require a licence from the Gambling Commission, the independent regulator for gambling. If approved, they would be classified as a ‘Betting Intermediary’ and subject to regulation under the Gambling Act 2005. We will monitor the potential impacts of prediction markets and consider further action if needed.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence, analysis or expert advice Ministers relied on in concluding that broadening the scope of health technology assessments for vaccines to include wider economic and societal impacts is unnecessary; and whether this conclusion was informed by any assessment of the capability and remit of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in areas beyond pure health system cost-effectiveness, such as macro-economics, public finance, and social and welfare analysis.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are proud to have one of the most comprehensive vaccination programmes in the world. Our approach to evaluating vaccination programmes, underpinned by recommendations and advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), is grounded in rigorous and evidence-led cost-effectiveness analysis, and ensures that decisions are objective, consistent, and based on high-quality data on health benefits and costs.
Basing our approach on these factors avoids the uncertainty of less direct benefits, where the evidence and therefore the decision is likely to be less defensible. This approach is also informed by previous work on this topic.
For example, earlier work by the independent Cost-Effectiveness Methodology for Immunisation Programmes and Procurement (CEMIPP) considered, amongst other things, whether wider socio-economic impacts should be included in the framework used to assess the cost-effectiveness of vaccines. CEMIPP conducted a consultation as part of their wider work and drew upon a broad body of expert opinion. The group concluded that wider socio-economic impacts should not be included in vaccine cost-effectiveness assessments unless doing so becomes standard practice across all health technology assessments.
Additionally, in 2022, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) undertook a detailed appraisal of whether it should broaden the perspective it uses in its economic evaluations, including consideration of wider societal impacts. Following this review, and after examining both international comparisons, and the significant methodological and ethical challenges involved, NICE’s Board concluded that it should retain its current approach of using a health-sector perspective routinely, but with the flexibility to include wider societal benefits when they are especially relevant.
Whilst the expertise of the JCVI rightly centres on disease burden, vaccine efficacy, health outcomes and health-related costs, as outlined this is not a key reason for why the cost-effectiveness methodology for vaccines does not formally take into consideration wider socio-economic benefits.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of officers who pass the selection board are privately educated.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Officer training in the UK Armed Forces is accessible to any UK citizen who meets the academic, aptitude, physical and medical requirements, irrespective of the candidate’s social background or type of education.
Of the intake to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Army) who are due to commission on 10 April 2026, 37% were independently educated. No other information in scope of these questions is held by the single Services.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of officer candidates are privately educated.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Officer training in the UK Armed Forces is accessible to any UK citizen who meets the academic, aptitude, physical and medical requirements, irrespective of the candidate’s social background or type of education.
Of the intake to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Army) who are due to commission on 10 April 2026, 37% were independently educated. No other information in scope of these questions is held by the single Services.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he had had with Birmingham City Council on their best value duty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My department regularly engages with Birmingham City Council as is normal for all Councils under intervention.
The Secretary of State receives regular reports from Commissioners outlining the progress made by the Council in complying with the Best Value Duty. The most recent report was the third to be published and it was added to gov.uk on 1 December 2025 alongside a Written Ministerial Statement.
Commissioners were appointed on 5 October 2023 following serious financial and governance failings and they are working with Birmingham City Council on its wider improvement journey to ensure the Council complies with the Best Value Duty.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that an appeal against a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman decision not to investigate a case is not reviewed by the same person who made the original decision.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman operates independently of central Government. Decisions about how complaints are investigated and reviewed fall solely within the Ombudsman’s statutory powers. This independence rightly keeps ministers at arm’s length from the complaints service the Ombudsman provides; a service that is an important element of the overarching accountability system for local government.
The Government has no plans to take any steps to dictate how the Ombudsman investigates or reviews individual cases.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to provide local authorities with standards to help support the construction of flood resilient social homes.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 81948 on 21 October 2025.