Written questions by Ballinger.

Whether her Department is taking steps to help tackle the use of (a) fraudulent and (b) substitute insurance by fast food delivery drivers.

The Government takes uninsured driving seriously. This is achieved through Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE), a scheme where the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency collaborate to identify uninsured drivers and police enforcement on the road. All drivers must be insured to drive the vehicle they are using and for the purpose it is used for. As with all drivers, they are subject to roadside enforcement by the police. Motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the policies that they offer, and it is for them to decide the level of risk that they take in issuing any policy to a given applicant. They use a range of criteria to assess the potential risk a driver poses, including the age of the applicant, the type of vehicle being insured, the postal area where the applicant lives and the driving experience and record of the applicant. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market. The Equality Act 2010 provides general protection against age discrimination for people of all ages. However, the Act also includes an exemption for those conducting an assessment of risk for the purposes of providing a financial service to another person. This means that motor insurance companies are still able to take age into account when considering the premium to be paid or indeed whether to insure people of any particular age group.

If she will take legislative steps to ensure that car insurance renewal quotes are equitable for existing and new customers.

The Government takes uninsured driving seriously. This is achieved through Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE), a scheme where the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency collaborate to identify uninsured drivers and police enforcement on the road. All drivers must be insured to drive the vehicle they are using and for the purpose it is used for. As with all drivers, they are subject to roadside enforcement by the police. Motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the policies that they offer, and it is for them to decide the level of risk that they take in issuing any policy to a given applicant. They use a range of criteria to assess the potential risk a driver poses, including the age of the applicant, the type of vehicle being insured, the postal area where the applicant lives and the driving experience and record of the applicant. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market. The Equality Act 2010 provides general protection against age discrimination for people of all ages. However, the Act also includes an exemption for those conducting an assessment of risk for the purposes of providing a financial service to another person. This means that motor insurance companies are still able to take age into account when considering the premium to be paid or indeed whether to insure people of any particular age group.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of permitting people to undertake government-funded childcare to children they are related to, but are not the parents of.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.Funding made available in the dedicated schools grant for the early education childcare entitlements for children aged from 9 months up to school age, cannot be claimed by, or spent on, any type of childcare providers who provide childcare for related children.This restriction for local authorities funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4)(c) the 2006 Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative and section 18(8)(c) of the 2006 Act states that a relative, in relation to a child, means “a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership”.Successive governments have taken the view that people should not receive funding for looking after related children that they may already look after on an informal basis for free. This is on the basis that it would not be an effective use of public money. For this reason, the department has no plans to change this long-standing position at this time.

Whether she plans to increase the penalties for (a) failing to display a front registration plate and (b) using a plate that does not meet the legal requirements on a car.

The Government keeps the motoring offences under review, and is considering possible interventions.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve the effectiveness of measures to prevent consumers from accessing unlicensed online gambling operators.

We are committed to working closely with the Gambling Commission to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. The Gambling Commission assesses information gathered from multiple sources and works closely with partner agencies to prevent access to illegal websites by consumers in Great Britain.In the past year, the Commission has significantly increased its disruption activity and has a renewed focus on finding innovative ways to tackle the illegal market. The Crime and Policing Bill, introduced in Parliament on 25 February 2025, will also grant the Gambling Commission with new powers to more quickly and effectively take down illegal gambling websites.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking with local government to tackle abuse faced by women working in local government.

This government is clear there is no place in local government for bullying, intimidation or harassment, including abuse faced by women. Such behaviour causes great personal distress to those affected, particularly as the current local government standards and conduct framework lacks effective sanctions to hold perpetrators to account. In December we launched a consultation seeking views on proposals that will apply to all types and tiers of local authorities in England to strengthen the standards and conduct framework, including proposals to introduce the sanction of suspension. We are now in the process of analysing the responses to the consultation, and the Government Response will be issued in due course. We also continue to fund the Local Government Association’s sector support offer, including its Civility in Public Life programme, which offers training for councillors related to personal safety, handling abuse, and intimidation online.

What steps she is taking to improve (a) recruitment and (b) retention in local government children's services.

Local government children’s services provide vital support and protection to society’s most vulnerable children. The department is grateful for the work that children’s social care workforces do every day.In November, we published ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’ setting out our strategic vision to children’s social care reform. The department is confident these reforms will result in a more effective system that more people will want to work and stay in.The department is directly supporting the recruitment and retention of child and family social workers, including training around 850 new social workers annually through our fast-track programmes and has also provided funding to support up to 461 new social work apprenticeship places. We are working with local authorities to improve working conditions through our ‘Support for social workers’ platform and are reviewing the National Workload Action Group’s report on reducing unnecessary workload.On 20 March, we also launched a public consultation on new post-qualifying standards for child and family social workers and a new social work induction programme to strengthen early career support and improve retention.On 30 September 2024, there were 34,300 full-time equivalent child and family social workers in post, which is the highest number since data collection began. This reflects the combined efforts of local authorities, and departmental investment, to improve recruitment and retention in children’s services.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the threshold for intervention from children's services to protect children.

Keeping children safe from multiple forms of abuse and harm is the foundation of giving every child the best start in life, ensuring they can achieve and thrive as they grow up. In our Plan for Change, this government set out its ambition to ensure every child is kept safe, regardless of their background or where they live across the country.The Children Act 1989 is the legislative framework for local authorities in terms of investigating child protection concerns (under section 47 of the Act) and providing support and services for children in need (under section 17 of the Act). The statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children' (2023) is clear that local authorities and their partners should publish a threshold document for support and services under section 17.As a child-centred government, keeping children safe is a priority. The department has made £500 million available this year to support the national rollout of the Families First Partnership Programme. We envision a transformed system, where practitioners from social work, police, health, education and beyond work together to promote the wellbeing of children and keep them safe from harm. Through this end-to-end system reform, families will receive the help and support they need, at the earliest opportunity and more children will be protected at the right time.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that open spaces and the green belt are protected during house building.

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the government’s policies for safeguarding the Green Belt from inappropriate development. The Framework also allows local areas to identify local green space which is protected in a similar manner to the Green Belt.

What plans her Department has to improve the education of children and young people on risks associated with online gambling.

Children and young people are taught about the importance of online safety and the risks associated with it as part of the statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum.The statutory RSHE guidance sets out that that young people should be taught about the risks related to online gambling, including the accumulation of debt, how advertising and information is targeted at them and how to be a discerning consumer of information online. These subjects support young people to develop their ability to self-regulate, as well as providing strategies for doing so. Young people are also taught how to seek help and support if they have concerns.The department is currently reviewing the statutory RSHE curriculum for primary and secondary pupils and is analysing consultation responses, talking to stakeholders and considering relevant evidence before setting out next steps, including whether any additional content is needed on the risks associated with online gambling.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the (a) value for money and (b) effectiveness of weekly food waste recycling collections by local authorities.

A value for money assessment was made in the Simpler Recycling impact assessment available here: The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025, published in December 2024. The effectiveness of weekly food waste recycling collections by local authorities will be made in the Resources and Waste Policy Programme Evaluation, which we expect to be published around 2029.

Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the enforcement by the Gambling Commission of legislation on preventing unlicensed online gambling operators from being advertised by Premier League football clubs.

The Gambling Commission has been clear that sports organisations must diligently and continuously ensure that they are not advertising illegal gambling. Under current rules, sports organisations who engage in sponsoring and advertising arrangements with unlicensed gambling operators are at serious risk of committing the offence of advertising unlawful gambling under Section 330 of the Gambling Act 2005. The Commission has warned relevant club officials that they may be liable to prosecution and, if convicted, face a fine, imprisonment or both if they promote unlicensed gambling businesses that transact with consumers in Great Britain. Sports organisations engaging in such arrangements with an unlicensed brand must ensure that online gambling activity for that unlicensed brand is blocked and inaccessible to consumers in Great Britain.In such instances, the Commission will seek assurance from clubs that they have carried out due diligence on their gambling partners and that consumers in Great Britain cannot transact with the unlicensed websites. The Commission will also take steps to independently verify effective blocking measures are in place.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the UK VCT rules on the age limit for qualifying companies in line with EU regulations.

The Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Scheme was evaluated in 2022, and these evaluations were published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-venture-capital-schemes.The evaluations found that the schemes were well targeted to address the market failure which makes it difficult for early-stage, high-risk companies to secure the investment they need.

Whether she plans to take steps to allow childminders to provide funded places to related children who do not live with them.

Childminders are an important part of the early education sector. They provide flexible and affordable care which can be tailored to the specific needs of parents and children.Primary legislation does not permit funding care that is provided by a relative under the early years entitlements. Successive governments have taken this same approach to avoid creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis. For this reason, the department currently has no plans to change this long-standing position. A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child. However, this would have to be from local authority funds that are independent of the dedicated schools grant.Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to allow childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn. This clarification, which aims to provide more flexibility and remove burdens for childminders while maintaining quality and safety standards, is part of our wider changes to the early years foundation stage.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of adjusting the annual limits for VCT investee companies alongside inflation.

The Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Scheme was evaluated in 2022, and these evaluations were published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-venture-capital-schemes.The evaluations found that the schemes were well targeted to address the market failure which makes it difficult for early-stage, high-risk companies to secure the investment they need.

Whether his Department is taking steps to stop the provision of (a) clinical and (b) therapy services by (i) unregulated and (ii) unregistered individuals.

The Government has no plans to stop the provision of clinical or therapy services by either unregulated and/or unregistered individuals.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure food allergy labels are visible and legible; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a minimum type size.

The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, whether that be mandatory or voluntary, so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. The availability and accessibility of essential food information to all consumers is vitally important. It is already a requirement that food information must be easily visible, clearly legible, and where appropriate indelible, in addition to there being a required minimum font size for mandatory information. Additionally, if a prepacked or prepacked for direct sale food contains one of the 14 major allergens as an ingredient then this must be emphasised in the ingredients list so that it clearly stands out from the other ingredients.

Whether his Department has plans to review the processes for recording tracking histories at Royal Mail's Heathrow distribution centre.

Royal Mail is an independent business and therefore concerns about operational matters should be directed to its management.The government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s commercial or operational decisions, including its processes for recording tracking histories at its Heathrow distribution centre.

Whether she has considered the introduction of an official ID scheme for (a) disabled people and (b) their carers.

While some disabled people may welcome a card that acts as a proof of disability, we are aware that some disabled people would not wish to carry a card which confirms their impairment. Other people who may meet the criteria for the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability do not identify as disabled, although they may require reasonable adjustments.The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve disabled people’s access to goods and services, so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, meaning that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require.There are a number of optional schemes and cards in the UK that have been created to meet particular needs and which people may use if they wish. These include the Hidden Disability Sunflower Scheme which discreetly identifies where additional support may be needed and is gaining widespread recognition, and Nimbus Disability’s Access Card which can help when communicating with a business about the types of support or reasonable adjustments that might be needed to access their services.Introducing an ID scheme for carers could prove restrictive. A disabled person may have more than one carer or may be accompanied by different people on different occasions.There are therefore no plans to introduce an ID scheme for disabled people or their carers at this time.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect grouse and their habitats.

There are two native species of grouse in England, red and black grouse. Black grouse are of conservation concern because of a long-term decline in their numbers due to a combination of factors including predation, climate change and changes in agricultural practices. As with all wild birds, red and black grouse are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. The Game Act, 1831 applies a close season to both species to ensure hunting is sustainable. However, there is a long-standing voluntary moratorium on the hunting of black grouse due to their long-term decline. Typical habitat for both species is peatland, heathland and moorland. We are committed to protecting these nature-rich habitats through promoting sustainable land management and restoration practices. These habitats are included in the Government commitment to deliver our legally binding biodiversity target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042. The Government’s Nature for Climate Fund is also enabling peatland restoration and native woodland planting which will provide benefits for both species of grouse.