Written questions by Stephenson.

With reference to Chapter 9 of the final stage impact assessment entitled Improve access to Statutory Sick Pay by removing the Lower Earnings Limit and removing the waiting period, if she will make it her policy publish an assessment of the impact of that policy on behaviour in each of the first five years after it is implemented.

The Government intends to conduct a post-implementation review (PIR) of the Employment Rights Bill within five years of implementation. The impact of the measures to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay will be monitored, including how Statutory Sick Pay is used by employers and how effectively it supports employees.

What proportion of her Department's funding for bus service improvements will be spent in Bedfordshire.

The Department for Transport has allocated £670 million to local transport authorities in 25/26 to support the delivery of Bus Service Improvement Plans as part of a more than £1 billion investment in buses confirmed at the Budget. Local transport authorities in Bedfordshire, consisting of Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and Luton Borough Council, have collectively been allocated £11.4 million of this funding.

If she will make an estimate of the number of people in receipt of a pension in the (a) 2025-26, (b) 2026-27, (c) 2027-28 and (c) 2028-29 financial years.

The estimated total number of people in receipt of State Pension in the 2025-26 to 2028-29 financial years is available in the following table. This is from the latest Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables published following Spring Statement 2025. This covers State Pension recipients in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and outside the UK. Figures are rounded to nearest one thousand and represent a mid-financial year average. Source: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2025 - GOV.UK As forecasts of private pension receipt are not produced, this response has reference to the State Pension only. Financial Year2025-262026-272027-282028-29Total State Pension Claimant Forecast (in thousands)13,19613,20913,07513,157

What capital funding will be made available to (a) Network Rail and (b) Great British Railways for Access for All schemes in each of the next five years.

In December, the Chancellor launched the second stage of the Spending Review. This is a zero-based Spending Review, to ensure every line of spending – including the Access for All programme and wider transport infrastructure portfolio – delivers the Plan for Change and provides good value for taxpayers.

What estimate she has made of the expected return on investment for investments in the National Wealth Fund.

The National Wealth Fund will seek to make positive returns for the Exchequer across its whole portfolio, covering at least the government’s cost of borrowing and institutional overheads, in line with its Financial Framework.This will take time to achieve and should be balanced with the National Wealth Fund’s increased risk appetite.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding available to Highways England for the maintenance of flood resilience infrastructure.

National Highways undertakes flood resilience work on England’s motorways and trunk A roads through a combination of ongoing maintenance and renewals activity that extends the life of, or replaces, existing roads and structures. The Department has set the budgets for the financial year 2025/26 as part of the Autumn Budget 2024. This allocated £1.455 billion to operations and maintenance, and a further £1.951 billion to renewals as part of a wider £4.842 billion interim settlement for National Highways. Funding beyond this financial year will be confirmed through the ongoing Spending Review which is due to complete in late Spring 2025.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help protect Ministers' (a) social media and (b) personal email accounts from cybersecurity threats.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK government’s national technical authority for cyber security, works with colleagues across government to provide Ministers and others with regular security briefings, guidance and advice, including advice on protecting their online accounts, personal data and mitigating common cyber threats.In addition, the NCSC provides individual cyber defence services to high-risk individuals, including Ministers, to help protect their online accounts and personal devices.

What assessment she has made of (a) trends in the level of financial literacy in the UK and (b) the potential impact of improving young people's financial literacy on economic growth.

The Government is committed to ensuring that individuals have the financial capability to manage their money well. While the Government does not hold specific data quantifying the economic benefits of this, we recognise the importance of financial literacy in people’s economic participation and have taken a number of steps to promote this, including among young people. Financial education is currently incorporated into the national curriculum in England through mathematics at key stages 1 to 4 and citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, which together cover personal budgeting, saving for the future, managing credit and debt and calculating interest. The Government has established an independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review to ensure it is fit for purpose and meeting the needs of children and young people. In addition, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is supported by the Government to provide comprehensive guidance for each stage of consumers’ financial lives. It’s MoneyHelper website offers a range of tools and calculators to help consumers with issues around benefits, everyday money, family and care, home finance, money troubles, pensions and retirement, savings and work (https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/tools-and-calculators). The Government recognises that there is still more that can be done to further improve financial literacy. That is why Financial Education and Capability has been made an area of focus within the Financial Inclusion Strategy. The strategy will aim to tackle barriers to individual and households’ ability to access affordable and appropriate financial products and services, including financial literacy. The Financial Conduct Authority’s nationally representative Financial Lives Survey gathers insights into the financial behaviour, attitudes and experiences of adults aged 18 and over across the UK. The survey covers a wide range of topics, including financial capability.

Whether she plans to provide additional funding to Bedfordshire’s road network to manage increased traffic from the planned Universal Studios theme park.

As part of the Plan for Change, the government is working towards delivering a major investment in infrastructure around the site to support the delivery of the project and ensure it is well connected and easily accessible. The details of negotiations between private investors and the Government are currently confidential. Further information on plans for infrastructure investment around the site will be set out in due course.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the planned Universal Studios theme park on passenger numbers on (a) East-West Rail and (b) Thameslink services.

Expected demand for the Universal Studios theme park is being analysed by East West Rail Co. and Network Rail as part of the Outline Business Case for East West Rail, to ensure the right infrastructure is delivered. East West Rail Co. and Network Rail will be asked by the Department for Transport to analyse the capacity and performance of the Thameslink and Midland Main Line route to make best use of capacity.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of Great British Railways providing direct shuttle services for Universal Studios visitors between Luton Airport and Wixams station.

The service pattern for the Midland Main Line will be decided by Great British Railways in advance of the Universal Studios theme park opening in 2031. The Department for Transport will additionally ask Network Rail to analyse the capacity and performance of the route to make best use of capacity.

What estimate her Department has made of the proportion of young people who have been auto-enrolled in a pension since October 2012; and what their median expected annual pension payments will be.

Automatic enrolment has succeeded in transforming pension saving with over 11 million employees having been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension since 2012. These statistics are available from The Pensions Regulator and are updated on a monthly basis. However, this is not split by ageAutomatic enrolment declaration of compliance report. DWP publish statistics annually on pension participation by age. The latest statistics show 86% of 22-to-29-year-olds who are eligible for Automatic Enrolment are saving into a workplace pension as of 2023, up from 35% in 2012 (when AE was being rolled out). This is comparable to a participation rate of 88% for all eligible individuals aged (22 to 66). Further data on workplace pension participation and saving trends are available on GOV.UK. Future pension income depends on many individuals factors across an individual’s life time, further analysis on future pensioner incomes by year of retirement are available on GOV.UK.

With reference to his Department's press release entitled Over 1,500 extra GPs recruited to fix front door of the NHS, published on 8 April 2025, how many of those GPs will be deployed in (a) Mid Bedfordshire, (b) Bedfordshire and (c) rural areas.

As at 31 March 2025, 26 GPs had been recruited through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme in NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB. The number of full time equivalent ARRS GPs working in the ICB was 13.5 as at 28 February 2025.Data on the number of roles recruited to rural areas is not held.

Communities and Local Government, if she will publish a digital, publicly available map of Tree Protection Orders.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 35438 on 12 March 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2025 to Written Question 43758 on NHS England, how any short-term upfront costs incurred will be funded.

Detailed plans are being formulated by a joint Department and NHS England programme team. The remit of work includes formulation of the relevant costs and securing the required funding. Funding conversations between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and HM Treasury are ongoing. Further detail on the costs and funding mechanisms will be provided as this work develops.

Communities and Local Government, what local taxes she intends for Mayors to be able to levy.

The English Devolution White Paper sets out an enhanced Devolution Framework. This will be available by default rather than by deal, to both existing and new strategic authorities, creating a consistent, systematic approach and providing Mayor’s with the power to decide what is right for their areas. This framework includes the ability for all Mayoral Strategic Authorities to introduce mayoral precepting on council tax and the ability to raise a Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy to fund strategic infrastructure once a Spatial Development Strategy is in place.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make a comparative assessment of the number of houses built on functional floodplains in (a) the UK and (b) the G7 in the last decade.

The Government has committed to ensure we are building more high-quality, well-designed and sustainable homes and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery. Flood risk is an important consideration in the planning system. The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk, including floodplains. Where development is necessary, and where there are no suitable sites available in areas with a lower risk of flooding, local planning authorities and developers should ensure development is appropriately flood resilient and resistant, safe for its users for the development’s lifetime, will not increase flood risk overall and will provide wider sustainability benefits. There are different approaches in defining and managing flood risk and floodplains, and in recording residential and non-residential developments between nations.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's press release entitled England’s non-woodland trees freely mapped for first time, published on 5 April 2025, whether his Department plans to use this mapping to identify trees which are not currently protected by tree protection orders.

The Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme’s Trees outside Woodlands (ToW) map identifies the location, distribution and cover of trees, small groups of trees and small woodlands (less than 0.5 hectares) in England, and enables citizens, communities and local authorities to identify trees outside woodland in their local area for the first time. Local authorities hold information on the Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) in their area and can choose how this information is disseminated, of which some choose to do so through mapping. Members of the public can contact their local authority to check the TPOs in their local area. Local authorities are responsible for TPOs and may use the ToW map as a tool to cross-reference with their records.

If he will make it his policy that hon. Members are formally consulted before Government decisions which would have a particular impact on their constituency are made.

The Government recognises the importance of engagement with MPs when making policy decisions. Honorable Members already have a variety of levers in Parliament by which they can engage Ministers on policies affecting their constituencies. There are no plans to change these existing arrangements. .

How many Arms Length Bodies have been created since July 2024.

Cabinet Office maintains records and oversight of formally established Arm’s Length Bodies. As stated in my previous answer of 8 January 2025, no ALBs have been formally established since 4 July 2024.