Written questions by Anderson.

What steps his Department is taking to address the shortage of healthcare assistants at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

We are committed to building a health service fit for the future, with the workforce it needs to get patients seen on time and cared for by the right professional when and where they need it, but bringing in the necessary staff will take time.Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS Trusts. NHS Trusts manage their recruitment at a local level ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

What proportion of emergency department patients at Milton Keynes University Hospital were seen within four hours in each of the last three years.

The following table shows the percentage of accident and emergency attendances to Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, that were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours, in each of the last three years:YearPercentage of total accident and emergency attendances admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours2023/2474.9%2022/2379.1%2021/2283.9%Source: Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity statistics, published by NHS Digital, and available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-accident--emergency-activity

What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting lists for diagnostic services at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Cutting waiting lists, including for diagnostic tests, is a key priority for the Government. We will provide the number of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other tests that are needed to increase capacity and reduce elective and cancer waits. It is unacceptable that, as of August 2024, 23.9% of patients are waiting over six weeks for a test, against an objective in the 2024/25 Operational Planning Guidance for no more than 5% to wait six weeks.The Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has implemented several initiatives to improve access to diagnostic services and to meet the needs of its growing community. This includes the opening of the Lloyds Court Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Milton Keynes and the Whitehouse Health Centre CDC in Whitehouse, as part of national efforts to bring essential diagnostic services into the local community.Construction has also commenced for a new three-storey imaging centre at the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital through the New Hospital Programme. This facility will provide a modern central location for several imaging diagnostic services, and will include two MRI scanners, two CT scanners, and a new Ultrasound Department. Locating imaging services in one place will improve efficiency and enhance patient’s experience of the service.

What assessment he has made of the impact of the National Security and Investment Act 2021 on foreign direct investment since 1 April 2023.

The National Security and Investment (NSI) Act 2021 gives the Government power to scrutinise and intervene in acquisitions that may pose threats to national security, whilst also supporting secure and resilient growth. All sectors are within scope of the NSI Act, with acquisitions of entities related to 17 sensitive areas of the economy having to notify and receive approval from the Government before the acquisition can be completed. The Government is taking a number of steps to ensure the continued effectiveness of the NSI Act.The previous Government published a Call for Evidence in November 2023 and a response in April 2024. The Call for Evidence sought feedback from a wide range of stakeholders on the scope of the regime, the notification process and Government guidance and comms. The Government is currently considering its next steps, drawing on responses received.The Government will review and produce a report on the mandatory notification areas under the NSI Act, as required by section 4 of the Notifiable Acquisitions Regulations 2021, before January 2025.The Government will complete a Post-Implementation Review, as committed to in the NSI Act Impact Assessment, evaluating the effectiveness of the NSI Act. This is expected to be published in 2026.The Government regularly engages with stakeholders on the NSI Act, including speaking events, meetings and feedback exercises. The Government has published extensive guidance for businesses and investors. The NSI Act Market Guidance sets out what businesses and investors, including small and medium-sized businesses, need to be aware of and is available on GOV.UK. The guidance is kept under review to ensure it remains up to date. The “National Security & Investment Act 2021: Annual Report 2023-2024” published in September shows that the NSI system is continuing to run well and as intended. It demonstrates that we have the powers to protect sensitive sectors whilst continuing to support investment. Analysis to date has not found evidence of the Act affecting the total volume of investment into the UK. The UK’s approach to investment screening is in line with many other countries, including our close allies. We continue to work closely with international partners to draw on global best practice.

What steps her Department plans to take to help incentive retail investment in domestic public companies.

The Government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive. This is why we supported the implementation of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) listing reforms, and are supportive of the reform to overhaul the Prospectus rules to improve access for retail investors in the capital raising process. The Government is also taking forward work to improve the information and support available to retail investors to help with their decision-making. This includes reforms to the UK’s retail disclosure regime and exploring options to expand the availability of investment support through the joint Government and FCA review of the boundary between financial advice and guidance. Additionally, individuals can also save up to £20,000 into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) each year, including Stocks and Shares ISAs, and any savings income received within an ISA is tax free.

Whether the Government plans to accept all recommendations of the Digitisation Taskforce Interim Report, published July 2023.

The work of the Digitisation Taskforce is ongoing and it has not yet made any recommendations to government. The government looks forward to the taskforce providing its final report and will set out its response after that.

What further fiscal steps she is taking to help increase the international competitiveness of the UK's listing regime.

The government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive. The Chancellor will announce any fiscal decisions at the Budget in the usual way.

What steps her Department is taking to increase private investment in scale-up companies.

This government has been clear: our number one mission is driving economic growth to improve the lives of the British people. To grow our economy, we need more high quality, long-term investment. This means creating a new partnership with businesses and making sure Britain is the best place in the world to invest. The government is strengthening the British Business Bank’s ability to support the UK’s fastest growing, most innovative companies by establishing the British Growth Partnership. The British Growth Partnership is a new, pathfinder approach to the partnership between the British Business Bank and institutional investors that will further the government's goal, as set out in the Pensions Investment Review, of encouraging more UK pension fund investment into UK growth assets. The British Business Bank, the UK's largest domestic venture capital investor, will launch a new fund to attract pension and institutional investment into venture capital and innovative businesses, with the aim of making investments by the end of 2025. The government expect both successful bidders of the Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) competition, Schroders and ICG, to begin making investments via their new funds in late 2024, supported by pensions capital from Phoenix Group, with the aim of generating over a billion pounds of investment into UK science and technology companies. To provide greater certainty for investors and businesses, we have extended the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) schemes by ten years to 5 April 2035. This will ensure the schemes continue to be available to support scale-up companies. Finally, in April 2024, the British Business Bank and Innovate UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help create new pathways for private investment into scale-ups, to better scale firms and address regional disparities.

Whether she has had recent discussions with Buckinghamshire Council on (a) the adequacy of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Buckinghamshire and (b) the level of funding for SEND support in that county.

The department is continuing to support and challenge Buckinghamshire to improve its delivery of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for Buckinghamshire was in March 2022, during which inspectors identified three areas of significant weakness. These areas were:i) The lack of a cohesive area strategy to identify and meet the needs of those children and young people requiring speech and language, communication and occupational therapy.ii) Waiting times for assessments on the autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis pathways, and the system-owned plans in place to address this.iii) Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.Following the inspection, Buckinghamshire produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against these areas of weakness and the progress made by children and young people with SEND, including regular review meetings. At the most recent WSoA review meeting in July 2024, the local area demonstrated progress against the range of actions in place to secure clear and sustained improvement across all the areas of significant weakness. Buckinghamshire is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND Programme.Nationally, the government is providing schools with extra funding of almost £1.1 billion in this 2024/25 financial year through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support them with overall costs, including the costs of supporting their pupils SEND. Of this total, special schools and alternative provision settings will be receiving over £140 million through the CSBG.The additional funding through the CSBG comes alongside high needs funding for services and support for children and young people with complex SEND. Buckinghamshire County Council is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £127.5 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant. Decisions on future funding levels beyond this financial year will be for the forthcoming Spending Review.

What steps her Department is taking to track green finance flows into the UK; and how will this data be used to promote investment in the green economy.

The government is committed to leading the world in sustainable finance by making the UK a global hub for green and transition finance activity, and delivering a world-leading sustainable finance regulatory framework. The 2023 Green Finance Strategy committed to develop a pilot model to track net zero investment within the UK. This research has now concluded, and Government is considering, alongside relevant stakeholders, how to build on this research and whether to repeat the exercise in future. Internationally, the UK is proud to be actively involved in the G20 Finance track’s work on sustainable finance. Through that work, we have helped develop principles for climate transition plans for financial institutions. The Chancellor herself made interventions on climate and sustainable finance when visiting Rio for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in July.

What plans her Department has to help expand financial services trade with other key international financial centres.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, this government are committed to developing a trade strategy that will drive economic growth. That is why we intend to deliver the UK’s Free Trade Agreement programme, starting with the Gulf Co-operation Council, India, Israel, Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Turkey. The financial services sector is one of the UK’s most critical industries. With Free Trade Agreements, we will secure commitments on financial services that will drive growth by increasing UK financial services exports, attracting foreign investment, and enhancing the City’s competitiveness.

What recent discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the adoption of sustainability disclosure requirements in line with global standards.

The government is committed to leading the world in sustainable finance by making the UK a global hub for green and transition finance activity, and delivering a world-leading sustainable finance regulatory framework. The 2023 Green Finance Strategy committed to develop a pilot model to track net zero investment within the UK. This research has now concluded, and Government is considering, alongside relevant stakeholders, how to build on this research and whether to repeat the exercise in future. Internationally, the UK is proud to be actively involved in the G20 Finance track’s work on sustainable finance. Through that work, we have helped develop principles for climate transition plans for financial institutions. The Chancellor herself made interventions on climate and sustainable finance when visiting Rio for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in July.

What assessment her Department has made of (a) the (i) quality and (ii) accessibility of special educational needs support services in Buckinghamshire, and (b) the adequacy of funding received by Buckinghamshire council for SEND services.

The department is continuing to support and challenge Buckinghamshire to improve its delivery of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.The last local area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for Buckinghamshire was in March 2022, during which inspectors identified three areas of significant weakness. These areas were:i) The lack of a cohesive area strategy to identify and meet the needs of those children and young people requiring speech and language, communication and occupational therapy.ii) Waiting times for assessments on the autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis pathways, and the system-owned plans in place to address this.iii) Waiting times to see a community paediatrician.Following the inspection, Buckinghamshire produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address these areas of weakness, which was accepted by Ofsted and CQC. The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against these areas of weakness and the progress made by children and young people with SEND, including regular review meetings. At the most recent WSoA review meeting in July 2024, the local area demonstrated progress against the range of actions in place to secure clear and sustained improvement across all the areas of significant weakness. Buckinghamshire is also taking part in the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND Programme.Nationally, the government is providing schools with extra funding of almost £1.1 billion in this 2024/25 financial year through the new Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support them with overall costs, including the costs of supporting their pupils SEND. Of this total, special schools and alternative provision settings will be receiving over £140 million through the CSBG.The additional funding through the CSBG comes alongside high needs funding for services and support for children and young people with complex SEND. Buckinghamshire County Council is receiving a high needs funding allocation of £127.5 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant. Decisions on future funding levels beyond this financial year will be for the forthcoming Spending Review.

If her Department has plans to bring forward legislative proposals on the regulation of securities tokenisation.

The government recognises the potential of tokenisation to transform the UK’s financial services sector by enhancing efficiency, increasing liquidity, and strengthening risk management. The government is taking forward the new Digital Securities Sandbox, which will allow the Treasury and financial regulators to assess how securities can be tokenised including through the use of Distributed Ledger Technology. In particular, the sandbox will assess whether the existing regulatory framework appropriately support and regulates such assets, and whether any changes are needed. The Treasury will report to Parliament on lessons learnt through the sandbox. Additionally, the Ministry of Justice has introduced into Parliament the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill, which will confirm in statute the common law position that certain digital assets can possess personal property rights.

What steps she is taking at (a) the G7, (b) the G20 and (c) other multilateral forums to promote (i) sustainable finance and (ii) climate-related investments.

The government is committed to leading the world in sustainable finance by making the UK a global hub for green and transition finance activity, and delivering a world-leading sustainable finance regulatory framework. The 2023 Green Finance Strategy committed to develop a pilot model to track net zero investment within the UK. This research has now concluded, and Government is considering, alongside relevant stakeholders, how to build on this research and whether to repeat the exercise in future. Internationally, the UK is proud to be actively involved in the G20 Finance track’s work on sustainable finance. Through that work, we have helped develop principles for climate transition plans for financial institutions. The Chancellor herself made interventions on climate and sustainable finance when visiting Rio for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in July.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to promote the UK financial services industry in (a) Asia, (b) Africa and (c) other countries.

The financial services sector is one of the UK's greatest assets and will be at the heart of delivering the sustainable economic growth that is this government’s core mission. Promoting the financial services sector abroad will be central to our efforts to enhance the UK's international competitiveness and bolster its status as an open, global financial hub. We will continue to collaborate with international partners to increase trade and investment and shape global regulatory standards.

What steps her Department is taking to provide financial education in schools.

Financial education currently forms a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for mathematics (at key stages 1 to 4) and citizenship (at key stages 3 and 4). The primary mathematics curriculum includes arithmetic knowledge that supports pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, calculations with money and percentages. In secondary mathematics, pupils are taught topics such as how to calculate compound interest, which is relevant for personal finance. In citizenship, pupils are taught the function and uses of money, how to budget and manage credit and debt, as well as concepts like insurance, savings and pensions. High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The government‘s ambition is for a broad, rich and cutting-edge curriculum that equips children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills required to thrive as citizens, in work and throughout life. This is why the government announced a Curriculum and Assessment Review on 19 July 2024, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The review will be undertaken in close consultation with education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and stakeholders. A call for evidence will be launched in the coming weeks, to direct the focus of engagement with the sector and stakeholders over the autumn term. Following the independent review, the government will legislate to require all state schools teach the reformed national curriculum. This will give parents certainty over the core of their children’s education.

If her Department will make an assessment of the adequacy of support provided to (a) high growth start-ups and (b) entrepreneurs by the (i) Enterprise Investment Scheme, (ii) Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and (ii) Venture Capital Trust.

The Enterprise Investment Scheme, Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust Scheme were all recently evaluated, with reports published in November 2023. These are available on gov.uk.

What recent discussions her Department has had with Buckinghamshire Council on the provision of specialist school places for children with special educational needs; and what steps she plans to take to increase capacity in that county.

The department is engaging with Buckinghamshire Council to discuss the current provision of and future demand for specialist school places, with a view to supporting them in delivering places where needed and improving outcomes for children with special educational needs.This includes working with Buckinghamshire on the authority’s successful application to be part of the national free school competition, and on the provision of new specialist units within mainstream schools.

What data she holds on the number of children in Buckinghamshire who are on waiting lists for education, health and care plan assessments; and what steps she is taking reduce waiting times.

The department publishes official statistics on education, health and care (EHC) plans annually, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans. This includes data at local authority level on the rate of EHC plans issued within the deadline of 20 weeks.The table below contains details of assessments in 2023 in Buckinghamshire, by the duration, in days, between the date of the request for assessment and the date of the assessment outcome. This includes those for whom a plan was issued and those with the decision not to issue a plan, but excludes cases where the assessment was withdrawn.Number of assessments completed by time between date received and assessment completion date in Buckinghamshire for the 2023 calendar year:Less than 6 monthsBetween 6 months to a yearBetween 1 and 2 yearsMore than 2 yearsDuration not availableTotal assessments completed617336200955To note:Source: SEN2 Data collection"Duration not available" includes cases where the date of request is not available or was recorded after the outcome date​In this table, “less than six months” refers to 180 days or less, “six months to a year” refers to between 181 days and 365 days, “1 to 2 years” refers to between 366 days and 730 days, and "more than 2 years" refers to over 730 days.The person-level data collection on EHC plans is in its second year. As a result, the department expects the quality of data returns to improve over time, as the collection becomes established. In particular, the recording of the dates of the assessment request and the assessment outcome is subject to data quality issues, which become especially prominent when looking at a low level of granularity. For this reason, cases over two years have been aggregated, and where the date of request is missing or was recorded after the outcome date, this is marked in the table as ‘not available’. The department continues to work with local authorities in understanding and improving the data collection.The department will continue to maintain close oversight of services in Buckinghamshire to ensure every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities has access to high quality services.