Written questions by Egan.

What steps her Department is taking to address gaps in Post-16 education and skills training provision in Bristol North East.

The Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy sets out our vision for a world-leading skills system which breaks down barriers to opportunity, meets student and employers’ needs; widens access to high-quality education and training; supports innovation, research, and development; and improves people’s lives. The government has established Skills England to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade. Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) are employer-led strategies designed to ensure post-16 technical education and vocational training align with local labour market needs. Business West is leading the development of the local LSIP working with the West of England Combined Authority, local businesses and delivery partners. The plan will be published in Summer 2026. Businesses are supported to partner with colleges and training providers to deliver vocational programmes, apprenticeships, and national initiatives such as Skills Bootcamps and T Levels.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce delays in the home buying and selling process.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 87197 on 7 November 2025.

What steps her Department is taking to encourage businesses in Bristol North East to partner with education providers to deliver vocational training and Post-16 skills programmes to local young people.

The government works with employer representative bodies (ERBs) and local partners to strengthen collaboration between businesses and education providers. Through ERB-led Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), we encourage employers to help shape the local post-16 technical education offer, so training meets labour market needs. Statutory guidance for the development of these plans was published on 18 November.Business West is leading the development of the local LSIP working with the West of England Combined Authority, local businesses and delivery partners. The plan will be published in Summer 2026. Businesses are supported to partner with colleges and training providers to deliver vocational programmes, apprenticeships, and national initiatives such as Skills Bootcamps and T Levels.

What assessment his Department has made of the availability of apprenticeship opportunities for young people in Bristol North East constituency; and what plans he has to work with local employers to expand provision of apprenticeships in sectors with skills shortages.

This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer that will give greater flexibility to employers and support young people, including those in Bristol, at the beginning of their careers.In August, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills. They are underpinned by additional funding for employers up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career.More recently, we have announced our ambition is to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships and backed this with an additional £725 million of investment. This will enable us to expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people. It also provides £140 million to pilot new approaches, with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, to better connect young people aged 16–24, especially those who are NEET, to local apprenticeship opportunities.We also announced that the government will fully fund apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers (essentially small and medium sized enterprises), for all eligible people aged under 25. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16-21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.In addition, we provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care. Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year.The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises 2,500 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England, including the South West, through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.

What steps his Department is taking to improve recruitment and retention of general practitioners in Bristol North East.

Since October 2024 we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified general practitioners (GPs) through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). In the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) 44 GPs have been recruited via the scheme since October 2024.Within the 2025/26 GP Contract, a number of changes have been confirmed to increase the flexibility of ARRS and allow primary care networks to respond better to local workforce needs. This includes GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot, an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme, and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.We are investing an additional £1.1 billion into GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade and will facilitate the recruitment of GPs. The 8.9% boost to the GP Contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.The Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB also has a successful GP and Nurse fellowship scheme to support retention of staff.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with the BBC on journalists working for BBC Arabic who have made antisemitic and pro-Hamas comments.

It is crucial that the BBC upholds the highest standards of reporting and impartiality, so it remains the most trusted news source in the UK and overseas. The BBC has rightly acknowledged where coverage, standards and enforcement of those standards has fallen short. We welcome the actions taken by the BBC to strengthen editorial quality and standards for the BBC Arabic Service, as set out in the BBC Chair's letter to the Media, Culture and Sport Committee of 10 November, and we will continue to demand both rapid implementation and rigorous monitoring of those changes.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information her Department holds on the proportion of BBC Arabic’s funding that is drawn from (a) grants from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and (b) the TV licence fee.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office grant funding to the BBC World Service does not allocate a specific amount to BBC Arabic.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has conducted a review of (a) the effectiveness of police enforcement of and (b) the level of compliance with the ban on live hunting under the Hunting Act 2004.

Defra has not undertaken such reviews. The enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police. It is for individual Chief Constables to determine how their resources are deployed and it is for locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners to hold their forces to account.

What steps she is taking to reduce the cost of creating new walking, wheeling and cycling routes on disused railways.

Local authorities are empowered to decide where investment is made in their areas. As such, it is for local authorities to consider whether disused railway lines would be suitable for active travel routes and to work with National Highways, in their role as custodians of the historic rail estate, to assess the viability of any particular routes. In the Spending Review we announced that we are allocating £616 million for Active Travel England from 2026-27 to 2029-30 to support local authorities to build and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure. This is in addition to the almost £300 million funding for active travel in 2024/25 and 2025/26 which we announced in February.

What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist appointments.

Cutting elective care waiting times, including for ear, nose, and throat services (ENT), is a key priority for the Government. Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered 5.2 million additional appointments, compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. The latest data from August 2025 shows the ENT waiting list, currently at 627,206, has reduced by 31,000, or 4.7%, since the start of July 2024. ENT is identified as a priority in the Elective Reform Plan. Specific actions to reform ENT include expanding non-surgical community-based ENT services, maximising pharmacy first approaches, and developing one-stop clinical models to support patients needing ear care and patients with rhinitis. We are also focussing on reducing unwarranted variation in surgical pathways, supporting nationwide adoption of high-flow operating lists, and promoting greater ENT and paediatric ENT access at surgical hubs.Surgical hubs focus on driving improvement in six high volume specialties, including ENT. There are currently 124 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England. Additionally, as outlined in the Elective Reform Plan, we will continue to promote greater ENT access at surgical hubs and greater partnership working with the independent sector to deliver more non-urgent care, free at the point of use.

What recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of pavement parking on levelks of (a) wellbeing, (b) social isolation and (c) economic opportunities of disabled people.

The Government fully understands the serious problems that vehicles parked on the pavement, and other obstacles on the pavement, can cause for pedestrians, especially for people with mobility or sight impairments and disabled people with wheelchairs, prams or pushchairs. To inform next steps, the Department has considered the potential options, assessing the costs and benefits to households and businesses, which includes well-being, social isolation and economic opportunities. This assessment drew on existing evidence, including the 2020 pavement parking consultation. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response as soon as possible.

What steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to process Access to Work applications.

We are committed to reducing the time taken to process Access to Work applications and are considering the best way to deliver that for customers. We have increased the number of staff processing Access to Work applications. We prioritise applications from customers who are about to start a job or are renewing existing support. In March 2025, DWP published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. Alongside this, we are exploring further changes within the current policy framework to reduce the time taken to process Access to Work applications.

Whether the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan will specify future air-to-air refuelling requirements.

The future requirement for all military capabilities is being considered as part of the Defence Investment Plan, which is due to be published this year.

What assessment his Department has made of the value for money of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft contract since its commencement in 2008.

The RAF Voyager fleet provides value for money by serving as a versatile asset for air-to-air refuelling, strategic airlift, and VIP transport. Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, Air Tanker is required to provide the Department with their performance data. This gives the Department complete transparency, ensuring regular monitoring and compliance with the terms of the agreement.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of walking, wheeling and cycling routes on disused railways to access to new housing sites.

The provision of walking, wheeling and cycling routes plays an important role in new developments and has wide ranging benefits, including reducing impacts associated with traffic, as well as supporting health and wellbeing. The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that transport issues should be considered from the earliest stages of plan-making and development proposals, using a vision led approach to identify transport solutions that deliver well-designed, sustainable and popular places. This includes identifying and pursing opportunities to promote walking and cycling, which could include routes on disused railways, to help ensure safe and suitable access to new housing sites for all users.

Innovation and Technology, what regulatory framework his Department has in place to oversee AI systems capable of autonomously (a) developing and (b) modifying their own programming.

AI is a general-purpose technology with a wide range of applications, which is why the UK believes that the vast majority of AI systems should be regulated at the point of use. A range of existing rules already apply to AI systems including data protection, competition, equality and sectoral regulation.This is complemented by the work of the AI Security Institute which offers critical insights into the risks posed by frontier AI. The government is committed to taking further steps where required to ensure that the UK is prepared for the changes that AI will bring.

What steps his Department plans to take to support the expansion of residential solar panel installations.

The Government continues to support the installation of rooftop solar PV in various ways, for example through the Smart Export Guarantee, which enables households with solar panels to receive payment for excess electricity that is sold back to the grid. We are investing £13.2bn in the Warm Homes Plan to help households take up measures like solar panels, heat pumps, batteries and insulation. Additionally, the Government will publish the Future Homes Standard in the coming months which will ensure solar panels are installed on the vast majority of new build homes.

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to promote alternative testing methods that reduce the use of animals in scientific research.

On 11th November the Government published “Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods”.The strategy outlines our vision where animals are only used in research and development in exceptional circumstances. It lays out the steps the Government will take over the next five years towards achieving this, by creating a research and innovation system that replaces animals with alternative methods where scientifically possible.The strategy spans discovery and translational research, chemical, environmental, safety and toxicity testing, and outlines timelines for replacement of specific uses of animals in science.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of mandating the use of alternatives to snares for animal control practices.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only. Defra has not made an assessment of the potential merits of mandating the use of any particular alternatives to snares for animal control practices. This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation and this included a commitment to bring an end to the use of snare traps in England. Defra is considering the most effective way to deliver this commitment and will be setting out next steps in due course.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2025 to Question 69695, what are the timescales for improving access to palliative care at home for children nearing the end of life; and what assessment he has made of the (a) provision and (b) commissioning of such services in Bristol.

The Department and NHS England are currently working at pace to develop plans on how best to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan. I will be able to say more about our timelines for that work in the near future.We will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.Children’s palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification for children and young people.  The statutory guidance states that ICBs, including the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB, must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of palliative care and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.We are providing £26 million of revenue funding for children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. Jessie May Children’s Hospice in Bristol has received £182,000 from this funding. We are also committing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.