Written questions by Carden.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding for police training programmes.

The 2025-26 final police funding settlement provides funding of up to £19.6 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. This is an overall increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 settlement which equates to a 6% cash terms increase and 3.5% real terms.Decisions on how funding and resources are utilised are an operational matter for Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to make resourcing decisions within their communities based on their local knowledge and experience.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of a public inquiry into the safety of PIP breast implants.

There are currently no plans to commission a public inquiry into the safety of Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) breast implants.As part of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) market surveillance for medical devices, we worked with the National Health Service and other health partners to ensure the PIP issue was properly investigated. PIP breast implants were withdrawn from the market in 2010. It is important to note that while PIP implants are associated with a higher risk of rupture, leading to symptoms such as tenderness or swollen lymph glands, there is no evidence linking ruptured PIP implants to serious long-term health issues.As with any medical device, breast implants do not come without risks. The current advice from the MHRA remains that anyone with a PIP breast implant should consult with their doctor about the possibility of removal. The NHS and MHRA provide guidance for patients on the available options for PIP implant removal. This is available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pip-implants/Since PIP breast implants were withdrawn, two independent reviews have identified lessons learnt, specifically the Howe Review in 2012 and the Keogh Review in 2013. The health system has since enacted important changes. As a result of the Keogh Review, since 2016 the Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry collects data on all types of breast implant and removal surgeries in England and Scotland, aiming to help detect emerging safety issues and trace patients if necessary.The MHRA is developing a future regulatory framework for medical devices that will ensure that patients have access to the safe and effective medical devices they need. The first step is the introduction of new Post-Market Surveillance regulations, which will come into force in June, and will put in place strengthened legal requirements for how manufacturers monitor and report on their devices once they are being used in the real world. We intend to follow this with updates to the UK Medical Device Regulations later this year, which will bring further improvements to device traceability and patient safety by introducing additional measures that must be taken before a product can be placed on the market. This will include requirements for unique device identifiers, implant cards, new rules to ensure that claims are consistent with the intended purpose, and changes to the classification of some medical devices, such as implantables, to better reflect the potential risks to patients and ensure risk proportionate requirements for manufacturers.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of reforming the Smart Export Guarantee to set minimum terms of tariffs.

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is a market-led mechanism in which energy suppliers, not government, set both tariff levels and structure. This is to encourage innovation and competition between suppliers. The Government keeps the SEG under regular review to ensure it continues to meet our objectives. The latest SEG report shows registered generators more than tripled between 2022/23 to 2023/24, from 92,946 to 283,666.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of library provision in primary schools.

School libraries complement public libraries by giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school. The national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. There are a number of strong links between reading for pleasure and attainment. For example, the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found a 34 point difference in reading performance between pupils in England who “very much” liked reading and pupils who “do not” like reading. Additionally, the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment study found that enjoyment of reading links to pupils’ reading engagement, and that reading engagement was strongly positively correlated with reading performance. There is also a strong evidence base linking reading for pleasure to other positive effects, such as improved text comprehension and grammar, increased general knowledge and character development.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian. Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.Given this autonomy, the department does not collect information on the number of school libraries or school librarians. ​​There are currently no plans to make it a statutory requirement for primary schools to have a library, although we will continue to keep this matter under review.​The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.

What recent discussions his Department has had with University Hospitals of Liverpool on the Critical Incident declared on 7 January 2025.

NHS England’s regional teams have worked closely with the integrated care boards to ensure that appropriate action is taken to address and mitigate the issues identified within each declared critical incident, including at the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) access to (i) deposit and (ii) withdraw cash and (b) the availability of trained people to help with cash access services in Liverpool Walton constituency.

The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable groups, and is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses. Furthermore, the Government recognises that businesses need access to cash deposit services in order to continue accepting cash. The Financial Conduct Authority is responsible for protecting access to cash. In September 2024, it introduced new rules which require the UK’s largest banks and building societies to assess the impact of a closure of a relevant cash withdrawal or deposit facility and put in place a new service if necessary. Furthermore, where a community, or interested party, feels that access to cash in their area is not sufficient, they are able to submit a cash access assessment request to LINK, the operator of the UK’s largest ATM network, who undertake these assessments. Further information about submitting a cash access assessment request can be found at the following link: https://www.link.co.uk/helping-you-access-cash/request-access-to-cash LINK publishes data on the number of ATMs across each parliamentary constituency. In the constituency of Liverpool Walton, LINK data identifies 46 free-to-use ATMs out of 75 cash access facilities across the constituency. There are also 40 Post Office branches in the wider Liverpool area where you can deposit and withdraw money. The Government recognises that some individuals may need assistance, including in-person assistance, to support their access to cash, and is committed to ensuring appropriate services are in place to support this. This is why the Government is working closely with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs across the UK. The UK banking sector has committed to deliver these hubs by the end of this parliament. These hubs will provide small businesses and individuals who need face-to-face support with critical cash and in-person banking services. Over 100 Banking Hubs are already open across the UK.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the US Surgeon General’s recommendations to include health warnings on alcohol labels; and whether he has plans to re-visit his Department's closed consultation entitled Updating labelling guidance for no and low-alcohol alternatives, published on 28 September 2023.

The Government is committed to building a National Health Service fit for the future, with a greater emphasis on the prevention of avoidable health harms, supporting people to live well for longer.We have noted the United States Surgeon General’s recommendations, and will continue to consider how alcohol labelling can be improved to support consumers in making informed decisions about the products they are purchasing, whilst also promoting low risk consumption.

Media and Sport, with reference to the Government's consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, published 17 December 2024, what assessment has she made of the potential impact on the UK's creative industries of the proposals included in that consultation.

The government’s consultation on Copyright and AI, launched 17 December and closing 25 February, was published alongside an accompanying options assessment. One of the main reasons for the consultation is to gather further evidence on the potential impact on the creative industries of any change to the copyright regime in the context of AI training.Following the consultation, if legislative changes are needed to bring clarity to the UK copyright regime, a full economic impact assessment will be undertaken.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Get Britain Working White Paper on the services provided by Jobcentres in Liverpool Walton constituency.

The reforms to Jobcentres across Great Britain that we have announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper will be transformative.Key to the White Paper’s successful delivery will be ensuring it is locally responsive and engaged. This will mean it will operate differently in different areas to reflect local systems and needs.We will work closely with key partners, including Mayoral Combined Authorities, as we design, develop and test the new service into the next year. These tests will help us discover how we can shape a local service, while the UK Government maintains overall accountability for it.

What steps her Department is taking to increase uptake of Pension Credit in winter 2024-25.

The Department’s campaign to promote Pension Credit has been running across Great Britain since September. The latest phase of the campaign, which launched on 8 November, is aimed at friends and family - especially adult children of eligible pensioners - asking them to tell people they know about Pension Credit, encourage them to check their eligibility, as well as help them make a claim. It is running on TV, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube and on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens. The Department’s ‘Invitation to Claim’ initiative was launched on 30 October. Since then, we have written to around 120,000 pensioner households across Great Britain who are in receipt of Housing Benefit but not Pension Credit. The letter and accompanying leaflet urge these households to claim Pension Credit by the 21 December, which is the latest date for making a successful backdated Pension Credit claim and qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment in winter 2024/25.

Communities and Local Government, if she will have discussions with the Electoral Commission on the potential implications for (a) her and (b) the Commission's policies of Transparency International's position paper entitled Cheques and balances: Countering the influence of big money in UK politics, published in December 2024.

Effective regulation and enforcement of political finance are crucial for maintaining public trust in our electoral systems. The Government is committed to strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of elections and, as stated in our manifesto, we intend to strengthen the rules around donations to political parties to protect our democracy. My department is working closely with the Electoral Commission on developing proposals to give effect to this commitment. We are also seeking, and remaining open to, evidence from key stakeholders, particularly in relation to threats to our democracy.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Youth Guarantee on young people in Liverpool Walton constituency.

In the Get Britain Working White Paper, the Government announced £45 million of funding for eight trailblazers in England to test delivery of the Youth Guarantee. Liverpool City Region are one of the eight areas set to receive a proportion of this funding to support 18-21 year olds access education, training and employment opportunities in their area. Working closely on the detail of the design and delivery in the Liverpool City Region, we will be able to maximise the difference it makes to young people’s lives locally. Further analysis will be available through the course of the trailblazer.

What estimate she has made of the number of young people out of (a) work, (b) education and (c) training in Liverpool Walton constituency.

The department publishes national statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England from the labour force survey for young people aged 16 to 24. However, these are only published at national and regional level due to limitations with sample sizes for lower-level geographies. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16 to 24 cannot be provided for the area requested. The available statistics can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief.Local authorities are required to encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training and return management information for young people aged 16 and 17. This data shows that of the 10,372 young people aged 16 and 17-years-old who were known to Liverpool local authority around the end of 2022 (average of December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023), 885 were NEET or their activity was not known (530 known to be NEET and 355 young people whom the local authority could not confirm their activity). This data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neet-and-participation-local-authority-figures. These are not national statistics but published as transparency data so some caution should be taken if using these figures. Data is not available for Liverpool, Walton constituency.In addition, 16 to 18 destination measures are published. These official statistics show the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16 to 18 study, that is 6 months of continual activity. This can be used as a proxy for NEET at age 18. Data for Liverpool Walton is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/55eab43f-7467-408e-90c8-08dd184e91f8. This shows that out of 357 pupils completing 16 to 18 study in the 2021/22 academic year in Liverpool Walton, 39 pupils were not recorded as having a sustained destination in the 2022/23, and 23 pupils did not have their activity captured.

What steps his Department is taking to provide transition pathways for oil and gas workers.

The Clean Energy Mission will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. The UK has a highly skilled oil and gas workforce, with high transferability of skills to these new roles. The Office for Clean Energy Jobs (OCEJ) has been created to ensure that clean energy jobs are abundant, high quality, paid fairly, and have favourable terms and good working conditions. The OCEJ will also set out targeted interventions to support specific skills needs in the clean energy workforce. It recently announced support for the Energy Skills Passport to support oil and gas workers into new roles in the clean energy sector.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the report entitled Fix the CMS: key findings from our research on child maintenance, published by Gingerbread in November 2024.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations and our response to the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’.The CMS Service Modernisation Programme has delivered improvements to the customer experience enabling parents to access their on-line My Child Maintenance Case, ensuring parents can report changes of circumstances and access their digital communications at any time of the day. In addition, caseworker training to support vulnerable customers has been updated following invaluable engagement with stakeholders.The CMS has recently consulted on significant reforms and are analysing the responses. This included removing the Direct Pay service and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster.  The consultation also sought views on how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported to use CMS and whether removing Direct Pay completely would benefit victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Government will publish a response in due course.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to employer National Insurance contributions on the voluntary drug and alcohol treatment sector.

A Tax Information and Impact Note that covers the employer NICs changes was published by HMRC on 13 November and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl . The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending reimbursement of employer National Insurance contributions to the voluntary sector.

At the recent Budget, the government took a number of difficult decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the foundations of the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability.Ministers have met with representatives from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to discuss this issue and the department is aware of their concerns about the impacts of the increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).The government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that more than half of businesses (including charities) with NICs liabilities will either gain or see no change next year.We are also expanding eligibility of the Employment Allowance by removing the £100,000 eligibility threshold, to simplify and reform employer NICs so that all eligible employers now benefit. Businesses and charities will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.The Government publishes Tax Information and Impact Notes (TIINs) for tax policy changes, which give a clear explanation of the policy objective and an assessment of the impacts. The TIIN for the employer NICs changes was published on 13 November 2024.Within the tax system, we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving. More than £6 billion in charitable reliefs was provided to charities, Community Amateur Sports Clubs and their donors in 2023 to 2024. The biggest individual reliefs provided are Gift Aid at £1.6 billion and business rates relief at nearly £2.4 billion.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the National Audit Office's report entitled Managing conflicts of interest, HC 307, published on 22 November 2024.

We are committed to restoring public confidence in government and ensuring that all those in public service are held to the highest standards. We will consider carefully the National Audit Office’s recommendations in its recent report ‘Managing Conflicts of Interest’.

Whether her Department has had discussions with the Fire Brigades Union, in the context of the report entitled Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio, published by the National Audit Office on 4 November 2024.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the lead on building remediation and is due to meet the Fire Brigades Union in the new year.

How much her Department has spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2021.

The Home Office holds information on consultancy fees and reports this in its Annual Report and Accounts.Refer to the links and pages below for the available published information that relates to consultancy spending.Pages 155-157 (Pages 159-161 on the pdf reader) of the 2023-24 Home Office Annual Report and AccountsHome Office Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024 (publishing.service.gov.uk)Pages 173-175 of the 2022-23 Home Office Annual Report and AccountsHome Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk) Pages 107-108 of the the 2022-23 Home Office Annual Report and AccountsHome_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) Pages 99-101 of the 2020-21 Home Office Annual Report and AccountsHO annual report and accounts 2020-21 (publishing.service.gov.uk)Information relating to financial year 2024-25 will be available following the end of the financial year and once the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts have been laid before Parliament.Note that the Home Office reports by its financial year (April-March), rather than on a calendar year basis.