Written questions by Norris.

What steps she is taking to encourage students to take social work courses in (a) higher and (b) further education.

The Department for Education shares responsibility with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) for social work supply, with DHSC providing bursaries to help with the cost of training. We have also developed guidance for aspiring social workers through the ‘Become a Social Worker’ website and we support initiatives like the Local Government Association’s ‘Make a Difference, Work for your Local Council’ and Social Work England’s ‘Change the Script’ campaigns which encourage student enrolment.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take with the farming sector to ensure high standards of welfare for farmed animals kept in cages and other close confinement systems.

This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department is engaging with key stakeholders as part of the development of our overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more details on this in due course. The Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare Grant was recently offered to commercial laying hen and pullet keepers in England. It supports these farmers to improve the health, welfare, and productivity of their flocks through access to £22.6 million in grants towards the cost of upgrading their housing. Applications closed on 18 September 2024, and all applicants have been contacted to notify them of next steps. The use of cages and other close confinement systems for farmed animals is an issue which we are currently considering very carefully.

What the average time taken was to (a) process and (b) pay Access to Work claims once an invoice had been submitted in each of the last five years.

In response to what the average time taken was to (a) process Access to work claim in each of the last 5 years, Access to work can provide this for the last 4 years. The average time taken was: 2021-2022 = 28.1 days2022-2023 = 57.8 days2023-2024 = 45.1 days2024-2025 = 56.9 days (b) the average time taken to process a payment once an invoice has been submitted is not available as there is no reporting systems in place. Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timeline is for launching a consultation on the phasing out of the use of cages for farm animals.

I refer the Hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Vikki Slade, on 29 April 2025, PQ 47556.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 33380 on Animal Experiments, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the concordance range; whether she has made an assessment of the potential limitations of the paper; and whether she has considered evidence on the predictive value of non-animal methods.

The paper in question is published in a reputable scientific journal and will have undergone rigorous peer review before publication.The Government invests £10m annually in The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). The NC3Rs places significant investment into programmes and projects specifically for developing non-animal methods.In March 2023 the NC3Rs made its biggest award to date in a single investment (£1.6M) to develop a ‘Virtual Dog’. The project aims to exploit advances in computational approaches and machine learning to ultimately replace their use as a second species in drug development.This government has made a commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”. The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with authorities responsible for local nature recovery strategies on the land use framework consultation.

The consultation on Land Use in England is underway and the outcome will inform the publication of a Land Use Framework planned for later this year. Many of the authorities responsible for Local Nature Recovery Strategies were involved in discussions that informed the proposals and questions in the Land Use Consultation During the consultation period, Government officials will be consulting with a wide range of respondents, including authorities responsible for Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2025 to Question 24409 on Animal Experiments: Dogs, what the evidential basis is for stating that tests of procedures on dogs predict the safety of conducting the equivalent procedures on humans with up to 96% accuracy.

The evidential base is from an international consortium of large pharmaceutical companies, and published in the journal: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/toxicology-and-applied-pharmacology. The specific paper provides an industry-wide translational database of animal to human outcomes and examines the concordance between humans and dogs, non-human primates and mice.The full citation is: Monticello TM, Jones TW, Dambach DM, Potter DM, Bolt MW, Liu M, Keller DA, Hart TK, Kadambi VJ. Current nonclinical testing paradigm enables safe entry to First-In-Human clinical trials: The IQ consortium nonclinical to clinical translational database. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2017 Nov 1;334:100-109. doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2017.09.006. Epub 2017 Sep 8. PMID: 28893587.

What steps she is taking to create (a) cycling and (b) walking routes (i) to and (ii) through green spaces.

Active Travel England (ATE) recently announced £222.5 million of funding for local authorities to support the development and build out of local networks. It is for local authorities to decide on priorities for this investment, including to and through green spaces. In addition, ATE is providing £30 million to Sustrans to develop the National Cycle Network in both rural and urban areas. This is on top of £100,000 previously awarded to each National Park Authority in England to develop active travel network plans. These are also designed to improve access to green space for residents and visitors alike.

What information his Department holds on the number of breaches of minimum wage legislation by employers in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency in the last three years.

Data on National Minimum Wage (NMW) breaches by region is available in the published government’s Enforcement and Compliance report at: National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage: government evidence on enforcement and compliance, 2023 - GOV.UK RegionYearJobs paid below minimum wageSouth West2020/2118,0002021/2244,0002022/2331,000

Whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on a land use framework.

Yes, I can reassure My Honourable Friend that our departments are working closely together to deliver on this manifesto commitment. You will notice that the recently published consultation on the principles for a land use framework specifically reference transport issues and include questions about its role. This is because both departments recognise:- that different spatial choices will impact trip generation and travel patterns;- that transport data – such as our emerging national measure of connectivity – are key to guide decisions about land; and- that vision-led approaches can help better coordinate land use and transport issues.I can reassure My Honourable Friend that we will continue to work closely with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on land use questions; firstly, to respond to the representations received through the consultation and then to ensure that transport issues and fully considered in the future development of the Land Use Framework.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on planting trees along new roads.

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) pheasants and (b) partridges were imported for shooting in 2024.

See the below table showing the number of Partridges and Pheasants imported into Great Britain in 2024. We cannot confirm whether the purpose of these imports was for hunting, as this is not recorded on the Import of products, animals, food and feed (IPAFF) system. SpeciesNumber of animalsPartridges455,194Pheasants487,488Total 942,682 This information is drawn from external IPAFF systems not directly controlled by the department.

How many adults who are eligible for the Child Trust Fund have not accessed their fund in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Information on Child Trust Funds is available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2024HMRC does not hold information on the geographical locations of Child Trust Fund account holders, therefore the requested constituency breakdown cannot be provided.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on meeting the UK's obligations under the (a) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 10 and (b) Paris Agreement.

The 2015 Paris Agreement, Article 7 established the global goal on adaptation. At COP28, the UK adopted the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience and agreed to launch a two-year work programme on indicators related to those targets. Defra is working to meet these targets alongside other Government departments. The UK has a Paris Agreement aligned, ambitious and credible Nationally Determined Contribution target to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% by 2035, compared to 1990 levels, excluding international aviation and shipping emissions. The UK submitted its first UNFCCC Biennial Transparency Report in December 2024, detailing the UK’s mitigation efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and support for developing countries to tackle climate change. The UK over-achieved against the first, second and third carbon budgets. We will deliver an updated Plan in due course out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 with full detail of policy packages for all sectors.

What information his Department holds on the number of people there are in care homes without access to dental treatment in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

We recognise that certain groups of patients may be vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment in several settings, including care homes.Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care dental services, including domiciliary care. Domiciliary care may be delivered by any dentist holding a contract to deliver general dental services, or it may be commissioned as an additional service.

How many (a) verbal warnings, (b) written warnings, (c) enforcement notices and (d) referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecution there have been for slaughterhouses in England not having CCTV in the last five years.

Regulations for mandatory closed-circuit television (CCTV) in slaughterhouses in England came into force on 5 May 2018, with a six-month transitionary period to 5 November 2018, from when enforcement action could be taken. 100% compliance of the regulations was achieved by March 2019. There were therefore no enforcements for not having a CCTV system in place in slaughterhouses in England in the last five years.

With reference to her Department's report entitled Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2023, published on 11 September 2024, what type of tests comprised the procedures conducted on dogs; and what steps she is taking to (a) reduce and (b) replace the use of dogs for such tests.

69% of procedures of dogs in research are for the safety testing of potential new medicines to protect human health. The legal requirements for these tests are largely harmonised globally to ensure international acceptability of testing and prevent unnecessary duplication. Tests of procedures on dogs predict the safety of conducting the equivalent procedures on humans with up to 96% accuracy.31% of procedures of dogs in research are for basic and translational research, primarily to discover and develop products to address human and animal diseases.Research using dogs has been instrumental in the development of medications for use in treatments for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and genetic disorders.In March 2023 The National Centre for the 3Rs made its biggest award to date in a single investment (£1.6M) to develop a ‘Virtual Dog’. The project aims to exploit advances in computational approaches and machine learning to ultimately replace their use in chronic toxicity studies.Where dogs have to be used in science, the Regulator assures that the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) are fully applied in all granted licences. These establishments are then subject to rigorous audit by Inspectors for compliance purposes.

When she plans to next update guidance on removing pupils from the classroom.

In July 2022, the department published the updated ‘behaviour in schools’ guidance, which is the primary source of advice for schools on developing and implementing a behaviour policy, providing clarity and support to schools on removing pupils from the classroom.Updates to the guidance were informed by a call for evidence in June 2021 and public consultation in March 2022.

How many enforcement visits NSL Services Ltd made in (a) Bath and North East Somerset, (b) South Gloucestershire and (c) England in (i) September, (ii) October, (iii) November and (iv) December 2024.

The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost. A scan of both the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency’s and the NSL Services Ltd databases would be required. Subsequent manual scrutiny and organisation of the data would be necessary to obtain the information requested.

How many reports of untaxed vehicles the DVLA have sent to NSL Services Ltd in (a) Bath and North East Somerset, (b) South Gloucestershire and (c) England.

The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost. A scan of both the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency’s and the NSL Services Ltd databases would be required. Subsequent manual scrutiny and organisation of the data would be necessary to obtain the information requested.