Written questions by Norris.

What recent assessment he has made of progress in increasing levels of apprenticeship (a) starts, (b) participation and (c) achievement.

The latest data on apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements are published in the Apprenticeships statistics publication and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/09b15b1b-393d-40ff-f86a-08de0724494a​This has been available since 17 July 2025. Finalised figures for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in the Apprenticeships: November 2025 statistics publication.​

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve administrative processes for (a) plant and (b) food imports to the UK.

As announced at the UK-EU Leaders Summit on 19 May, the UK and EU have agreed to work towards a common Sanitary and Phytosanitary Area which will slash costs and remove red tape. Removing the need for Export Health Certification will save trading businesses up to £200 per consignment every time goods are sent, meaning a single lorry carrying a mixed load of animal products could see reduced costs by thousands of pounds. We are expecting to start negotiations once the EU has confirmed their mandate. In the meantime, plant health import requirements and the requirements for products of animal origin are kept under continuous review.

What recent assessment she has made of progress in ineasing levels of teacher recruitment.

​​As part of the Plan for Change, the government has a commitment to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers across secondary and special schools and further education colleges by the end of this Parliament to ensure a high quality teacher in every classroom. Our measures are already having an impact, with the workforce in England having grown by 2,346 full-time equivalents in secondary and special schools in the 2024/25 academic year compared to the previous year.​Our work to improve recruitment and retention has been supported by a near 10% pay award for teachers and leaders over the past two years and our investment of a further £590 million for colleges and other 16 to 19 providers in the 2025/26 financial year.​We have also confirmed a package of financial incentives to support teacher recruitment in the 2026/27 academic year, including tax-free bursaries and scholarships worth up to £31,000 each for teachers of priority subjects in both schools and colleges. The best recruitment strategy starts with a retention strategy, which is why we have also confirmed targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax.

What steps he is taking to support hospices to provide high quality end-of-life care.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local integrated care boards on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26.  This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.In the long-term, the Government and the NHS will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care 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.Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

What recent steps his Department has taken to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.

The government has concluded a trade deal with India, the fastest-growing economy in the G20. We have also agreed the General Terms for an Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) with the United States and agreed a new Strategic Partnership with the European Union.We are continuing to make good progress in our negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.

What steps his Department is taking to improve (a) electronic patient records and (b) associated systems in the NHS.

We are improving National Health Service electronic patient records (EPRs) through a £2 billion investment in IT systems, the implementation of a Frontline Digitisation programme, and the approval of new general practice IT systems to increase digital maturity across secondary and primary care. The programme is forecasting to achieve 98% EPR coverage by March 2026, with the remaining 2% of NHS trusts advanced in their plans for an EPR.This aims to reduce administrative tasks, improve data access for better patient outcomes, and foster collaboration by replacing paper records with digital ones.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee on North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

The commitments set out in the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee are now making a difference to the service communities receive from their neighbourhood policing teams.As a result of the Guarantee, communities are now benefitting from enhanced police visibility and responsiveness.Avon and Somerset Police have been allocated £4,574,856 from the £200 million neighborhood policing fund for 2025/26. Based on their funding allocation, Avon and Somerset Police’s projected growth over 2025/26 will be 70 Police Officers (FTE).

What steps his Department is taking to help support independent retailers in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

We’re creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street and supports investment, including permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties under £500,000 rateable value. 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 employer NICs at all this year.Our recently announced Small Business Strategy aims to tackle late payments, boost access to finance, and remove red tape to enable small businesses, including independent retailers, grow and thrive.

What recent progress his Department has made on reducing backlogs at (a) Royal United Hospital Bath and (b) Southmead Hospital.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. Waiting list data is available for the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, which encompasses the Royal United Hospital Bath, and the North Bristol NHS Trust, which encompasses the Southmead Hospital.As of July 2025, the total elective waiting list for the Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation NHS Trust was 41,010, with 57.7% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks. The total elective waiting list for the North Bristol NHS Trust was 44,047, with 65.8% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks.Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period. Comparing from April 2025 to July 2025, the latest available data, performance against the 18-week standard has worsened by 2.9% at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, and improved by 2.6% at the North Bristol NHS Trust.

What steps his Department is taking to support family carers in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they have the support they need.The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers. To help local authorities fulfil their duties, including to unpaid carers, the 2025 Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.In April, the Government also increased the Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, the largest ever increase since the Carer’s Allowance was introduced.Through measures in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are equipping and supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining their caring tasks by introducing a new ‘MyCarer’ section to the NHS App.

What progress is being made on paying compensation to people affected by the Infected Blood Scandal.

The delivery of compensation is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). As of 9 September, IBCA has contacted 3,471 people to start their compensation claim, and 3,122 have started the claim process. 1,615 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £1.2 billion, and so far 1,299 people have accepted their offers with more than £897 million paid in compensation. This means, as of 9 September, over 90% of infected people registered with a support scheme have been contacted to begin their claim. IBCA expects the first claims from the cohort of people who are infected but have never been compensated, as they are not registered with an infected blood support scheme, to begin in October 2025. IBCA will also start the first claims for deceased infected people, and affected people, by December 2025.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Industrial Strategy, published on 23 June 2025, on North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

The Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan to back our strengths and realise Britain’s potential, targeting government investment towards eight-growth driving sectors (IS-8). There are clusters of the IS-8 sectors across the whole country, and the policy package addresses the biggest constraints to growth highlighted by businesses in these sectors.The West of England Combined Authority will receive targeted interventions to support sectors in the area including devolved funding from the Creative Places Growth Fund, £0.8bn Transport for City Regions funding, and dedicated support from a British Business Bank Cluster Champion.To ensure robust and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of the Industrial Strategy, we have chosen six economic indicators that reflect a range of desirable objectives for the IS-8 and the economy as a whole, which will be tracked at the economy-wide, sector and place level. Monitoring and evaluation of the Strategy will be overseen by the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council who will take a data-led approach.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress on reducing NHS waiting lists in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029. We provided additional investment in the Autumn Budget that has enabled us to fulfil our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments early. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered.Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.The North East Somerset and Hanham Constituency spans two integrated care boards (ICBs). From June 2024 to June 2025, the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB’s waiting list decreased by 0.8%. The NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB’s waiting list increased by 2.4%. However, average wait times have decreased across both ICBs. Over the last 12 months there has been a 3.5% increase in the number of people waiting less than 18-weeks. The number of patients waiting over a year has also decreased by 2%.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress in transitioning to net zero across the economy.

The Climate Change Act (2008) made the UK the first country to introduce a legally binding, long-term emissions reduction target. This sets our commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in law. The UK has already halved its emissions, having cut them by around 53% between 1990 and 2023, while growing the economy by over 80% in the same period.We will deliver an updated plan that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all sectors of the economy by October 2025. The Climate Change Committee published its 2025 progress report in June, and we will also formally respond to this report by October 2025.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress towards making the UK a clean energy superpower.

We have made an excellent start delivering our Clean Energy Superpower Mission. We are bearing down on energy bills and identifying options to lower energy costs. We have secured over £50 billion of private investment in clean energy, backed the next generation of nuclear power with £14.2 billion of funding for Sizewell, and invested in a £1 billion supply chain fund under Great British Energy to unlock investment in offshore wind jobs and our clean energy supply chains. Industry stakeholders have acknowledged and welcomed the acceleration in our ambition and progress we're making to deliver our objectives. We recognise there is much work to do, and our long-term plan will take time, requiring extensive engagement across all sectors of our society. But we won’t be deterred by the scale of the task, and this Government will not waste a moment delivering it.

What progress his Department has made in ensuring additional NHS appointments are made available to people in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Tackling waiting lists is a top priority for this Government. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered in England.On 6 January, NHS England published a plan titled Reforming elective care for patients, which sets out a whole-system approach to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029. The plan is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/reforming-elective-care-for-patients/Progress is being made in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency, which spans two integrated care boards (ICBs). In both ICBs, around 60% of patients wait under 18 weeks for elective care.As of June, average waiting times have decreased across both ICBs, compared to the same period last year. Over the last 12 months there has been a 3.5 percentage point increase in the number of people waiting less than 18 weeks. The number of patients waiting over a year has also decreased by 2%.

What recent progress her Department has made in tackling knife crime.

Halving knife crime is a central mission for this Government and since day one we have acted with urgency to turn the tide on this truly devastating crime. We have seen early signs of progress, with overall knife crime down for the first time in four years, but we need to supercharge these efforts.To date, we banned zombie knives in September 2024 and introduced a ban on ninja swords from 1 August 2025 - it is now illegal to sell or own these weapons. We have also implemented, “Ronan’s Law”, a range of measures which will include stricter rules for online sellers of knives.We are increasing the penalties for illegal sales of knives, creating a new offence of possessing a knife with the intention to commit unlawful violence and are giving the police a new power to seize knives when they believe they are likely to be used in connection with unlawful violence.The Home Secretary and Policing Minister launched a Knife-Enabled Robbery (KER) Taskforce in October 2024 in the highest volume police force areas. The Taskforce met its ambition to halt the rise of KER in Taskforce areas (as a collective) within 6 months.The Prime Minister launched the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime in September 2024, which brings together campaign groups, bereaved families, people who have been impacted by knife crime and community leaders, united in their mission to save lives, to help us drive forward our plans and to hold us to account on progress.Over £66 million is available to all 43 police force areas to fund the 'Hotspot Action' programme in 2025/26.  This programme is a combination of increased high visibility foot patrols and funding of problem-oriented policing (POP) tactics.Tackling county lines is key to delivering our pledge to halve knife crime within the decade. That is why we are investing more than £42m this financial year in the County Lines Programme to target violent and exploitative drug dealing gangs driving knife crime and violence in communities. Since July 2024 the County Lines Programme has resulted in more than 1,200 deal lines closed, 2,000 arrests, 2,100 safeguarding referrals and provided specialist support to over 460 children and young people to enable them to exit their involvement in violence and county lines.We have introduced a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill to go after the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime. As part of this legislation we are also delivering new civil preventative orders which will disrupt and prevent child criminal exploitation from occurring or re-occurring. We are also going further in our response to wider criminal exploitation, introducing a new offence of ‘cuckooing’ and an offence to tackle coerced internal concealment. These three new offences will all work to tackle the interconnected and exploitative practices often used by criminal gangs, especially in county lines.Through the Young Futures Programme, the Government will introduce Prevention Partnerships across the country, to intervene earlier and ensure that children and young people vulnerable to being drawn into crime and violence are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.As we design the Young Futures Programme, we will ensure that it learns from and builds on the work of the Violence Reduction Units (VRUs). VRUs bring together partners, including from the voluntary and community sector, to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area.A further £14.3m in grant funding has been made available across all 43 local policing body areas to deliver the Serious Violence Duty.

What steps he is taking to help support (a) small and medium-sized businesses and (b) social enterprises in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency to be awarded government contracts.

The Government is determined to ensure the £385 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually, delivers economic growth and supports small businesses across the country. For too long, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) have been held back by government procurement processes that are too slow, bureaucratic, and difficult to navigate. The National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) sets out the Government’s strategic priorities for public procurement and builds on measures in the Procurement Act including an expectation for all public bodies to maximise procurement spend with SMEs and VCSEs. In central government, we have announced new rules to drive greater transparency and accountability for increasing numbers of SMEs and VCSEs delivering public contracts. From 1 April 2025 central government departments must set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs, and from 1 April 2026 for VCSEs, and to publish progress annually. The Government is also currently consulting on further reforms to our public procurement processes to build on the changes introduced in the Procurement Act. In particular, these reforms will open up more opportunities for SMEs and VCSEs.

What steps she is taking to help reduce the backlog in (a) crown and (b) family courts.

This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. We have funded a record-high allocation of 110,000 Crown Court sitting days this financial year to deliver swifter justice for victims, 4,000 more than in 2024/25 under the previous Government. However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve. We are carefully considering the recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s review of efficiency to reduce crown court backlogs in a once-in-a-generation reform to deliver swifter justice for victims.In family courts, good progress is being made to reduce backlogs. In public law they have reduced from 10,533 to 10,282 from May 2024 to May 2025, and in private law from 40,628 to 37,225 from May 2024 to May 2025. Areas delivering the Pathfinder model in private law have made significant progress addressing delays.The Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26, focussed on further reducing delay and outstanding caseloads, and supporting areas with higher backlogs such as London. The Family Justice Strategy for London includes additional investment over 2025/26 to tackle the outstanding private law caseload by providing additional capacity and a judicial-led initiative to reduce delays.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the parental leave review on the gender pay gap.

On 1 July, the Government launched the Parental Leave Review, fulfilling its manifesto commitment.As set out in the terms of reference, the review is scheduled finish roughly 18 months after launch which will be around January 2027.The Department has not made an assessment on the potential impact of the Review on the gender pay gap at this stage. However the Review’s Terms of Reference set out that one of our objectives for the parental leave and pay system is to support economic growth through labour market participation, including tackling the gender pay gap and motherhood penalty.