Written questions by Blundell.

Whether he plans to take steps to (a) improve signposting and (b) create a central database for small and medium enterprises on grants for which they are eligible.

SMEs can identify available government grants to check which ones they are eligible to apply for on the Find Government Grants page on www.gov.uk. As part of efforts to better support growth and productivity across the UK’s 5.5 million SMEs, the Department for Business and Trade is in the process of designing and implementing a new Business Growth Service.With improved signposting, joined up across national and local business support services, the Business Growth Service will make it easier and simpler for SMEs to access information related to their business needs, including financing options.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of subsidising the cost of IT courses for staff in small and medium enterprises.

Use of digital technology is a key driver for productivity, helping businesses become more efficient. However, many businesses in the UK are slow to adopt new software, and we know smaller businesses in particular may not have access to information, resources and skills to do so.Government already supports digital skills through initiatives like digital apprenticeships, digital skills bootcamps and the Digital Inclusion Action Plan. We are exploring ways to help businesses become more digital through the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce, Technology Adoption Review, and AI Opportunities Action Plan.

What steps she is taking to increase sentences for individuals that sell knives to (a) teenagers and (b) young people.

While it is the function of the independent judiciary to decide the sentence in individual cases, subject to the maximum sentence available and sentencing guidelines, tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to halve knife crime in a decade as part of its Safer Streets Mission. This is why, through the Crime and Policing Bill, we will increase the maximum penalty for offences relating to offensive weapons from six months to two years’ imprisonment.These are for the offences of manufacturing, selling, hiring, offer for hire, lending or possessing in private any prohibited offensive weapon as detailed in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988. These also cover the offence of selling a knife or bladed article to anyone under 18 years of age.Currently, the law is that anyone over 18 years of age found guilty of any of these offences will face a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both. This Government believes that the maximum penalty does not reflect the seriousness of these offences, and that the maximum penalty should be in line with the current offence of unlawful marketing of knives which carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. This will align the maximum penalties for the offences in relation to sales of knives.In addition to this, the Government has launched an Independent Review of Sentencing chaired by former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke. The Review aims to ensure that the sentencing framework is consistent, protects the public and that there is always a place in prison for violent offenders.

What steps his Department is taking to improve the handling of complaints regarding private hospice care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England and, therefore, covers the palliative and end of life care sector, including independent hospices. The CQC registers health and adult care providers, monitors and inspects services to see whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led, and publishes their findings, including quality ratings. The CQC can use its legal powers to take action where poor care is identified, and can publish regional and national reviews of the major quality issues in health and social care, including palliative and end of life care, encouraging improvement by highlighting good practice. A complaint regarding hospice care can also be made to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Further information is available at the following link: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint The majority of independent hospices receive some funding from their local integrated care board (ICB). If a hospice does receive funding via that route, a complaint can be raised with the local ICB via the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/about-nhs-services/contact-your-local-integrated-care-board-icb/

Whether she has had discussions with (a) local authorities and (b) business across Greater Manchester on steps to tackle the sale of (a) knives and (b) other offensive weapons to (i) teenagers and (ii) young people.

The Government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve knife crime in a decade and we are already taking a range of steps to make our communities a safer place for our young people.We know that more needs to be done to tackle the sale of knives and offensive weapons online which is why last October, the Home Secretary asked Commander Stephen Clayman, as the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for knife crime, to carry out a review into the online sale and delivery of knives. The review was published on 19 February 2025: www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-end-to-end-review-of-online-knife-salesWe have already decided to take forward the most pressing recommendations in the report and have announced “Ronan’s Law” a range of measures which will include stricter rules for online sellers of knives including strengthening age verification controls and checks through a two-stage age verification system at the point of purchase and on delivery. We are increasing the penalties for illegal sales of knives, funding a new online police coordination hub to take action against illegal knife and weapon content online; and we are intending to consult later this year on a registration scheme for online sellers of knives.It is a Government manifesto commitment to hold senior executives of online platforms and marketplaces to account for illegal knife related content around the sale of prohibited offensive weapons or illegal marketing of knives in ways which encourages violence. We ran a public consultation on these proposals which closed on 11 December 2024 and we will be publishing our response shortly.We have also implemented the ban on zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes. The ban came in to force on 24 September 2024 and it is now illegal to sell, manufacture, supply or possess these weapons.It is also a Government manifesto commitment to ban ninja swords and we ran a consultation between 13 November 2024 and 11 December 2024 to clarify the legal definition. We are now moving forward with our plans to ban ninja swords later this year.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve unity amongst his European counterparts on the provision of support to Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

The UK Government is in constant contact with European partners to ensure that Ukraine has the support it needs. The Foreign Secretary and I engage regularly with European counterparts on this issue, including at the Munich Security Conference on 14-16 February. On 2 March, the Prime Minister will convene a group of countries to discuss how we go forward together as allies in light of the situation that we face.

What assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of research and development tax reliefs on the expansion of small businesses.

The Government is committed to periodically evaluating the R&D reliefs to ensure they are as effective as possible and underpinned by a credible, up-to-date evidence base. It will be some time before the required outturn data is available to conduct an accurate review following the changes announced during the review of the R&D reliefs. The Government will continue to publish annual statistics on R&D claims by sector and company size on Gov.uk. More broadly, the Government is committed to creating a positive environment for entrepreneurship and is working with leading entrepreneurs and venture capital firms on how policy supports that, including the role of existing tax schemes, as set out in the Autum Budget 2024.

What steps his Department is taking to increase the number of adults that visit a dentist in Rochdale Borough, compared to the last two years.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Rochdale Borough, this is the NHS Greater Manchester ICB.ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

What steps his Department has taken to increase the number of adults that have visited a dentist in Rochdale Borough in the last two years.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Rochdale Borough, this is the NHS Greater Manchester ICB.ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

What steps his Department is taking to make heat pumps more (a) accessible and (b) cost effective to lower income households.

The Warm Homes Plan will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform our ageing building stock into comfortable, low-carbon homes that are fit for the future. The Government is taking steps to make heat pumps more efficient and easier to install, ensuring more households can install a heat pump and benefit from cleaner, more efficient heating. As well as increasing funding for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to £295 million next financial year, we are removing outdated planning rules and consulting on product efficiency standards. Further details on the Warm Homes Plan will be set out in due course.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase the UKs (a) manufacturing and (b) refining capacity for sustainable aviation fuel.

Building a UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) industry represents a significant economic opportunity which can bring good, high-skilled jobs across the UK. The SAF Mandate, which is the UK’s key policy to decarbonise jet fuel, secures demand for SAF by obligating the supply of an increasing amount of SAF in the overall UK aviation fuel mix. We are putting £63 million into the Advanced Fuels Fund in 2025/2026 to help support UK SAF plants to reach commercial scale. The Government is also legislating to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism, giving SAF producers confidence to invest in new plants in the UK.

Whether she has had recent discussions with local authorities on the potential merits of including provisions to help tackle pavement parking in the English Devolution Bill.

In 2020, the Department undertook a public consultation on options for changing the way pavement parking is managed outside London. When the Government has decided its preferred way forward this will be announced along with publication of a formal response to the consultation. In the meantime, local authorities can make use of existing powers to manage pavement parking.

What steps his Department is taking to help reduce pressures on (a) community health and (b) primary care settings within the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.

Community health services are an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service. The Department and NHS England are committed to reducing pressures on community health services, which includes reducing long waits and improving timely access to these services.NHS Greater Manchester has invested £2 million to support Primary Care Winter Schemes for Greater Manchester, and this funding is delivering additional general practice (GP) appointments, meaning that primary care services have the capacity to be able to respond to surges in demand for primary care access.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that housing associations take swift action on remediating mould and damp issues across their housing stock.

The government is committed to working with social housing providers to ensure that homes are safe, decent, warm, and free from damp and mould. The Deputy Prime Minister made a Written Ministerial Statement on 6 February (HCWS423) confirming that the government will bring Awaab’s Law into force for damp and mould in October 2025. Awaab’s Law will empower social tenants to hold their landlords to account by law if they fail to investigate and fix hazards within their homes within set timescales. Tenants will be able to hold their social landlords to account by seeking redress through the Housing Ombudsman Service or taking legal action through the courts for a breach of contract. The government is also committed to consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards this year which will enable upfront preventative measures on disrepair and deliver improvements to tackle damp and mould.

What steps she has taken to tackle the flow of illicit drugs in Greater Manchester.

Tackling the criminals running drug supply chains is a priority for this government as part of our mission to reduce serious violence and exploitation. Key to achieving our aim of halving knife crime is targeting the drug gangs which drive serious violence, where one quarter of knife homicides are connected to drugs markets.In partnership with the NCA and policing we are targeting organised crime groups at every stage of the drug supply chain, combatting illicit finance, disrupting the hidden channels through which criminals communicate, and supporting law enforcement agencies with dedicated personnel to identify high-harm threats and opportunities for disruption.In addition, to disrupt county lines, which is the most violent and exploitative model of drug distribution, we are also providing, through our County Lines Programme, dedicated funding to Greater Manchester Police to support activity to tackle this issue.

What steps she is taking to improve the integration of oral health education across primary schools.

All state funded schools are required to teach about good oral hygiene as part of statutory health education. Pupils should know about dental health and the benefits of good oral hygiene and dental flossing, including regular check-ups at the dentist.Departmental officials regularly meet with officials from the Department for Health and Social Care to discuss oral health in schools and this government’s commitment to introduce a national supervised toothbrushing scheme targeted at 3 to 5 year-olds living in the 20% most deprived areas of England. Further details on this scheme will be published in due course.We are currently reviewing the statutory relationships, sex and health education curriculum, which includes considering whether any additional content is needed, including on oral health.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of re-introducing the hard shoulder on all motorways.

The latest set of safety data published by National Highways continues to show that, overall, smart motorways are safer than conventional motorways for deaths or serious injuries. However, the risk of a collision between a moving and a stopped vehicle is greater on smart motorways without a permanent hard shoulder than on other motorway types, which is why National Highways continues to take action aimed at reducing this risk, rolling out over 150 additional emergency areas and improving operational technology performance. We will continue to assess the safety of these roads as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the additional investment in safety measures. It should also be noted that whilst hard shoulders offer a place of relative safety, they are not a safe place to stop, with one out of every 20 fatal casualties on motorways occurring on a hard shoulder.

Whether she has had recent discussions with the Mayor of Greater Manchester on pavement parking.

In 2020, the Department undertook a public consultation on options for changing the way pavement parking is managed outside London. When the Government has decided its preferred way forward this will be announced along with publication of a formal response to the consultation. In the meantime, local authorities can make use of existing powers to manage pavement parking.

What steps his Department plans to take to ensure that potential reform of the national contract for dentists considers the views of dentists practicing in Greater Manchester.

To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to National Health Service dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.There are no perfect payment systems and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system, so that we deliver a system better for patients and the profession.We are continuing to meet with the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients. We want to ensure that any reform takes into account the views of dentists across England, including in Greater Manchester.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of hospital bed availability in health trusts in the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.

Hospital bed occupancy, including in Manchester, is too high. This reduces the number of beds available for patients who require hospital admission.Greater Manchester Integrated Care System continues to take action to support bed occupancy including a concentrated focus on the implementation of strategies and services aimed at preventing unnecessary hospital admissions, particularly for vulnerable populations.