Written questions by Blundell.

What steps she is taking with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to improve connections between the Greater Manchester City Region and (a) Yorkshire, (b) the Liverpool City Region and (c) North Wales.

The Government has already demonstrated its commitment to improving Northern transport infrastructure. At and since the Budget last Autumn, further commitment and funding has been provided for key transport programmes in the North, including the Transpennine Route Upgrade, an £11 billion programme that will transform rail connectivity from Manchester through to York.Through City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) Round 1 (2022/23–2026/27), the Government has also provided Greater Manchester Combined Authority with £1 billion to invest in local transport priorities.Future investment priorities for Northern transport infrastructure will be considered in the round as part of the Spending Review.

How the Infrastructure Strategy will support infrastructure enhancements in the North West.

The 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy will reduce uncertainty by bringing together a long-term plan for the social, economic and housing infrastructure across the UK, including the North WestAlongside considering the UK’s economic and social infrastructure needs, the strategy will set out how we are reforming institutions and changing the way we make decisions and deliver infrastructure, maximising the benefits of our strong fiscal and spending frameworks, breaking down regulatory and planning barriers, and resetting our relationship with the private sector.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to provide fiscal autonomy to the North West.

The English Devolution White Paper sets out an enhanced Devolution Framework for both existing and new strategic authorities across England. It creates a consistent approach to providing Mayors with the power to decide what is right for their areas. It includes the ability for all Mayoral Strategic Authorities to use a Mayoral Precept on Council Tax on a full range of functions, and the ability to raise a Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy to fund strategic infrastructure once a Spatial Development Strategy is in place. It also sets out a clear and transparent pathway for areas to be designated as Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities and therefore become eligible for an Integrated Settlement. These reforms will also give greater fiscal autonomy to Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, including those in the North West, by removing the funding silos created by Whitehall.

What steps she is taking to support the Northern Arc infrastructure project.

The Government has already demonstrated its commitment to improving Northern transport infrastructure. At and since the Budget last Autumn, further commitment and funding has been provided for key transport programmes in the North, including the Transpennine Route Upgrade, an £11 billion programme that will transform rail connectivity from Manchester through to York.Future investment priorities for Northern transport infrastructure will be considered in the round as part of the Spending Review.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to develop a cross-Government strategy for reducing the numbers of missing children.

This government champions the need for an effective multi-agency response that reduces the number of children going missing, whether this is from a family home or from the care of the local authority.The department’s long-standing statutory guidance on safeguarding children at risk of going missing is already clear on the expectation that local authorities and safeguarding partners need to work together to reduce missing episodes, and to respond effectively when children do go missing.In addition, the government’s statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ promotes robust information-sharing across safeguarding partners, which we know is essential for identifying local contexts and disrupting local patterns of behaviours that can raise the risk of children in and outside the care system going missing, including being missing from education.Children in care can be especially vulnerable to going missing. That is why the department, working with the Home Office, has supported the National Police Chiefs' Council to develop a ‘Missing Children from Care' framework. This good practice framework can be adopted by local areas when designing their multi-agency protocols for strategic and operational responses to missing episodes, ensuring that the appropriate safeguarding partner responds in the best interest of the missing person.Since April, the government is providing £500 million to local authorities nationally, to roll out family help and multi-agency child protection support. We have set up the Families First Partnership programme to support the delivery of these reforms, with local areas beginning transformation from April 2025.

What steps she is taking to better equip local police forces to ensure the safe return of missing children.

The Government is committed to ensuring that police forces are equipped to respond appropriately urgently when children go missing, and that missing people and their families receive the best possible protection and support.The Missing Persons Authorised Professional Practice, issued by the College of Policing, sets out best practice guidance for all missing person investigations for police forces in England and Wales in order to prevent missing incidents as well as ensure the safe return of missing children.The National Police Chief’s Council has also developed a ‘Missing Children from Care Framework’ which aims to ensure that children in care receive appropriate and timely responses when their whereabouts are unknown. This should reduce the risk of harm; help return the child to their care setting; and, reduce the likelihood of repeat missing incidents.The new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection will also improve the response to missing children by developing best practices and delivering training to officers across a range of vulnerabilities.Recognising that many children go missing as a result of county lines exploitation, we are also providing specialist support for children and young people to escape county lines and child criminal exploitation, and this includes funding Missing People’s SafeCall service, which provides a national, confidential helpline and support for young people, families and carers who are concerned about county lines exploitation.

Whether she plans to incentivise local authorities to provide funding for public electronic vehicle charging points.

The Government's £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund supports local authorities in England to work with industry to transform the availability of public EV charging infrastructure. The funding, which is expected to leverage significant further private investment, will support the installation of at least 100,000 local chargepoints across the country.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making the (a) installation and (b) use of CCTV recordings in private nurseries a formal requirement for Ofsted inspections.

The department’s priority is to grow high-quality, affordable and flexible education and care for children whilst ensuring their safety, giving every child the best start to life and delivering on our Plan for Change. For this reason, we continually monitor and review safeguarding requirements for early years settings to make sure children are kept as safe as possible.The department is responsible for setting the standards which early years settings such as nurseries must follow. These are set out in the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework. The department has responsibility for policy on inspection and registration, but how it is implemented is for Ofsted to decide whilst also remaining accountable to Parliament.The decision to install and use camera surveillance equipment in a nursery is a matter for individual providers to determine based on their own risk assessment and policies.If a nursery uses camera surveillance equipment, they must comply with the regulations in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation and should follow the guidance published by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Whether her Department plans to introduce universal signage for electronic vehicle charging points.

A reliable, accessible public charging network to support electric vehicle (EV) drivers on long journeys is essential. Ensuring this is visible and functional will build consumer confidence, which is vital for mass EV adoption. An EV charging symbol is in use on traffic signs to direct drivers to the growing number of chargepoints. There are now over 5,250 open-access rapid and ultra rapid chargers within one mile of the Strategic Road Network (SRN), having doubled over 18 months. Government is working with industry, including chargepoint operators, and with National Highways, which manages the SRN in England, to improve signage deployment. This includes looking for opportunities to make it easier to provide signage for EV-only charging hubs.

Whether her Department plans to take steps to help reduce the cost of using the public electric vehicle charging network.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the public charging network is affordable and accessible. The Government’s Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 increase transparency of public charging costs and make it easier for drivers to pay. Under the regulations, companies are required to clearly provide the price of charging in pence per kilowatt hour. The maximum price cannot increase once a session has started. Whilst this does not cap the cost, it does ensure consistency in the way prices are displayed, making it easy for drivers to compare and understand prices across different public chargepoints. This will allow customers to choose the chargepoint and the price most appropriate for their needs. The Government will continue to work with other Government departments and industry on measures to keep the cost of EV charging affordable for consumers.

Whether she is taking steps to prioritise areas of high economic inactivity in north Greater Manchester through the inactivity trailblazer programme.

All local authorities in Greater Manchester, including Rochdale, Wigan, Bolton, and Bury, will be involved in implementing an Economic Inactivity Trailblazer. Greater Manchester will receive £10 million in funding in 2025/26 to take steps towards reducing high economic inactivity. This funding will enable Greater Manchester to integrate work, health and skills support at the local level. Greater Manchester has designed their Economic Inactivity Trailblazer working with local authorities and partners, and will determine how to use the trailblazer funding to tackle high economic inactivity in their area.

What discussions she has had with Greater Manchester Police to reduce response times in north Greater Manchester.

I refer the Hon Member to the response given to UIN 31037 on 28th February 2025.

What steps she is taking to support people into work in (a) north Greater Manchester and (b) Heywood and Middleton North constituency.

Those who are economically inactive due to ill health or other disadvantages will be supported into work through the inactivity trailblazer programme. Additionally, Greater Manchester’s Working Well programme offers support to residents at risk of or currently experiencing long-term unemployment, their WorkWell service offers support to residents facing difficulties in remaining in work due to ill-health, and the Adult Skills Fund gives residents access to training courses to enhance their career opportunities. These programmes cover north Greater Manchester, including Rochdale. The local Jobcentre network offers a suite of skills courses aimed at improving engagement and motivation, supporting the hardest to help, removing barriers to employment, enhancing job search skills, providing skills for work, vocational skills, and in-work support. These courses are designed to address various needs, from overcoming complex barriers to employment to improving job searching techniques and providing ongoing support for those in work. This approach allows us to provide intensive support for those with complex needs, remove final barriers to employment, and help individuals become proficient in job searching techniques. We are confident that these initiatives significantly contribute to improving employment opportunities and supporting residents in North Greater Manchester, Heywood and Middleton North constituency. Jobcentre teams are working in partnership with Rochdale Local Authority with a specific focus on employer activity to support local residents into employment. In recent months the Jobcentre team have worked jointly with Rochdale AFC to deliver a Jobs Fair for local residents. Some recent Sector Based Work Academies include working jointly with Rochdale Training to move residents into NHS jobs and Realise Training to support residents into the Security sector. Locally, the Get Rochdale Working team at the Local Authority support with local initiatives including Jobs fairs, Apprenticeships, Work experience and volunteering. Within the Jobcentres there is a Movement to Work Offer providing meaningful placements to young people 16-30 years old not currently in education, employment or training (NEET). These placements are designed to provide skills, experience and support to open lasting opportunities for those involved.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce the proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training in north Greater Manchester.

As part of our plan to Get Britain Working, we will launch a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. The Youth Guarantee will build upon and enhance existing entitlements and provisions with the aim of tackling the rising number of young people who are not participating in education, employment or training. DWP currently provides young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners. For example, Positive Steps, a charitable organisation provides drop-in sessions with Jobcentre colleagues in Heywood library every Tuesday, and at the Lighthouse project every Thursday afternoon for our Middleton customers. Positive Steps are also currently running the Engaging Rochdale project throughout the whole borough, which is proving successful, offering 12 weeks paid work.

What assessment she has made of the deliverability of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project.

As announced in the Autumn 2024 Budget, we are maintaining momentum on Northern Powerhouse Rail by progressing planning and design works to support future delivery. This improved rail connectivity in the north is a vital step towards better linking people and jobs, creating opportunities for everyone and we will set out further details in due course.

What steps she is taking to ensure the resilience of critical transport infrastructure in the north of England.

The government is committed to ensuring the resilience of the transport network across the UK, including vital services in the North of England. We work closely with transport operators to prevent and respond to the range of risks the sector faces: and aid them in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing contingency planning arrangements. Transport related risks to resilience are kept under review, including through the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment, and the external-facing version, the National Risk Register, to ensure that we effectively plan at the national and local levels. This includes risks around adverse weather conditions, security threats and accidents. We are also conducting a Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) review to support our work, building our understanding of the CNI landscape and the wide variety of systems, dependencies and redundancies that keep it running. This work is strengthening our ability to plan against risks and threats and bolster our incident response capabilities, ensuring our Critical National Infrastructure is resilient and secure.

What steps she is taking to mitigate rail congestion across East-West rail lines in the north of England.

The Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline portfolio contains some of the most transformative and important programmes in the country such as the TransPennine Route Upgrade, which will increase capacity and improve reliability of East to West rail lines in the north of England.

What steps she is taking to target additional judicial resources toward court settings which are at capacity in Greater Manchester.

We are continuing to invest in judicial recruitment nationally, across all jurisdictions, with plans to recruit around 1000 judges and tribunal members in 2025-26; and around 2,000 magistrates in 2025-26, and annually thereafter. Following recruitment, regional and court level deployment decisions are a matter for the judiciary, and we support actions to flexibly deploy judges to maximise capacity where it is needed.Our assessment is that overall there is currently sufficient judicial capacity in the courts in the North West, including Greater Manchester. Any vacancies which may arise as a result of departures are expected to be filled through planned recruitment.

What steps she is taking to ensure families from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to high quality childcare provision.

The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life. Low-income families, children with education, health and care plans and looked after children are eligible for 15 hours funded early education from age two until they start school. In addition to this, eligible disadvantaged children can get early years pupil premium (EYPP). This additional funding supports the delivery of high quality early education that improves disadvantaged children’s outcomes. In December 2024, the department announced an unprecedented 45% increase to EYPP from 1 April 2025.Support for disadvantaged children is also reflected when distributing core funding for the entitlements. The early years national funding formulae (EYNFFs) are used to determine the hourly rates to fund individual local authorities for early years entitlements. The EYNFFs target funding to local authorities where it is needed most and each include an additional needs factor that accounts for 10.5% of entitlement funding. This needs factor comprises of an 8% deprivation factor, a 1.5% English as an additional language factor and a 1% Disability Allowance factor. Local authorities are responsible for setting individual provider funding rates in consultation with their providers and schools forum, and fund providers using their own local funding formula, which may include a deprivation supplement.Local authorities are required by legislation to provide sufficient childcare places for children in their local area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. If a parent is unable to secure a place, they should contact their local authority.The department is also supporting the creation of new places. School-based nurseries are a key part of this government’s opportunity mission, delivering on our Plan for Change by expanding high quality early education across England. We have awarded 300 primary-phase schools £37 million to repurpose spare space for new or expanded nursery provision, opening from September 2025, to support the expansion of childcare entitlements. School-based nurseries are particularly well-placed to support families in disadvantaged areas, with over a quarter of providers in the most deprived areas based in schools. For the school-based nurseries grant, applications for the grant were scored more highly if they clearly evidenced a focus on supporting children from disadvantaged families. This was validated using departmental data relating to established disadvantaged factors.

What steps she plans to take to help increase awareness of careers in the maritime sector.

The Department continues to support industry to improve the awareness of careers in the maritime sector though the implementation of the Ratings Review and the Cadet Review, both of which were undertaken by the Maritime Skills Commission. The Cadet Review is being delivered through the Cadet Training & Modernisation programme and promoting seafaring career pathways is an important part of that work. A new maritime strategy is in development, which will include a focus on maritime careers.Additionally, the Department continues to work with stakeholders, such as Maritime UK, on careers promotion and has supported Maritime UK’s Maritime Roadshow for Girls, which promotes STEM and maritime careers in schools. Officials are also working with Maritime UK’s Careers Taskforce, which coordinates careers outreach activity across the sector.