Written questions by Poynton.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of clinical education programmes to support healthcare professionals to identify potential cases of mosquito-borne diseases in the UK.

Employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver safe and effective treatment for patients. The UK Health Security Agency contributes to the education of healthcare professionals through the distribution of briefing notes on significant changes in the risks of mosquito-borne disease, publication of regularly updated disease epidemiology, and the regular publication of key reports such as emerging infection monthly summaries.

Whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that NHS services (a) engage with new fathers and (b) record their details alongside mothers in their baby's health records.

The National Health Service’s three-year plan for maternity and neonatal services recognises that listening and responding to all women and families, including fathers, is an essential part of safe and high-quality care.Maternity and neonatal voices partnerships are forums that are in place to ensure that service user voices, including fathers, are at the heart of decision-making in maternity and neonatal services. They bring together the staff who commission and provide maternity services with those who use those services. All members of the partnership take responsibility for the development and delivery of agreed workplans.Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services also offer mental health assessments and signposting to support as required for fathers/partners of women accessing services. Many NHS trusts have also implemented Family Integrated Care, a model of neonatal care which encourages the involvement of parents, including fathers, which in turn can benefit infant health outcomes.Once a child is registered with the General Registry Office of Births and Deaths (GRO), the NHS receives information showing the parents listed on the birth certificate. Due to a period where not all GRO relationships were added to the NHS record, the NHS is currently working to ensure this happens going forward, and this work should be complete by Autumn 2025.

How much consequential funding the Scottish Government receives for Home Building Funds and the Land and Infrastructure Funds, broken down by spending type.

The Barnett formula applies to all increases or decreases to Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL). Whenever UK Government departmental budgets change, the Barnett formula is applied in the usual way, as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy. It is for the devolved governments to allocate their Barnett-based funding as they see fit, and they are accountable to the devolved legislatures for those decisions. The published Block Grant Transparency document provides a detailed breakdown of how the block grants are calculated. The most recent report was published in July 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023

Communities and Local Government, whether the origination criteria of the British Business Bank’s Enable Build scheme permits lending to all small and medium sized home builders whose operations and development are entirely in and related to Scotland.

The ENABLE Build scheme is open to banks and non-bank lenders for the purpose of lending to small and medium-sized housebuilders across the United Kingdom, including those based in Scotland.ENABLE Build is a ‘portfolio product’ where a guarantee is provided to a lender that covers a portfolio of eligible loans to SME borrowers.The origination criteria under the scheme stipulates that at least 80% of the lender’s guaranteed portfolio should relate to developments in England.This does not apply to the borrower’s portfolio, meaning that home builders based in Scotland can benefit from the scheme even if their operations and development are entirely Scotland-based.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has had discussions with the British Business Bank on eligibility of the Enable Build programme; and whether its origination criteria that a substantial majority of the portfolio must relate to developments in England applies to the (a) lenders or (b) home builders portfolio.

The ENABLE Build scheme is open to banks and non-bank lenders for the purpose of lending to small and medium-sized housebuilders across the United Kingdom, including those based in Scotland.ENABLE Build is a ‘portfolio product’ where a guarantee is provided to a lender that covers a portfolio of eligible loans to SME borrowers.The origination criteria under the scheme stipulates that at least 80% of the lender’s guaranteed portfolio should relate to developments in England.This does not apply to the borrower’s portfolio, meaning that home builders based in Scotland can benefit from the scheme even if their operations and development are entirely Scotland-based.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of improving paternity leave provisions on health disparities in lower-income families.

The government is committed to supporting working families and is already delivering on this commitment. The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights, increasing flexibility for families and helping them to better balance work and family responsibilities. The government has also committed to a review of the whole parental leave system. This review will assess the effectiveness of the current system across a range of metrics, ensuring it offers the best possible support to working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.

If he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the potential impact of extending the statutory minimum paternity leave on (a) early childhood development and (b) reliance on formal childcare in a child's first year.

The government is committed to supporting working families and is already delivering on this commitment. The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights, increasing flexibility for families and helping them to better balance work and family responsibilities. The government has also committed to a review of the whole parental leave system. This review will assess the effectiveness of the current system across a range of metrics, ensuring it offers the best possible support to working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.

If he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the potential lessons learned from the parental leave policies of other countries in the OECD.

The government is committed to supporting working families and is already delivering on this commitment. The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights, increasing flexibility for families and helping them to better balance work and family responsibilities. The government has also committed to a review of the whole parental leave system. This review will assess the effectiveness of the current system across a range of metrics, ensuring it offers the best possible support to working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.

If he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the level of uptake of Shared Parental Leave.

The government is committed to supporting working families and is already delivering on this commitment. The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights, increasing flexibility for families and helping them to better balance work and family responsibilities. The government has also committed to a review of the whole parental leave system. This review will assess the effectiveness of the current system across a range of metrics, ensuring it offers the best possible support to working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the statutory minimum level of paternity leave on the economy.

The government is committed to supporting working families and is already delivering on this commitment. The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights, increasing flexibility for families and helping them to better balance work and family responsibilities. The government has also committed to a review of the whole parental leave system. This review will assess the effectiveness of the current system across a range of metrics, ensuring it offers the best possible support to working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.

Whether his Department has had discussions with the Scottish Government on (a) facilitating and (b) improving delivery of the Warm Homes Plan across Scotland.

The Government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan will upgrade millions of homes across the country by making them cleaner and cheaper to run, from installing new insulation to rolling out solar and heat pumps. We will partner with combined authorities and local and devolved governments to roll out this plan. As such, the department will continue to engage with Scotland and other devolved governments.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of taking steps to use the energy efficiency SME supply chain to deliver the Warm Homes Plan.

The Government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan will upgrade millions of homes across the country by making them cleaner and cheaper to run, from installing insulation to rolling out solar and heat pumps. The Plan will set out proposals to facilitate growth of a robust and competent supply chain to support home upgrades, including investing in training and skills and supporting SMEs to work in the sector.

Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with private messaging platforms on (a) ensuring compliance with the Online Safety Act 2023 and (b) tackling (i) grooming of children and (ii) sharing of child sexual abuse material on their platforms.

The government is committed to protecting children from these devastating crimes. The Online Safety Act will place strict safety duties on online platforms to protect children from being groomed by online predators, and to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse content on their services. Ministers meet regularly with platforms to discuss implementation of the Online Safety Act, and the duties it will place on services to tackle illegal content on their sites. Ofcom is the independent regulator responsible for ensuring compliance with the regime.

What the funding allocation from NHS England for the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group was in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.

The information requested is not available as it is commercially sensitive.

What steps his Department is taking to reform the audit sector; what his planned timetable is for (a) introducing the Draft Audit and Corporate Governance Reform Bill and (b) establishing a new audit regulator; and whether he plans grant any new regulator powers over Director's accountability.

As set out in the King’s Speech, the Government intends to publish a draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill in this session. The Government will keep the House updated as we work towards publication and scrutiny of a draft Bill. This involves careful consideration of measures relating to the audit sector and corporate reporting, including transitioning to a new regulator with powers relating to directors’ accountability.

How many patients in Scotland were supported by specialised services provided by NHS England in the last 12 months.

This information is not held centrally, as health is a devolved matter in Scotland.