Written questions by Grant.

By what date he plans to introduce free independent legal advice for adult rape victims.

The Government continues to progress the manifesto commitment to introduce free independent legal advice (ILA) for victims of adult rape, to help them understand and feel confident in their legal rights.ILAs will be able to help victims with issues including understanding their rights, understanding what constitutes a reasonable Third-Party Material or digital material request, assisting with complaint applications, compensation claims, and the Victim’s Right to Review scheme.We will be making further announcements about our plans for the rollout of this service in due course.

What estimate she has made of the number of additional Crown prosecutors that will be required to help reduce violence against women and girls.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) National Operating Model (NOM) for adult rape prosecutions and the CPS-Police Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan (DA JJP) are central to improving outcomes in cases involving violence against women and girls (VAWG). These initiatives rely on dedicated, specially trained prosecutors working across a range of CPS Units, including Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Units, Magistrates Units, and Crown Court Units.The latest Spending Review settlement for the CPS reflects the Government’s commitment to protecting the public through independent and fair prosecutions. It will provide record investment into the CPS, with total funding reaching £1 billion in 2028-29 to help bring more offenders to justice.The additional £95.8m over the Spending Review period will allow CPS to increase the number of prosecutors and people on the frontline delivering justice, including in CPS’s specialist Rape and Serious Sexual Offence units, and to improve their services to victims and witnesses. The CPS continues to monitor demand and resource requirements closely to ensure effective delivery of its commitments.The forthcoming CPS VAWG Strategy, due for publication later this year, sets out to improve prosecution effectiveness and build victim trust, including updated legal guidance, enhanced specialist training, and targeted action plans for specific offence types such as stalking and honour-based abuse. The strategy reflects the CPS’ commitment to supporting the Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

What steps he is taking to ensure that additional NHS funding leads to pay rises for (a) nurses and (b) other frontline staff.

The Department has remitted the independent pay review bodies (PRBs) to begin their work on pay recommendations for 2026/27 for nurses and other frontline National Health Service staff. The Government will carefully consider the PRB recommendations, which is the usual process to determine pay uplifts for NHS workers. As part of this process, the PRBs consider the evidence submitted, including a range of factors such as the economic context and the available funding.We hugely appreciate the work of the many talented staff across the NHS, which is why on 22 May 2025, we accepted the headline pay recommendations for 2025/26 made by the PRBs giving them a much deserved, above-inflation, pay rise.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled Tribunal system reforms to speed up asylum decisions, published on 24 August 2025, whether she plans to stipulate time limits for dealing with cases.

The Home Secretary confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons on 1 September that further information regarding Tribunal system reforms will be provided in due course. The statement can be accessed here: Borders and Asylum - Hansard - UK Parliament

What steps he is taking to improve care for people with Huntington's disease.

The revised NHS England Specialised Neurology Services (adults) Specification 2025 outlines a comprehensive model of care, detailing the requirements for specialised neurology services but also outlining the expectations of a system wide approach. It articulates how patients should move into and out of specialised neurology services, including patients with Huntington’s disease, incorporating end to end pathways within an Integrated Neurology System. The NHSE Specialised Commissioning Neurology Transformation Team (NTP) have also produced a number of guidance documents to support the implementation of the revised service specification. This includes developing a neurology transformation toolkit, which outlines the impact of care coordination and case management functions in supporting more equitable and efficient care for people with long-term neurological diseases, including Huntington’s disease.

With reference to the press release entitled Tribunal system reforms to speed up asylum decisions, published on 24 August 2025, how long she expects it will take to train an adjudicator to make decisions on asylum appeal cases.

The Home Secretary confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons on 1 September that further information regarding Tribunal system reforms will be provided in due course. The statement can be accessed here: Borders and Asylum - Hansard - UK Parliament.

With reference to the press release entitled Tribunal system reforms to speed up asylum decisions, published on 24 August 2025, whether her Department plans to use primary legislation to (a) establish and (b) give full powers to the proposed new independent body to make decisions on asylum appeal cases.

The Home Secretary confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons on 1 September that further information regarding Tribunal system reforms will be provided in due course. The statement can be accessed here: Borders and Asylum - Hansard - UK Parliament.

With reference to the press release entitled Tribunal system reforms to speed up asylum decisions, published on 24 August 2025, whether first-tier tribunal judges of the immigration and asylum chamber will be permitted to work as professionally-trained adjudicators at the proposed new independent body.

The Home Secretary confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons on 1 September that further information regarding Tribunal system reforms will be provided in due course. The statement can be accessed here: Borders and Asylum - Hansard - UK Parliament.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the education of women and girls globally.

The UK is committed to empowering women and girls around the world through our international work. We work through the humanitarian system, leveraging multilateral institutions' funding, and strategically deploying scarce resources to improve access to quality education, particularly for women and girls, through stronger systems.In November 2024, the UK provided £14 million of support for Sudanese refugees through Education Cannot Wait. This reaches 200,000 vulnerable displaced children with education interventions in Sudan and Sudanese refugee populations in Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda.An estimated 60 million girls are sexually assaulted on their journey to, from and in school annually. In May 2025, the Minister for Africa launched the new Ministerial Taskforce on Ending Violence in and around Schools co-chaired by the UK and Sierra Leone. 11 countries endorsed a joint declaration committing to make violence prevention in and around schools a political priority.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the taxable turnover SMEs can earn in a12-month period before registering for VAT.

At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This keeps the majority of businesses out of the VAT regime altogether.

If she will launch a public consultation on the proposed changes to EHCP eligibility criteria.

This government inherited a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system that has been failing to meet the needs of children and families for far too long. We know that families face real challenges with EHC plans and that even after fighting to secure the entitlement, a plan does not always guarantee the right the support will be delivered.The department needs to focus on addressing the overall systemic issues that make SEND support so hard to access. We are thinking about how we protect support for the children that will always need specialist placements and to make accessing that support less bureaucratic and adversarial, as well as how we intervene earlier so support can be provided regardless of whether a legal plan is in place.Ministers and officials have been engaging with parents to seek their views on the direction of future reforms and to understand their experiences of the SEND system. For example, through a webinar attended by around 100 parents in early June. We plan to deliver more such webinars over the coming weeks and months.

What steps he is taking to protect patients with cystic fibrosis in the context of a shortage of Creon gastro-resistant capsules.

The Department is in regular discussions with the supplier of Creon on the latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken to mitigate the supply issue that is affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes of Creon for 2025 for the UK. We are continuing to work with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to understand what more can be done to add further resilience to the market. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), we are working with these potential suppliers, and if authorised, these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.The Department has issued management advice to healthcare professionals which directs clinicians to unlicensed imports when licensed stock is unavailable, and which includes actions for integrated care boards to put in place local mitigation plans to ensure that patients are not left without PERT. The Department, in collaboration with NHS England, has created a public facing page to include the latest update on PERT availability and easily accessible prescribing advice for clinicians.

Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to ensure that property management companies (a) accurately relay charges to customers, (b) respond to correspondence within reasonable timeframes and (c) do not add administrative charges without explanation.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN  38576 on 24 March 2025 and Question 37829 on 20 March 2025.

What steps he is taking to improve the accessibility of face-to-face GP appointments (a) in general and (b) for people less digitally literate.

General practitioners (GPs) must provide face to face appointments alongside remote consultations. Online services must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, in-person consultations.The GP contract also makes clear that patients have a right to request a face-to-face appointment and practices must make every effort to meet their preference, unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.We know that some patients can struggle to access digital services. To help address this, digital tools used in primary care settings must meet required minimum standards of functionality set by NHS England, ensuring a consistent quality of service for patients. All organisations providing services in the National Health Service, including primary care providers, must follow the Accessible Information Standard.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the adequacy of the service provided by First Port property management.

The government is committed to ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents.Legislation is currently enforced by local authorities and by the National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents.The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group chaired by Lord Best to advise them on how best to do it.However, they failed to respond to the recommendations set out in the working group’s 2019 Regulation of Property Agents: working group report which can be found on gov.uk here.Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future. As a result, we are looking again at the 2019 report.As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244), the government have made clear it intends to strengthen regulation of managing agents to drive up the standard of their service. As a minimum, this should include mandatory professional qualifications which set a new basic standard that managing agents will be required to meet. We will consult on this matter this year.We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.

What steps his Department is taking to further support Ukraine.

The UK continues to step up its assistance, spending £4.5 billion on military support for Ukraine this year - more than ever before. This includes £2.26 billion of interest from frozen Russian assets which the UK will use to source essential military capabilities for Ukraine. We also recently agreed a £1.6 billion export finance deal which will supply Ukraine with more than 5,000 air defence missiles. The deal marks a historic step for industrial relations between the UK and Ukraine, building on the 100 Year Partnership signed recently by the Prime Minister and President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Furthermore, we also announced the biggest package of sanctions in over two years to continue to bear down on Russia's economy.

Whether she has plans to increase the use of artificial intelligence in the HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.AI has the potential to enable service improvements across HMCTS, and we are exploring how it can be applied responsibly to our operations and services, including to support document processing, transcription, summarisation and translation. The use of AI in the courts and tribunals will be focused on accelerating and assisting people’s work, not automating decisions.All use of artificial intelligence in the Ministry of Justice is aligned with the AI Playbook for the UK Government and the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard. The Lady Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals issued AI Guidance for the judiciary in December 2023.

If she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of accessing court transcripts for each of the last five years.

The cost incurred by HM Courts and Tribunals Service for transcription services in the five most recent financial years (April – March) is as below:Financial YearTotal Spend (£)2019-201,252,2012020-21939,3092021-221,258,3532022-231,104,6672023-241,043,971These figures do not include transcription spend incurred by Legal Aid Agency which are covered by central funds as these are not included in the accounts for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

What the average cost of a (a) court and (b) tribunal hearing transcript is.

The cost of a court or tribunal transcript varies, depending on the length of the hearing, whether the transcript is new or a copy, and the speed of delivery requested. HMCTS contracts with external suppliers to provide court transcripts who hold data on orders that they receive. While HMCTS does not retain data centrally on the costs of court or tribunal transcripts, supplier Management Information data for the period January to December 2024 was extracted as follows:Total number of court and tribunal transcripts produced: 45,178The average cost of a transcript order between January and December 2024 based on the transcripts produced: £117.00 (excl. VAT) Court and tribunal hearings differ significantly in length (from hearings that last less than a day to trials that can last several weeks or months) and transcript costs are in proportion to the volume of audio that must be transcribed and checked on a case-by-case basis. While costs of shorter hearings may be lower, full hearings or trials can cost significantly more. Therefore, the average cost calculated above using supplier data is not reflective of the full range of court and tribunal hearings and is not a general average cost of transcripts.

With reference to Q3 of the oral evidence given by the Lady Chief Justice of England to the Justice Select Committee on 26 November 2024, HC 421, what estimate she has made of the total cost of sitting the extra 6,500 court sitting days to reach the maximum 113,000 days available.

113,000 sitting days are a theoretical maximum of judicial sitting days in the Crown Court. It is not clear whether other parts of the system – for example the availability of counsel - could sustain that level of sitting, and therefore it is not correct to say that number of sitting days was 'available' for FY24/25.In June the previous Lord Chancellor reached agreement with the Lady Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals to sit 106,000 days in the Crown Court in FY24/25 within a total budget of £275 million. In September, the current Lord Chancellor increased the allocation of sitting days for the Crown Court by 500 additional days and then again in December by 2,000, meaning that the total allocation for FY 24/25 is now 108,500, the highest number in nearly a decade.