Written questions by Roome.

Whether his Department has had discussions with the TV Licensing Agency on (a) discounts and (b) exemptions from the TV licence for armed forces personnel in service accommodation.

The Ministry of Defence has neither held discussions, nor has any current plan to hold discussions, with the TV Licencing Agency regarding an Armed Forces discount to the TV Licence or an exemption for personnel living in Service accommodation.

What steps he is taking to make the process of tending for his Department's contracts is more accessible to SMEs.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hold a crucial place in UK defence. They are the backbone of the UK economy and vital to delivering the innovation, expertise and agility we need now and in the future. Consideration of SMEs is a key element in our development of the forthcoming Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS). Through this we will consider how we better support SMEs, reduce barriers and set the conditions that unlock the full potential of SMEs to innovate at pace and seize future opportunities. A revised SME Action Plan will follow the DIS with the aim to improve engagement and increase Ministry of Defence (MOD) direct spend with SMEs. In the meantime, the Procurement at MOD page on the gov.uk website contains detailed information for SMEs looking to become a supplier or contractor in defence. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence/about/procurement

How many armed forces personnel live in service accommodation.

As of 6 February 2025, there was a total of 113,461 Armed Forces personnel living in Service accommodation. This figure includes both Single Living Accommodation occupancy and Service Family Accommodation occupancy.

What recent discussions her Department has had with Skills England on potential changes to the funding of apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships and skills will play a critical part in the government’s mission to drive growth across the country, supporting people to get better jobs and improve their standard of living.The government has established Skills England to form a coherent national picture of skills gaps and help shape the technical education system so that it is responsive to skills needs. This will include advising on priorities for the new growth and skills offer.Skills England engaged with employers and other key partners regarding early priorities for the new growth and skills offer, including proposals to ask more employers to step forward and fund more level 7 apprenticeships themselves.Skills England spoke to over 700 stakeholders before Christmas as part of their engagement exercise, and have shared their findings with the department. Its findings from this engagement process will be published in early 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on the introduction of the Digital Waste Tracking Service.

The introduction of a digital waste tracking service will play an important role in supporting our transition to a Circular Economy that protects our natural resources and mitigates the effects of their extraction and disposal.Having listened to feedback from our stakeholders across the waste sector and following a review of our original plans and timelines, we are developing plans to allow us to prepare for implementation, allow for greater levels of engagement and training with those concerned and ensure better system development and testing.

What assessment his Department has made of potential increased maintenance costs for NHS Hospitals whose construction projects have been delayed under(a) wave 2 and (b) wave 3 of the New Hospital Programme review.

The safety of National Health Service staff and patients is of vital importance to the Government. That is why repairing and rebuilding our hospital estate is a key part of our ambition to create an NHS that is fit for the future through our 10-Year Health Plan. The New Hospital Programme review considered the clinical impacts of the quality of the estate as part of the prioritisation exercise involving a multi-criteria decision support analysis tool.Integrated care boards will collectively receive over £4 billion in annual capital allocations in 2025/26. These allocations are managed at a local level, with funds allocated according to local priorities, including estate maintenance works. In addition, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer also committed over £1 billion to make inroads into the backlog of critical maintenance and to tackle dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Further detail on funding will follow at the earliest opportunity, including local capital allocations and national capital programmes for 2025 to 2026, as part of NHS planning guidance. Capital funding levels for future years will be determined through the current Spending Review which concludes in June 2025. Future Spending Reviews will consider needs across the NHS estate, including hospitals whose constructions have been delayed.

What his Department's definition of pre-construction works is in the context of Wave 3 of the New Hospital Programme Review.

Pre-construction works are carried out prior to main construction commencing and include a wide range of activity including business case development, enabling works, site surveys, and design and planning work for the new hospital.

How many death-in-service payments are paid to the families of deceased armed forces personnel each year.

The Ministry of Defence administer three schemes which compensate for those whose death was caused by service. War Pension Scheme (WPS) The WPS is a provision for individuals whose spouse's demise was either caused or expedited due to their service. It is essential to note that the fatal injury or the death itself must have transpired before 6 April 2005. This data includes payments made to widows or widowers of service members who perished not only during service but also post-service, if their death was a direct result of their service. As of 31 March 2024, the WPS accounted for 9,884 widows or widowers receiving payments. For a comprehensive overview of these figures over the past five years, as of 31 March each year, please refer to the WPS Accredited Official Statistic Supplementary Tables (Table 9) via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/war-pensions-scheme-statistics-2024 Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) The AFCS was established to support personnel whose injury or death was a direct consequence of their service on or after 6 April 2005. It's important to clarify that these figures encompass payments made to the families of those who not only died while in service, but also those who passed away post-service due to service-related causes. As of 31 March 2024, the AFCS reported that 322 spouses and 232 children were receiving a Survivor's Guaranteed Income Payment. For a detailed breakdown of these figures from 2006 to 2024, as of 31 March each year, please refer to the AFCS Accredited Official Statistic Supplementary Tables (Table 15) available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/armed-forces-compensation-scheme-statistics-index Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) Under this scheme, since January 2020 until December 2024, 161 Death-in-Service (DIS) payments have been made to the Next-of-Kin/Executors /Solicitors. This is broken down in the table below: Calendar Year20202021202220232024DIS Payments made 3525334424 The total amounts of the DIS lump sum, paid per annum, is made up of individual payments each month to the estates of deceased Service Personnel (Officers and Other Ranks) from the Army, Navy and RAF who died whilst still in Service.

What steps his Department is taking to increase (a) planned and (b) preventative maintenance at NHS hospitals impacted by delays to the New Hospital Programme.

Repairing and rebuilding our hospital estate is a key part of our ambition to create a National Health Service that is fit for the future through our 10-Year Health Plan.Integrated care boards will continue to receive annual capital allocations. These allocations are managed at a local level, with funds allocated according to local priorities, including for estate maintenance works. In addition, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer also announced over £1 billion to make inroads into the backlog of critical maintenance and to tackle dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Further details on funding will follow at the earliest opportunity, including local capital allocations and national capital programmes for 2025 to 2026, as part of NHS planning guidance. Capital funding levels for future years will be determined through the current Spending Review, which concludes in June 2025.

For what reasons Type 23 Frigate HMS Sutherland has not returned to sea.

HMS SUTHERLAND is reaching the end of her life extension refit. Once this is complete, she will undertake a period of force generation and assurance ahead of assuming readiness for routine and contingent tasking.

What steps his department is taking to maintain UK shipbuilding (a) capacity and (b) skills, in the context of Harland & Wolff entering administration.

The Government remains fully committed to delivering a thriving UK shipbuilding sector and recognises the vital role shipbuilding and its skilled workforce plays in the economic prosperity and growth of the UK.Navantia's purchase of Harland and Wolff is a significant investment into the UK's industrial base and demonstrates Navantia UK's continuing commitment to the UK. The Government is confident that this market-led solution is positive for Harland and Wolff and the shipbuilding industry more broadly, and provides the best opportunity to sustain essential sovereign shipbuilding capacity and capability for future Naval work.This Government is committed to working with the whole shipbuilding industry, Navantia UK included, in supporting jobs and sustaining and growing our shipbuilding sector across the UK.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential demand for Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 4+ (a) in (b) beyond 2025.

The Ministry of Defence continually reviews the demand for Combat Aircraft, including through the ongoing Strategic Defence Review. UK Combat Aircraft will be required to operate in increasingly demanding threat environments. The UK Combat Air strategy recognises this changing threat and determines our mix of 4th and 5th generation aircraft mix, in order to provide the UK the most relevant and capable force mix. As part of the four Partner-Nation Eurofighter Programme, the UK is committed to upgrades to ensure the Typhoon aircraft remains competitive into the future, including the introduction of the European Common Radar Standard 2 radar.

Will take steps to ensure the workforce that produced the Eurofighter Typhoon is retained for future defence projects.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) values the world class skills demonstrated by the Eurofighter consortium across partner nations in delivering the Typhoon aircraft. The MOD continues to invest in Typhoon to maintain the Royal Air Force's cutting edge military capability, as well as supporting our industry partners in pursuing export opportunities. The Global Combat Air Programme, which is delivering the next generation combat air capability, is building on the Typhoon skills base. There are already over 3,500 skilled people working on the programme spread right across the UK, within the MOD and our industry partners.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of registration timeframes for new healthcare providers registering with the Care Quality Commission.

The Department is aware of delays experienced by new healthcare providers registering with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and has increased its oversight of the CQC to ensure the backlog of applications that are over 10 weeks old, is reduced. The CQC is prioritising applications that increase the capacity to the health and social care system, and/or that help manage winter pressures in the National Health Service or social care.The CQC is reviewing their IT systems to inform the changes it will need to implement to ensure the registration process is efficient.

Whether the New Hospital Programme Review has been completed; and when he plans to announce the results of the review.

The review is complete, and we will publish the outcome of the review, including a new and realistic delivery schedule for the New Hospital Programme, shortly.

What assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of AI road cameras at reducing road accidents in high risk areas.

The Department for Transport has not made an assessment of the effectiveness of AI road cameras at reducing road crashes in high-risk areas. However, trials of new technology including the use of AI cameras in small scale operational activity has been carried out under the Roads Policing Review. Evidence from these is being considered. National Highways has also worked with police forces to understand the role of technology to detect and enforce mobile phone and seatbelt violations.

Media and Sport, what financial support her Department has given the Rugby Football Union to support the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2025.

To date, DCMS has invested £20.65 million in the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup. This includes £12.13 million of funding towards the tournament's legacy and impact programme, ‘Impact 25’. This is supporting women's and girls' clubs across the country as part of the Rugby Football Union’s ambition to widen female participation in England. This is part of our strategic approach to ensuring we maximise the socio-economic benefits of major sporting events.In addition, the Governments arm’s length body for grassroots sport, Sport England, has awarded the Rugby Football Union £13.8 million for the period 2022-27, as one of their long-term system partners who have responsibility to support grassroots rugby union.

What steps her Department is taking to improve rates of persistent absence among pupils in state-funded (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) special schools.

This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence, which is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the efforts of families and school staff, although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons.Central to the department’s approach to tackling absence are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support, including where a pupil is not attending due to special educational needs.Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why the department set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, who have offered support to 2000 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance.In addition to this work, the department also aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice will be shared with schools and local authorities nationally.From early 2025, new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will support all state schools by facilitating networking, sharing best practice across areas including attendance and empowering schools to feel they can better access support and learn from one another. For schools requiring more intensive support, RISE teams and supporting organisations will work collaboratively with their responsible body to agree bespoke packages of targeted support, based on a school’s particular circumstances.School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs across all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn.The department is working across government on plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, access to mental health support workers and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.

When the Migration Advisory Committee will conduct the next review of the Skilled Worker visa: immigration salary list.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) are currently undertaking a number of reviews. Their current review of shortages in IT and engineering occupations includes scope to consider whether the Immigration Salary List should remain in its current form. We will consider future reviews of the list once this review has been concluded.

Whether her Department has issued guidance to (a) local authorities and (b) bus companies on the pricing of children's fares.

At present, bus services in England outside London are predominantly run on a commercial basis by private operators, and the level at which bus operators set their fares is a commercial decision. The government is committed to delivering better bus services for passengers, including making them more reliable and affordable, because we know how important this is for communities. The Department for Transport has issued to guidance to local transport authorities and bus operators to support the development of local Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs). This makes clear that fares policy should be an integral part of BSIPs, and that they should set out ambitions and proposals for extending youth fares for younger people.