Written questions by Hussain.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of providing funding to the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service to support the expansion of its operations in areas with high levels of vehicle crime.

The National Vehicle Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) is a national policing unit funded by industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers, to provide dedicated specialist intelligence and enforcement. NAVICS undertakes enforcement action at ports which are intelligence-led operations to tackle vehicle crime.Whilst the Government does not fund NaVCIS, we provided £250,000 last year to other law enforcement partners to help support enforcement at the ports to prevent stolen vehicles and vehicle parts being shipped abroad, including additional staff and specialist equipment.This Government is determined to drive down vehicle crime. We are working with the automotive industry and police, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on the issue, to ensure the strongest response possible. The former Policing Minister recently met the previous NPCC vehicle crime lead, ACC Jenny Sims, as well as other law enforcement representatives and representatives from industry, to discuss how we work together to tackle these damaging crimes.Via the recently established National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership and the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group, we are focusing on prevention and deterrence of theft of and from vehicles. This includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.In the Crime and Policing Bill we have banned electronic devices used to steal vehicles, empowering the police and courts to target the criminals using, manufacturing, importing and supplying them.

Whether he plans to publish the business cases developed for Neighbourhood Health Centres and the names of organisations or companies involved in their preparation.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 October 2025 to Question 75637.

Whether the Government plans to use Public Private Partnerships in the development of Neighbourhood Health Centres under the NHS 10-Year Plan.

The Government announced in the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy and in the 10-Year Health Plan that we will explore the feasibility of using new public private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver certain types of primary and community health infrastructure, including Neighbourhood Health Centres.A decision whether to use PPPs in these circumstances will be taken by Autumn Budget 2025, based on co-development of a model and business case between the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and the Department.The Department conducted a successful preliminary market engagement exercise over summer 2025, and this is feeding into the business case, which is still in development. Companies and organisations involved in the preparation of the business case cannot be shared due to this being commercially sensitive.Any new PPP models will be subject to further market-testing and will build on lessons learned from past government experience, models currently in use elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and the March 2025 National Audit Office report, Lessons Learned: private finance for infrastructure. Any new model will include tighter monitoring of financial information during procurement and operational phase of the project.Guidance on publication of business cases, written by HM Treasury is available on GOV.UK. A decision as to whether this business case requires publication once completed will be taken in due course and in line with the published guidance.

What safeguards he plans to introduce to prevent potential financial and operational failures associated with previous Private Finance Initiative schemes in relation to Neighbourhood Health Centres.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 October 2025 to Question 75637.

What recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of (a) staffing and (b) caseloads in the probation service.

This Government inherited a justice system in crisis, but we are gripping the situation and have taken immediate action. Both staffing levels and caseload are regularly monitored and analysed, and we remain committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting the most vital work are a priority.Following recent recruitment campaigns the Probation Service has seen an increase in staffing levels (from 20,412 FTE to 21,022 FTE between March 2024 and March 2025). We are committed to onboarding 1,300 trainee Probation Officers in 2025/26, in addition to the 1,057 onboarded in 2024/25, and have secured £8 million in the Spring Statement to invest in new technology for front line staff.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much of the UK humanitarian aid budget has been spent on projects relating to support for Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, since 2020.

The UK is a leading donor to the Rohingya response. We have provided over £126.7 million to support the Rohingya and host communities since 2020, including food provision, clean water, healthcare and protection services. UK funding is providing support to the refugees in the main refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, delivered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme, the International Organisation for Migration and other agencies that work on refugee issues. We will continue to work closely with UN agencies and the Interim Government of Bangladesh to support the Rohingya and provide basic services.

What steps her Department is taking to support community-based knife crime prevention programmes in Bradford.

Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission. Driving down youth-related violence across the UK, including in Bradford, will play a key role in meeting this ambition.Through the Young Futures Programme, the Government will introduce Prevention Partnerships across the country, including in West Yorkshire, to intervene earlier and ensure that children and young people vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.As we design the Young Futures Programme, we will ensure that it learns from and builds on the work of the Violence Reduction Units (VRUs). VRUs bring together partners, including from the voluntary and community sector, to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area.In 2025/26 the Home Office is investing over £4.3m in grant funding to the West Yorkshire VRU, alongside £169k to continue the implementation of the Serious Violence Duty. This funding will support delivery of a range of early intervention and prevention programmes.

What steps her Department is taking to expand access to community-based rehabilitation services.

The Probation Service will receive up to £700 million more by 2028/29, a 45 percent increase on current spending. It will see tens of thousands more offenders tagged, monitored and rehabilitated. We are currently in the process of re-procuring our commissioned rehabilitative services contracts. Our new contracts will improve on our current offering with expanded and improved consistency of service availability in both custody and community. However, decisions on the future scale of accessibility to these services will be determined by departmental funding allocation decisions following the Spending Review.

What plans his Department has to for hydrogen-related funding in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) West Yorkshire, in the context of his Department's Net Zero Strategy.

The UK Government is committed to supporting the growth of the hydrogen economy through its Hydrogen Allocation Rounds (HARs). In the first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1), announced in December 2023, 11 projects were selected to receive over £2 billion in revenue support for green hydrogen production. Additionally, £90 million in capital grant funding was awarded, with the potential to create up to 760 new jobs. This includes Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen, located in Bradford city centre, which will produce hydrogen for diggers and buses. Published subsidy award details for this project include a Direct Grant of £13 million and £396 million under the Hydrogen Production Business Model. The exact amount of funding will depend on the hydrogen produced at the site over a 15 year period.

Innovation and Technology, what (a) formula and (b) criteria is used by UK Research and Innovation to determine the distribution of Horizon Europe funding; and how much funding has been allocated to (i) institutions and (ii) organisations in (A) Bradford and (B) West Yorkshire since the programme began.

The UK is an Associated Country to Horizon Europe. UK applicants are eligible to apply to Horizon Europe calls both now and in the future. The Government strongly encourages researchers to do so.Horizon Europe funding calls are set by the EU, who then evaluate applications and award funding accordingly. As Horizon Europe is a competitive fund, UK entities bid into the programme directly.As a result of the UK’s association to Horizon Europe, institutions and organisations in Bradford and West Yorkshire have been awarded €10 million and €74 million, respectively, as of 13 June 2025. These figures include funding from the UK Government’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to increase (a) core funding and (b) grant opportunities for universities in the north of England conducting AI and data science research as part of its strategy to support regional growth.

The government has committed to invest more than £86 billion on research and innovation over financial years 26/27-29/30, supporting the UK’s scientific excellence and its full economic potential around the country, including in areas such as AI and data science. This funding will support the UK’s top scientists and innovators in business, universities and R&D organisations. DSIT will share further details of how its £58.5bn settlement over the Spending Review period will be invested once multi-year business planning allocations conclude this Autumn.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to take steps to improve (a) knowledge transfer and (b) applied AI research through regional university-business partnerships.

Government is investing up to £500 million in the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, a new programme to grow high potential innovation clusters across the UK. This will empower local partnerships of government, universities and businesses to decide how to target R&D investment in their region and unleash their full innovation potential. Alongside this, UKRI continues to support knowledge transfer and AI adoption through consortia of universities and local businesses across the UK. Investments such as the AI research hubs, AI centres for doctoral training and flagship BridgeAI programme are already catalysing local partnerships and driving local innovation and prosperity.

Innovation and Technology, what recent steps his Department has taken to strengthen collaboration between (a) higher education institutions and (b) local SMEs in the field of AI research and commercialisation in West Yorkshire.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) plays a crucial role incentivising collaboration and knowledge exchange between universities and other sectors and has supported numerous high-impact collaborations in artificial intelligence. For example, Higher Education Innovation Funding supports engagement with the space industry through the University of Bradford’s Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI.UKRI also supports partnerships between universities and businesses through opportunities like Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and consortia investments such as the AI research hubs, AI centres for doctoral training and the flagship BridgeAI programme, catalysing local partnerships and driving local innovation and prosperity.The AI Action Plan emphasises building a robust AI ecosystem that supports research, skills development, and business engagement, and at Spending Review £2 billion was allocated to implement the Action Plan.

Innovation and Technology, what plans his Department has to support university-led innovation programmes that boost (a) AI capacity and (b) research and development activity activity in partnership with local businesses in (i) West Yorkshire and (ii) other regional economies.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) plays a crucial role incentivising collaboration and knowledge exchange between universities and other sectors and has supported numerous high-impact collaborations in artificial intelligence. For example, Higher Education Innovation Funding supports engagement with the space industry through the University of Bradford’s Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI.UKRI also supports partnerships between universities and businesses through opportunities like Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and consortia investments such as the AI research hubs, AI centres for doctoral training and the flagship BridgeAI programme, catalysing local partnerships and driving local innovation and prosperity.The AI Action Plan emphasises building a robust AI ecosystem that supports research, skills development, and business engagement, and at Spending Review £2 billion was allocated to implement the Action Plan.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) long-term funding for and (b) targeted support on (i) levels of (i) cardiovascular disease and (ii) associated health inequalities.

The Government is committed to tackling the biggest killers, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). To deliver on the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years, we are working closely with NHS England to understand both the scale of the challenge and the opportunities for progress across the prevention, treatment, and management of CVD and associated health inequalities.We are providing targeted support through recent changes to the Quality and Outcomes Framework in 2025/26, where £198 million has been repurposed to target CVD prevention. Knowing that prevention is better than treatment, we have also raised the upper threshold of CVD indicators in order to stimulate performance gains and improve CVD outcomes for patients.Furthermore, the Government continues to invest in the NHS Health Check programme, a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, and in the development of the new NHS Health Check Online service. By providing a more convenient, accessible services, we will free up primary care capacity to target resources towards underserved groups.The Government has committed to develop a 10-Year Health Plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, expected to be published in summer 2025.

What recent assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of trends in the level of take-up of benefits by pensioners; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that eligible older people are (a) aware of and (b) able to access their entitlements.

The Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign. The campaign included adverts on television, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube, on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens as well as in the press. Our drive to increase Pension Credit take up has successfully boosted applications. The latest applications and awards statistics were published on 29 May and are available at: Pension Credit applications and awards: May 2025. The statistics show that the Department received over 285,000 applications since 29 July 2024 and made almost 60,000 extra awards on the comparable period the previous year. The latest phase of the Pension Credit campaign which started on 29 May will run for six weeks with promotion across print, radio and social media. Targeted promotional messaging is also planned for Carers Week (9th – 15th June). Since February, the Department has been writing to all pensioners who make a new claim for Housing Benefit and who appear to be entitled to Pension Credit – directly targeting this group and encouraging them to make a claim. For State Pensions, the Department writes to customers about four months prior to their State Pension age, inviting a claim to State Pension. The letter signposts the customer to claim online – which is the quickest and easiest way to claim. It also includes the telephone number so customers can also claim over the telephone or request a paper claim form. Claims for Attendance Allowance are primarily made by post. Customers can print the claim form or contact the freephone Attendance Allowance helpline to request a claim form. A claim can also be made online at: www.gov.uk/attendance-allowance/how-to-claim. The Department is currently testing this new digital claim process as a part of its wider service modernisation plans with the aim of providing a streamlined alternative in addition to the current paper application form. Information and advice about pensioner benefits and entitlements may be available from a range of outlets including Jobcentre Plus offices, DWP and other helplines, Gov.uk and other internet sites, local authorities, Citizens Advice and welfare benefit offices, Social Services, voluntary organisations, such as, Age UK and MacMillan, public libraries, health clinics, doctors' surgeries and health visitors.

Whether her Department is taking steps to (a) review and (b) simplify the process for pensioners to access the benefits they are entitled to.

DWP is actively reviewing and simplifying the process for pensioners to access the benefits they are entitled to. This includes the ability to apply by various means—digital, paper, or telephony. We are also shifting towards a more integrated approach where our agents can advise and support customers across multiple benefits, rather than being trained in just one pension-related benefit.To enhance accessibility, we provide various support options, including assistance from agents and third-party organisations, home visits for those unable to complete forms, and services for customers who are deaf or unable to speak on the phone. For the most vulnerable individuals, additional support is available through the Visiting Service and Jobcentres, which offer face-to-face assistance and referrals to specialist support when needed.I always welcome suggestions for what more we can do to ensure more pensioners get the Support they are entitled to.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support his Department provides to British nationals entering the al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem.

The Haram Al-Sharif / Temple Mount and Jerusalem hold particular significance for many groups around the globe, especially the three Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. We value Jordan's important role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem. The UK is committed to working with all parties to maintain calm, avoid provocation and uphold the status quo to ensure the safety and the security of the Al Haram Al Sharif / Temple Mount and all who worship there. British nationals should inform themselves of the risks in a country by following Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Travel Advice.

What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the proportion of Personal Independence Payment decisions that are overturned on appeal; and what recent assessment she has made of the accuracy of initial Personal Independence Payment assessments.

It is our aim to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey. To support this, we have made improvements to our decision-making processes to help ensure people get the support they are entitled to without needing to appeal. This includes giving Decision Makers additional time to proactively contact customers if they think additional evidence may support the claim. We recognise that the overturn rate at appeal is high. This is why we are continuing to learn from appeal outcomes. We regularly gather feedback on appeals from Presenting Officers who attend tribunals. We are committed to ensuring individuals receive a high standard and accurate assessment. We want every report to reflect a high-quality functional assessment that the department can use to make their benefit entitlement decisions. This is a priority for the department, and we work extensively with assessment suppliers to make improvements to guidance, training, and audit procedures to ensure a quality service.Suppliers are monitored against a range of measures to improve the accuracy of the advice they provide. A high standard is maintained through an independent audit function that continually monitors performance and provides feedback to its suppliers.Independent audit refers to a comprehensive check of the elements of the assessment, including the evidence collection, further evidence provided, and the assessment report completed by the health professional. The check is completed against a set of guidelines to ensure a consistent approach is taken. This ensures that assessment reports are fit for purpose, clinically justified and sound, and provide sufficient information for the department to make an informed decision on entitlement to benefit. We outlined our commitment to improving the PIP assessment in the recently launched Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper. We will take action to get the basics right and improve the experience for people who use the system of health and disability benefits. This includes recording health assessments as standard to build greater trust in the system. The aim is to create greater transparency, using recordings as a learning opportunity to consider potential improvements to the quality of the assessment process.

What recent estimate she has made of the number of eligible pensioners not claiming Pension Credit; and what steps her Department is taking to increase take-up, in the context of Winter Fuel Payment eligibility.

The most recent estimate of Pension Credit take-up covers the financial year 2022/23 and is available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2023 - GOV.UKThe Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are rightly entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign, which included adverts on Television, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube, on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens as well as in the press. Around 11 million pensioners will have also recently received a leaflet promoting Pension Credit along with their State Pension uprating letter.The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February and are available at: Pension Credit applications and awards: February 2025 - GOV.UK The statistics show that the Department received 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement – an 81% increase on the comparable period in 2023/24 and made 117,800 new Pension Credit awards – a 64% increase or 45,800 extra awards on the comparable period in 2023/24.We are now writing to all pensioners who make a new claim for Housing Benefit and who appear to be entitled to Pension Credit – directly targeting this group and encouraging them to make a claim. In the longer term, we will be bringing together the administration of Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, so that pensioners receive both Housing Benefit and any Pension Credit that they are entitled to.