Written questions by Naish.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of Social Work England.

The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).

Whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the value for money of the services provided by Social Work England.

The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).

What steps he will take through the benefit system to incentivise young people to work additional hours.

Extended periods of unemployment at a young age can have long-lasting consequences, including limiting of future employment prospects and reduced lifetime earnings. Early intervention is therefore critical. That is why our plan to Get Britain Working includes a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. Eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers were launched earlier this year, and the insights gained will inform the future design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee. Universal Credit is designed to top-up earnings from employment and to make work pay, so a household’s Universal Credit is withdrawn at a steady rate as their net earnings increase. Some customers will also benefit from a work allowance which is the amount someone can earn before their Universal Credit award starts to reduce.

What assessment she has made of the value for money provided by Social Work England.

The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing the housing benefit earnings disregard and (b) aligning the taper rate with Universal Credit.

We acknowledge there is a challenge arising from the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, particularly for working age customers living in supported and temporary accommodation. This issue is a complex one, and eradicating the financial cliff edge some individuals face as they incrementally increase their earnings could not be achieved by simply aligning the taper rates within the two benefits. We are considering options to improve work incentives for residents of supported housing and temporary accommodation, while taking into account the views of stakeholders. As funding is required to allow a change, any future decisions will take account of the current fiscal context. It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.

What steps he is taking to make work pay for young people in supported accommodation.

We acknowledge there is a challenge arising from the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, particularly for working age customers living in supported and temporary accommodation. This issue is a complex one, and eradicating the financial cliff edge some individuals face as they incrementally increase their earnings could not be achieved by simply aligning the taper rates within the two benefits. We are considering options to improve work incentives for residents of supported housing and temporary accommodation, while taking into account the views of stakeholders. As funding is required to allow a change, any future decisions will take account of the current fiscal context. It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.

How many people are employed by Social Work England.

The department is the sponsor department for Social Work England, and as such we monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. In addition, Social Work England is regulated by the Professional Standards Authority and is meeting 17 out of the 18 standards of good regulation. The government has a statutory obligation to appoint an independent person to review the operation of Part 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, which includes powers related to Social Work England. The review will collect evidence of Social Work England’s overall effectiveness as a regulator. Further details will be announced in due course, and on completion the report will be laid before Parliament. On 31 July 2025, Social Work England employed 278 staff (full-time equivalent 263).

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including a target of at least 80 hours of enrichment activities in the enrichment framework.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Rushcliffe to the answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62871.

How many applications (a) by adults and (b) on behalf of children for Disability Living Allowance benefits are outstanding; and what is the average waiting time for these applications to be resolved.

New claims for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) are only open to children under the age of 16. As of August 2025, there are 39,150 new claims for child DLA that are outstanding, with an average actual outstanding time of 33 days. Points to note:- Figures above capture the number of outstanding claims that have been registered onto our systems. We do not have figures on the number of outstanding claims that are waiting to be registered.- Figure related to average actual outstanding time are median averages.- Figures are for new child DLA claims under normal rules only.

What steps her department is taking to reduce the Child Disability Living Allowance claim time.

We have seen unprecedented demand in new claims to the DLA Child service line. Additional resources have been deployed, and cases are cleared in date or to ensure fair customer service. As a result, we are seeing improvements in our processing times.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the future of agri-environmental farming schemes.

In the recent spending review, we committed to carrying on the transition towards paying to deliver public goods for the environment, with over £7 billion directed into nature’s recovery between 2026 and 2029. This includes environmental farming schemes (£5.9 billion), tree planting (£816 million) and peatland restoration (£85 million). There are currently record numbers of farmers taking part in farming schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. As of April 2025, these schemes supported 885,000 hectares of arable land being farmed without insecticides; 330,000 hectares of low input grassland being managed sustainably; and 85,000 kilometres of hedgerows being protected and restored.

Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to continue the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that will better target SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Further information about the reformed SFI will be provided shortly.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department holds information on the number of rogue builders prosecuted in England in each of the past three financial years.

My Department does not hold the data requested. Local Authorities are responsible for determining resourcing priorities in accordance with the needs of their local electorates, and the members of those electorates will differ according to the areas where they live. I otherwise refer the hon Member to UIN 18841 answered on 17 December 2024 and UIN 23175 answered on 16 January 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) local authorities and (b) Trading Standards take action against rogue builders; and what steps her Department is taking to improve the (i) frequency and (ii) success of Trading Standards actions against rogue builders.

My Department does not hold the data requested. Local Authorities are responsible for determining resourcing priorities in accordance with the needs of their local electorates, and the members of those electorates will differ according to the areas where they live. I otherwise refer the hon Member to UIN 18841 answered on 17 December 2024 and UIN 23175 answered on 16 January 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to introduce nature-friendly farming schemes.

We have allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. All our Environmental Land Management schemes (Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, and Landscape Recovery) will continue, and we will continue to evolve and improve them in an orderly way to make them work for farmers and nature. We are working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding. Further information about the reformed SFI will be provided shortly. The new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) service will open this month for applications to those who have been invited to apply, have received pre-application advice and have completed any preparatory work. Landscape Recovery projects that were awarded development funding in rounds one and two are continuing to progress towards the delivery phase, and the first two projects have now completed the necessary checks, signed their agreements, and are ready to start work on the ground.

When NICE last reviewed its guidance on the (a) availability and (b) prescribing of T3 for the treatment of thyroid cancer; and whether he has plans to improve access to T3 for patients where it is clinically indicated.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not made any recommendations on the use of liothyronine in the treatment of thyroid cancer. NICE published a guideline on the assessment and management of thyroid cancer in December 2022. There are currently no plans to review the guideline.NHS England produced advice for prescribers on the use of liothyronine, otherwise known as T3, in August 2023 that sets out details on those patients that may benefit from T3 and how prescribers can prescribe this medicine to those patients. It recommends liothyronine as part of the management of thyroid cancer in preparation for radioiodine remnant ablation and radioiodine therapy. The advice is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/liothyronine-advice-for-prescribers/We are aware that liothyronine 20 microgram vials will be out of stock from October 2025 until the end of April 2026. NHS England will be issuing national communications containing advice during the period of disruption to supply of the licensed product, outlining the availability of unlicensed imports and other clinical alternatives. NHS England is not aware of any supply issues affecting oral presentations of liothyronine.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure schools have sufficient funding to retain experienced teachers alongside recruiting new staff.

This government recognises the importance of retaining experienced teachers. We have demonstrated our commitment to supporting schools by increasing school funding by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.In the 2025 spending review, the department has announced that funding for schools will further increase by £4.2 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase in the core schools budget.The increase for 2025/26 includes additional funding to support schools with overall costs, including the costs of the 4% schools teacher pay award and the local government services pay award in respect of support staff in 2025/26.​This follows government agreeing a 5.5% pay award for academic year 2024/25. Taken together, this means teachers and leaders will see an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is also offering retention payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.

What discussions his Department has had with (a) the Department of Business and Trade and (b) the Cabinet office on ensuring its supply chains do not involve forced labour.

Modern slavery is a serious human rights violation depriving individuals of their freedom and dignity while inflicting immeasurable harm on families, communities, and society as-a-whole. DESNZ is committed to tackling all forms of modern slavery, holding perpetrators to account, and ensuring that victims are supported to recover and rebuild their lives. The Government will continue to assess and monitor the effectiveness of new policy tools that are emerging to ensure we can effectively tackle forced labour in supply chains. Government’s Responsible Business Conduct Review will be a primary lever for delivering this as a cross-departmental endeavour to review and address UK’s policy regime and voluntary due diligence requirements for forced labour. Additionally, the Industrial Strategy Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan committed to embedding ethical supply chain standards into DESNZ public spend; and Great British Energy confirmed it will follow strict ethical standards to help ensure solar supply chains are free from exploitation.

Whether her Department plans to introduce targeted retention incentives for experienced teachers in addition to those offered to early-career teachers.

Supporting our expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcomes is high-quality teaching. Combined with the previous year’s 5.5% award, this year’s above-inflation pay award will mean schoolteachers have seen an increase in their pay of almost 10% over two years.The financial incentives the department offers are targeted where there is most need to recruit and retain teachers. School workforce data shows that teachers are most likely to leave within the first five years of their career. Targeted Retention Incentives are currently offered to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools as it is vital that we retain new teachers in these priority subjects and in the schools that need them most.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including hazard perception tests for drivers who have been diagnosed with glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a condition that can affect visual fields. Driving licence holders or applicants who have glaucoma in both eyes must notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and will be required to have an eyesight test to make sure that they meet the legally required visual field standards for driving. The requirements for visual field can only be assessed through formal visual field testing. The Secretary of State for Transport’s Honorary Medical Advisory Panel for Visual Disorders and Driving advises that the appropriate visual field assessment for determining fitness to drive is a binocular Esterman field test or, exceptionally, a Goldmann perimetry assessment. Both of these tests must be carried out to strict criteria and are conducted to the exact specifications required to enable the DVLA to assess whether the visual field requirements for driving can be met. There are no plans to use hazard perception tests for this purpose.