Written questions by White.

What information her Department holds on Serco’s compliance with Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts requirements for each of the last five years.

The Home Office holds detailed information on the compliance of its contractors with the requirements set out in Schedule 2 of the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC). The Home Office monitors Serco’s performance through a robust performance management framework. Performance data is published periodically and includes performance against key contractual obligations and key performance indicators.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing temporary blue badges to people recovering from operations.

The Blue Badge scheme is primarily about helping people with a long-term disability, that affects their capacity to access the goods and services they need to use. Anyone may be entitled to a badge if they meet the eligibility criteria. The Department has issued local authorities with advice on how they could use existing powers to provide locally determined parking concessions within their areas. For example, some local authorities grant parking concessions to assist their elderly residents. The same powers could be used to help those with temporary disabilities.

With reference to paragraph 3.71 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, what support will be provided for fusion energy research in financial year 2025-26.

On 16th January 2025, the Government announced £410 million investment to accelerate development of fusion energy and kickstart economic growth as part of its Plan for Change. The funding will support the rapid development of the UK fusion energy sector over 2025 to 2026 with investment in the skills needed for scientists, engineers, welders and programme managers to enter the cutting-edge industry. Fusion already supports thousands of jobs in the UK, with thousands more to follow as the technology advances.

What progress she has made on introducing tooth brushing lessons in primary schools.

The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to help promote and deliver supervised toothbrushing programmes for 3 to 5-year-olds in the most deprived communities.The department recognises that prevention is better than cure. For this reason, we will be targeting the areas of highest need to have the greatest impact on young children’s oral health.Further information on the implementation timetable will be confirmed in due course.Currently all state-funded schools in England are required to teach about good oral hygiene as part of the statutory health education set out within relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

What steps the Government is taking to help tackle misogyny on social media platforms.

The Online Safety Act requires services to protect all users from illegal misogynistic content, and children from harmful misogynistic content including content which is violent, hateful or abusive.The largest services (category 1) will also need to remov...

How many employers who (a) pay and (b) do not pay the apprenticeship levy started new learners on apprenticeship programmes in the 2023-24 financial year.

The below table shows the number of apprenticeship service employers accounts with apprenticeship starts in the 2023/24 academic year.Employer Type2023/24Levy13,157Non-levy57,017Total70,174 The figures are for the number of employer accounts instead of em...

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage the public to buy British produce.

This Government will always back British farmers who produce some of the highest quality food in the world, contribute billions to our economy, and are the custodians of our countryside. We want more people to be able to access nutritious, and locally sou...

Communities and Local Government, what guidance her Department provides on the potential sanctions available to local authorities in instances when councillors are found to have breached an authority's code of co

The Government considers that the current local government standards regime is broadly ineffectual, inconsistently applied, and lacking in adequate powers to effectively sanction members found in serious breach of their codes of conduct.We are actively co...

How many people are in receipt of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme in each constituency.

Every constituency in the country has at least one person in receipt of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme. The number of scheme members in each constituency is listed in the table below. This information is from the scheme trustees and correct as at 30 Octob...

Which integrated care boards have reimbursed dental practices for up to 110% of General Dental Services contracts.

In the 2023/24 financial year, 37 integrated care boards (ICBs) reimbursed at least one dental practice for over 100%, and up to 110%, of their General Dental Services contract value. These ICBs are as follows:Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB;South Yorksh...

What the total underspends for the non-devolved adult education budget were in England in each year since 2018-19.

The budget and the actual spending of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) element of the Adult Education Budget from 2018/19 to 2023/24 financial year is set out in the table below. Funding to providers is allocated on an academic year and unde...

What steps her Department is taking to ensure all schools teach financial literacy.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Basstettlaw to the answer of 14 October 2024 to question 7255.

Whether her Department plans to review payments of benefits to people serving full life terms in secure psychiatric units.

Where a court has decided that someone has committed a criminal offence but that they should say be sent to hospital rather than receiving a custodial sentence in prison, the length of their stay is determined by their recovery and the extent to which the...

How many and what proportion of foreign nationals who receive a custodial prison sentence are deported on completion of their sentence.

The Home Office regularly publishes statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics...

How many of the prisoners released under the early release scheme (a) are foreign nationals and (b) will be deported.

We are unable to provide the requested prisoner release figures at this time, as they form a subset of prisoner releases data scheduled for future publication. Numbers of custodial releases for the period covering July 2024 to September 2024 will be publi...

If she will raise apprenticeship levy funding.

The Apprenticeship Levy (AL) is currently paid by large employers, charged at a rate of 0.5% on an employer’s annual pay bill of over £3 million. The annual apprenticeship budget is then set by HMT, which funds training and assessment costs for apprentice...

What steps her Department is taking to identify children who are educated outside school.

The department is committed to giving every child the best start in life, regardless of where and how they are educated. We cannot ignore the rising numbers of home-educated children and official data which shows that growing numbers of children have been...

What her planned timetable is for issuing contracts to the providers who have been selected to deliver the pilot teacher degree apprenticeships.

In early 2024, the department invited applications from initial teacher training (ITT) providers and degree-awarding institutions to participate in the Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (TDA) funding pilot in secondary mathematics. The department assessed all bids and selected eight providers to offer the pilot in March 2024. As part of the pilot, providers received a course development grant. The grant offer letters were agreed between April and July 2024. Schools that employ trainees on their mathematics TDA courses as part of the funding pilot will receive additional grant funding to support with trainee salary costs. These grants have not yet been paid and will be distributed once candidates have been recruited to courses. The department continues to work closely with pilot providers to monitor and support course development, candidate recruitment and delivery. The pilot will allow the department to gauge the impact of salary grant funding on recruitment to the TDA. TDA courses are expected to be published from autumn 2024, with the first cohort of training commencing in autumn 2025.