Written questions by Davies.

Food and Rural Affairs, what enforcement mechanisms his Department plans to introduce for the ban on trail hunting.

This is a devolved matter with regard to Scotland and Northern Ireland; hunting with dogs is a reserved matter with respect to Wales and therefore, the information provided relates to England and Wales only. The Government made a manifesto commitment to ban Trail Hunting as part of a set of measures to improve animal welfare. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing. Details on the implementation and enforcement of the policy are part of this policy development. Announcements will be made in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of food procured by the public sector in Derbyshire is from British farmers.

As part of the Government’s New Deal for Farmers, it was announced that, where possible, we will back British produce, including that grown in Derbyshire. Over the next year, for the first time ever, the Government will review food currently bought in the public sector and where it is bought from. This work will start right away and be a significant first step in understanding how to capitalise on the Government’s purchasing power: informing any changes to public sector food procurement policies in due course.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of pupils(a) behaviour and (b) violence on the number of disrupted learning hours to other pupils.

The National Behaviour Survey (NBS), delivered through the department’s omnibus panel surveys, is the department’s vehicle to gather evidence on pupil behaviour and to understand how it potentially impacts on learning.The behaviour survey questions allow the department to build up a national picture over time and act as a signpost to what schools need. In May 2024, teachers reported that for every 30 minutes of lesson time, 7 minutes were lost due to misbehaviour.The department will continue to use data from the NBS to inform future strategy and policy improvements on behaviour.

What his Department's policy is on supporting NHS trusts to meet their annual sickness absence targets.

Data published by NHS England shows that during the month of October 2024, there were 317,167 full time equivalent days lost due to musculoskeletal health issues for National Health Service staff. These account for 13% of all sickness absences over the month. The published data does not allow for the identification of the specific number of staff absent from work due to musculoskeletal health issues. On 1 March 2025, the Government and Nuffield Health announced access for 4,000 NHS staff to Nuffield Health’s Joint Pain Programme. The programme is aimed at those staff who are off work due to chronic joint pain or who are struggling with pain whilst at work. Sickness absence is managed at an organisational level across the NHS. NHS organisations have policies and procedures to manage attendance and reduce sickness absence. Employers should develop local policies and procedures in line with Annex 26 of the NHS staff terms and conditions of service (Agenda for Change) handbook and should access NHS England’s Employer’s Sickness Absence Toolkit. In 2023, NHS England published a strategy for the NHS and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for NHS staff over the next five years. NHS England is currently leading a comprehensive review, the Staff Treatment Access Review, of how to deliver a more equitable and consistent offer to staff that supports their wellbeing.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support rural (a) museum and (b) arts and music venues in (i) Mid Derbyshire constituency and (ii) the East Midlands.

The Secretary of State announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund on 20 February. This will include support to museums, arts and music venues across the country and is a critical step that this Government is taking to help create jobs, boost local economies, and expand access to arts and culture for communities.This is in addition to steps already being taken to support arts and culture via the Arts Council England (ACE). In the East Midlands, ACE is providing regular National Portfolio funding to 72 organisations from 2023-2027. This includes more than £8.7 million to nine museum services including Derby Museums and Creswell Crags. £4.8 million has been awarded to eight music organisations including Derby based Baby People and Sinfonia Viva (the orchestra of the East Midlands).Across the East Midlands, since 2021, ACE has also awarded £37.5 million to music organisations and projects via the Grassroots Music Fund, and £7.5 million to regional museum projects via the Museum Estate and Development Fund.In the Mid Derbyshire constituency, ACE has supported eight individual artists since 2021 through its Developing your Creative Practice grants, providing a total of £73,111 of funding across visual arts and music. ACE has also made six awards across combined arts, literature, theatre and museums in the constituency through National Lottery Grants, totalling more than £272,000.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure successful partnerships between civic museums and industry to address the skills gap.

This Government is committed to making sure that cultural venues up and down this country are supported to reach their full potential.That is why the Secretary of State announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund on the 20th February, to support museums, arts venues, libraries, and heritage sites nationwide. This major investment will create jobs, boost local economies, and expand access to arts and culture for communities.As part of this package, £45 million will be going to local and civic museums through the Museum Renewal Fund and Museum Estate and Development Fund to help tackle urgent infrastructure issues, preserve community programmes and protect these treasured institutions for generations to come. This is a major step being taken by this Government to support regional museums.The large, diverse collections held by civic museums serve as a rich source of creativity and inspiration, fuelling our Creative Industries ecology and inspiring the creatives of tomorrow. Museum and industry partnerships can be hugely beneficial. To give a local example, Derby’s Museum of Making has a well-established partnership with Rolls Royce, supporting its ‘Institute of Steam’ learning programme, aiming to equip young people with crucial design, technology and engineering skills.

How many NHS staff are absent from work due to musculoskeletal health issues; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of fast-tracking treatment for such staff.

Data published by NHS England shows that during the month of October 2024, there were 317,167 full time equivalent days lost due to musculoskeletal health issues for National Health Service staff. These account for 13% of all sickness absences over the month. The published data does not allow for the identification of the specific number of staff absent from work due to musculoskeletal health issues. On 1 March 2025, the Government and Nuffield Health announced access for 4,000 NHS staff to Nuffield Health’s Joint Pain Programme. The programme is aimed at those staff who are off work due to chronic joint pain or who are struggling with pain whilst at work. Sickness absence is managed at an organisational level across the NHS. NHS organisations have policies and procedures to manage attendance and reduce sickness absence. Employers should develop local policies and procedures in line with Annex 26 of the NHS staff terms and conditions of service (Agenda for Change) handbook and should access NHS England’s Employer’s Sickness Absence Toolkit. In 2023, NHS England published a strategy for the NHS and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for NHS staff over the next five years. NHS England is currently leading a comprehensive review, the Staff Treatment Access Review, of how to deliver a more equitable and consistent offer to staff that supports their wellbeing.

Whether he has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the impact of patent lengths on research into treatments for glioblastoma.

Intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom are not condition specific. The Government considers the UK’s current patent system to strike the right balance between incentivising research and innovation and supporting access to medicines for the National Health Service.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of communication systems between GP surgeries and pharmacies.

The Government recognises the importance of effective communication between general practice (GP) surgeries and pharmacies, to ensure safe and coordinated patient care. Over recent years, several digital initiatives have been introduced to reduce the reliance on fax and paper, and to enhance this communication, including NHSmail, the Electronic Prescription Service, and the Summary Care Record. These systems allow pharmacists to access patient information and support prescription processing.GP Connect is a national service introduced in 2018, and further strengthened in the 2025/26 GP Contract, that allows authorised health and social care workers in a variety of care settings to access their patients' GP records. The aim of GP Connect is to support better, more joined-up clinical care by opening up information and data held within GP IT systems, so that registered community pharmacists can view and update records. This initiative supports the Pharmacy First service, which empowers pharmacists to offer a full consultation and provide treatment for seven common health conditions.The Community Pharmacy Information Standard informed the plan to recover access to primary care published in May 2023. This set out a range of actions to improve communication between GP surgeries and community pharmacies, harnessing digital technology to streamline referrals, increase access to clinical information to support patient care and update the patient record in an efficient and timely way. The Government remains committed to strengthening primary care integration and to fixing the front door of the National Health Service.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the museum sector contributes to her Department's tourism-related objectives.

The Government has set out its ambition for the United Kingdom to welcome 50 million international visitors per year by 2030, as part of its plans for the country to remain one of the most visited worldwide, driving economic growth. The new Visitor Economy Advisory Council has been appointed to identify ways to drive economic growth and remove barriers to opportunities in DCMS sectors.Many tourists cite our vibrant culture and heritage offer as one of their main motivators for visiting the UK. We are providing additional support to our national museums and galleries with a 5% uplift to their budgets, along with £120m for critical estates maintenance in 2025/26, to help our most visited sites across the country to continue to be open to the world.Our historical and creative heritage are crucial in driving tourism to all parts of the country; alongside continued Arts Council England and Local Authority investment, we are also supporting our regional museums via the new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, and a new £25m round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund.

What steps her Department has taken to tackle the shortfall in armed forces recruitment over the last five years; and whether these measures have been tailored to each branch of the military.

The new Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and has made it a priority to address this with a series of work streams designed to improve Armed Forces recruitment, modernising and refining our policies and processes to attract the best possible talent. Our actions are designed to deliver the widest positive impact across our Armed Forces, but we also pursue activities aimed at the specific requirements of the single Services to maximise effect. To provide the widest benefit across the Armed Forces, we have delivered a 35 per cent pay increase for new recruits; one of the largest pay increases in the last 20 years for existing personnel; scrapped over 100 outdated medical policies; introduced a new military direct-entry cyber pathway which is now recruiting; and set an ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days. Furthermore, we have announced the award of the contract for the new tri-service Armed Forces Recruiting Service (AFRS) which will join the recruitment activity of the Services together. AFRS will provide a streamlined, single-entry point for prospective recruits, recruiting from the broadest spectrum of society to attract the best talent from across the country.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of a landscape and visual impact scheme in relation to energy infrastructure projects in rural areas.

The impacts, including visual, of energy infrastructure projects on the landscape are important considerations in decision-making, and the National Policy Statements (NPS) for energy set stringent requirements and standards on developers. Proposals for projects that are subject to the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 must be accompanied by an Environmental Statement describing the aspects of the environment, including landscape and visual impacts, likely to be significantly affected. The NPSs also set the criteria for good design for energy infrastructure, including consideration of visual appearance and how it relates to the landscape it sits within.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of using development hydropower on the sites of established historic watermills.

Officials continue to engage with the British Hydropower Association regarding the future role the UK’s remaining small-scale hydropower resource, including sites of historic watermills, can play in the UK energy system.

How many prescription prepayment certificates have been issued in (a) England and (b) Mid Derbyshire in the last five years.

Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPCs) are issued by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) on behalf of the Department. The following table shows the number of three and 12 month PPCs issued in England over the last five years, as well as the current financial year up to 27 February 2025:Financial yearCertificate typeCertificate count2019/2020PPC2,521,1022020/2021PPC2,505,2972021/2022PPC2,685,1022022/2023PPC2,900,8592023/2024PPC3,000,3872024/2025PPC2,872,956TotalPPC16,485,703 It has not been possible to collate data for the Mid Derbyshire area alone, as this would require the NHSBSA to hold postcodes for all addresses in this area, which it does not have. However, the following table shows the number of PPCs issued in the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) over the last five years, as well as the current financial year up to 27 February 2025:Financial yearCertificate typeCertificate count2019/2020PPC54,6502020/2021PPC54,0132021/2022PPC57,5152022/2023PPC62,0342023/2024PPC64,2292024/2025PPC61,550TotalPPC353,991 In addition, the following two tables show the number of hormone replacement therapy PPCs issued since its launch, in England and the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB, respectively, for the financial year 2023/24 and the current financial year up to 27 February 2025:Financial yearCertificate count2023/2024565,7542024/2025498,767Total1,064,521 Financial yearCertificate count2023/202412,4142024/202510,668Total23,082

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve the UK's biosecurity resilience against (a) invasive species, (b) plant diseases, (c) animal diseases and (d) other emerging threats; and what steps he is taking to help mitigate the potential impact of climate change on agricultural ecological systems.

Our biosecurity is paramount – it underpins safe food; protects human, animal and plant health; and supports a prospering economy and trade. We have in place robust measures to maintain and improve our ability to understand, detect, prevent, respond and recover from outbreaks, both those that affect animals and those that affect plants. The government has announced it will set up a new National Biosecurity Centre, which will strengthen the UK's defences against animal diseases that threaten farming, food security, trade and public health. As the Chancellor announced in the Autumn 2024 budget, there is £208 million in funding over 2024-2026 to transform the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) animal health facility at Weybridge. Defra is playing its part in responding to the recommendations of Module 1 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. We have been reviewing our plans and processes within the department which will be tested through the upcoming national pandemic response exercise.

Pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2024 to Question 7546 on Children: Hygiene, what discussions she has had with (a) school leaders and (b) local authorities on the impact of uniform hygiene on children; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of publishing practical guidance for schools on this matter.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.A new Ministerial Taskforce, led by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has begun work on a child poverty strategy.This taskforce will harness all available levers to drive forward short-term and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty, with a child poverty strategy published later this spring. Additional information regarding this strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy-html.It is important that all children can attend school in a clean, affordable uniform. School leaders are well placed to manage uniform standards, including hygiene.

What funding his Department has provided to (a) support and (b) promote opportunities for domestic hydropower.

The Smart Export Guarantee came into force on 1 January 2020 and requires major electricity suppliers to offer a tariff to buy electricity exported by small low-carbon generators, including small hydro.

What steps she is taking as part of the Curriculum and Assessment Review to consider the use of audiobooks in schools.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will support the innovation and professionalism of teachers, enabling them to adapt how they teach the curriculum to their students’ lives.The Review Group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work, and publish its final report with recommendations this autumn.The department respects the autonomy of teachers in terms of what resources they choose to use or recommend to their individual pupils, based on individual need in their own educational context and circumstances.

What steps she is taking to help improve (a) literacy and (b) access to books in schools.

High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.In recognition of this, the department has implemented a range of measures to support reading for pleasure. The English Hubs programme supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure, with a further £23 million committed for the 2024/25 academic year to support this work. Furthermore, the government’s reading framework provides guidance on improving the teaching of reading, to ensure that every child is not only able to read proficiently but also develops a genuine love of reading.On 5 February, the government announced a £2 million investment to drive high and rising standards in reading and writing. Building on the success of phonics, teachers will receive additional training to help children progress from the early stages of phonics in reception and year 1 through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school. This will be delivered through the English Hubs programme. In secondary school, teachers will be offered new training and resources this year to help them support readers at all levels, and next year the department will commission further training that will be focused specifically on struggling readers in secondary school who are at risk of falling behind. The department will also publish a writing framework in the summer, which will be a first step to support schools in delivering high quality writing provision across England.The government has also established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, in line with the government’s ambition for a curriculum that delivers excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics.Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that the department allocates. This school funding can be used to fund books, librarians, school libraries and book corners. In Autumn Budget 2024 an additional £2.3 billion was announced for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26. Public libraries complement school libraries in giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of prostate cancer screenings.

Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). This is because of the inaccuracy of the current best test, called the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). A PSA-based screening programme could harm ...