Written questions by Babarinde.

What steps he is taking to support Eastbourne residents with energy costs.

We recognise that we need to support households struggling with bills while we transition to clean power. That is why we are expanding the Warm Home Discount (WHD) to around an additional 2.7 million households, resulting in up to 6 million households receiving the £150 support to help with their energy bill costs. In Eastbourne, in 2024-25, 11.9% of households benefited from WHD – that works out as 5,896 households. In the South East region, the expansion of the Warm Home Discount is projected to add an approximate additional 350,000 households, an increase of 111%.

What steps she is taking to help increase the availability of driving tests in Eastbourne.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times. The agency is intensifying its efforts to reduce waiting times and improve access to driving tests that will break down barriers to opportunity as part of the government’s Plan for Change. On the 12 November, the Secretary of State for Transport, updated the Transport Select Committee on the government’s ongoing response to high driving test waiting times.In the coming months, DVSA will:Change the booking service to allow only learner car drivers to book and manage their testsIntroduce a limit on the number of times a learner car driver can move or swap a test to twice and also limit the area they can move a test to once booked.Make use of Ministry of Defence (MOD) driving examiners for up to 12 months to help tackle driving test waiting times. DVSA is also continuing with recruitment campaigns across the country to provide as many tests as possible. Since July last year, DVSA has recruited and trained 344 driving examiners (DE) who are now in post and delivering driving tests. A full-time DE can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.Eastbourne driving test centre is part of a cluster of centres, including Hastings. A new entrant driving examiner has recently successfully passed their training course and has been testing since September. DVSA is in the final stages of a further recruitment campaign where both test centres will be advertised.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing bus pass use on weekdays before 9:30 am.

The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age. Local authorities in England have the power to use local resources to fund further concessions in addition to their statutory obligations, for example, extending the times travel passes can be used.The Government has confirmed over £1 billion for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country.  East Sussex County Council has been allocated £10.4 million of this funding. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services for passengers can be used in whichever way they wish, including enhancing the concessionary travel offering in the local area.

Communities and Local Government, what steps the government is taking to abolish leasehold tenures for (a) flats and (b) other properties.

The government intends to consult this year on the best approach to banning new leasehold flats, ensuring this works effectively alongside the robust ban on leasehold houses provided for by the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what steps the government is taking to cap service and estate management charges paid by residents.

The government has no plans to cap service charges or estate management charges given this would prevent necessary funds being raised for legitimate purposes.

What plans the department has to improve retention of level 3 staff within the NHS.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the National Health Service the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals.To support this ambition, the Government plans to introduce a new set of standards for modern employment by April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff including promoting flexible working, improving staff health and wellbeing, and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace.NHS England is already leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.Regarding pay, the Government remitted the Pay Review Bodies on 22 July and published its written evidence on 30 October, with the target of getting uplifts into the pockets of health workers early next year.Earlier this year, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care was also able to accept the vast majority of recommendations that were produced from the non-pay work from the 2023 Agenda for Change deal. This covers work on a variety of issues including job evaluation and tackling violence and aggression against staff. NHS organisations are now in the process of implementing these recommendations.

What plans there are to widen pay bands for Level 3 Staff in the NHS.

Any changes to the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay structure, including for Band 3 staff, will be for the NHS Staff Council to ratify or agree to as part of any future discussions. The NHS Staff Council is a partnership body made up of trade unions and employers and has overall responsibility for the AfC pay system and the terms and conditions of service.The Government accepted the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendations for 2025/26 in full, which included a recommendation to provide the NHS Staff Council with a funded mandate to make improvements to the AfC pay structure.The Department intends to deliver this mandate as soon as possible, to make the changes in time for 2026/27. Once the mandate is confirmed, the Department will work closely with the NHS Staff Council to agree the changes to the pay structure. This may or may not include changes to Band 3 pay, depending on NHS Staff Council views.

What funding his Department will provide to support the delivery of (a) art therapy, (b) animal therapy, (c) talking therapies, (d) group therapies and (e) other community-based preventative mental health support provision for residents in the Eastbourne area.

The NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board is responsible for funding decisions relating to the provision of mental health care for people in the Eastbourne area. Nationally, funding to expand evidence-based NHS Talking Therapies services has been prioritised, with the number of people completing a course of treatment expected to increase by 384,000 by 2028/29.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities in dealing with abandoned vehicles.

Councils have a duty to remove abandoned vehicles from land in the open air and roads (including private roads). Guidance to help councils comply with this duty is available here: Abandoned vehicles: local authority responsibilities - GOV.UK Councils can take enforcement action against people who abandon vehicles by issuing a fixed penalty notice or prosecuting them.

What steps her Department is taking to improve recruitment and retention of SEND teachers.

High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving outcomes for all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), which is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this parliament. We are making good progress. The workforce has grown in secondary and special schools. There were 1,435 more secondary school teachers and 911 more special and pupil referral unit teachers in 2024/25 compared to the previous year, in the schools where they are needed the most.The Teachers’ Standards set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND, and this is embedded in teacher training. From September 2025, all new teachers will benefit from three years of evidence-based training through the revised initial teacher training and early career framework, which has significantly more content related to supporting pupils with SEND, including content adapted from the new National Professional Qualification for special educational needs coordinators.

With reference to page one of the First Report of the Public Accounts Committee of Session 2024-25, Support for children and young people with special educational needs, HC 353, what steps her Department is taking to provide adequate funding to meet the level of high special educational needs forecasted in that report.

The department is providing total high needs funding in England of over £12 billion in the 2025/26 financial year for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Of that total high needs funding, East Sussex County Council is being allocated over £94 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant.We are considering the funding required for future years and how it is to be allocated, following the conclusion of the recent spending review. Our objective is that future funding for SEND supports our plans for reforming the SEND system to boost children’s outcomes, which will be set out in further detail in a White Paper in the autumn.

What the average wait time is from initial assessment to an Education, Health, and Care Plan document being produced in East Sussex.

Information on the number and percentage of education, health and care (EHC) plans issued within the statutory 20 week deadline, with and without statutory exceptions to that deadline applying, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a52558d-1cb4-4f5d-7ddd-08dde95299cd.

What the budget is for the Office of the Standing Advocate in financial years (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27.

It is important that the Office of the Independent Public Advocate is adequately equipped to deliver its vital function of supporting victims of future major incidents and preparing for these incidents.The budget for the Independent Public Advocate for 2025/26 is £552k. All future spending will be considered as part of the Department’s allocations process to determine detailed budgets over the spending period. We will explore budgetary requirements with the Advocate once they are in post.

If he will take steps to allocate funding to the Lobular Moonshot Project.

Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation, which includes the Medical Research Council (MRC).My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, accompanied by the Minister of State for Health, met with representatives of the Lobular Moonshot Project on 14 July 2025 to discuss their work. The Chief Scientific Adviser and officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and the MRC have held two further meetings with the Lobular Moonshot Project to provide advice on existing funding options.Both the MRC and the NIHR have committed to continuing to work with the Lobular Moonshot Campaign team to support the development of fundable research proposals in this area and help drive our collective ambition to increase understanding and effective management of this disease.The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including lobular breast cancer.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the document entitled Maritime & Coastguard Agency Safety Code for Small Commercial Motor Vessels under MG280, updated on 22 January 2025.

There have not been any updates or amendments made to either the ‘Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Motor Vessels’ (the ‘Yellow Code’), or Marine Guidance Note (MGN) 280(M) ‘Small Vessels in Commercial Use for Sport or Pleasure, Workboats and Pilot Boats – Alternative Construction Standards’ in 2025. However, according to Maritime and Coastguard Agency records there were two amendments made to the Workboat Code Edition 3 in January 2025. The first amendment reinstated a requirement of the Code pertaining to the control of the discharge of oil which had been erroneously omitted when the Code was updated in 2023. As this change simply reinstated a previous requirement the impact was considered lesser than the impact of not reinstating the requirement and therefore negligible. The second amendment was to Annex 3 - The Safety of Police Boats. This two-part amendment was made to allow the required ‘second person’ on board to hold a Powerboat Advanced certificate, and to introduce the addition of a new paragraph to provide an appropriate construction standard for police vessels operating in Category C or Category D waters only. The amendments to the Safety of Police Boats Annex were undertaken in consultation with, and with the full cooperation of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (Maritime Policing Portfolio), representing all police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and were also considered negligible, especially given the short period of time since the introduction of Annex 3 and the amendment being made.

What steps she is taking to ensure that policy-makers are aware of international law pertaining to war and genocide.

The Law Officers’ Convention applies to advice which may or may not have been given by, or requested of, the Law Officers, and it applies to your question. It can be found at paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May:“By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.”Policy-makers are mindful of the overarching duty, set out at paragraph 1.6 of the Ministerial Code, to comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations. They seek advice from their departmental lawyers in this regard, as appropriate.

Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to help tackle the intersectional stigma of place-based ageing.

I recognise that people can face challenges as they age, and so I welcome the University of Stirling Research on the Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing and look forward to seeing it's report in due course.This research is exploring how interventions such as home and environmental modifications can help people to age well within their homes and communities.This government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling older and disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why government has boosted funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), which can contribute to the cost of adaptations for eligible people of all ages and tenures, to £711 million for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.DFG funding helps adapt over 55,000 homes annually, helping disabled people and their families to live independently and well in their own homes and communities for longer.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many British citizens are serving prison sentences abroad.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is providing consular assistance to over 1,700 British nationals detained overseas. This includes those who are held in police custody, immigration detention, pre-trial detention (sometimes called 'remand') either in a police station or detention facility, and those who have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

What steps he is taking to improve the supply of Pancreatin for people struggling to acquire their required quantity and dosage.

The Department is currently managing a supply issue with the pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) Creon, which is used by patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis and certain cancers, including pancreatic cancer and neuroendocrine cancer. The supply issue with Creon is impacting countries throughout Europe and has been caused by the limited availability of raw ingredients and manufacturing capacity constraints to produce the volumes needed to meet demand. This is causing knock-on supply issues with alternative PERT products.The Department is continuing to work with all suppliers of PERT to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term. This includes asking that they expedite deliveries, source stock from other markets, and increase production. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes for 2025 for the United Kingdom.The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market. In May 2024, pancreatin preparations were added to the Department’s list of medicines that cannot be exported from the UK or hoarded. In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers, and if authorised, these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.The Department has widely disseminated comprehensive guidance to healthcare professionals about these supply issues, which provides advice on how to manage patients whilst there is disruption to supply to ensure that no patient is left without PERT.

When she plans to provide guidance to schools on when the roll out free breakfast clubs will take place in Eastbourne.

Free breakfast clubs were made available in up to 750 early adopter schools from April 2025, as part of a test and learn phase in advance of a national rollout. Further details on the national rollout, including guidance for schools, will be available in due course.