Written questions by Johnson.

How many arrests under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 were made by each police force in England and Wales in the most recent year for which data is available.

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UKHowever, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

What assessment his Department has made of the impact of section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 on individuals with mental health conditions or neurodivergent profiles.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of convictions at criminal courts for an assault on an emergency worker by age and ethnicity in England and Wales. This data can be found in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. This data is part of a range of data produced by the Ministry of Justice which includes a broader review of ethnicity and the criminal justice system.Data on those with a mental health condition or a neurodivergent profile is not collated centrally by the Ministry of Justice. Where an individual is convicted, sentencing guidelines stipulate that the court must consider issues of neurodiversity at sentencing, taking an individualistic approach, recognising that the levels of impairment caused by any condition will vary significantly between individuals.

What assessment her Department has made of the proportionality of arrests under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, particularly in cases involving low-level contact or where mental health or neurodivergence may be a factor.

The information requested is not held by the Home Office.The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UKHowever, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available

What data his Department holds on the ethnicity of individuals convicted under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018; and what steps are being taken to monitor and address any disparities.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of convictions at criminal courts for an assault on an emergency worker by age and ethnicity in England and Wales. This data can be found in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. This data is part of a range of data produced by the Ministry of Justice which includes a broader review of ethnicity and the criminal justice system.Data on those with a mental health condition or a neurodivergent profile is not collated centrally by the Ministry of Justice. Where an individual is convicted, sentencing guidelines stipulate that the court must consider issues of neurodiversity at sentencing, taking an individualistic approach, recognising that the levels of impairment caused by any condition will vary significantly between individuals.

With reference to the Answer of 13 July 2020 to Question 68798 on Yemen: Military Intervention, whether his Department maintains its Tracker database of alleged instances of breaches or violations of International Humanitarian Law with regards to arms sales to the United Arab Emirates.

The UK maintained a database of alleged instances of breaches or violations of International Humanitarian Law by members of the Saudi Led Coalition in Yemen, including the United Arab Emirates. As the Coalition no longer operates in Yemen and there have been no new allegations, I can confirm this record is no longer maintained.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many incidents have been logged as alleged international humanitarian law violations reportedly conducted by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan since the civil war broke out in April 2023.

I refer the Hon Member to the statement made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 18 November.

What estimate he has made of the current total amount of (a) compensation and (b) civil claim payments made to families of prisoners who have died in custody while serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection.

The information requested is not held centrally. Information relating to payments relating to civil claims following the death in custody of prisoners is not broken down by sentence-type. It remains a priority for the Government that all those on IPP sentences receive the support they need to progress towards safe release from custody or, where they are being supervised on licence in the community, towards having their licence terminated altogether. Guidance has been provided to all prison staff and partner agencies to raise the importance of recognising the heightened level of risk of self-harm and suicide amongst IPP prisoners and an IPP Safety Toolkit has been developed, with a range of resources to promote learning and to help front-line staff support and engage those serving the IPP sentence effectively.

How many applications for the termination of IPP licences have been refused in each of the past 12 months; and what proportion of total applications that represents.

The process of terminating an IPP licence does not require an application to be made. Rather, the Secretary of State for Justice has a statutory obligation to refer an offender serving an IPP sentence to the Parole Board once three years have elapsed since first release (the qualifying period), in order for the Board to consider whether to terminate the licence. If the licence is not terminated by the Parole Board at the end of the qualifying period, it will be terminated automatically after a further two years, provided the offender is not recalled to custody.The changes introduced by the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 have reduced the number of people serving IPP sentences in the community by around two thirds, including over 1,700 IPP licences being automatically terminated on 1 November 2024.The Parole Board published its annual report for 2024/2025 on 10 July this year. The report provides the number of IPP licence terminations and refusals for those cases considered by the Parole Board for the 12-month period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The report covers IPP termination numbers on page 16 and is available here: Parole Board for England and Wales Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25.The Parole Board will terminate an IPP prisoner’s licence except where it judges that the continued supervision of the offender on licence is necessary for the purposes of public protection.

What estimate he has made of the number of prison officers subject to dismissal following recent changes to Skilled Worker visa salary thresholds; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of those dismissals on prison operations.

We are clear that net migration as a whole must come down after quadrupling in recent years as we replace Britain’s failed immigration system with one that is controlled, selective and fair.Assessments of the number of individuals subject to dismissal following the Immigration Rule changes are not held, as sponsorship decisions depend on individual circumstances at the time of application. Sponsorship is not the sole visa route, and while individuals may be ineligible, this does not necessarily result in dismissal, as they may secure alternative right-to-work arrangements.We will of course provide support to those who affected by these changes. Under current arrangements, prison officers already sponsored via the Skilled Worker route will be able to remain in post and extensions will be considered in line with policy. We are exploring options to support staffing, including renewed efforts to prioritise domestic recruitment.Working in prison is an extraordinary job and we are always looking for people who want to help keep the public safe to join.The Department carefully monitors resourcing levels to ensure that we are able to manage current staffing levels and make accurate predications around future requirements. We have recruitment activity ongoing for all sites with a current or future recruitment need.

How many visas have been issued to Gazan children seeking medical evacuation to the UK since 5 July 2024.

The information requested is not available from published statistics. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.

What steps her Department is taking to implement (a) foster care reforms, (b) initiatives to improve the (i) recruitment and (ii) retention of foster carers and (c) other measures outlined in the Government’s response to the Education Select Committee’s report on Children’s Social Care published on 17 October 2025.

We must take urgent action to substantially increase foster care numbers. The government is delivering a regional programme for fostering recruitment and retention to streamline the process for prospective carers. There are ten regional fostering recruitment hubs, covering over 60% of local authorities in England. The hubs will continue to rollout the Mockingbird Programme, which offers peer-support to foster carers and children in their care.Foster care is one of my top priorities as Minister for Children and Families, and we will need to go further and faster with recruiting and retaining more carers. We are prioritising fostering in our reform of children’s social care, as evidenced by the announcement of an additional £40 million investment over the next two financial years. This will benefit thousands of fostered children. We will set out more detail on our planned investments and reforms for fostering in due course.

What the value is of Prison Education Service Core Education contracts between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026.

The value of the Prisoner Education Service Core Education contracts between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026 is £51 million. This figure excludes Lot 10 (West Midlands prisons), where existing contracts under the Prison Education Framework have been extended while a re-procurement process is ongoing.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the UN Secretary-General’s report entitled Situation concerning Western Sahara: report of the Secretary-General, published on 30 September 2025, if she will call for an independent human rights body to monitor human rights in (a) occupied Western Sahara and (b) refugee camps.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided on 29 October to Question 84938.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the UN Secretary-General’s report entitled Situation concerning Western Sahara: report of the Secretary-General, published on 30 September 2025, and whether she plans to raise that report at the Security Council.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 30 October to Question 85129.

How many phases of roll-out of free breakfast clubs will there be; when is the next phase due to start rolling out; which schools will be eligible for the second phase roll-out; and when can all state primary schools expect to have free breakfast clubs.

The government is committed to deliver on its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill means that those schools with children on roll from Reception to Year 6 are required to offer a free breakfast club before the start of each school day. This will ensure every child, regardless of circumstance, has a supportive start to the school day.So far, the department has delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and has offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. Following the success of the early adopters, we will start the first phase of national rollout of the clubs from April 2026. We are investing a further £80 million into the programme to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around 500,000 more children.Further information, including specifics on eligibility, funding and expectations for schools will be provided later in the Autumn term. This will include detailed guidance as well as a wider package of support.

With reference to his Department's Green Paper: Future of Post Office, published on 14 July 2025, what progress the Department has made in hosting discussions between Post Office and the banking sector on Post Office cash and banking services.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury and I plan to co-chair a roundtable with the Post Office and key banks. This will provide an opportunity to discuss where future potential collaboration, on a commercial and voluntary basis, may be in the interests of both parties. This will take place in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July to Question 61881 on Western Sahara: Origin Marking, what discussions her Department has had with Tesco on the adequacy of its labelling of products from Western Sahara.

Under UK regulations, supermarket product selection remains a matter of retailer discretion, contingent upon compliance with food and labelling laws. Retailers operate independently and make sourcing decisions based on commercial, ethical, and consumer considerations. All supermarkets are expected to support honest and transparent labelling of food products, and the Government routinely engages with industry representatives to support best practices. We work to maintain high standards on the information that is provided on food labels so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. The fundamental principle of food labelling rules is that information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must enable consumers to make informed decisions.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of creating a dedicated form of business rates relief for post offices.

The Government has no plans to introduce a targeted business rates relief for post offices. However, as set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government will introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with ratable values below £500,000, including post offices, from 2026/27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that eligible post offices benefit from much-needed certainty and support. Post offices are also eligible for 40 per cent RHL relief up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business in 2025/26. They are also eligible for 100 per cent rural rate relief if they meet certain conditions.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July to Question 61880 on Western Sahara: Trade Agreements, what discussions she has had with Sahrawi representatives on trade with Western Sahara.

Trade agreements negotiated by the UK are conducted with sovereign states and in accordance with international law. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) officials regularly meet Sahrawi representatives to discuss UK policy on Western Sahara, including trade.

What steps his Department is taking to support Integrated Care Boards to reduce waiting times for (a) speech and language therapy, (b) physiotherapy, (a) community paediatrics and (d) other community health services for children.

Community health services are an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service, working closely with primary care, social care, and other community services to provide more care in the community to spot problems early.We are committed to reducing long waits and improving timely access to community health services, including for children’s services. We are working closely with NHS England to improve access to community health services and on actions to reduce waiting times for these services.NHS England continues to monitor community services waiting times via the Community Health Services (CHS) SitRep data collection which collects monthly data on waiting lists and waiting times for community health services, to assess the number of people on them and the length of time they wait for services. Data is published monthly, and is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/community-health-services-waiting-lists/A metric on waits of over 52 weeks for CHS is included in the 2025/26 National Oversight Framework, which is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-oversight-framework-2025-26/As part of our work to improve access to children’s CHS, NHS England commissioned NHS Benchmarking to undertake an analysis of provider data on Community Paediatrics to develop a detailed understanding of activity and the opportunities for improvement and transformation. The report is available at the following link:https://www.nhsbenchmarking.nhs.uk/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-community-services