Written questions by Moran.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of local government reorganisation on the (a) implementation of transport infrastructure projects and (b) strategic planning.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is the lead department for the planning system, and the Department for Transport works with it closely on the impacts of local government reorganisation. Existing district councils have responsibilities for taxi licencing and spatial planning, but transport infrastructure is generally delivered by county and unitary authorities. New unitary authorities formed by local government reorganisation should have appropriate scale to effectively deliver transport infrastructure projects and, outside of Strategic Authorities, to undertake their local transport authority responsibilities.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that decisions relating to local government reorganisation meet relevant (a) public sector equality duties and (b) provisions of the Equality Act 2010.

Decisions on the most appropriate option for each area will be judgements in the round, having regard to the statutory guidance and the available evidence, including governance and service delivery considerations. All public bodies, including the Government, are required to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010. This duty applies to the local government reorganisation process.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the disaggregation of services in local government reorganisation proposals on (a) governance and (b) service delivery.

Decisions on the most appropriate option for each area will be judgements in the round, having regard to the statutory guidance and the available evidence, including governance and service delivery considerations. All public bodies, including the Government, are required to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010. This duty applies to the local government reorganisation process.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of local government reorganisation on educational services for children with SEND.

The department fully recognises the importance of ensuring that any structural changes to local government protect the safety, wellbeing, and life chances of children and young people. The department is already working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to put in place resource, structures and processes that support effective reorganisation, including in relation to provision of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services, to ensure that we improve outcomes for children as these changes take place.The department is reviewing all local government reorganisation (LGR) proposals and will provide feedback to MHCLG, with a particular emphasis on how proposals will ensure the effective delivery of SEND, children’s social care and education services and reforms. The department will also work with individual local authorities throughout the LGR process to ensure local, contextual knowledge is embedded into feedback provided.

Media and Sport, whether her Department requires sports bodies in receipt of public funding to demonstrate how their participation policies promote inclusion and safe access to grassroots sport for transgender people.

The Government remains committed to ensuring that sport is a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Under the Code for Sports Governance, all National Governing Bodies (NGBs) receiving public funding must have robust inclusion policies in place. NGBs are responsible for setting their own policies, taking into account the specific requirements of their sport. They are supported in this through guidance developed by our Sports Councils, who are currently considering the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on this guidance.The Government continues to work closely with Sport England to monitor how NGBs deliver on their inclusion targets, ensuring that grassroots sport remains a safe space for everyone to stay active.

Media and Sport, what oversight mechanisms are in place to ensure that national governing bodies receiving funding from Sport England assess and mitigate safeguarding risks for transgender participants arising from their eligibility policies.

The Government remains committed to ensuring that sport is a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Under the Code for Sports Governance, all National Governing Bodies (NGBs) receiving public funding must have robust inclusion policies in place. NGBs are responsible for setting their own policies, taking into account the specific requirements of their sport. They are supported in this through guidance developed by our Sports Councils, who are currently considering the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on this guidance.The Government continues to work closely with Sport England to monitor how NGBs deliver on their inclusion targets, ensuring that grassroots sport remains a safe space for everyone to stay active.

What data her Department holds on the number of prosecutions under the Vagrancy Act 1824 in the last five years.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the number of offences charged by way of the Vagrancy Act 1824 in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of these offences from 1st April 2020 to 30th September 2025. 2020-20212021-20222022-20232023-20242024-2025April - Sept 2025Vagrancy Act 18241,0791,222829662633335Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants prosecuted. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation. Volumes provided for the financial year 2020-2021 have been impacted due to court closures and recovery during Covid-19 from Mid-March to the end of June 2020.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether a letter of comfort or other formal assurance has been given to allow Thames Water to issue debt to finance South East Strategic Reservoir Option.

No letter of comfort or formal assurance has been provided by Defra to Thames Water on the financing of the White Horse Reservoir (formerly SESRO).

When his Department plans to release an impact assessment for changes to the NICE cost-effectiveness threshold.

There are no plans to publish an impact assessment or details of the modelling in relation to changes to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence cost-effectiveness threshold. Information included in the impact assessment is commercially sensitive.The United Kingdom and United States’ pharmaceutical deal is a vital investment that builds on the strength of our National Health Service and world leading life sciences sector.

Whether she has issued guidance to early years educational settings on the use of screens in nurseries.

The ‘Early years foundation stage’ (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements early years providers must meet to ensure children have the best start in life and are kept healthy and safe. Details about the framework are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c024cb8c6d992f23edd79c/Early_years_foundation_stage_statutory_framework_-_for_group_and_school-based_providers.pdf.pdf.The department has published guidance to inform practitioners about online safety and appropriate device usage in early years settings, including an ‘Internet safety’ page on the Help for Early Years Providers platform here: https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/health-and-wellbeing/internet-safety. This includes information on how device use affects development, outlining both benefits and challenges.Following the publication of new screen time guidance for parents, we will update this page to provide further emphasis on screen time and outline considerations around adult use of technology within settings. We will also incorporate updated guidance into the EYFS frameworks and review Development Matters to include information on screen time and digital literacy.

How lipoedema is classified within NICE guidance and NHS commissioning frameworks; and whether he plans to review the categorisation of lipoedema-related interventions to ensure they reflect clinical need.

Lipoedema services in England are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs), which are responsible for assessing the needs of their local populations and determining the most appropriate services to support people with long‑term conditions such as lipoedema.There is no single national specification for lipoedema services. Instead, ICBs draw on a range of national guidance and best‑practice resources when designing care pathways. These include guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and best‑practice frameworks produced by bodies such as Wounds UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners. This helps ensure that services are safe, effective, and based on the best available evidence.Most people with lipoedema are supported through primary and community care services, including assessment by local lymphoedema teams, compression therapy, advice on skin care and movement, and support with self‑management. These services aim to help people manage symptoms and maintain mobility and quality of life.NICE classifies lipoedema within its interventional procedures guidance on the use of liposuction for chronic lipoedema, reference code HTG618, as a chronic, often painful, and progressive condition characterised by the abnormal, symmetrical accumulation of fat in the legs, hips, buttocks, and sometimes arms. In this guidance, NICE concluded that current evidence on both safety and effectiveness is limited and, therefore, recommends that liposuction should only be undertaken within the context of research or under rigorous governance arrangements. This guidance informs, but does not mandate, local commissioning decisions. NICE will review this guidance once the full results of the ongoing LIPLEG clinical trial are available, and will update its recommendations if new evidence supports doing so.

What training and guidance is provided to GPs and other frontline clinicians on recognising and managing lipoedema; and whether he plans to review undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development provision relating to that condition.

Doctors are responsible for maintaining their clinical knowledge, including on lipoedema, throughout their careers, and are responsible for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development.All doctors registered in the United Kingdom are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. In 2012, the GMC introduced revalidation, which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, giving patients confidence that doctors are up to date with their practice, and promoting improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors are set by the relevant medical royal college and have to meet the standards set by the GMC. Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they do emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.Resources for frontline health professionals are available from a number of professional and patient organisations to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients presenting with lipoedema.

Whether lipoedema has a diagnostic code within NHS data systems; what steps he is taking to improve the collection of data on prevalence, diagnosis and outcomes for people with lipoedema; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of improved data collection on future commissioning and service planning.

Lipoedema does not currently have a unique standalone diagnostic code within the National Health Service’s primary coding systems. In clinical practice, it is often recorded under broader World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision categories relating to disorders of subcutaneous tissue or lymphatic disease.NHS England is taking forward a wide programme of work to improve how data is recorded and coded across the health service by expanding the use of modern electronic patient record systems, strengthening national coding standards, and supporting staff to record information consistently and accurately. This includes better use of SNOMED CT in primary care, clearer guidance for hospitals, and investment in shared care records so that patient information is captured once and used safely across services. These improvements are helping to ensure that clinical data is more reliable, more complete, and better able to support high‑quality care, earlier diagnosis, and effective service planning.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing funding for epilepsy research.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Knowsley on 6 January to Question 101055.

What guidance the Government provides to police forces to (a) help deal with racially aggravated sexual assault and (b) support victims of those crimes.

Police are operationally independent and work in line with College of Policing guidance to respond to hate crime and sexual offences.However, the Government expects the police to fully investigate each and every assault and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.The Ministry of Justice will invest £550 million over the next three years to provide counselling, court guidance and children’s services for victims. This funding will be delivered via PCCs, who assess local need and are best placed to commission tailored services, including for victims with protected characteristics such as race.

How much funding her Department has committed to implement the recommendations of the Independent review of children's social care: final report, published on 23 May 2022, in each of the next five years.

This government is driving the biggest transformation of children’s social care in a generation. Long-term investment is essential to shift the system away from high-cost crisis responses towards earlier support.In 2025/26, the department more than doubled direct investment in children’s social care prevention services through the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant. Now we are going even further to reform children’s social care. We are continuing the £523 million available for the Families First Partnership programme in 2025/26 for each year of the Local Government Finance Settlement to 2028/29. We have invested a further £300 million over two years (2026/27 and 2027/28) from the Transformation Fund announced at the Spending Review, and £547 million of new funding announced in the Local Government Funding Policy Statement, meaning £2.4 billion over three years, all ringfenced for prevention and de-escalation. Together this will help to reduce reliance on costly acute services, strengthen earlier intervention and drive forward reforms to children’s social care.We are also investing £560 million capital funding to refurbish and expand children’s homes and provide more high-quality foster care placements.Additional funding beyond 2027/28 is subject to the next Spending Review.

With reference to the independent report entitled Independent review of children's social care: final report, published on 23 May 2022, how much of the recommended new spending of £2.6 billion has been allocated to date.

This government is driving the biggest transformation of children’s social care in a generation. Long-term investment is essential to shift the system away from high-cost crisis responses towards earlier support.In 2025/26, the department more than doubled direct investment in children’s social care prevention services through the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant. Now we are going even further to reform children’s social care. We are continuing the £523 million available for the Families First Partnership programme in 2025/26 for each year of the Local Government Finance Settlement to 2028/29. We have invested a further £300 million over two years (2026/27 and 2027/28) from the Transformation Fund announced at the Spending Review, and £547 million of new funding announced in the Local Government Funding Policy Statement, meaning £2.4 billion over three years, all ringfenced for prevention and de-escalation. Together this will help to reduce reliance on costly acute services, strengthen earlier intervention and drive forward reforms to children’s social care.We are also investing £560 million capital funding to refurbish and expand children’s homes and provide more high-quality foster care placements.Additional funding beyond 2027/28 is subject to the next Spending Review.

Whether provisions of the UK-India trade deal address the freedom and human rights of minority groups in India.

The landmark UK-India trade deal includes chapters on labour, gender, environment and anti-corruption. In common with most free trade agreements it enables the two partners to discuss important matters including human rights on a regular basis. It is not our only means of advancing concerns.The British High Commission in New Delhi and our network across India track human rights across the country. We engage Indian stakeholders on a range of human rights matters, working with Union and State Governments, and with civil society.

Whether he plans to request that NICE conduct an exceptional (expedited) partial review of the NICE Depression guideline (NG222) to consider the inclusion of intravenous racemic ketamine as an option for patients for whom electroconvulsive therapy is being considered.

The Department has no plans to ask the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to conduct a review of the NICE guideline on the treatment and management of depression, reference code NG222.NICE is an independent body and is responsible for taking decisions on whether its guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence and changes in clinical practice. NICE operates an active surveillance programme and when new evidence emerges, it proactively considers whether existing guidance should be reviewed and, if appropriate, updated. Decisions as to whether NICE will create new, or update existing, guidance are overseen by an integrated, cross-organisational prioritisation board. NICE has no current plans to review intravenous racemic ketamine in the context of the depression guideline.

If he will consider specific funding for mesothelioma nursing posts.

Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.Funding provided to NHS trusts is not ringfenced for specific items such as staffing levels. Hospitals receive funding allocations which they can use at their discretion, based on local priorities.The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure that the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.