Written questions by Mishra.

If she will make an assessment of the impact of existing social security policies on children in poverty in (a) Stockport and (b) Greater Manchester.

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change.The Strategy will look at all available levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, including considering social security reforms, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across Government and work underway in Devolved Governments.The numbers of children living in low income families before housing costs by local areas are published annually in the Children in Low Income Families Publication, available here: Children in low income families: local area statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).In 2022/23, 9,973 children aged under 16 (17.6% of all children aged under 16) were in relative poverty before housing costs (BHC) in Stockport.In 2022/23, 179,814 children aged under 16 (30.4% of all children aged under 16) were in relative poverty before housing costs (BHC) in Greater Manchester.

If she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of national economic policies on addressing the root causes of child poverty.

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change. The causes of child poverty are deep-rooted and complex, and the Taskforce is exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of vegetable oils not included in the due diligence regulations under Schedule 17 of the Environment Act 2021 on deforestation and whether he plans to extend due diligence obligations to cover these oils.

The Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption Indicator, funded by Defra, estimates that UK-linked deforestation driven by soy and palm oil was 7-9 times and 15-20 times greater respectively than deforestation linked to sunflower and rapeseed oil in 2022. We recognise the need to take action to ensure that UK consumption of forest risk commodities is not driving deforestation and we will set out our approach to addressing this in due course.

What assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the length of waiting lists for a lifesaving organ in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) England.

The Elective Reform Plan, published in early January, sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target, in order to tackle the approximate 6.3 million patients on the waiting list. As of 31 December 2024, there were 6,858 people on the transplant waiting list in England, and 405 people in Greater Manchester, excluding temporarily suspended patients.In July 2021, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care established the Organ Utilisation Group (OUG) to provide recommendations to maximise the potential for organ transplantation in England, and save more lives of those on the waiting list.The OUG’s recommendations address barriers to transplantation and best practice. The Department established the Implementation Steering Group for Organ Utilisation in April 2023, bringing together key organisations involved in delivering the transplant service, to oversee and coordinate the recommendations’ implementation. Once fully implemented, the aim is to utilise more donor organs for transplant to save and improve the lives of those on the waiting list.

Whether it is Government policy to allow public servants time off to donate (a) blood and (b) plasma.

There is no central policy, across the Civil Service, which provides time-off to donate (a) blood and (b) plasma.Departments can provide employees with time off to donate blood and plasma.

What steps his Department is taking to help encourage more people to become blood donors in (a) Stockport constituency and (b) the North West.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation in England. NHSBT runs marketing and partnership activity across England, including in Stockport, to encourage new donors to come forward. For example, on 11 November it launched a new campaign to ask the public to give the best gift this winter, to inspire people to fill the 100,000 vacant appointments in the run up to Christmas. It has also been working with the BBC on the Casualty Christmas Special, which will focus on blood stocks.In addition, there are three NHSBT Community Grant projects based in the North West to promote blood donation, including a Caribbean and African Health Network, One Wirral Community Interest Company, and the community charity Become United. These focus on raising awareness in black heritage communities via events, webinars, videos, and web content.

If his Department will make an estimate of the average waiting time for podiatry appointments in (a) Stockport constituency and (b) Stockport Borough.

Data reports from the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust show that the average wait time for their podiatry services in 2023/24 was 13 weeks, and that the average wait time reported for August 2024, the most recent data available, was 17.9 weeks.

Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps to increase participation of (a) girls and (b) women in cricket.

We are dedicated to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport.Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign has also inspired millions of women and girls to get active in a way that suits them including through cricket. In addition, Sport England funded the Dream Big Desi Women programme, run together with the ECB, which encouraged 2,000 South Asian women to take up coaching in cricket, with 84% saying they were very likely to take part again in 2023.

What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of Avanti West Coast’s management of Stockport railway station.

Avanti West Coast (AWC) is responsible for the day-to-day management of Stockport Station, which includes staffing, facilities management and cleaning. The Department meets with AWC regularly to discuss these responsibilities and to ensure any issues are addressed as soon as possible for passengers. Responsibility for repairs to the structure of the property lies with the station’s landlord, Network Rail. AWC works with Network Rail seeking improvements on behalf of passengers where this is required. Operators are also required to achieve customer experience targets across a range of measures, including at stations. These standards are regularly and independently inspected via the Service Quality Regime and there are accountability and financial consequences for failure.