Written questions by Swann.

Pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2025 to Question 51251 on Domestic Visits: Northern Ireland, on how many of those visits the hon. Member for that constituency received prior notification.

The Honourable Gentleman will be aware it is a requirement to notify Members of Parliament before a visit to their constituency. For the recent occasion when he was not notified, I have apologised to him.

How many visits he has made to each constituency in Northern Ireland since his appointment.

I have carried out over 80 visits to 16 constituencies across Northern Ireland since my appointment. I welcome suggestions for future visits from Parliamentary colleagues.

What the Barnett consequential for Northern Ireland from the recent trade deal with India will be.

The UK-India Free Trade Agreement will make it easier for British businesses to trade with the fastest growing economy in the G20. The government estimates that it will increase bilateral trade by £25.5 billion, add £4.8billion a year to our economy and boost wages by £2.2 billion every year in the long run. The Barnett formula is applied when UK Government departmental budgets change. Any future changes to UK Government department funding as a result of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement will have the Barnett formula applied in the normal way.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2024 to Question 13304, and the Answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 14268, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that there is not a reoccurrence.

Members of Parliament should be notified in advance of Ministerial visits to their constituency. I have apologised to the Honourable Member for the recent failure to notify him. The Northern Ireland Office is currently reorganising this notification process to ensure there is no reoccurrence.

How much of the funding for VALOUR centres will be allocated to Northern Ireland.

VALOUR is a new commitment to establish the first-ever UK-wide approach to veteran support. A new VALOUR HQ within the Ministry of Defence, a network of field officers, regional VALOUR-recognised support centres, and development funding to support local delivery will be established, overseen by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs. VALOUR will foster the enterprising spirit of veteran charities, better connect local and national services and ensure veterans’ support is data driven. The details regarding the funding for VALOUR centres is currently being developed by officials. This includes the process by which centres can apply for funding, and the way in which funding is distributed across the UK. Further information, including on funding for centres, will be released in due course.

Who the delivery body will be for VALOUR centres in Northern Ireland.

VALOUR is a new commitment to establish the first-ever UK-wide approach to veteran support. A new VALOUR HQ within the Ministry of Defence, a network of field officers, regional VALOUR-recognised support centres, and development funding to support local delivery will be established, overseen by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs. VALOUR will foster the enterprising spirit of veteran charities, better connect local and national services and ensure veterans’ support is data driven. The details regarding the funding for VALOUR centres is currently being developed by officials. This includes the process by which centres can apply for funding, and the way in which funding is distributed across the UK. Further information, including on funding for centres, will be released in due course.

Whether he plans to continue the Getting it Right First Time programme.

Yes. We are committed to driving NHS reform and supporting programmes that aim to deliver better and quicker care for patients.An excellent example is the Getting It Right First Time programme which supports trusts to streamline pathways and deliver timely elective care and operations.This includes supporting systems to ring-fence elective capacity, optimise surgical pathways, and increase surgical hub numbers over the next three years.

How much Apprenticeship Levy has been (a) collected from and (b) provided to Northern Ireland employers in each of the last five years.

Reliable estimates of the revenue raised from businesses in Northern Ireland from the Apprenticeship Levy are not available as any estimate would need to be based on where employers are registered, and therefore would not necessarily reflect where the liabilities are accrued or where employees are based. Any estimate would not include businesses registered in Wales, Scotland, or England, who have a presence and pay employees in Northern Ireland. While the Apprenticeship Levy is UK wide, apprenticeship policy and spending is devolved. This means that the devolved governments receive funding through the Barnett formula in relation to English apprenticeship spending as part of their block grant. The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023. It is for the devolved governments to allocate their funding in devolved areas as they see fit, including investing in their skills programmes.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending Cyber Local 2025-26 to Northern Ireland.

As of April 2025, the way that Devolved Administrations (DAs) receive funding for cyber security has changed. Previously ringfenced cyber budgets will be absorbed into departmental baselines and provided directly to DAs in their overall HM Treasury settlement.The revised funding arrangements further support DAs, including the Northern Ireland Executive, to make their own choices about how to champion the cyber sector in each part of the UK. DSIT will continue to engage with the Northern Ireland Executive on how to assist the cyber sector, including through the Cyber Local programme.DSIT continues to support the successful cyber ecosystem in Northern Ireland with key investments such as the Cyber AI Hub programme at Queen’s University Belfast.

What criteria he will use to assess the need for a border poll in Northern Ireland.

The responsibility for a referendum sits solely with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, as set out in the Good Friday Agreement. In accordance with that Agreement and the principle of consent, Northern Ireland will remain part of the United Kingdom for as long as its people wish for it to be. In 2020, the Northern Ireland High Court ruled that there is no legal requirement or public interest in setting out a policy detailing fixed criteria on the holding of a referendum.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42062 on Bees: Conservation, whether he has received a request from the Northern Irish Minister of Agriculture for mutual assistance with bee inspecting.

It is confirmed that no request from the Northern Irish Minister of Agriculture for mutual assistance with bee inspecting has been received by APHA’s National Bee Unit.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ letter of 8 April 2025 to Northern Ireland Executive colleagues, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of the (a) additional confirmed cases in Hungary and (b) advent of confirmed cases in Slovakia of Foot and Mouth disease.

Although I was not an addressee of the letter mentioned and therefore cannot reference it directly, this Government will be decisive and take the necessary action to ensure the UK’s biosecurity measures protect our farms from the risk posed by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). We’ve stepped up measures to prevent the incursion of FMD following the spread of cases in Hungary and Slovakia, including a case close to Slovakia’s border with Austria. The Government immediately implemented restrictions on broad categories of products ranging from fresh milk, dairy products, meat from susceptible animals to hay and straw from Hungary, Slovakia and Austria to Great Britain to protect the UK’s freedom from FMD, in addition to restrictions already in place for equivalent exports from Germany to Great Britain following a separate outbreak of FMD in Germany in January. In line with the requirement to recognise regionalisation, these imports are also prohibited into Northern Ireland from the disease control zones in force surrounding each of the infected premises in the EU. We continue to review the situation, working with our disease experts and EU counterparts. Livestock keepers are urged to be extra vigilant and report any suspicion of FMD or other notifiable disease immediately to the Animal and Plant Health Agency in Great Britain and to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland.

Whether the abolition of NHS England will impact the (a) role and (b) structure of the Getting It Right First Time programme.

Ministers and senior Departmental officials will work with the new executive team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation.As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds and will work collaboratively to put plans in place to ensure continuity of care and that there are no risks to patient safety.

How much and what proportion of funding allocated to the (a) National Rural Crime Unit and (b) National Wildlife Crime Unit will be for (i) operations and (ii) activities in Northern Ireland.

Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities; these decisions will inform the support that they request and receive from the units in question.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many inspectors his Department has trained to (a) inspect and (b) assess the health of (i) bees and (ii) their hives.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit has 50 trained inspectors which includes the National Bee Inspector and 8 Regional Bee Inspectors. All of these inspectors are trained to inspect and assess the health of bees and the hives in England and Wales.

Whether there will be Barnett consequentials from the £3.25bn Transformation Fund announced in the Spring Statement.

The Transformation Fund will be allocated to UK Government departments through the Spending Review process. The Barnett formula will apply in the normal way, as per the Statement of Funding Policy.

What steps his Department is taking to help support the devolved Administrations to (a) increase the children’s palliative care workforce and (b) improve access to specialist services.

Healthcare funding and administration, including in relation to palliative and end of life care services, is a devolved matter across the four nations of the United Kingdom, and, therefore, is the responsibility of the devolved administrations.In England, we have committed to develop a 10-year plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, and a central part of the plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients, including children with palliative and end of life care needs, across our communities. This summer, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS in England has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when and where they need it, including for children with palliative and end of life care needs.In England, palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, including specialist services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification for children and young people.We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices in England for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.

If his Department will take steps to prepare for temperature rises that could reach 4C by the end of the century.

The latest UN Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report estimates that current policies will limit peak global warming to 3.1°C by 2100, with further reductions possible through full implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) (https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2024). More work is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C which is why the Government is committed to driving climate action domestically and internationally. At COP29 the UK announced an ambitious goal to reduce emissions by at least 81% by 2035 and will continue to urge other nations to be ambitious. The Government is investing in mitigation actions while future-proofing the Net Zero system against climate hazards.

Whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of including rapid diagnostics as part of the five-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance.

The United Kingdom’s 2024 to 2029 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan (NAP), published in May 2024, highlights the importance of accurate diagnostic testing to guide effective antibiotic use and tackle antimicrobial resistance. Supporting clinicians to prescribe the right antimicrobials only to those that need them is a core commitment in the NAP. Outcome six of the UK’s AMR NAP specifically relates to supporting the development of diagnostic tests for infection.NHS England is taking a multifactorial approach to improving the roll out of innovative rapid diagnostics, aligning to the commitments of the 2024 to 2029 AMR NAP. This includes reducing barriers for industry to support the development of diagnostic tests, identifying innovations, and increasing the evidence for putting those innovations into practice.Sepsis has no specific diagnostic test, and presentation can vary, making it difficult to diagnose. In hospitals, clinicians are supported in recognising sepsis by using the National Early Warning Score, now used in 99% of acute trusts and 100% of ambulance trusts in England. To support clinical staff in primary and secondary care settings, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence published updated national guidance in March 2024 on sepsis recognition, diagnosis, and early management.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing mechanisms to support the (a) adoption and (b) clinical systems integration of (i) novel and (ii) rapid diagnostics into clinical pathways.

The Elective Reform Plan (ERP), published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the 18-week standard, including reforms to diagnostic care to reduce waiting times for tests and scans.The plan announced that integrated care boards (ICBs) will make optimal use of the new diagnostic capacity by increasing direct referrals and rolling out at least 10 straight-to-test pathways by March 2026. NHS England is working with clinicians to best determine priority pathways and implementation based on population need and where there is a clear opportunity for improving timescales and journeys to diagnosis.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issues authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on best practice that often includes recommendations to support diagnosis. NICE also develops guidance on new, innovative diagnostic technologies that helps people in the NHS make efficient, cost-effective and consistent decisions about adopting new products.