Written questions by Hall.

What steps his Department is taking to help support the aluminium industry in the context of (a) US tariffs and (b) global competition.

Thanks to the strength of the UK-US partnership, the UK remains the only country to benefit from a preferential 25% tariff on steel and aluminium exports to the US, avoiding the global rate of 50%. The UK is therefore uniquely positioned as the only country to have secured this commitment, giving our companies a 25% competitive advantage over global competitors.After US global tariffs were introduced in May, the Business Secretary instructed the Trade Remedies Authority to work with the aluminium industry to gather and assess evidence for possible trade protection measures.

What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the carbon border adjustment mechanism supports the international competitiveness of businesses.

The CBAM is an environmental policy designed to support decarbonisation and mitigate the risk of carbon leakage. It will be introduced on 1 January 2027. Carbon leakage can undermine efforts to reduce global emissions and curtail private investment in decarbonisation – compromising efforts to reach net zero and limit global warming to 1.5°C. The CBAM will ensure highly traded, carbon intensive products from overseas face a comparable carbon price to those produced here so that UK decarbonisation efforts lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas. It will give industry confidence to invest in the UK knowing their decarbonisation efforts will not be undermined.

Whether his Department considered including policies on the aluminium sector within the Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025.

I refer the Member of Parliament for Warrington to the answer I provided to UIN 72881 on 17th September, which was in response to a similar question she previously tabled: “To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason the aluminium sector was not included in the Industrial Strategy.”

What steps his Department is taking to help support the aluminium industry through its negotiations on free trade agreements.

We have taken decisive action to support the UK aluminium industry through recent trade agreements that reduce barriers and enhance market access by removing tariffs.Additionally, thanks to the strength of the UK-US partnership, the UK remains the only country to benefit from a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium exports to the US, avoiding the global rate of 50%. The UK is the only country to have secured this commitment, giving our companies a competitive advantage.

What steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that the carbon border adjustment mechanism will support a reduction in carbon leakage in all the sectors in scope of the legislation.

The carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will be introduced on 1 January 2027 to address the risk of carbon leakage. Carbon leakage occurs when production and associated emissions shift from one country to another due to different levels of decarbonisation effort, for example, as a result of carbon pricing and climate regulation. The CBAM will place a carbon price on specific industrial goods imported to the UK from the aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen and iron & steel sectors that are at risk of carbon leakage, to ensure they face a comparable carbon price to those produced in the UK.This will support UK decarbonisation efforts to lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas, and give industry confidence to invest in the UK knowing their decarbonisation efforts will not be undermined.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support farmers to strengthen the resilience of domestic food supply chains.

Resilient domestic production for a secure supply of healthier food is one of the 10 priority outcomes that the Government announced in the Good Food Cycle in July 2025. Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise across the whole of the food supply chain. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption.

What steps his Department is taking to improve oversight of the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

The government has taken significant steps to improve both the oversight and enforcement of performance standards in the Civil Service Pension Scheme administration, primarily through the new contract with Capita and enhanced internal controls. Capita has been contracted to assume full administrative responsibilities from 1 December 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to introduce in-ovo sexing technology to end the routine culling of day-old male chicks in the UK egg industry.

We are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. In its 2024 ‘Opinion on alternatives to culling newly hatched chicks in the egg and poultry industries’, the Animal Welfare Committee considered a range of technologies that could help end the routine culling of male chicks by identifying or determining the sex of chick embryos before hatching. In recent years there has been rapid global progress in the development of these technologies, and we welcome the UK egg industry’s interest in the development of day zero sexing technology.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help protect at-risk heritage assets.

The Government is committed to protecting heritage at risk and supporting communities to care for their local heritage assets.This year we announced almost £20 million new funding for local heritage. The £15m Heritage at Risk Capital Fund enables individuals and organisations in the most deprived neighbourhoods in England to rescue and repair at-risk historic sites and buildings that bring people together, like shops, pubs, parks and town halls. In August 2025, funding was announced for 37 much-loved historic buildings and sites, many of which are located on high streets and in town centres.Alongside this, the £4.85m Heritage Revival Fund has a particular emphasis on town centres and helps to rescue and repurpose neglected historic buildings in England, enabling community organisations, charities and social enterprises to take ownership and repurpose sites such as theatres, department stores and former banks.We have also continued the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, with a budget of £23 million, providing grants of up to £25,000 towards VAT on eligible repairs.This is in addition to the £330 million distributed each year through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.In October, we announced the 75 museum groups across the country who will receive a share of our new, £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, with outcomes for our £25 million Museum Estate and Development Fund due in the New Year.

What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of measures to protect women and girls from harassment, abuse and intimidation.

Everyone has the right to both feel safe and be safe going about their day-to-day lives and the scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable.We recognise that public sexual harassment is a crime that often leaves victims, who are disproportionately likely to be women, feeling very unsafe. That is why tackling it is very much an important part of our ambition to halve VAWG in a decade.Once in force, the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023 will help tackle this issue and ensure women both feel and are safer on our streets.We are also working tirelessly across Government to deliver a new VAWG Strategy, which will set out the strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver the Government’s objectives on VAWG.

What steps he is taking to improve access to mental health services for veterans in the North West.

This is a Government of service that will always stand up for those who have served our country. In the North West and across the United Kingdom, the Veterans Welfare Service provides advice and support to veterans and their families. In England, Op COURAGE and Op RESTORE provide a broad range of specialist mental health, physical and wellbeing care services to veterans. Additionally, with the North West Thrive Together programme, it is building and improving the veteran self-help referral process and reducing the stigma of asking for help by those that need it the most. The Reducing Veteran Homelessness ‘Homes at Ease’ programme in the North West provides mental health support for housing applications. In 2024-25, it delivered 267 psychotherapy sessions to 54 beneficiaries to provide a bridge to highly stretched services in the region. In May this year, we also announced VALOUR, our new commitment, backed by £50 million, to establish the first-ever UK-wide approach to veteran support, which will ensure easier access to essential care and support for veterans across the country.

What recent discussions she has had with local authorities on tackling (a) pavement parking and (b) other obstructions for (i) pushchair, (ii) wheelchair and (iii) mobility aid users.

The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with local authorities on these matters. The Government fully understands the serious problems that vehicles parked on the pavement, and other obstacles on the pavement, can cause for pedestrians, especially for people with mobility or sight impairments and those with wheelchairs, prams or pushchairs. The Department has been considering all the views expressed in response to the 2020 pavement parking consultation and is currently working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response as soon as possible.  In the meantime, local authorities can make use of existing powers to manage pavement parking, and it is up to them to decide where to restrict pavement parking and what enforcement is appropriate. Recent reforms by my Department to the process by which Traffic Regulation Orders are made will make it easier for them to do so.

What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of security officers at magistrate's courts.

Security in our courts and judicial security is paramount. Over £20 million in additional funding in 2025/26 has been allocated to a programme of works to further strengthen the existing arrangements. Local court security risk assessments are carried out to determine the appropriate number of Court Security Officers deployed at Magistrates Courts. These are reviewed when there are any significant changes to work activities or threats. There are ongoing risk monitoring arrangements in place to ensure the adequacy of these arrangements.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help safeguard public sector digital infrastructure against cyberattacks.

Government is committed to improving the cyber resilience of public sector digital infrastructure, focusing our efforts around the Government Cyber Security Strategy.We have already made important steps to better understand and mitigate cyber risk and are now accelerating our response to address key risks and better support departments through a more interventionist approach.This accelerated response will address the long-standing shortage of cyber skills, strengthen accountability for cyber risks, provide greater support for delivery in the form of cyber services, guidance, and hands-on technical support and bolster our response capabilities to fast-moving cyber incidents.

When he plans to publish the new NHS workforce plan.

We will publish our 10 Year Workforce Plan by the end of 2025.

If his Department will take steps to ensure that NHS pay awards are implemented on 1 April each year.

The Government is committed to improving the timing of the pay round as set out in the Chancellor’s speech on 29 July 2024. We recognise the importance of giving certainty on pay settlements as early as possible and are working to be able to announce pay uplifts sooner this round.Having accepted the 2025/26 headline pay recommendations in full, the Government issued remit letters to pay review boards in July 2025 formally beginning the 2026/27 pay round. This is over two months earlier than last year and puts us on track to meet the stated ambition of my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to announce and implement pay uplifts as close to 1 April 2026 as possible.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of waiting times for cardiac care in the North West.

Tackling the waiting list is a top priority for the Government. This includes decreasing wait times for those accessing cardiac care. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments. More than double that number, or 5.2 million more appointments, have now been delivered in England.On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan. This sets out a whole system approach to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the National Health Service constitutional standard, by March 2029.As of the end of July 2025, compared with the end of June 2024, the overall number of people waiting for cardiac treatment in the North West has fallen by 7,536. However, performance against the 18-week target has decreased by 0.3 percentage points over the same period, namely 56.2% in June 2024 and 55.9% in July 2025.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that end-to-end encryption continues to protect personal privacy while enabling law enforcement to detect serious criminal activity.

This Government supports strong encryption, which protects our citizens online. However, this must not and need not be at the expense of public safety, which is this Government’s first priority.Targeted investigatory powers allow the authorities to investigate terrorists, paedophiles and the most serious criminals and are subject to robust safeguards, including judicial authorisations and oversight to protect people’s privacy.

When he plans to expand prescribing of GLP-1 medications beyond specialist weight-management services.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on the first two GLP-1 medicines licensed for the treatment of obesity, namely liraglutide under various brand names and semaglutide with brand name Wegovy, restricted their use to specialist weight management services. These services are primarily delivered in secondary care.NICE recommended that tirzepatide, with brand name Mounjaro, could be used for the treatment of obesity in eligible patients without a restriction on its setting. This means tirzepatide can be used in specialist weight management services but can also be prescribed in primary care by general practitioners (GPs) and other competent prescribers. From 23 June 2025, tirzepatide started to become available in primary care so the expansion beyond specialist services is underway.Integrated care boards (ICBs) are the National Health Service organisations responsible for arranging the provision of health services within their area in line with local population need and taking account of relevant guidance. ICBs have had to develop new care pathways to ensure that patients can access these medicines via their GP with appropriate wraparound support. NHS England has been working closely with ICBs to support the safe and effective roll out of tirzepatide in primary care. It has identified the groups of people to be prioritised in each phase of the initial rollout; helped develop local treatment models; provided funding support and regular communication channels to ICBs; and set up an interim, centrally funded ‘wraparound care service’, known as the ‘Healthier You: Behavioural Support for Obesity Prescribing’, for patients to be referred into, with a procurement underway for a longer-term offer.

Whether his Department has had recent discussions with Eli Lilly on the cost of Mounjaro.

The Department has held various discussions with Eli Lilly regarding the recent list price increase of Mounjaro. NHS England has worked with Eli Lilly to ensure the list price increase will not affect National Health Service commissioning of tirzepatide in England as a treatment for eligible diabetes and obesity patients in the NHS.We remain committed to the rollout of this medicine as a weight loss treatment based on clinical priority. This will enable 220,000 eligible people to access the medication over the first three years. The initial eligibility criteria will be for people with a body mass index of 40 or more in addition to four or more qualifying comorbidities.Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also entered equivalent agreements to maintain their current commissioning approaches.Pricing in the private market is a matter for Eli Lilly and for private providers. Private patients who are impacted by price increases should discuss any concerns with their private provider. This includes their options regarding payment plans, alternative treatments, and/or stopping or tapering off their current medication. Eli Lilly is working with private providers to support continued patient access.