Written questions by Olney.

What steps he is taking to ensure effective (a) collaboration and (b) transparency across (i) Government strategies and (ii) public bodies.

I have regular meetings and discussions with Cabinet colleagues to ensure close collaboration and transparency on strategy development, most recently on the Industrial and Trade Strategies, which were the result of close working across government departments and public bodies.

If she will make it his policy to reconstitute Skills England as an independent body.

Skills England has been established as an executive agency of the Department for Education, a model of arm’s length body with a clearly defined status, established and governed in line with Cabinet Office guidance. As an executive agency, Skills England will be sufficiently independent so that it can focus on the delivery of its functions, at arm’s length from the department, while also ensuring sufficient proximity to inform decisions on skills policy and delivery quickly and efficiently. In carrying out its functions, Skills England will be scrutinised and supported by its independent chair and board.In line with good practice for new arm’s length bodies, the government has committed to review Skills England between 18 and 24 months after it is set up. This review will include an assessment of whether the executive agency model is enabling Skills England to deliver its objectives.

What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the introduction of lifelong learning grants.

The government recognises that lifelong learning is a core part of a sustainable higher education system which provides opportunities for all and offers learners greater flexibility in an ever-evolving economy. We are committed to supporting lifelong learning as part of our wider commitment to skills.The lifelong learning entitlement (LLE) will transform the post-18 student finance system to create a single post-18 student funding system. From September 2026, learners will be able to apply for LLE funding for the first time for courses and modules starting from January 2027 onwards.The department has worked with Ministers and officials in other government departments to ensure that its approach to lifelong learning will be as effective as possible, enabling people to gain the skills they need to support their careers.Further information on the LLE can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lifelong-learning-entitlement-lle-overview.

What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential impact of night flights on the health of people living underneath airport flight paths.

My Department seeks to minimise the impact of aviation on people’s health, in the context of other government priorities. My officials are in regular contact on this issue with other government departments and their agencies, including the Department of Health and Social Care sponsored UK Health Security Agency.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that a proportion of new build homes are adapted to be accessible to people with physical disabilities.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 53184 on 27 May 2025.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed welfare reforms on people with bipolar disorder.

As I made clear in my statement to the House, Hansard, 1 July, col 219, any changes to PIP eligibility will come after a comprehensive review of the benefit, which I am leading, and which will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, so a wide range of views and voices are heard. This review aims to ensure that the PIP assessment is fair and fit for the future. The review is expected to conclude in autumn 2026. In relation to Universal Credit changes, existing claimants at the point of change in April 2026 will continue to receive at least the same amount of benefit as under the current rules, if there are no changes in their circumstances. For future claimants we are not able to assess the impact of the changes at this level as the readily available data on health conditions is not sufficiently detailed.

Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to ensure that a proportion of shared ownership homes are adapted to be accessible to those with physical disabilities.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 53184 on 27 May 2025.

What recent discussions she has had with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on the fatigue life of components of Hammersmith Bridge.

My officials are in regular contact with their counterparts at both the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Transport for London regarding the condition of Hammersmith Bridge and options for repair.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of her Department's White paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025, on British National (0verseas) Visa holders.

The British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) route was launched on 31 January 2021 in response to China’s passing of the National Security Law. The route reflects the UK’s historic and moral commitment to those people of Hong Kong who chose to retain their ties to the UK by taking up BN(O) status at the point of Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997.The Government is committed to supporting members of the Hong Kong community who have relocated to the UK and those who may come here in future.Further details of all measures announced in the Immigration White Paper will be set out in the normal way in due course, and where necessary, will be subject to consultation.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of reductions to the Official Development Aid on (a) the VSO and (b) other British companies with a significant presence in the UK.

Decisions on how the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget will be used are being worked through as part of the ongoing allocations process following the Spending Review. This will be based on various factors, including impact assessments.We are working out how our partnership with Voluntary Service Overseas should evolve in line with our new approach to civil society funding which will support the sustainability of international organisations and their partners in developing countries, enabling them to become more self-sustaining and resilient in the future.The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have been monitoring the impact of budget reductions on all our suppliers. We will continue to monitor the impact as spending decisions are made. Staff across the FCDO have been given guidance on the importance of engaging with our suppliers to manage the pivot in ODA programming responsibly if scaling down or exiting programmes.

With regards to her Department's White Paper on Restoring control over the immigration system, published 12 May, if she will publish further information on how changes to the (a) standard qualifying period for settlement to 10 years will affect people already in the UK, (b) pathway to settlement will affect non-UK dependants and (c) qualifying period base on Points-Based contributions will affect applicants.

We will reform our settlement and citizenship rules by expanding the Points-Based System and increasing the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.Individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and further details on the proposed scheme will be provided at that time.

What steps she is taking to help tackle the delay in TfL issuing Public Carriage Office licences to people (a) with health conditions who are ineligible for the temporary license and (b) who have faced personal costs of (i) loss of earnings, (ii) loss of assets to cover bills, (iii) homelessness, (iv) health impacts, (v) loss of customers and (vi) small business failures.

The Department for Transport is responsible for setting the regulatory structure within which local licensing authorities in England license the taxi and private hire vehicle trades but ultimately the licensing process is left at the discretion of local authorities. We work closely with TfL on a range of issues but the operation of private hire driver licensing is a matter solely for them.

With reference to her Department's statutory guidance entitled Working Together to Safeguard Children, updated 8 May 2025, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including adoptive parents.

The ‘Working together to safeguard children’ statutory guidance is multi-agency guidance that sets out the help, support and protection available to all children and their families. Where the guidance refers to parents, this includes adoptive parents. The guidance was updated in 2023 with a focus on strengthening multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection, maintaining a child focus within a whole family approach to help and support and embedding strong, effective multi-agency child protection practice.The department is committed to reviewing the ‘Working together to safeguard children’ guidance every year. On 8 May 2025, we published an illustrated version of the guidance for children, young people and their families which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of (a) the duplication of scanned signatures and (b) technical problems with the Electoral Registration Officer Portal since its introduction in 2023; how many (i) local authorities and (ii) postal vote applications have been affected; if she will list which local authorities have been affected; and whether there were periods when duplicate signatures could not be checked.

On 13 May 2025, MHCLG identified a software bug with the batch application upload functionality on the Electoral Registration Officer Portal (ERO Portal), which had existed since 21 March 2024. The bug could lead to misallocated signature images for certain elector records stored in local authority Electoral Management Systems (EMS). The issue would only present where an elector had applied for a postal vote via a paper form, where an ERO had included their application in the batch paper upload feature of the ERO Portal, and where there was a large volume of processing of batched application uploads. Our investigation also concluded that the issue was more likely to present where there were network performance issues. The issue was fixed on 14 May 2025, and further cases have since been prevented from occurring An analysis conducted on the data held in the ERO Portal was used to identify duplicated signature images in the data. This analysis identified a potential 112 cases of exact duplicate images caused by this issue across the ERO Portal data, out of a total of 2,257,946 postal vote applications. In total, we identified 64 Electoral Registration Offices, across 67 local authorities, where we had identified a duplicated signature Due to the data retention periods of the ERO Portal, the data analysis was only able to check for duplicates between 14 May 2024 and 14 May 2025. EMS suppliers have been able to provide support for ERO teams to check for duplicated signatures between 21 March 2024 and 14 May 2024 ERO Portal users across local authorities were updated throughout the investigation. MHCLG engaged directly with local authorities believed to be impacted by this bug to inform them of potential cases so they could be investigated and rectified by individual ERO teams. We continue to work closely with EMS suppliers to support impacted ERO teams. Technical issues on the ERO Portal are routinely documented and communicated through digital service governance processes. As part of this, any lessons that can be taken from technical issues are discussed and analysed, whilst preventative mitigations are then adopted in software development practises. We also work closely with the LA elections sector to collate and evaluate user feedback, which feeds directly into our roadmap for continuous product improvements.

What steps she is taking to help ensure that (a) police and (b) independent schools can share data in relation to (i) Operation Encompass and (ii) the implementation of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024.

The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 introduced a duty on all 43 police forces to make Operation Encompass notifications to schools after attending a domestic abuse incident in a child’s home before the start of the next school day.The Home Office is currently planning the commencement of the duty. This will include considering what guidance or training police forces may require to ensure a consistent approach with all schools.

If the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Transport will meet the hon. Member for Richmond Park to discuss the future of Hammersmith Bridge.

My officials are working with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Transport for London to progress viable options for the future of Hammersmith Bridge. I would be pleased to discuss these with the hon. Member for Richmond Park in due course.

What proportion of eligible people have received compensation from the Infected Blood Compensation Authority.

Due to the nature of the Infected Blood scandal there is uncertainty over the number of people, especially those affected, who might be eligible for compensation. The final number of eligible people will ultimately depend on the number of victims who come forward.As of 6 May 2025, 677 people have been contacted to begin the claims process, with 432 of those starting their claim. 160 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £150m, and 106 payments have been made, totalling £96,608,906.

When he expects all payments by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to eligible people to be made.

The recently published Framework Document sets out the timelines agreed between IBCA and Cabinet Office; namely for the bulk of infected people to be paid no later than the end of 2027 and the bulk of affected people to be paid no later than the end of 2029. I do not regard those as targets. I regard those as backstops, and the objective should absolutely be to pay as soon as possible.IBCA is committed to opening the full compensation service to all those eligible as soon as possible. Whilst the roll out of the scheme is an operational decision for IBCA as an independent body, I fully support their commitment to moving forward as swiftly as possible and as the Minister, I stand ready to help and assist in any way I can to speed up the payments.

How many people (a) infected and (b) impacted by the infected blood scandal have (i) been invited to make a claim, (ii) been offered compensation and (iii) received compensation.

As of 6 May 2025, 677 infected people have been contacted to begin the claims process, with 432 of those starting their claim. 160 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £150m, and 106 payments have been made, totalling £96,608,906.

Whether her Department plans to include an updated assessment of the potential impact of noise from a third runway at Heathrow on public health in a future version of the guidance entitled Transport analysis guidance, published on 29 October 2013.

The government supports airport expansion and has invited proposals for a third runway at Heathrow. It expects any proposals to be brought forward by the summer and is clear that any scheme must be delivered in line with the UK’s legal, climate and environmental obligations. TAG, or Transport Analysis Guidance, provides information on the role of transport modelling and appraisal. It is a set of guidance for senior responsible owners, project managers and technical practitioners and focuses on guidance for all modes and any scheme, rather than a specific scheme such as Heathrow Expansion.