Written questions by Dhesi.

Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding provided by the Government to local councils.

We are providing a significant boost to local authorities in England. Taken together, the additional funding announced by the Chancellor at the Autumn Budget and at the 2025-26 provisional Local Government Finance Settlement will provide over £5 billion of new funding for local services over and above local council tax. This includes an additional £2 billion of grant through the Settlement in addition to a guarantee that local authorities in England will receive at least £1.1 billion in total in 2025-26 from the new Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) scheme, and a further £233 million of additional funding for homelessness services.The provisional Settlement for 2025-26 makes available £69 billion for local government, which is a 3.5% real terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The final Settlement will increase further, to incorporate the £515 million of funding announced for National Insurance Contributions.The Department works closely with local government and other government departments to understand specific demand and cost pressures facing local government on an ongoing basis. This involves looking at a range of cost and demand data, as well as regular engagement with local authorities.

Communities and Local Government, what recent steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to help alleviate child poverty in (a) Slough and (b) the Thames Valley region.

In the Labour manifesto we committed to developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child Poverty. I am part of the ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce which has since been established to drive this forward, aiming to publish a Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. On 23 October we published our framework ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy’ and are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. Local authorities are key partners in tackling child poverty and we will continue to engage with them to ensure the Strategy supports and enables shared solutions.

What estimate she has made of the number of imported disposable vapes manufactured in China in (a) 2024 and (b) 2023.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria. Classification codes (according to the Harmonised System) are available to assist you in accessing published trade statistics data in the UK Global Tariff. Goods moving to and from the UK are identified by commodity codes. These are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff at https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff. Disposable vapes are most likely classified as commodity code 2404 12 00 90. HMRC does not collect the number of units imported for vapes. The data we do have on the import of these items, can be obtained from the build your own interactive tables on www.uktradeinfo.com. These tables include country of dispatch (CoD) which gives information on the country of export. If specifically wanting information on country of manufacture/ country of origin (CoO) this is available in the  bulk datasets archive. The data available includes value and weight (kg) of imports. Published data for 2024 covers January – October only If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.

What estimate she has made of the number of illegal vapes seized at the border in (a) 2024 and (b) 2023.

Border Force have a strong track record in targeting illegal commodities, and continue to ensure that all goods brought into the UK by passengers are appropriately declared and abide by customs and excise rules.For information the latest transparency returns can be found at the link here: Border Force transparency data: Q3 2024 - GOV.UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to prevent increased quantities of disposable vapes being imported before June 2025.

Single-use vapes are extremely wasteful and blight the streets of our towns and cities. Banning these vapes will stop them from being thrown into bins with general waste, where they typically end up in landfill or being incinerated, posing a fire risk due to their lithium-ion batteries and can cause poor air quality. Furthermore, it will stop plastic, lead, and mercury from leaching into the environment, which can cause waterways to be contaminated and poison our wildlife. We are working to ensure that businesses are aware of the obligations that they will have under the single-use vapes supply ban. We are advising that businesses should not be purchasing further single-use vapes and have made this clear in the business guidance we have published which can be viewed here.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that importers comply with the ban on disposable vapes from June 2025.

Single-use vapes are extremely wasteful and blight the streets of our towns and cities. Banning these vapes will stop them from being thrown into bins with general waste, where they typically end up in landfill or being incinerated, posing a fire risk due to their lithium-ion batteries and can cause poor air quality. Furthermore, it will stop plastic, lead, and mercury from leaching into the environment, which can cause waterways to be contaminated and poison our wildlife. We are working to ensure that businesses are aware of the obligations that they will have under the single-use vapes supply ban. We are advising that businesses should not be purchasing further single-use vapes and have made this clear in the business guidance we have published which can be viewed here.

How many times people have been called more than twice per day by NHS Blood and Transplant seeking blood donations in the last 12 months; and whether he is taking steps to ensure that the frequency of calls from NHS Blood and Transplant is not excessive.

In 2024, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) attempted 8,532,133 outbound calls to all donors across whole blood, platelets, and plasma for medicine. Of this total figure, 37.5%, or 3,199,031, call attempts resulted in a donor receiving up to three call attempts in a single day. Multiple attempts in a single day are generally to offer last minute appointments to eligible donors, or to ensure a session has a suitable blood mix ahead of sessions taking place.NHSBT recently launched a new automated system to better target donors and reduce the number of calls needed to fill appointments and collect the appropriate mix of blood needed while meeting donor preferences for contact.The NHSBT National Contact Centre will call a phone number up to three times a day, or three times within a five-day period, before resting the record, with no further call attempts, for a minimum of 21 days. Occasionally, NHSBT will make additional calls to priority donors, breaking the 21 day ‘rest’ period. This is often where particular blood group stocks are low, or demand exceeds supply.

What information his Department holds on the number of (a) times blood donors have been advised in advance of delays to their NHS Blood and Transplant donor session and (b) the number of donors that have been turned away by NHS Blood and Transplant after arriving later than their scheduled appointment time after having been advised about delays to their donor session in the last twelve months.

NHS Blood and Transplant does not advise donors in advance of delays to blood donation sessions. Delays are generally only known on the day of the session, and are usually the result of sessions running over, staff shortages, for instance from sickness absence, or logistics, for instance from vehicle failure or venue issues.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the unavailability of (a) digital thermometers and blood pressure monitors and (b) other low cost equipment for clinical staff on NHS (i) staff time usage and (ii) efficiency.

The Department and NHS England do not currently plan to make an assessment. The Department closely monitors the supply and availability of a broad range of medical devices and equipment continually across the National Health Service in England and the United Kingdom. We continue to work to mitigate any issues and potential impact on patients, clinical staff, and service efficiency. We have a range of well-established processes and tools in place to help manage disruption to the supply of medical products in the UK as and when they arise. This includes the National Supply Disruption Response, which acts a single point of contact for the health and care system and medical supply industry, in the event of supply disruption which cannot be mitigated via routine contingency measures.

If she will make an estimate of the number of working age people who have reduced their working hours as a result of marginal state income deductions.

The Office for Budget Responsibility's October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) contains forecasts and assessments of government policy. Once the impact of all the Budget measures are taken into consideration, the OBR expect the employment level to increase from 33.1 million in 2024 to 34.3 million in 2029. This government is committed to increasing labour supply and tackling the recent rise in labour market inactivity. The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out the government’s strategy to support people back into work, and help them stay in work.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department is taking steps to allow people to retain their mobile numbers when changing mobile contracts while retaining the same network provider.

Consumers can retain their existing mobile number when renewing their contract or moving to a new contract.Ofcom has in place rules on retaining an existing number when moving providers, known as "porting", but these only apply when the consumer is leaving one provider and joining a new one.We would expect mobile operators retaining customers who are changing contract to be motivated to help them retain their existing number should they wish to. People should speak directly to their provider if they are experiencing any issues.

How much funding her Department has provided the Mobility Foundation in each of the last five years; and for what purpose.

The Motability Foundation charity, which is independent of government, oversees Motability Operations in its delivery of the Motability Scheme. The Motability Scheme does not receive any direct funding from the Department for Work and Pensions. The Department for Work and Pensions facilitates a direct transfer to Motability of a claimant’s Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment or Armed Forces Independence Payment mobility allowance if they elect to join the Scheme. The Motability Scheme allows eligible claimants to exchange a qualifying mobility benefit for a lease on a Motability car, powered wheelchair, scooter or Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle.

What the cost to the public purse was of sending letters on the GP Patient Survey in the last 12 months; how many letters were sent to recipients; and whether any patients were contacted by e-mail.

The GP Patient Survey (GPPS) has been carried out in England for nineteen years. It is currently conducted by Ipsos on behalf of NHS England. In total for the 2024 survey, Ipsos sent 2.56 million invite letters and 2.28 million reminder letters asking people to complete the survey, incurring a cost of £2.16 million for paper, printing and postage.In 2024, costs dropped by £0.9 million (from £4.7 million in 2023 to £3.8 million in 2024) after NHS England introduced a push-to-web methodology. People were sent initial invite letters asking them to complete the survey online, reminded by e-letters where possible and only at the final reminder stage sent a paper questionnaire to complete.NHS England is exploring additional opportunities for cost savings, including by adding extra contact by email or the NHS App.However, postal contact remains vital for representation, inclusivity and data quality. Because we have incomplete coverage of email addresses and mobile telephone numbers, an online-only methodology would exclude many people. Additionally, online-only survey approaches tend to yield lower response rates, potentially compromising the quality and representativeness of the data.

What estimate he has made of the number of public sector workers of working age who have become economically inactive in each of the last 10 years.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 3 January is attached.

Representing the House of Commons Commission, when the Director of Parliamentary Digital Services plans to provide a substantive reply to the correspondence of 27 November 2024 from the hon. Member for Slough.

The Managing Director of the Parliamentary Digital Service replied on 6 January 2025.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps the Government is taking to help ensure NATO member states meet the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence.

At the meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in December, the Foreign Secretary and I called on all Allies to boost their defence spending. This is a strategic imperative and it is why the UK is committed to setting out a pathway to 2.5% of GDP at a future fiscal event. The Government welcomes that as of 2024 two-thirds of NATO are spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. We will continue to make the case with our Allies on the need to invest more in our collective defence.

What recent steps he has taken to increase awareness of bowel cancer symptoms among people under 50.

NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging ‘body awareness’ to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point. Previous phases of the campaign have focused on abdominal symptoms which, among other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of bowel cancer.NHS England and other National Health Service organisations, nationally and locally, also publish information on the signs and symptoms of many different types of cancer, including bowel cancer. This information is available on the NHS.UK website.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his counterpart in India on the detention of Jagtar Singh Johal.

We remain absolutely committed to pushing the Government of India for faster progress to resolve Jagtar Singh Johal's case. The Foreign Secretary has raised Mr Johal's case with his Indian counterpart on several occasions, most recently on 25 November. This is in addition to other UK Government Ministers raising the case with Indian counterparts, including the Prime Minister, who raised Mr Johal's case with Prime Minister Modi on 18 November. I raised Mr Johal's case on 19 November with the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs.

What estimate he has made of the number of patients admitted to hospital this year with (a) Covid, (b) flu (c) RSV and (d) norovirus; and what those figures were for the same period in (i) 2023 and (ii) 2022.

The data is not available in the format requested for flu, the respiratory syncytial virus, or norovirus. The following table shows the number admissions with COVID-19, in each of the last three years:YearNumber of admissions with COVID-19202427,594202346,0852022123,924Source: data is from NHS England, and is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/ Note: data is only available for 2024 from 1 January to 30 November.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the measures in the Employments Rights Bill on working rights for private hire drivers.

The Employment Rights Bill Impact Assessments show that by boosting protections and the quality of work for the lowest paid in the labour market, who are concentrated in more deprived areas of the UK, the package will help to raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all. Private hire drivers’ entitlements to employment rights depend, as with other working individuals, on their employment status. The Employment Rights Bill does provide important new rights for many limb (b) workers – in particular the measures relating to zero hours contracts.