Written questions by Stephenson.

If he will make an estimate of the potential economic impact on Bedfordshire of increased defence spending.

We are ensuring UK defence is on the cutting-edge of technology and innovation, with Defence spending meeting our military needs, supporting 434,000 jobs across the breadth of the UK and increasing the productive capacity of the UK economy to drive sustainable, long-term growth. The Ministry of Defence’s allocation of the 2.5% uplift will be agreed as part of the Spending Review.

Whether he plans to appoint a dedicated Minister for Resilience.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has overall responsibility for resilience policy across government. He is supported by a number of ministerial colleagues with resilience responsibilities in their departments. The full List of Ministerial Responsibilities is available on GOV.UK here.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of endometriosis on women in the workplace.

Backed by £240m investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched last November will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate. We announced in the recent Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up by £1 billion of new funding.In addition to this work, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have launched the Keep Britain Working Review. This review will consider how to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions; promote healthy workplaces and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. The Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Health and Social Care are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, including women with endometriosis, with their employment journey. The Disability Confident Scheme encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. A digital information service for employers, (Support with Employee Health and Disability), has been developed to offer guidance on making reasonable adjustments, supporting employees to remain in work, and understanding legal requirements.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled No child left behind in plans to narrow the digital divide in education, published on 21 March 2025, whether schools in areas without full fibre broadband will receive funding.

The government is investing £45 million to boost school infrastructure, including £20 million to upgrade fibre connections to a further 343 schools this year in areas without full fibre broadband, helping get schools online and boosting standards where it is most needed. This is the latest phase of funding for the programme that has so far improved connectivity for more than 1,000 schools.The department is going further, having launched a consultation to gather views on a long-term ambition for all schools and colleges to meet six core digital standards by 2030, which cover the foundations of good tech ensuring essential technology infrastructure and connectivity, digital security and leadership.

With reference to the Regulatory Policy Committee's press release entitled Crime and Policing Bill: late publication of Home Office impact assessments, published on 10 March, for what reason those impact assessments were not published on 25 February 2025.

The Government has published four Economic Notes and two Economic Impact Assessments covering measures in the Crime and Policing Bill, which can be found here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3938/publications.Two further Economic Impact Assessments, relating to the duty to report child sexual abuse, and the provisions in the Bill relating to SIM farms, the power to suspend IP addresses and domain names, and criminal liability of bodies corporate and partnerships, will be published soon.

With reference to her Department's news story entitled New powers for police to tackle neighbourhood crime, published on 25 February 2025, where the 13,000 new officers will be deployed by county.

The Government has committed to restoring neighbourhood policing through the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. This includes putting thousands more police personnel on the beat in neighbourhood policing roles up and down the country. Every part of the country will benefit from this pledge, including Bedfordshire.The delivery model for 2025/26 is designed to create an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands. As such, the 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers will be spread across England and Wales, with specific delivery profiles to be published in due course.

Pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2025 to Question 35851 on Stellantis: Luton, if he will publish details of the package of measures to support all workers facing redundancy.

The full package of support for workers facing redundancy was agreed directly between Stellantis and Unite the Union as the recognised trade union; as such Government cannot publish these details as it was not party to the negotiations.In addition to the support being provided by Stellantis, Government is ensuring workers are fully aware of the options available to them, including through the Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service – further information on this service is available here:https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/get-help-finding-a-new-job

How schools in Bedfordshire can apply to the Great British Energy Solar project.

The department and Great British Energy have launched an £80 million partnership to provide rooftop solar panels across 200 schools and colleges.This investment will cut school energy bills, support our transition to clean energy and create new opportunities for students.The project demonstrates our commitment to making Britain a clean energy superpower while supporting educational excellence.With 200 projects in this first year of the programme, the department is not proposing a bidding round to select schools and colleges. Each of the nine government office regions in England will have a minimum of ten schools and there will be larger clusters of schools in the North West, North East and West Midlands in areas of deprivation.Each cluster will include a further education college, which will also work with the contractors appointed to promote careers in renewables and construction to students and support growth in the workforce.Once the delivery partners are appointed, they will work through a long list, the department has devised, of possible schools based on criteria including deprivation, roof condition and location to produce the final list of projects. The delivery partners will visit the schools and colleges and survey the site before final decisions are made on which to include.The programme has been designed so that it could be scaled up in the future. Any funding for future years, however, will be decided as part of the multi-year spending review.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of Level 7 Apprenticeships on social mobility.

The government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth supported by a strong skills system.This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers, and the department will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves outside of the levy-funded growth and skills offer.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending financial education to primary school children.

Financial education currently forms a compulsory part of the national curriculum for mathematics, at key stages 1 to 4, and citizenship, at key stages 3 and 4. The primary mathematics curriculum includes arithmetic knowledge that supports pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, calculations with money and percentages.Primary schools are free to teach financial education within citizenship. The non-statutory primary citizenship programme of study at key stages 1 and 2 equip pupils to look after their money and realise that future wants and needs may be met through saving.The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review is committed to ensuring a high-quality, knowledge-rich curriculum that drives excellence in education across a broad range of subjects and pathways. The next phase of work will consider whether there is sufficient coverage of key knowledge and skills to prepare children and young people for future life and to thrive in a fast-changing world, including financial education. The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in autumn with the government response.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 35439 on Forests and Rivers: Access, what the options under consideration are for the East of England’s National River Walk.

The Government continues to be committed to enhancing access to nature. We are still in the process of considering locations for the National River Walks and further information will be announced in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Questions (a) 36880, (b) 36881, (c) 36882, (d) 36883 and (e) 36884, which stakeholders have been consulted.

To develop recommendations to address the reports’ findings, we have met with a range of stakeholders, including environmental NGOs, forestry industry representatives and local planning directors. We have also met with relevant government bodies, such as Forestry Commission and Natural England. Initial engagement is helping to shape our recommendations for next steps and we will continue to work alongside these groups to establish the most effective actions for improving the implementation of the National Planning Policy Framework protections for ancient woodland and ancient and veteran trees. We have no plans to publish.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 35439 on Forests and Rivers: Access, when he expects to confirm the National River Walk for the East of England.

The Government continues to be committed to enhancing access to nature. We are still in the process of considering locations for the National River Walks and further information will be announced in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Questions (a) 36880, (b) 36881, (c) 36882, (d) 36883 and (e) 36884, when he plans to conclude this work; and if he will publish the results.

To develop recommendations to address the reports’ findings, we have met with a range of stakeholders, including environmental NGOs, forestry industry representatives and local planning directors. We have also met with relevant government bodies, such as Forestry Commission and Natural England. Initial engagement is helping to shape our recommendations for next steps and we will continue to work alongside these groups to establish the most effective actions for improving the implementation of the National Planning Policy Framework protections for ancient woodland and ancient and veteran trees. We have no plans to publish.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to increase levels of data sharing between developers and local authorities.

The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) runs a Digital Planning Programme which aims to enable a modern and efficient planning system in England. Core objectives of the Programme include providing better access to planning data, improving data quality, and making data more open. We are delivering on these objectives through the Planning Data platform, which will continue to expand the availability of standardised and open data on planning.data.gov.uk to drive the creation of new tools and services that share planning data (including making more data accessible to developers) and enable improved monitoring of planning outcomes.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2025 to Question 36223 on Housing: Construction, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits for policy-making of collecting that information.

The government will keep the matter under review.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of Net Neutrality Regulations in England on the rate at which new (a) 5G and (b) 5GSA infrastructure is rolled out.

The Government’s ambition is for the UK to have nationwide coverage of high-quality standalone 5G in all populated areas by 2030. From 2023 onwards, operators began deploying standalone 5G in locations across all four nations and are continuing to upgrade their networks. The Government is committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework to support operators to achieve this ambition. This includes working with operators to understand how net neutrality rules could support operators' ability to provide innovative forms of connectivity and not act as a barrier to investment in their networks.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the time taken for decisions on planning applications to be made on the rollout of new (a) 5G and (b) 5GSA infrastructure.

The Government’s ambition is to deliver nationwide coverage of standalone 5G to all populated areas by 2030. Most wireless infrastructure, including ground-based masts and rooftop antennas, benefit from permitted development rights. This means that mobile operators can upgrade to 5G more quickly. In addition, the Chancellor announced £46 million investment into the planning system for 2025-2026 to support the deployment of infrastructure. The Government has also committed to appointing 300 new planning officers into local planning authorities. As part of our determination to strip away unnecessary and disproportionate regulatory burden, the government is considering whether further changes to planning regulations are required to reduce barriers to digital infrastructure deployment.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 36218 on Film: Business Rates, if she will make an estimate of how many film studios have a rateable value of less than £500,000.

This data is published on gov.uk as at 31 March 2024. In the 2024 stock of properties publication, the following zip file contains counts (rounded to the nearest 10) for each special category code, including film and tv studios, broken down by rateable value band in England and Wales:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67a2038f7da1f1ac64e5fe4e/ndr_stock_scat_la_2024.zip

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2025 to Question 36221 on Housing: construction, whether she plans to issue guidance to local authorities on density.

The National Planning Policy Framework is supportive of development that makes efficient use of land and makes clear that local development plans should include the use of minimum density standards to that ends. I otherwise refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 36221 on 14 March 2025.