Written questions by Dewhirst.

Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Game changer for the nation, published on 19 June 2025, how much and what proportion of the funding for new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities will be allocated to support (a) gyms, (b) swimming pools and (c) leisure centres; and what his planned timetable is for the allocation of this funding.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to grassroots sports facilities, including gyms, pools and leisure centres, which are vital spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities. The £400 million funding announced last June will support facilities across the country. We will ensure that this funding promotes health and wellbeing, and helps to remove the barriers to physical activity for under-represented groups. We are working with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, before setting out further plans on how future funding will be allocated.

Pursuant to the answer of 5 January 2026, to Question 96853, on NHS England: Costs what estimate he has made of the (a) gross and (b) net number of civil servants who will leave the Civil Service due to redundancy.

The Government’s ambition remains to reduce staff numbers by up to 50% across the Department, NHS England, and the integrated care boards, which is the equivalent to up to 18,000 posts, including a number of Civil Servants, through paid exits via voluntary exits and redundancies, natural attrition, and recruitment controls, combined together. These reductions will be made by March 2028. The overall cost of paid exits across organisations is estimated at approximately £1 billion to £1.3 billion. The calculations remain subject to ongoing policy development and refinement, and are also subject to actual take-up of exit schemes and calculated individual costs. Relevant, material financial information relating to this active policy development will be published in due course in line with transparency obligations. The Government remains committed to reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication, to save more than £1 billion a year by the end of Parliament, which will go directly to improving patient outcomes.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the International Journal of Wildland Fire's article entitled Assessing soil heating beneath prescribed burns, published on 15 January 2026.

The date and title of the citation provided does not correspond to any article published by the International Journal of Wildland Fire, but research on this topic is reviewed and taken into account in our policy development.

With reference to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts, Data for July to September 2025, published on 25 December 2025, how customer satisfaction with cultural sensitivity is monitored for the Security Guarding Services contract with MITIE SECURITY LIMITED.

The Security Guarding Services contract KPI relating to cultural sensitivity is a qualitative KPI and is measured through a Customer Satisfaction evaluation survey completed on a quarterly basis. The KPI is monitored and reported through the contract management meetings held with Mitie Security Limited.

With reference to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts, Data for July to September 2025, published on 25 December 2025, what the Key Performance Indicators are for the (a) Digitise Delivery Support contract with DELOITTE MCS LTD and (b) QAT74 End to End Testing contract with LA International Computer Consultants Limited.

For Digitise Delivery Support contract with DELOITTE MCS LTD performance is managed through Balanced score card performance process by the Migration Border Tech Portfolio business. Performance assessed the supplier against themes :- Performance to pay process- Service requests and onboarding- Delivery of the outcome of the various roles; project management, partnering behaviours and value add services and social value.For QAT74 End to End Testing contract with LA International Computer Consultants Limited, the KPIs are :- Partnering Behaviours- Delivery- Value Add

Pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2025 to Question 98794 on Mission Boards, who the internal and external members are of the Safer Streets Mission Board.

The Safer Streets Mission Board is chaired by the Home Secretary. Ministers from relevant government departments are invited to attend meetings based on specific discussion topics, as are external experts where necessary.The Mission Board is supported by a monthly Safer Streets Delivery Board, which brings officials from government departments together to drive delivery and outcomes under the Safer Streets Mission. The Delivery Board is chaired by the Director General for the Public Safety Group in the Home Office and is attended by senior officials from relevant government departments.

Whether NHS staff receive employer pension contributions on dates on which they are on strike.

Contributions to the NHS Pension scheme are based on pensionable earnings. If staff participate in strike action and do not receive pay for those days, there is no pensionable pay for that period, so neither employee nor employer contributions are made.

Pursuant to the answer of 10 September 2025 to Question 74317 on DESNZ: Social Media, which social media influencers have been paid to undertake advertising for his Department since July 2024.

Due to commercial confidentiality, we are unable to release this information.

Pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2025 to Question 98794 on Mission Boards, who the internal and external members are of the Clean Energy Superpower Mission Board.

The Clean Energy Superpower Mission Board is chaired by the DESNZ Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP. The board does not have a fixed list of internal or external members, rather we engage with other government departments, external organisations and industry experts depending on the issues for discussion.

With reference to the policy paper entitled Outcome of the exploratory discussions on the possible participation of the United Kingdom in the European Union’s internal electricity market, published on 22 December 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of dynamic alignment on the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce: interim report of 24 November 2025.

The detail of commitments for a future agreement for the UK’s participation in the EU’s internal electricity market is a matter for negotiations. As the Chancellor set out at Budget, the government will present a full response to the Nuclear Regulatory Review within three months, taking account of our international obligations, national security considerations, and planning, environmental and court processes. The government will complete implementation of the Nuclear Regulatory Review within two years, subject to legislative timelines on elements requiring primary legislation.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2025 to Question 98122, on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Public Appointments, if she will list the annual remuneration of each of the current Direct Ministerial Appointments in post.

The names of special representatives, envoys and direct ministerial appointments are published on gov.uk at the time of their appointment.

Whether (a) he and (b) his Permanent Secretary approved the use of paid facility time for trade union activities outlined in the 2024-25 departmental annual report and accounts.

The departmental Trade Union Facility Time Guidance sets out a provision for paid activity time to be requested and approved, by exception. This is managed/agreed locally by management from a day to day perspective. The overall levels of activity time are monitored by HR and any concerns are dealt with on behalf of the Secretary of State/Permanent Secretary.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 75027 on Military Aircraft: Ministers, how many of the 44 tasks were (a) domestic and (b) overseas.

It has been the practice of successive administrations not to publish granular information relating to the official movements of Ministers and those accompanying them within the United Kingdom. Information about official overseas Ministerial travel is published as part of the Cabinet Office transparency returns and made available on the GOV.UK website.

Whether any of the members of the Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission have made a declaration of political activity; and where their declarations of interest are published.

Members of the Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission were asked to declare political activity during the application process and none were declared. We do not publish their conflicts of interest.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2025 to Question 71247 on Military Aircraft: Ministers, which Senior Ministers have been authorised to have occasional use of RAF CSAT aircraft.

The following Senior Ministers have been authorised to have occasional use of RAF CSAT aircraft: The Prime MinisterSecretary of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development OfficeChancellor of the Exchequer This is consistent with policies to CSAT travel from previous Governments.

With reference to the Government's transparency data entitled Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts: Data for July to September 2025 for all departments, published on 25 December 2025, for what reason Tackling Economic Inequality is a Key Performance Indicator for the contract entitled NHSmail Collaboration Licensing Platform that is supplied by Accenture (UK) Limited.

The inclusion of Tackling Economic Inequality as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for NHS England’s NHSmail Collaboration Licensing Platform contract reflects the Government’s Social Value Model, introduced to ensure that public procurement delivers wider economic and social benefits alongside core contractual outcomes. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0620-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-central-government-contractsAs for every procurement, NHS England selected the most appropriate Social Value Theme from those set out in the above guidance, based on the subject matter of the contract. In this case, Tackling Economic Inequality was chosen. This theme encompasses measures that promote economic opportunity, support skills and employment, and encourage innovation and productivity across supply chains.Each Social Value Theme in turn contains detailed Model Award Criteria, and for this contract NHS England applied:Innovation and Disruptive Technologies, to support innovation and disruptive technologies throughout the supply chain to deliver lower cost and/or higher quality goods and services; andModernising Delivery and Increasing Productivity, to support the development of scalable and future-proofed new methods to modernise delivery and increase productivity.The KPI was included to ensure those commitments are monitored transparently. This is consistent with the Government’s requirement to publish KPIs for its most important contracts, as part of strengthening accountability and transparency in public procurement.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2025 to Question 86060 on NHS: Recruitment, what guidance has been provided to NHS bodies on the (a) length and (b) type of criminal conviction that would prevent a person from being employed in the NHS under the Widening Access Demonstrator programme.

The Department commissions NHS Employers to issue employer guidance under the NHS Employment Check Standards, which includes the criminal record check requirements in the National Health Service in England. The standards direct employers in the NHS to use Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) guidance to understand which offences are disclosed or filtered, depending on age, sentence length, and offence type. The DBS applies statutory filtering rules to decide which convictions are shown on DBS certificates in England and Wales. DBS rules apply across all sectors for roles needing criminal record checks. Charities like Unlock and NACRO offer extra advice and guidance for individuals with criminal records and employers hiring them.

With reference to his Department's press release entitled New Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary announced, published on 31 October 2025, whether the outgoing Permanent Secretary will receive any (a) exit and (b) severance payment.

It is anticipated that any severance payments received, would be published in the Ministry of Defence annual report and accounts for 2025 to 2026.

What is his policy on members of the Armed Forces (a) being members of single-sex private members’ clubs in a personal capacity and (b) participating in such clubs in a professional capacity.

Defence does not hold a specific central policy on individual membership of single-sex private members’ clubs. Participation with external organisations in a professional capacity is subject to formal approval through the Chain of Command.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 98107 on Department for Business and Trade: Public Appointments, whether any of those direct ministerial appointees have made a declaration of political activity.

Of the 30 direct ministerial appointees, 6 have declared political activity.Due diligence is conducted and individuals are required to complete a formal declaration of interests, in line with Cabinet Office guidance. These appointees deliver vital expertise to government and there is no bar to political activity for these roles.