Written questions by Maguire.

How many unique visitors with (a) a UK IP address and (b) IP addresses from elsewhere have accessed the prepare.campaign.gov.uk website since the sub-domain was first set up.

The Prepare website brings together advice and useful material from a range of sources into one place to help individuals, households and communities prepare for emergencies. The civil service hours were not recorded. The cost of creating the content for the campaign site was £60,000. Of the unique users recorded between 22nd May 2024 and 13th October 2025, 327,555 were from the UK (92%) and 29,756 were from outside the UK (8%). These figures only include users who accepted GOV.UK cookies. To date, no paid-for-marketing activity has taken place to promote prepare.campaign.gov.uk. The Government’s Resilience Action Plan has committed to do more to provide households with preparedness information. In September, the Prepare website was included in the message sent out to UK mobile phones as part of the Government’s test of the Emergency Alerts system. We continue to work with our local and national partners, including organisations from the voluntary, community and faith sectors, to raise awareness of advice on the Prepare website and to seek feedback to inform updates to the content. The Government is currently considering what further public communications activities might support improvements to public preparedness for emergencies. We published the first annual UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness in July 2025. The results will be used to inform the development of future public preparedness communications and to monitor trends.

What steps his Department is taking to increase the UK’s readiness against cyber-attacks.

The CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre said this week that the gap between the rising pace of the cyber threat and the UK’s collective resilience against it continues to grow. Cyber attacks are increasing in scale and impact. The number of nationally significant cyber incidents has more than doubled in the last year, including the recent attacks against Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer and other major British businesses. The Government is committed to strengthening cyber security across the UK. I wrote to chief executives and chairs of the FTSE 350 this week asking them to make cyber security a top priority. The forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences and ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital services that companies rely on are secure. Our proposed legislative measures on ransomware - a targeted ban on ransom payments, a payment prevention regime and mandatory reporting - will build on the foundation that the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will set. Together they form part of a series of cyber legislation that will secure the UK against cyber threats. Early next year the Government will publish a new National Cyber Action Plan that will set out how we will respond to the growing threat and work with industry to raise resilience levels across the economy.

What steps he is taking in response to the findings by Together for Short Lives in their report entitled The State of Children’s Palliative Care 2025.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of expanding the eligibility for the Youth Guarantee to include all 16–24-year-olds.

As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are developing a Youth Guarantee to ensure young people can access high-quality training, apprenticeships, or personalised support to find work. As a first step, we are working with eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers across England which are testing innovative, locally led approaches to improve support for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of becoming NEET. This includes strengthening local coordination, through local leadership, and outreach to better connect young people with opportunities. The Youth Guarantee Trailblazers have been extended for a further year, to continue supporting young people in 2026/27. The insights gained from the Trailblazers will inform the future design and delivery of the Youth Guarantee. The government is committed to supporting young people to earn and learn. That is why we have announced that we will offer a guaranteed job to young people on Universal Credit, who are unemployed for over 18 months. In parallel, we continue to deliver targeted support through the Youth Offer, which provides tailored assistance to young people aged 16-24 who are claiming Universal Credit. This includes a range of interventions designed to help young people move closer to employment, such as dedicated support from Youth Employability Coaches, access to Youth Hubs, and intensive guidance from Jobcentre Work Coaches during the first 13 weeks of a Universal Credit claim. For those with more complex needs, specialist Youth Employability Coaches provide intensive, tailored support. These coaches work closely with Disability Employment Advisors, to ensure that interventions meet the specific needs of each young person.

What marketing (a) has taken place and (b) is planned to drive traffic to the prepare.campaign.gov.uk website.

The Prepare website brings together advice and useful material from a range of sources into one place to help individuals, households and communities prepare for emergencies. The civil service hours were not recorded. The cost of creating the content for the campaign site was £60,000. Of the unique users recorded between 22nd May 2024 and 13th October 2025, 327,555 were from the UK (92%) and 29,756 were from outside the UK (8%). These figures only include users who accepted GOV.UK cookies. To date, no paid-for-marketing activity has taken place to promote prepare.campaign.gov.uk. The Government’s Resilience Action Plan has committed to do more to provide households with preparedness information. In September, the Prepare website was included in the message sent out to UK mobile phones as part of the Government’s test of the Emergency Alerts system. We continue to work with our local and national partners, including organisations from the voluntary, community and faith sectors, to raise awareness of advice on the Prepare website and to seek feedback to inform updates to the content. The Government is currently considering what further public communications activities might support improvements to public preparedness for emergencies. We published the first annual UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness in July 2025. The results will be used to inform the development of future public preparedness communications and to monitor trends.

What assessment his Department has made of the safety of fertility apps for their users.

No formal assessment has been made of fertility apps and no steps are being taken to regulate them. Fertility apps are privately owned health apps, and as such they do not share data directly with the Department.Where fertility apps meet the definition of a medical device, the safety of these products already falls under the remit of the United Kingdom’s medical device regulations and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Examples of products that would fall within the remit of these regulations would be apps intended to facilitate conception and enable contraception based on basal body temperature.Patients looking for fertility advice should speak to their general practitioner or a licensed fertility clinic. They can also find unbiased information on fertility treatments and UK licenced clinics on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s website, at the following link:www.hfea.gov.uk

What the planned level of ringfenced NHS funding for children’s hospices is after 2025-26.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.

Whether he plans to introduce multi-year funding settlements for children’s hospices.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of expenditure on marketing the prepare.campaign.gov.uk website on public preparedness in the event of an emergency.

The Prepare website brings together advice and useful material from a range of sources into one place to help individuals, households and communities prepare for emergencies. The civil service hours were not recorded. The cost of creating the content for the campaign site was £60,000. Of the unique users recorded between 22nd May 2024 and 13th October 2025, 327,555 were from the UK (92%) and 29,756 were from outside the UK (8%). These figures only include users who accepted GOV.UK cookies. To date, no paid-for-marketing activity has taken place to promote prepare.campaign.gov.uk. The Government’s Resilience Action Plan has committed to do more to provide households with preparedness information. In September, the Prepare website was included in the message sent out to UK mobile phones as part of the Government’s test of the Emergency Alerts system. We continue to work with our local and national partners, including organisations from the voluntary, community and faith sectors, to raise awareness of advice on the Prepare website and to seek feedback to inform updates to the content. The Government is currently considering what further public communications activities might support improvements to public preparedness for emergencies. We published the first annual UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness in July 2025. The results will be used to inform the development of future public preparedness communications and to monitor trends.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of increases in living costs on children's levels of access to (a) extracurricular activities, (b) school trips and (c) enrichment programmes.

The department has recently announced the extension of the holiday activities and food programme (HAF) with over £600 million for the next three financial years. This means nutritious meals and exciting activities for more than half a million children across the country every year, helping them to thrive during the school holidays.The department will also be publishing a new Enrichment Framework by the end of this year, supporting schools to create a broad and accessible enrichment offer for all pupils.The department recognises the impact the cost of living may have on children’s participation in a variety of enrichment activities and is working to ensure that all children have access to beneficial opportunities of this sort. We continue to collect data on pupil participation in enrichment through our omnibus surveys.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to diversify UK fruit and vegetable supply chains away from climate-vulnerable regions.

To ensure a consistent supply of food, the UK relies on a combination of strong domestic production from the UK’s agricultural and food manufacturing sectors, and a diverse range of overseas supply sources. Trade supports UK food supply resilience. This is due to the UK having diverse trade routes, strong international supply and purchasing power. At home, the Government’s recently published Food Strategy identifies priority outcomes for resilient domestic production for a secure supply of healthier food, and also to create conditions for the food sector to thrive and grow sustainably, including investment in innovation and productivity, and fairer more transparent supply chains.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of misinformation spread by Russia on democracy in the UK.

The Government's Defending Democracy Taskforce, chaired by the Security Minister, is focused on safeguarding our democracy from the full range of threats including foreign interference.MI5’s National Protective Security Authority has recently launched new guidance to protect the UK’s democratic institutions from foreign interference. It notes that the UK is a target of long-term strategic foreign interference and provides advice for at-risk individuals to take to protect themselves, their teams and the integrity of our democratic processes.Protecting the UK’s democratic processes continues to be a priority for this Government and we have a number of mechanisms to tackle foreign interference and misinformation:The National Security Act 2023 provides the security services and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to deter, detect, and disrupt state threats.The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced measures which strengthen our ability to tackle information threats, especially in relation to electoral processes.

How many civil service hours were incurred in creating prepare.campaign.gov.uk; and what the cost was.

The Prepare website brings together advice and useful material from a range of sources into one place to help individuals, households and communities prepare for emergencies. The civil service hours were not recorded. The cost of creating the content for the campaign site was £60,000. Of the unique users recorded between 22nd May 2024 and 13th October 2025, 327,555 were from the UK (92%) and 29,756 were from outside the UK (8%). These figures only include users who accepted GOV.UK cookies. To date, no paid-for-marketing activity has taken place to promote prepare.campaign.gov.uk. The Government’s Resilience Action Plan has committed to do more to provide households with preparedness information. In September, the Prepare website was included in the message sent out to UK mobile phones as part of the Government’s test of the Emergency Alerts system. We continue to work with our local and national partners, including organisations from the voluntary, community and faith sectors, to raise awareness of advice on the Prepare website and to seek feedback to inform updates to the content. The Government is currently considering what further public communications activities might support improvements to public preparedness for emergencies. We published the first annual UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness in July 2025. The results will be used to inform the development of future public preparedness communications and to monitor trends.

If he will set a national target for eliminating corridor care in NHS hospitals.

We are doing everything we can as fast as we can to eliminate corridor care. The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet, so that patients can be treated with dignity.Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This plan includes a target to reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge from an emergency department compared to 2024/25, with the aim of this occurring less than 10% of the time, and a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care.We will also publish new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care which will support better hospital flow, which aims to reduce overcrowding and long waits.

What steps his Department is taking to regulate fertility apps.

No formal assessment has been made of fertility apps and no steps are being taken to regulate them. Fertility apps are privately owned health apps, and as such they do not share data directly with the Department.Where fertility apps meet the definition of a medical device, the safety of these products already falls under the remit of the United Kingdom’s medical device regulations and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Examples of products that would fall within the remit of these regulations would be apps intended to facilitate conception and enable contraception based on basal body temperature.Patients looking for fertility advice should speak to their general practitioner or a licensed fertility clinic. They can also find unbiased information on fertility treatments and UK licenced clinics on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s website, at the following link:www.hfea.gov.uk

Whether her Department plans to issue public guidance on the limitations and risks of self-swab rape kits in order to ensure survivors of sexual violence are directed to Sexual Assault Referral Centres.

We recognise the devastating impact of sexual violence, which is why we are absolutely committed to tackling rape and sexual offences and achieving the best possible outcome for victims.We are aware of self-swabbing kits being promoted and made available to victims of sexual violence. These kits are in no way associated with the Government’s VAWG mission.The National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection has produced guidance for police forces outlining the steps officers should take when investigating a case which involves a self-swab. The Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine and other criminal justice agencies have also published a joint position statement on this topic, which does not advocate for the use of self-swabbing kits.There are many types of support available for those who have been a victim of a sexual offence, this includes the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line and Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs). We recommend that victims of sexual violence attend a SARC, where trained clinicians can provide holistic care and forensic evidence can be collected in accordance with established standards.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of UK readiness against cyber-attacks.

The CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre said this week that the gap between the rising pace of the cyber threat and the UK’s collective resilience against it continues to grow. Cyber attacks are increasing in scale and impact. The number of nationally significant cyber incidents has more than doubled in the last year, including the recent attacks against Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer and other major British businesses. The Government is committed to strengthening cyber security across the UK. I wrote to chief executives and chairs of the FTSE 350 this week asking them to make cyber security a top priority. The forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences and ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital services that companies rely on are secure. Our proposed legislative measures on ransomware - a targeted ban on ransom payments, a payment prevention regime and mandatory reporting - will build on the foundation that the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will set. Together they form part of a series of cyber legislation that will secure the UK against cyber threats. Early next year the Government will publish a new National Cyber Action Plan that will set out how we will respond to the growing threat and work with industry to raise resilience levels across the economy.

What steps his Department is taking to increase evacuations of (a) medically vulnerable children and (b) their dependents from Gaza.

I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Statement HCWS899 made to the House on 1 September 2025 by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Child patients are accompanied by their immediate families. Three groups of patients have now arrived, and we expect further evacuations to happen later in the autumn.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce discrimination faced by people diagnosed with epilepsy in the workplace.

Under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) protection is available where a worker or job applicant’s condition fits the definition of a disability set out in section 6 of the Act. Under the Act, a person meets the definition of disability if they have ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The Act defines long-term in this context as having lasted, or being likely to last for at least 12 months, or likely to last for the rest of the life of the person. Where a person meets the Act’s definition of disability, the employment provisions make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against such employees and applicants. The Act also places a duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments to any element of a job, job application or interview process, which may place disabled people at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.

What steps his Department is taking to improve support for people with epilepsy from Jobcentre Plus Disability Employment Advisers.

The department recognises that epilepsy is a serious neurological condition, which can greatly affect an individual’s ability to work and live well. Disability Employment Advisers are trained work coaches , followed by additional role specific learning designed to support their role. This learning enables Disability Employment Advisers to treat each claimant as an individual, understand the impact of different disabilities and health conditions, and provide tailored support to help overcome barriers to employment. Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist support to help individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Disability Employment Advisers work with the local community to advocate for customers, collaborate with local partners such as employers, voluntary organisations, the NHS and local government services to facilitate support that meets local needs and promote other programmes such as Disability Confident and Work Well. For those with health conditions and disabled people that would benefit from more intensive support, Jobcentre staff can signpost people to Connect to Work, our local-area led support in England and Wales. This started to go live in April 2025 and we expect it to be live in all areas of England and Wales by early 2026. In Connect to Work, participants are given a dedicated specialist employment support adviser who works alongside them to understand their career goals and help them to address any specific barriers to employment. Participants are supported to have conversations with prospective employers, helping to remove the need to go through complex application processes. The employment adviser works with both the employer and the participant to ensure that the transition into work is smooth and that the workplace is inclusive. We are building towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits. We are already making progress, and there are now over 1000 Pathways to Work Advisors in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales who are helping disabled people and people with health conditions towards and into work. And through the new Jobs and Careers Service, the department will enhance support so that customers can access the help they need at the right time.