Written questions by Brown-Fuller.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that planning policy adequately reflects the potential risks posed by dynamic environments such as a) estuaries, b) floodplains and c) coastlines.

Chapter 14 of the National Planning Policy Framework sets out a holistic approach to meeting the challenges of climate change, coastal change, and flooding. It makes clear that the planning system should take full account of all climate impacts, including coastal change and flood risk. The Framework outlines a sequential approach to flood risk management, requiring inappropriate development to be directed away from areas at highest risk, and providing strong safeguards where development is necessary in these areas. It also specifies that local planning authorities should limit the planned lifetime of development in Coastal Change Management Areas through temporary permissions and restoration conditions if necessary to reduce unacceptable levels of future risk to people or development. The government is considering whether further changes are required to sufficiently reflect the risks to such areas and we intend to consult on a new suite of national policies for decision making before the end of this year.

What steps he is taking to reduce the time taken for occupational therapy a) assessments and b) reassessments.

Integrated care boards are responsible for the commissioning Occupational Therapy services that meet the needs of their local populations. This includes overseeing waiting lists for access to Occupational Therapy services, improve outcomes and deliver best value from the health budget.

Communities and Local Government, if he will direct electricity providers to periodically conduct Electrical Installation Condition Reports.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 80904 on 10 October 2025.Electricity providers, the electricity network operators and electricity suppliers, the companies who distribute and supply electricity to homes and businesses, have no role in electrical safety inspections and are not responsible for electrical safety in homes and businesses.For social rented homes we have introduced regulations, that came into force this month, requiring all landlords to have the electrical installations in their properties inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every five years. This is in line with regulations already in place in the private rented sector. Social landlords must also have the electrical equipment that they provide under the tenancy checked by a qualified person at least every five years.

What steps he is taking to ensure that households without signal are able to access the smart meter network.

The Data Communications Company (DCC) is obligated under the conditions of its licence to provide Wide Area Network (WAN) coverage to at least 99.25% of premises across Great Britain. The DCC is also required by licence conditions to seek to provide coverage to all premises where it is practicable and cost proportionate, and to assess opportunities to increase the overall level of coverage. For the minority of premises that currently do not receive WAN coverage, a new solution will be trialled early next year which will involve harnessing, with their consent, customers’ broadband connections to carry smart metering communications.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of levels of public understanding of winter illness (a) transmission and (b) prevention; and if he will consider a public information campaign on infection prevention, in addition to vaccination programmes.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Public Perceptions Tracker provides insight into public attitudes and behaviours in relation to priority public health issues. It is a quarterly online survey, with a sample of approximately 1,000 participants per wave. The sample is representative of the following groups in England: gender identity; age; region; and social grade; interlocked with ethnicity.In addition to vaccine campaigns, the UKHSA runs annual no-cost public information campaigns each winter, focused on promoting infection prevention behaviours. The campaign includes social media content, downloadable digital assets, and stakeholder engagement.The UKHSA produces 'Virus Watch' which includes 60-second expert videos, explanatory infographics, and data summaries. This aims to help people understand which viruses are circulating and take the right actions to protect their health and prevent spread.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of schools being required to have specialist allergy nurses.

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions and have policies and processes in place to ensure these can be well managed. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training. School nursing services provide health and wellbeing support for children and young people from age 4 up to 19. They provide specialist advice to schools on the management of medical conditions, including allergies.Schools must have regard to the ‘Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school’ statutory guidance, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.The department has committed to reviewing this guidance and intends to issue a consultation on an updated version of this statutory guidance.

What steps he is taking to (a) help reduce delays in continuing healthcare reviews for previously unassessed periods of care and (b) reduce the associated administration.

The Department and NHS England published guidance in 2023 for assessing requests for Previously Unassessed Periods of Care (PUPoC). This guidance sets out how integrated care boards (ICBs) should approach and address PUPoC assessment requests. The guidance is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/continuing-healthcare-previously-unassessed-periods-of-care/dealing-with-requests-for-assessments-of-previously-unassessed-periods-of-care-from-1-april-2012The guidance states that ICBs should set their own reasonable and proportionate timeframes for responding to requests. It provides best practice examples for how ICBs should complete PUPoC requests, based on the timeframe for the unassessed period of care and the completion of the required application and consent forms. NHS England publishes quarterly statistics relating to the activity of NHS Continuing Healthcare and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care which includes PUPoC data, reporting on the number of cases agreed eligible, both total and per 50,000. This is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/nhs-chc-fnc/

What assessment he has made of access to specialist endometriosis services for young people aged 17 and under.

We know that girls and women deserve better, which is why we are renewing the Women’s Health Strategy, to assess the progress that has been made so far and to continue progressing delivery while empowering women with information about heavy menstrual bleeding and reproductive health conditions.All hospitals providing specialised care and treatment for endometriosis for patients aged 17 and under must have a paediatric gynaecologist as part of their multi-disciplinary team, who will be a part of the treatment planning and decision-making process. The individual’s parents or a person with parental responsibility must also be involved where applicable. If this is not available, these patients must be referred to a paediatric and adolescent gynaecology service.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of support available for the transition into adulthood at age 18 for young people who were in care during early childhood before being (a) adopted or (b) placed under alternative permanency arrangements.

I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 29 October 2025 to question 84112.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of criteria for (a) parental and (b) professional involvement in decision-making for young people who lack the capacity to make the appropriate decisions to keep themselves safe after they turn 18.

People over the age of 18 years old come under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, which has the statutory principle that an individual must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established otherwise. All practicable steps must be taken to help any individual above 18 years old to make a decision by themselves, and if unsuccessful, then all decisions made on their behalf must be in their best interests.On 18 October 2025, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced the intention to launch a public consultation on the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) in the first half of 2026. The consultation will cover a revised Code of Practice and will incorporate changes in case law, legislation, and good practice in application of the MCA.The LPS, as introduced by the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019, aims to deliver greater involvement of families and professionals in providing care to vulnerable people in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty.

What the minimum (a) English and (b) maths requirements are to complete (i) apprenticeships and (ii) vocational courses; and whether he plans to review those requirements.

Since February 2025, adults aged 19 and over no longer need to achieve a standalone English and maths qualification on top of their apprenticeship, where their employer agrees that this is not an essential part of their training. Young apprentices who are aged 16-18 at the start of their apprenticeship will continue to be required to achieve English and maths qualifications to put them in the best position to progress in their life and careers. Upskilling in English and maths will continue to remain a key feature of all apprenticeships. All apprentices will continue to be required to secure and be assessed on the job-specific English and maths skills they need as part of the apprenticeship standard. Regarding wider vocational courses, any student on a 16 to 19 study programme or T Level, who has not yet achieved an English and/or maths GCSE grade 4 or higher, must continue to be taught these subjects. However, the award of a qualification for these vocational courses is not contingent on their achievement of a grade 4.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the support available to young people up to the age of 25 with education, health and care plans who are no longer accessing education.

I refer the hon. Member for Chichester to the answer of 29 October 2025 to Question 84047.

What assessment his Department has made of the cost of (a) implementation for GP practices and (b) operation of the online appointment booking system introduced for GP practices in October 2025.

General practices (GPs) have been required to offer and promote an online consultation tool to their registered patients since 2021.The change introduced in October 2025 regarding online access will mean explicitly requiring that all modes of contacting the practice are available at least during core hours, from 08:00 to 18:30. This means parity for walk-in, phone, and online access. This requirement builds on policies that have been in place for several years to encourage the shift to modern GPs. Practices that consistently use online access have reported improvements in services for both patients and staff, support timely access to care, and enhance productivity for patients.The National Health Service provided extensive support to practices in the lead up to the introduction of these requirements and continues to do so. This includes reaching out to any practices that are struggling to help them to prepare, including providing guidance, webinars, case studies, and bringing in GP practitioners and practice staff who are experts in service redesign and improvement in GPs.NHS England has provided a total of £71 million in funding for practices to procure high-quality online consultation, messaging, and appointment booking tools. An additional £88 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 was provided for transition cover and transformation support for practices to implement these new systems. We are also investing an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, this is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The percentage of patients who said that it was easy to contact their GP increased from 61% in August 2024, to 74% in October 2025 according to the Office for National Statistics Health Insight Survey.

What steps he is taking to help ensure that patients who are digitally excluded can retain (a) telephone and (b) in-person routes to book GP appointments.

We know that some patients may struggle or prefer not to use digital options. We are committed to ensuring that patients who are digitally excluded can retain telephone and in-person routes to book general practice (GP) appointments, by mandating that GPs must maintain these traditional access methods, alongside digital options. The move to digital-first access is designed to free up phone lines for those who want and need them, not replace them.

Whether he plans to extend drink driving offences to include a) persons on cycles, b) riding horses and c) in charge of horse drawn vehicles.

This Government takes road safety seriously. We are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We are considering a range of policies under the new strategy; the first for 10 years. This includes the case for changing motoring offences such as drink driving. We intend to publish by the end of the year.

What steps her Department is taking to promote parity of esteem for T Level qualifications in university admissions processes.

The department regularly engages with the higher education (HE) sector to ensure T Levels are recognised as excellent preparation for higher study. We encourage the sector to accept T Levels on an equivalent basis to A levels by assigning them UCAS points in line with three A levels. For example, the highest overall T Level grade, Distinction*, is awarded the same number of points as three A*s at A level. T Level progression into HE is increasing year on year, as we are seeing more subjects become accessible to T Level graduates, with prestigious courses such as medicine now open to T Level learners in some institutions. Whilst thousands of T Level students go on to HE each year, not all providers give full clarity on their entry requirements. We are working closely with the sector to address this and continue to inform the sector on the merits of T Levels as a qualification of choice.

Whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the system of fining parents for taking their children out of school.

Tackling absence is central to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. Thanks to the efforts of schools and local authorities, attendance is moving in the right direction. Children attended over 5.3 million additional days in the 2024/25 school year compared to the 2022/23 school year, with over 140,000 fewer pupils persistently absent.The ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance sets out a support-first approach, ensuring penalty notices are used only when appropriate.The national framework for penalty notices, introduced in August 2024 following national consultation, is designed to improve consistency and fairness across the country. Penalty notices must be considered on an individual basis, preventing schools from having blanket rules. Schools or local councils may choose to issue a ‘notice to improve’ instead of a penalty notice as a further offer of support before a penalty notice is issued.The department is monitoring the impact of these reforms alongside wider attendance measures, including regional improvement for standards and excellence Attendance and Behaviour Hubs and Attendance Mentors, which are helping to drive improvements.

What steps she is taking to ensure T level qualifications are (a) recognised and (b) accepted for university admissions on an equivalent basis to A Levels.

The department regularly engages with the higher education (HE) sector to ensure T Levels are recognised as excellent preparation for higher study. We encourage the sector to accept T Levels on an equivalent basis to A levels by assigning them UCAS points in line with three A levels. For example, the highest overall T Level grade, Distinction*, is awarded the same number of points as three A*s at A level. T Level progression into HE is increasing year on year, as we are seeing more subjects become accessible to T Level graduates, with prestigious courses such as medicine now open to T Level learners in some institutions. Whilst thousands of T Level students go on to HE each year, not all providers give full clarity on their entry requirements. We are working closely with the sector to address this and continue to inform the sector on the merits of T Levels as a qualification of choice.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of recent changes to (a) business rates relief, (b) VAT and (c) employer's National Insurance contributions on (i) small and medium-sized hospitality businesses and (ii) independent pubs and restaurants in rural constituencies.

The Government recognises the vital role that all hospitality businesses play in supporting the UK’s economy and communities. That is why, as set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government will introduce permanently lower business rates multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties with ratable values below £500,000 from 2026-27. Ahead of the new multipliers being introduced, the Government prevented RHL business rates relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business. By extending the RHL relief, the Government has saved the average pub, with a ratable value of £16,800, over £3,300. Without any Government intervention, the RHL relief would have ended entirely. To ensure that key amenities are available, and that community assets are protected in rural areas, Rural Rates Relief provides 100% business rates relief for certain properties in eligible rural areas with populations below 3,000, including those that are the only public house, with a RV of up to £12,500. The Employment Allowance has been more than doubled to £10,500, ensuring that over half of businesses with National Insurance liabilities, including those in the hospitality sector, will either gain or see no change this year. A Tax Information and Impact Note was published alongside changes to employer NICs, and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts employment levels to increase over the coming years.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on improving the UK’s relationship with the EU.

Since coming to office, this Government has worked to strengthen our relations with the EU, to grow our economy, boost living standards for British people and keep the UK safe. We will continue to drive forward this long-term strategic partnership over the coming months and years, and use it to deliver what the British people want; jobs, security, and effective action to counter illegal migration.