Written questions by Beavers.

What steps her Department is taking to tackle the under-achievement of persistently disadvantaged pupils.

Awaiting answer.

What steps his Department is taking to integrate steatotic liver disease indicators into non-communicable disease policy and frameworks to meet the World Health Assembly resolution on steatotic liver disease adopted in May 2026.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of retiring the OHID Liver Disease Fingertips Profiles on the UK's ability to monitor steatotic liver disease indicators and meet the World Health Assembly resolution on steatotic liver disease adopted in May 2026.

Awaiting answer.

Whether smokefree 2030 remains his Department's target.

Awaiting answer.

If he will publish a Roadmap to a Smokefree country to ensure that areas like Blackpool and Fleetwood, where smoking rates are higher than the national average, can support every smoker who wants to quit.

Awaiting answer.

Whether he has made an assessment of the merits of expanding existing NHS England funding for (a) national Armed Forces programmes and (b) staff training programmes on Armed Forces community awaren

Currently, no such assessment has been made. The National Health Service has several training programmes such as the veteran-aware Trust accreditation scheme, the veteran-friendly GP accreditation scheme and the National Armed Forces Training and Educatio...

What steps his Department is taking to prepare guidance on applying the Armed Forces Covenant Duty to adult social care.

The Department of Health and Social Care fully supports the commitment to extend the Armed Forces Covenant duty to include social care. We are dedicated to working closely with the Ministry of Defence and local authorities to ensure the Covenant’s princip...

Whether the increase in the number of assessors to clear the Access to Work backlog will be funded from the current allocated fund for Access to Work.

The cost of additional staff recruited to process the backlog of Access to Work applications will be funded from within the Department’s existing budget allocation. It will not be funded from Access to Work allocated budgets.

What steps he is taking to develop the Access to Work Scheme.

As set out in the Written Statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 19 May (HCWS34), to increase the efficiency and reduce waiting times for the scheme we will recruit an additional 480 case staff to process the higher volume of app...

What steps he is taking to improve sovereign defence capability.

We have increased defence spending, we are backing British companies, and we are investing in skills and young people. The £182 million defence industry skills package, launched alongside the Defence Industrial Strategy, encompasses a range of initiatives...

What steps his Department is taking to ensure access to services for disabled people with assistance dogs.

The Equality Act 2010 places a general duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people, including people with assistance dogs, access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act. It has published guidance - ‘Assistance Dogs: a guide for businesses and service providers’ - to help businesses and service providers understand what they can do to meet their legal duties to assistance dog owners.Duties and protections under the Equality Act are ultimately enforceable through the courts, and anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to seek to resolve the issue. The EHRC will support people who have experienced discrimination through that process.This Government supports Guide Dogs UK’s ‘Open Doors’ campaign which aims to achieve the fullest possible access for owners of guide dogs and assistance dogs and has met Guide Dogs UK several times over the last 18 months. I have also met with other MPs and continued discussions with stakeholders on how to improve access to public spaces for disabled people with assistance dogs. This Government will continue to reinforce the message that assistance dogs should be allowed access to businesses and services, except in the most exceptional circumstances.

How many people with (a) multiple sclerosis and (b) other progressive neurological conditions received Access to Work support in 2024-25 by provision type.

Although the Department collects information on the medical condition(s) of Access to Work customers, readily available primary medical condition categories do not allow for the disaggregation of people with multiple sclerosis or other progressive neurological conditions. Where this information is recorded it may be stored as descriptive free-text and extracting it would require manual review of individual records therefore incurring a disproportionate cost. Statistics on the number of people in receipt of payment for Access to Work by readily available primary medical condition categories are published annually in Table PAY03a-d of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help increase participation in women’s football.

The Government is determined to drive participation opportunities for women and girls across sport, including football. The Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme will invest £85 million in 2026/27, with 30% of priority slots reserved for women’s and girls’ teams. We will also continue to use the Women’s Football Taskforce to deliver tangible change for women and girls from grassroots to elite level.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the decision to cease updates to fatty liver disease data on Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Fingertips profiles on trends in the level of those diseases.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) ceased to update non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) hospital admissions rates and premature deaths, in people aged under 75 years old, on the Fingertips profiles in December 2025. These only measure the most serious, and a small proportion of cases of the disease, and did not relate directly to the disease prevalence, level of disease, within the population.These are not accurate measures of NAFLD within the population, a condition that is linked to obesity and which can be prevented and treated at early stages with healthy lifestyle changes. The latest reported data for England showed that 345 deaths due to NAFLD in 2023 and 3,126 hospital admissions in 2022/23. There is no data measuring the prevalence of NAFLD.The decision to cease updates occurred after a process that examined data usage, potential duplication, and relative impact of the indicator on disease prevention and monitoring.We concluded that the cessation of publication of these indicators would have limited impact on our efforts to monitor trends on the level of these diseases within the population.Alternative data sources to monitor the population risk of this condition include measures of obesity, physical activity, and nutrition which continue to be published by OHID.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of a cross-government alcohol strategy.

The Government recognises that alcohol-related harm has wide ranging impacts across health, crime, productivity, and communities.Commitments to addressing harms from alcohol feature in several of the Government's current strategies and plans. The National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan outlines crucial steps to help people make healthier choices about alcohol, including making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information. This was reemphasised in the National Cancer Plan. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and announced the pilot of a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men. To support better outcomes for people experiencing harmful drinking, the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment were published in November 2025.The Government keeps the evidence on alcohol-related harm and the effectiveness of different policy approaches under review, and continues to consider how cross-Government action can best support improvements in population health and reduce health inequalities.

What steps he is taking to help ensure that digital projects, such as OneLogin, are accessible for deaf people and people with hearing loss who use his Department's services.

DWP is committed to providing accessible digital services for all our customers in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Within this legislation DWP is working to ensure that services conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA. DWP is continuing to onboard some services to the Government Digital Services One Login programme. The accessibility statement for this service is available at: https://signin.account.gov.uk/accessibiliity-statement For deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL), DWP has published a 5-year plan to improve BSL services. This includes reviewing digital channels and platforms to improve accessibility for BSL users. DWP is committed to providing suitable methods of communication for customers who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The Video Relay Service allows DWP to communicate with customers via a BSL interpreter using a video connection. DWP also has a dedicated DWPSign channel containing many BSL videos on benefits and services. All published video and audio content has closed captions or a transcript.

How his Department is using data to inform proposals for reform of Access to Work.

In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we consulted on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the scheme so that it helps more disabled people in work. We are considering all aspects of the scheme as we develop plans for reform following the conclusion of the consultation. In addition, available administrative data and management information will be utilised in shaping any proposals. We have recently concluded (November) the Access to Work Collaboration Committees, in which we engaged with a range of stakeholders, including DPO representatives and lived experience users, to provide discussion, experience, and challenge to the design of the future Access to Work Scheme.

How many users of Access to Work who receive funding for British Sign Language interpreters have had their awards expire before their renewal is processed.

We do not hold this information in a way that can be extracted. Identifying such cases would require a manual review of individual awards, which would incur disproportionate cost. Please find the Official statistics on payments and approvals which are published annually and can be accessed here: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK

How many people who use Access to Work for the provision of British Sign Language interpretation receive funding for an additional condition to difficulty in hearing.

Although the Department collects information on the medical condition(s) of Access to Work customers and the types of support they are awarded and claim payment for, we are unable to link awarded support elements to specific medical conditions without manually examining individual case notes. It would therefore incur a disproportionate cost to identify what support, if any, customers receiving a ‘BSL Interpreter’ have been awarded in relation to medical conditions other than ‘Difficulty in hearing’.

How many users of Access to Work received funding for a British Sign Language interpreter in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what was the average cost per person of those awards.

Statistics on the number of people in receipt of payment for Access to Work support and average annual payments per person, by support worker type which includes a category for ‘BSL Interpreter’ are published in tables PAY02 and AVG02 of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2025 - GOV.UK. Table 1 summarises these figures: Table 1. Number of customers in receipt of payment and average annual payment received per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter between financial years 2020/21 and 2024/25 Financial YearNumber of customers in receipt of payment for a ‘BSL Interpreter’Average annual payment per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter’ (£ nominal)Average annual payment per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter’ (£ 2024/25 prices)2020/212,81012,70014,9002021/222,89015,20017,9002022/232,94016,60018,3002023/243,17017,20017,9002024/253,21018,20018,200 NotesNumbers of people have been rounded to nearest 10 and average annual payments to nearest £100.Real terms expenditure removes the effect of inflation to make year-on-year comparisons more informative, these figures are quoted in 2024/25 prices