Written questions by Perteghella.

If she will meet with me and my constituents to discuss the introduction of examinations in British Sign Language for deaf children.

Under Ofqual’s regulatory conditions, all students taking GCSE, AS and A level qualifications must be assessed in English, except where another language is permitted, such as in modern foreign language qualifications. Students may be assessed in British Sign Language (BSL) where an awarding organisation offers this as a reasonable adjustment. Guidance is provided by the Joint Council for Qualifications, and adjustments can include the use of BSL interpreters for spoken instructions, readers, scribes and assistive technology.Access arrangements are also available for all national curriculum tests, and guidance is provided by the Standards and Testing Agency. This allows for adjustments such as sign language interpreters for instructions and compensatory marks for pupils with profound hearing impairments.The government is also developing a landmark GCSE in BSL, which will be accessible for both first-time learners and existing BSL users.I would welcome the opportunity to meet the hon. Member and her constituents to discuss this issue.

If he will have discussions with his international counterparts on the potential merits of creating an international symposium of experts on Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders to (a) share best practice and (b) agree consensus guidance on diagnosis and treatment.

There are regular opportunities for ministers to meet with their international colleagues on a range of health issues to discuss best practice and learning. For this reason, there are no current plans to arrange a specific symposium on diabetes.NHS England will continue its type 1 diabetes and disordered eating (T1DE) pilots, which have demonstrated that integrating diabetes and other health services, including mental health services, can significantly enhance the quality of life for people with T1DE and ultimately save lives.

Whether her Department plans to introduce examinations in British Sign Language for deaf children as part of the implementation of the curriculum review.

Under Ofqual’s regulatory conditions, all students taking GCSE, AS and A level qualifications must be assessed in English, except where another language is permitted, such as in modern foreign language qualifications. Students may be assessed in British Sign Language (BSL) where an awarding organisation offers this as a reasonable adjustment. Guidance is provided by the Joint Council for Qualifications, and adjustments can include the use of BSL interpreters for spoken instructions, readers, scribes and assistive technology.Access arrangements are also available for all national curriculum tests, and guidance is provided by the Standards and Testing Agency. This allows for adjustments such as sign language interpreters for instructions and compensatory marks for pupils with profound hearing impairments.The government is also developing a landmark GCSE in BSL, which will be accessible for both first-time learners and existing BSL users.I would welcome the opportunity to meet the hon. Member and her constituents to discuss this issue.

What her planned timetable is for tackling pavement parking.

The Department has been considering all the views expressed in response to the 2020 pavement parking consultation and is currently working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response as soon as possible.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) the policy options and (b) delivery mechanisms available to enable local authorities to keep pavements (i) clear and (ii) safe for people.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill includes measures to empower local leaders to regulate shared on-street cycle rental schemes, such as Lime bikes, and act decisively to address any issues of poor parking and antisocial behaviour. Rental e-scooters are already tightly controlled. The Department’s guidance specifies that there should be sufficient parking in e-scooter trial areas and local authorities should ensure they do not become obstructive to others. Operators are also using geofencing technology, parking incentives and penalties to improve parking compliance.Once the e-scooter trials end, the future framework is designed to be flexible and allows new vehicles like e-scooters, to be included as they are legalised for use on the road.The Department has been considering all the views expressed in response to the 2020 pavement parking consultation and is currently working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Environmental Land Management Scheme Landscape Recovery tier continues beyond the current round.

The Government reconfirmed its commitment to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes in the Autumn 2024 Spending Review. More than £2.7 billion a year will be invested in sustainable farming and nature recovery from 2026/27 to 2028/29. Landscape Recovery projects that were awarded funding in rounds 1 and 2 are continuing, with the first projects moving into the delivery phase earlier this year. Landscape Recovery is integral to the delivery of Defra’s statutory environmental targets.

Food and Rural Affairs, what her planned timetable is for publication of the rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan.

The Government concluded a rapid review of the existing Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) and published a statement of the rapid review’s key findings on 30 January 2025. It is our intention to publish a revised EIP in due course, which will be our long-term plan for improving the natural environment and people’s enjoyment of it.

Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the potential impact of uncertainty about future rounds of the Landscape Recovery tier of Environmental Land Management schemes on farmers’ willingness to engage in long-term nature recovery projects.

The Government reconfirmed its commitment to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes in the Autumn 2024 Spending Review. More than £2.7 billion a year will be invested in sustainable farming and nature recovery from 2026/27 to 2028/29. Defra wants Landscape Recovery to work for collaborative groups of farmers delivering ambitious nature recovery at the landscape scale. The Department is pleased the projects currently in the scheme involve over 1,000 land managers, many of which are farmers. As the first projects are entering the implementation phase, farmers are benefitting directly from engaging in long-term nature recovery projects.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Environmental Land Management Landscape Recovery tier continues beyond the current funding round to deliver nature recovery at landscape scale.

The Government reconfirmed its commitment to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes in the Autumn 2024 Spending Review. More than £2.7 billion a year will be invested in sustainable farming and nature recovery from 2026/27 to 2028/29. Landscape Recovery projects that were awarded funding in rounds 1 and 2 are continuing, with the first projects moving into the delivery phase earlier this year. Landscape Recovery is integral to the delivery of Defra’s statutory environmental targets.

If he will publish a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.

The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.We are 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.We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, from 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via integrated care boards. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that young people with care-experience have equal access to support services promoting wellbeing, opportunity and inclusion.

The Ministerial Board on Care Leavers, chaired by the Secretary of State for Education, works to identify how each department can respond to the unique challenges that care leavers face across all aspects of their lives – opening up, for example, a world of employment opportunities by adding care leavers to social value requirements for government procurement.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of importing cynomolgus monkeys born in (a) Africa and (b) Asia for use in scientific procedures on the welfare of those animals.

The Home Office is committed to maintaining the highest standards of animal welfare regarding the use of non-human primates in scientific procedures. The use of cynomolgus monkeys in the United Kingdom is strictly regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA).The Home Office commissioned a comprehensive assessment from the expert Animals in Science Committee on the welfare implications associated with the use of non-human primates bred and imported for use in scientific procedures. You can find the report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nonhuman-primates-bred-for-use-in-scientific-purposes.Following recommendations from the Committee, the Home Office has introduced a time-limited transitional period relating to the sourcing of non-human primates. During this period, the use of first-generation cynomolgus macaques will only be permitted where there is a scientific need, where there is an inability to reasonably source self-sustaining animals, where there is a robust plan to transition to a sustainable supply, and where their use will prevent culling, thereby reducing harm. You can read the Government’s response to the report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-human-primates-bred-for-use-in-scientific-purposes-response-from-lord-hanson.

Whether she plans to publish data on the number of animals bred for use in laboratories that were not used in scientific procedures in 2024.

The Home Office is reviewing the collection and publication of additional statistics on animals that were bred but not used in scientific procedures.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that water companies are penalised for (a) repeated illegal sewage discharges and (b) other repeated breaches of environmental regulations.

We will not let companies get away with illegal activity and where breaches are found, the Environment Agency will not hesitate to hold companies to account. The Water (Special Measures) Act provides the most significant increase in enforcement powers to the regulators in a decade, giving regulators the teeth they need to take tougher action against water companies. These include new powers to enable the Environment Agency to recover costs associated with their enforcement of the water industry. A consultation has been launched to expand and strengthen the current range of financial penalties available to the Environment Agency in a bid to clamp down on more offences. Water companies who commit environmental offences could face quicker penalties of up to £500,000, under changes being considered by the government. The Environment Agency has also increased water company inspections to 10,000 per year from April 2025 as part of the Government’s wider focus to hold companies accountable and improve our water environment.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on SMEs in Stratford-on-Avon constituency.

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy, including on businesses. The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many water bodies are classified as failing to meet good ecological status for which the latest data is available; and what steps she is taking to help improve the quality of water in water bodies.

The last full classification update was produced in 2019 when 3893 water bodies of a total of 4651 were failing to meet good ecological status in 2019. The Independent Water Commission, tasked by the Government to produce recommendations to transform how our water system works, delivered its final report 21 July 2025. This included recommendations intended to restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health for future generations. The Government will respond to the recommendations in full via a White Paper and will introduce a new water reform bill, bringing forward root and branch reform to secure better outcomes for customers, investors and the environment.

What recent discussions she has had with (a) local authorities and (b) academy trusts on ensuring a consistent national approach to the admission of summer-born children.

The department keeps its guidance for schools and parents about requests for summer born children to be admitted out of their normal age group under review and updates it as required.The guidance for schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-advice-for-admission-authorities(opens in a new tab).The guidance for parents is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission(opens in a new tab).The guidance is clear that it is rarely in a child’s best interests to miss a year of their education by being admitted to primary school in year 1 rather than reception, or to secondary school in year 8 rather than year 7. Therefore, if a parent requests their summer born child start their reception year aged 5, it should be rare for such a request to be refused.The department conducts regular surveys of local authorities and parents to keep this issue under review. These show that only a small proportion of parents of summer born children request that they are admitted out of their normal age group, and the vast majority of such requests are agreed. The findings can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/summer-born-children-research-and-guidance(opens in a new tab).

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing simplified guidance for (a) parents and (b) schools on how requests for (i) deferred entry and (ii) out-of-cohort progression are handled.

The department keeps its guidance for schools and parents about requests for summer born children to be admitted out of their normal age group under review and updates it as required.The guidance for schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-advice-for-admission-authorities(opens in a new tab).The guidance for parents is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission(opens in a new tab).The guidance is clear that it is rarely in a child’s best interests to miss a year of their education by being admitted to primary school in year 1 rather than reception, or to secondary school in year 8 rather than year 7. Therefore, if a parent requests their summer born child start their reception year aged 5, it should be rare for such a request to be refused.The department conducts regular surveys of local authorities and parents to keep this issue under review. These show that only a small proportion of parents of summer born children request that they are admitted out of their normal age group, and the vast majority of such requests are agreed. The findings can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/summer-born-children-research-and-guidance(opens in a new tab).

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that guidance on the progression of summer-born children from primary to secondary education is applied (a) clearly and (b) consistently across all schools.

The department keeps its guidance for schools and parents about requests for summer born children to be admitted out of their normal age group under review and updates it as required.The guidance for schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-advice-for-admission-authorities.The guidance for parents is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission.The guidance is clear that it is rarely in a child’s best interests to miss a year of their education by being admitted to primary school in year 1 rather than reception, or to secondary school in year 8 rather than year 7. Therefore, if a parent requests their summer born child start their reception year aged 5, it should be rare for such a request to be refused.The department conducts regular surveys of local authorities and parents to keep this issue under review. These show that only a small proportion of parents of summer born children request that they are admitted out of their normal age group, and the vast majority of such requests are agreed. The findings can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/summer-born-children-research-and-guidance.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled UK government response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) market study into housebuilding, published on 22 October 2024, when he plans to implement the recommendations agreed to in that paper.

The government is already acting on many of the CMA’s recommendations and remains fully committed to delivering solutions that address the challenges identified in its October 2024 market study into housebuilding.