Written questions by Vickers.

What discussions she has had with Tees Valley Combined Authority on transport priorities for the region.

My Department has allocated Tees Valley Combined Authority £978m through the Transport for City Regions settlements over the 5-year period from 2027-32. This is in addition to £310m allocated to Tees Valley via the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS). My officials maintain regular engagement with Tees Valley Combined Authority, including a visit and strategic discussion with the CA in February 2025 which took place over two days and included in-depth conversations on the region’s transport priorities. A follow-up meeting between Mayor Ben Houchen and I was planned but had to be postponed at the Mayor’s request.

What recent assessment he has made of cancer (a) referral and (b) diagnosis rates in Tees Valley.

Cancer patients are waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment on the NHS, including in Tees Valley. It is crucial that patients with cancer have access to treatment as quickly as possible after their diagnosis.The NHS is working with local providers to identify opportunities in both community diagnostic centres and hospital based diagnostic services to improve performance against the Faster Diagnosis Standard, to reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer.

What steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for family court proceedings.

Good progress is being made to reduce waiting times in the family court. In public law, average case duration was 33 weeks as at the end of May 2025, which is a four-week reduction since May 2024. In private law, the average case duration in was 38 weeks as at the end of May 2025, which is a reduction of just under four weeks since May 2024.The Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26, with a continued focus on tackling delay and reducing outstanding caseloads. In public law, this includes a system wide focus on the Public Law Outline; and in private law, areas delivering a wider rollout of the Pathfinder model which has made significant progress in addressing delays.

What discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on ensuring that pensioners with no other income do not pay income tax on the state pension.

This Government remains committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement. The commitment to protect the Triple Lock saw over 12 million pensioners benefit from a 4.1% increase to their basic or new State Pension in April 2025. Over the course of this Parliament, the full yearly rate of the new State Pension is expected to increase by around £1,900 based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast. The Personal Allowance will continue to exceed the basic and full new State Pension in 2025/26. This means pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension without any increments will not pay any income tax. The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. The current Government is committed to keeping people’s taxes as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility and so decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds at Budget 2025. From this winter pensioners with incomes below or equal to £35,000 will benefit from Winter Fuel Payments from this winter. This threshold is broadly in line with average earnings. It ensures the vast majority of pensioners – over three quarters, and around 9 million individuals in England and Wales - will receive support. It also ensures the means testing of Winter Fuel Payments has no effect on pensioner poverty. The relevant impact assessments are available on gov.uk: Equality Impact Assessments produced for targeting Winter Fuel Payment - GOV.UK Winter Fuel Payments eligibility change - internal modelling on pensioner poverty levels - GOV.UK.

What steps she is taking to ensure major infrastructure projects in the North East are delivered on time and on budget.

This government is investing significantly in the North East to improve transport connectivity and grow the economy. Following the recent Spending Review, we announced funding for Nexus to develop an upgrade to the signalling system on the Tyne and Wear Metro and confirmed our continued support for the Tyne Bridge and Central Motorway scheme. These major schemes will be for local delivery, with the North East Mayor and local authorities responsible for ensuring they are delivered on time and to budget. My Department maintains close contact with local partners responsible for delivering these schemes. In addition, the North East and Tees Valley mayoral combined authorities receive funding to deliver local transport projects through various funds, including the City Region Sustainable Transport and Transport for City Regions settlements (CRSTS and TCR). The respective Mayors for these areas are responsible for ensuring delivery of these projects and report regularly into the Department on progress. Furthermore, the North East will benefit from the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme, which we recently confirmed we will be progressing. We will develop the delivery timetable as part of the process of setting the next Road Investment Strategy.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential strategic merits of increasing shipbuilding capacity in the north of England.

This Government has an ambitious shipbuilding pipeline with major naval programmes in progress at a number of UK shipyards, recent export success of the Type 26 frigate to Norway and a number of forthcoming civil shipbuilding programmes. The National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) is leading the work for Government to explore further opportunities, working with the whole of industry including in the North of England. As part of their work, the NSO assesses current and future capacity needs while recognising the input required from the commercial part of the sector across the United Kingdom.

What plans she has to improve bus (a) reliability and (b) frequency in (i) rural and (ii) semi-rural parts of the North East.

The Government is committed to delivering the better, more reliable bus services that passengers deserve throughout the country, including in rural areas. We introduced the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill on 17 December as part of our ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill will put passenger needs, reliable services and local accountability at the heart of the industry by putting the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, including in rural areas. The Bill includes a measure on socially necessary services so that local authorities and bus operators have to have regard for alternatives to changing or cancelling services. In addition, the Government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country, of which the Tees Valley Combined Authority was allocated £7.2 million. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities. The Government reaffirmed its commitment to investing in bus services long-term in this Spending Review. On 11 June, the Government confirmed additional funding per year from 26/27 to maintain and improve bus services, including taking forward franchising pilots and extending the £3 bus fare cap until March 2027.

What support her Department provides to local authorities to maintain bus routes with low commercial viability.

The Government is committed to delivering better buses throughout the country and wants to see an end to the decline in bus services we have seen in recent years. The Government introduced the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill on 17 December as part of its ambitious plan for bus reform. The Bill will put passenger needs, reliable services and local accountability at the heart of the industry by putting the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England. We know these plans need to be backed with funding and we have confirmed funding of £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country of which the Tees Valley Combined Authority was allocated £7.2 million. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services can be used in whichever way they wish to deliver better services for passengers. This could include subsidising services which are not commercially viable. The Government reaffirmed its commitment to investing in bus services long-term in this Spending Review. On 11 June, the Government confirmed additional £900m resource funding per year from 26/27 to maintain and improve bus services. Local transport authorities will find out their individual allocations from this funding in due course. In addition, the Government continues to make available around £244 million each year (in 2025-26, rising to £249 million in 2026-27) to fund the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) and BSOG Plus. The BSOG is paid to operators of eligible commercial bus services and community transport organisations to help keep fares down and run services that might otherwise be unsustainable. BSOG Plus was introduced in July 2023 to provide further support in maintaining services to eligible commercial operators.

What support her Department provides to help single parents in Teesside access (a) training and (b) employment.

The Government is committed to reducing child poverty. Evidence suggests that if parents work, including second earners and lone parents, this substantially reduces the risk of child poverty; and that growing up in poverty is a strong predictor of children’s education and future earnings. Parents claiming Universal Credit have support from Work Coaches, who provide individual, tailored help to all customers across the country. This includes supporting the development of skills needed to look for and obtain sustained employment and advice to parents on childcare support. There is also funding available through the Flexible Support Fund to remove immediate barriers to employment, including support for upfront childcare costs, travel costs, work wear, tools and equipment. The number of hours a parent who has childcare responsibilities is expected to work or search for work can be reduced to allow the parent to combine work and care. We are also considering how we can improve our support to help parents into work as part of our Child Poverty Strategy.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of digital hearings on access to justice.

Remote hearings can, in appropriate cases, improve access to justice by reducing travel requirements, enabling more flexible scheduling and supporting vulnerable users through remote participation. The mode of hearing is a judicial decision ensuring the interests of justice are met. User experience and feedback continue to inform improvements to the remote hearing service.

What role is being played by UK Armed Forces in NATO exercises involving Eastern European allies.

UK Armed Forces routinely exercise with our NATO Allies, testing our interoperability across all domains and our responses to the threats we face.So far in 2025, Royal Navy patrol boats have participated in exercises including BALTOPS, NATO's premier maritime-focused annual military exercise in the Baltic region and on Exercise HEDGEHOG in Estonia, with over 2000 British Army personnel taking part alongside NATO allies and partners in this multinational defence drill focused on strengthening Estonia's defence posture.In addition, the UK's persistent presence in Estonia and Poland under Operation CABRIT provides regular opportunities to exercise alongside our NATO allies.

What steps she is taking to improve emergency call handling times by forces.

The process handling of emergency and non-emergency calls to the Police is determined by operationally independent local forces, however The Home Office and Policing have undertaken work in support of national consistency and to reduce wait times for the public.Average wait time data for 999 emergency calls to policing is publicly available at: 999 performance data | Police.uk. While average wait time data for 101 non-emergency calls is publicly available at: 101 performance data | Police.uk. Both datasets demonstrate overall improvement in reducing wait times for the public, achieved through force collaboration at national level to agree on key performance metrics and share best practices.The Home Office is also funding work to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into force control rooms to triage non-policing demand to the correct service, support forces in better understanding type and volume of calls and support call handlers in administrative tasks during and after calls and in completing rapid risk assessments.The Home Office and Policing are committed to delivering greater channel choice for the public when reporting crimes or concerns, this includes funding the availability of online crime reporting and pilots of a national Victim’s Portal where the public can communicate with officers via direct messaging rather than telephone should they prefer.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of workforce shortages on ambulance response times in rural areas of the North East.

North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) is fully staffed at present across their patient-facing roles in emergency care. When vacancies arise, recruitment is targeted in those areas. The NEAS works closely with universities to support the 3-year education programme for paramedics so when jobs are available, they are encouraged to apply. NEAS will also, if required, use overtime, additional hours, bank shifts or local third-party providers should they have any short-term or unplanned shifts not covered to ensure response times and therefore patient care is not affected.The latest figures show that Category 2 response times in the North East were 20 minutes 51 seconds on average, the fastest in the country.

What recent steps she has taken to increase staffing levels in the prison service.

We know that sufficient and skilled frontline staffing is fundamental to delivering safe, secure, and rehabilitative prisons. We remain committed to ensuring prisons are sufficiently resourced and that we retain and build levels of experience. The latest prison staffing numbers can be accessed in the HMPPS workforce quarterly publication: HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2025 - GOV.UK.Substantive recruitment efforts will continue at all sites where vacancies exist or are projected, with targeted interventions applied to those prisons with the most need. We closely monitor staffing levels across the estate and look to provide short-term support where needed. Where prisons consider that their staffing levels will affect stability or regime, they can draw on support from other establishments in the short term, through processes managed centrally by HMPPS.On 22 May, the Government accepted all 13 of the recommendations put forward by the independent Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) for 2025/26. This year’s award represents an increase of at least 4% for all frontline prison staff, delivering another real-terms pay rise on top of the one provided last summer. This brings the starting salary for an entry-level officer (on the national rate, 39 hours with unsocial hours) from £34,494 to £35,875. The award was announced two months earlier than last year, recognising our commitment to accelerating the PSPRB timetable to deliver a timely pay award to staff.

What progress she has made on expanding multi-agency safeguarding hubs across police forces in the North East.

Multi-agency working is critical to safeguarding children, and multi-agency safeguarding hubs (or ‘multi-agency front doors’) play an important role in the safeguarding system. However, the Government is going further to better protect children, including through the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which is establishing multi-agency child protection teams and improving information sharing, including through a single unique identifier.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of Operation Soteria on the prosecution of sexual offences.

The new Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, which launched in April 2025, has brought together three existing victim orientated policing programmes, including Operation Soteria, to oversee the response to all forms of VAWG and child sexual abuse. This will ensure that this expertise can be harnessed and put into practice in forces across the country, intensify cooperation and enhance intelligence sharing.Through Operation Soteria, we are supporting police and prosecutors to deliver a step-change in how they investigate rape. The Home Office invested £9.4 million to develop a new National Operating Model (NOM) for the investigation of rape. This model was developed through Operation Soteria, which brought together frontline policing from across 19 forces and academics from a range of disciplines to test new tools and techniques. All police forces in England and Wales are now implementing this new approach to rape investigations.It is not possible to link changes in metrics solely to Operation Soteria, as they are likely to be the result of various changes introduced to improve outcomes in adult rape cases however, there have been positive improvements in some key metrics since forces began implementing Operation Soteria – such as prosecution volumes.

What support is available to victims of domestic abuse on navigating the civil court system.

Victims of domestic abuse in both the civil and family court systems have the protection of special measures such as giving evidence via a video link or from behind a screen, and prohibition of direct cross examination of a victim by a perpetrator.The Government recognises that victims of domestic abuse may need help to understand their legal rights and navigate the courts systems in civil and family proceedings. Legal aid is available for private family matters, such as child arrangements, financial remedy proceedings and divorce if an individual is a victim of domestic abuse or at risk of being abused. Legal aid is also available for domestic abuse victims for certain urgent protection applications – for example, non-molestation orders and occupation orders.In addition, the Ministry of Justice is providing funding to support litigants in person, including domestic abuse victims, to help them navigate the civil justice system effectively, including preparation for court and support at court. In 2025/26, over £6 million of funding will be provided to 60 organisations to support the delivery of free legal support and information, both in-person and online. This includes some Citizens Advice and Law Centres, Rights of Women and AdviceNow, as well as organisations that specifically focus on supporting victims of domestic abuse.Support is also provided via a specialist service FLOWS (Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors), delivered by RCJ Advice, to support victims of domestic abuse to apply for protective orders in the family courts. The service can help all survivors, whether or not they are eligible for legal aid.

What support is available to police forces tackling rural crime in (a) County Durham and (b) North Yorkshire.

Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector. That is why this Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas. Under our Safer Streets Mission reforms, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping. This financial year we are providing the first Home Office funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit, a national policing unit which help forces tackle rural crime priorities and is a great example of farmers and police working together at national and local level. We are also working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to deliver the next iteration of their Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy, to ensure the Government’s Safer Streets Mission benefits every community. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will ensure that every community in England and Wales will have named and contactable officers dealing with local issues, and that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses. This will be supported by the delivery of up to an additional 3000 officers into neighbourhood teams by Spring next year, as part of our ambition to deliver 13,000 neighbourhood officers into police forces across England and Wales by the end of this parliament.

What recent steps she has taken to help tackle organised crime networks operating in ports in the North East.

The Government is committed to tackling serious and organised crime (SOC) across the United Kingdom, including criminal activity at and around our ports. The Home Office works closely with law enforcement partners, including the National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force, and regional police forces, to disrupt organised crime groups operating in the North East and nationally.In November 2024, the Prime Minister announced an additional £58 million for the NCA’s core budget in 2025/26, representing a 9% increase from the previous year. On 11 June 2025, the Chancellor confirmed up to £280 million per year for the Border Security Command (BSC) by 2028–29. This investment supports the NCA’s expanded capacity to tackle organised immigration crime, including the recruitment of 100 new specialist officers, bringing the total dedicated full time employees close to 500.The BSC is working strategically across the border security system, alongside the NCA, police, and intelligence agencies, to dismantle smuggling gangs and disrupt their supply chains. It is also collaborating with international partners to pursue organised immigration crime groups operating across Europe and beyond, with recent operations resulting in widely publicised arrests.While the BSC continues to mature, it is already working closely with delivery partners across Whitehall to collect system-wide data on organised immigration crime disruptions. This will help track long-term impact, support operational delivery, and ensure a secure and effective border. This collaborative approach is designed to increase the number of criminal groups dismantled and reduce small boat crossings, with performance monitored to inform future strategy.The NCA also works with UK and international partners to tackle SOC at the border. For example, following a joint operation with Dutch authorities, an individual was sentenced recently to 17 years for conspiring to import 1.5 tonnes of Class A drugs through the Port of Immingham. The drugs, concealed in rolls of artificial grass, had an estimated street value of £120 million. This case demonstrates the NCA’s ability to disrupt high-harm criminal networks operating at UK ports.

What recent progress he has made in digitising patient records in NHS trusts in Teesside.

University Hospitals Tees (UHT), comprising of the North Tees and Hartlepool and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts, continues to progress its ambitions in digitising patient records across Teesside, North Yorkshire, and County Durham.A recent digital patient record success for UHT was the achievement of the BSI0008:2020 accreditation. This means that the scanning bureau at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust now holds the accreditation equivalent to that of major national and international organisations for storing patient information electronically.