Written questions by Wilson.

How many prison cell fires there were in 2024, broken down by institution.

The overwhelming majority of the cell fires were considered ‘minor’ and quickly dealt with by staff, and medical assessment is provided for anyone who may have been exposed to smoke or heat. Where it is found that a fire is the result of arson, or of recklessness, the prisoner responsible will face robust punitive action, which can include further criminal charges. All operational staff receive Respiratory Protective Equipment training. Prison officers receive it as part of their Prison Officer Entry Level Training.The requested information is provided in the table below:PrisonNumber of firesHM Prison Altcourse39HM Prison Ashfield0HM Prison Askham Grange2HM Prison Aylesbury11HM Prison Bedford55HM Prison Belmarsh17HM Prison Berwyn53HM Prison Birmingham48HM Prison Brinsford49HM Prison Bristol48HM Prison Brixton19HM Prison Bronzefield36HM Prison Buckley Hall5HM Prison Bullingdon72HM Prison Bure1HM Prison Cardiff2HM Prison Channings Wood13HM Prison Chelmsford16HM Prison Coldingley4HM Prison Cookham Wood2HM Prison Dartmoor1HM Prison Deerbolt23HM Prison Doncaster45HM Prison Dovegate73HM Prison Downview2HM Prison Drake Hall1HM Prison Durham16HM Prison East Sutton Park1HM Prison Eastwood Park3HM Prison Elmley30HM Prison Erlestoke17HM Prison Exeter13HM Prison Featherstone3HM Prison Feltham31HM Prison Five Wells68HM Prison Ford0HM Prison Forest Bank137HM Prison Fosse Way33HM Prison Foston Hall7HM Prison Frankland4HM Prison Full Sutton22HM Prison Garth27HM Prison Gartree13HM Prison Grendon1HM Prison Guys Marsh78HM Prison Hatfield1HM Prison Haverigg1HM Prison Hewell10HM Prison High Down19HM Prison Highpoint37HM Prison Hindley24HM Prison Hollesley Bay1HM Prison Holme House41HM Prison Hull22HM Prison Humber67HM Prison Huntercombe15HM Prison Isis35HM Prison Isle of Wight20HM Prison Kirkham0HM Prison Kirklevington Grange0HM Prison Lancaster Farms6HM Prison Leeds31HM Prison Leicester23HM Prison Lewes42HM Prison Leyhill0HM Prison Lincoln5HM Prison Lindholme96HM Prison Littlehey3HM Prison Liverpool32HM Prison Long Lartin33HM Prison Lowdham Grange79HM Prison Low Newton0HM Prison Maidstone3HM Prison Manchester53HM Prison Moorland9HM Prison Morton Hall4HM Prison New Hall2HM Prison Northumberland9HM Prison North Sea Camp0HM Prison Norwich57HM Prison Nottingham20HM Prison Oakwood42HM Prison Onley26HM Prison Parc65HM Prison Pentonville28HM Prison Peterborough40HM Prison Portland26HM Prison Prescoed2HM Prison Preston12HM Prison Ranby49HM Prison Risley16HM Prison Rochester24HM Prison Rye Hill0HM Prison Send0HM Prison Spring Hill2HM Prison Stafford1HM Prison Standford Hill2HM Prison Stocken20HM Prison Stoke Heath6HM Prison Styal26HM Prison Sudbury2HM Prison Swaleside116HM Prison Swansea3HM Prison Swinfen Hall19HM Prison Thameside70HM Prison The Mount13HM Prison The Verne1HM Prison Thorn Cross1HM Prison Usk0HM Prison Wakefield17HM Prison Wandsworth98HM Prison Warren Hill1HM Prison Wayland22HM Prison Wealstun56HM Prison Werrington15HM Prison Wetherby23HM Prison Whatton0HM Prison Whitemoor23HM Prison Winchester23HM Prison Woodhill83HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs6HM Prison Wymott11Total2931Data source: HMPPS Fire Reporting Tool, Sphera Cloud

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a suicide prevention strategy aimed at (a) school and (b) university students.

The government is committed to reducing the numbers of lives lost to suicide, including through prevention in educational institutions.The Department of Health and Social Care published a Prevention Strategy for England on 11 September 2023 with over 130 actions aimed at reducing the suicide rate. The strategy also sets ambitions to improve support for people who self-harm and people who have been bereaved by suicide. As part of the strategy, a number of groups have been identified for consideration for tailored or targeted action at a national level, including children and young people.Guidance to schools is reviewed regularly, including the statutory ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance that all schools must have regard to. Amongst other things, the guidance sets out the role all staff must play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including identifying where mental health concerns are also safeguarding concerns and making appropriate referrals into early help support services and statutory support services as appropriate.The statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which came into force in September 2020, advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.The department is currently reviewing the RSHE guidance and as part of this process the department will explore whether additional content is required on suicide prevention.The National Review of Higher Education Student Suicides will report with important lessons for better supporting students and preventing tragedies in higher education (HE) settings in the spring. This will be published alongside updated data on HE student suicides from the Office for National Statistics.

What steps her Department is taking to increase (a) awareness and (b) uptake of the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund for eligible families.

Local authorities, Adoption England and Regional Adoption Agencies promote the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) to families throughout their adoption journey as a source of support should they need it.In December 2023, the department changed the name of the Fund from the Adoption Support Fund to the ASGSF, to reflect the eligibility of special guardianship order (SGO) families and encourage increased numbers of applications for therapy where these families might need support.The department does not hold definitive data on the number of families eligible for the ASGSF at any one time. During the period from 7 February to 31 December 2024, 18,030 individual children have accessed support through the ASGSF.

What funding he plans to provide for child and adolescent mental health services in the next financial year.

Priorities and spending for the next financial year will be set out in the NHS Operational Planning Guidance for 2025/26, which is due to be published shortly. It will then be for integrated care boards, in line with the national guidance, to make their own decisions on allocations to services in their areas, including child and adolescent mental health services.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025 to Question 21873 on Teachers: Pay, when she plans to publish the allocation of the £300 million revenue funding for Further Education in the 2025/26 financial year.

The Autumn Budget 2024 provided an additional £300 million revenue funding for further education (FE) for the 2025/26 financial year to ensure young people are developing the skills this country needs.On 15 January the department notified education institutions via the Education and Skills Funding Agency update that approximately £50 million of this funding will be made available to general FE colleges and sixth form colleges for the period April to July 2025. This one-off grant will enable colleges to respond to current priorities and challenges, including workforce recruitment and retention. Schools and academies will also continue to get grant funding for their 16 to 19 provision over this period.The remaining funding will be made available in 16 to 19 funding rates for the 2025/26 academic year, with the aim of ensuring that all 16 to 19 providers are funded on an equitable basis from 2025 to 2026. We are preparing the operational detail of the 16 to 19 funding rates and formula and the allocations timeline for the 2025/26 academic year. We aim to publish more information as soon as we can and will provide a further update in due course.The full update can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-15-january-2025.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Institute of the Motor Industry's survey entitled EV TechSafe Technician Forecasts - Jan 2024.

The Government is committed to working with the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) to ensure mechanics across the UK are equipped with the skills needed to safely repair electric vehicles (EVs). Currently over 58,000 technicians, 24% of the workforce, are qualified to work on EVs. This aligns with the 2.8% of licensed vehicles on UK roads that are zero emission.By endorsing the IMI TechSafe Standards, the Government aims to strengthen trust within the industry and among consumers, supporting the transition to electric vehicles and fostering the development of a highly skilled workforce.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the use of hydrometallurgical separation in the recycling of electric vehicle batteries to help facilitate the recovery of lithium.

The Government seeks to encourage sustainable critical mineral production and pro-cessing. As electric vehicle batteries reach the end of their economic life, there will be an opportunity and necessity to repair, repurpose, reuse, and recycle them. The chemicals sector will play an important role in recovering valuable materials like lithium, enhancing environmental sustainability, and alleviating pressure on primary supply To this end, the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) aims to support the creation of an internationally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the UK. It provides support to late-stage R&D and capital investments in strategically important technologies. This in-cludes unlocking strategic investments in battery recycling.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring cyclists and motorcyclists to wear high visibility attire after dark.

The safety of vulnerable road users is a priority for the Government. Cyclists and motorcyclists should make every effort to ensure that they can be clearly seen by other road users, both for their own safety and for that of others. Rule 59 of The Highway Code recommends that people who cycle should wear light-coloured or fluorescent clothing to help other road users to see them in daylight and poor light, with reflective clothing and/or accessories in the dark. Rules 86 and 87 of The Highway Code provide similar guidance on visibility for motorcyclists riding in daylight and at night.Any change to these rules would need to be carefully considered to ensure that it was proportionate and enforceable, and that it did not have unintended consequences such as putting people off cycling. The Government has no current plans to mandate the wearing of high visibility clothing for cyclists or motorcyclists.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing (a) licencing for builders and (b) affordable recourse for people impacted by rogue builders.

This Government is working to ensure we have a high-quality and professional construction industry, which delivers safe work and has consumer protection at the heart of this. Any licencing scheme would need to be robust, proportionate and evidence based.The Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets out the standards consumers can expect from traders and remedies if these rights are breached. Consumers can seek redress through the Small Claims Court, where they can pursue claims of up to £10,000 against a rogue builder. Citizens Advice provides information on making claims and can refer complaints on to Trading Standards for appropriate enforcement action.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to reduce the timeframe for the authorisation of new electric vehicle battery recycling facilities.

Environmental permits enable Government missions on economic growth, green innovation and net zero. To protect the environment and the public, all environmental permits require appropriate assessment to prevent harm. All environmental permitting is subject to statutory timeframes. Defra and the Environment Agency are constantly reviewing and improving Environmental Permitting services to make them efficient and reactive to customer needs. The Environment Agency will consider prioritising applications, if they meet specific criteria that include supporting economic growth or are for nationally significant infrastructure projects. The Environment Agency encourages applicants to contact them as early as possible in any project plans and take up pre application advice (Get advice before you apply for an environmental permit), particularly for complex permits for new and novel technologies such as vehicle battery recycling facilities.

With reference to the Government Office for Science's research entitled What are the technical and policy barriers to increasing EV battery recycling capacity in the UK?, updated on 21 November 2023, what progress he has made in researching (a) water miscible binders, (b) binderless electrodes and (c) methods of recycling polyvinylidene difluoride.

The £610m Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, supports mission-led academic research on battery recycling technologies through the Faraday Institution’s (FI’s) ReLiB project. ReLiB researchers at the University of Leicester have recently demonstrated algae-derived water miscible anode blinders that can be fully recovered at the end of the batteries life, and are looking to demonstrate an “all” water-soluble binder system that will simplifying battery recycling by the Summer 2025. ReLiB researchers at the University of Birmingham have also been collaborating with a leading supplier of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) binder on the use of “green” solvents for binder recovery from used batteries. They have also recently demonstrated a new process to recover and reuse PVDF binders in new cells.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of recycling lithium iron phosphate batteries.

The UK currently has an emerging capacity to recycle lithium-ion batteries, with most EV batteries being dismantled and shipped to Europe. Recyclus Group, based in Wolverhampton, is the country's first and only industrial-scale recycling facility. It is licenced to turn 22,000 tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries, taken from a range of sources including electric cars, each year into black mass without using water, and has a low carbon footprint.

If she will update the Green Book to allow for the valuation of the reduced carbon footprint of UK produced materials as opposed to imported ones.

The Green Book has supplementary guidance on the valuation of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. This is found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65aadd020ff90c000f955f17/valuation-of-energy-use-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-appraisal.pdf That supplementary guidance notes that appraisals should consider the greenhouse gas emissions content of all of the materials that are used to implement a proposal. This applies both to materials produced in the UK, as well as those imported from abroad.

Media and Sport, if she will include podcasts in the broadcasting code.

The Government has no plans to widen the scope of the Broadcasting Code to include all online podcasts.

How many pupils who are eligible for free school meals are not claiming it.

The new government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child.The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty and widening attainment gaps between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers. Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low income family. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty by tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring 2025. The taskforce will consider a range of policies in assessing what will have the greatest impact in driving down rates of child poverty.The department has not made a recent formal assessment of the proportion of children who are eligible for FSM but not registered to receive the entitlement. The last review conducted in 2013 suggested that 89% of eligible pupils were registered for FSM. We recognise the vital role played by FSM and encourage all eligible families to take their entitlement up and join the 2.1 million pupils currently registered to receive FSM. To support FSM take up, we provide the Eligibility Checking System which allows local authorities to quickly verify eligibility for FSM and ensure that it is easily received.The department has not formally assessed the number and proportion of children who would be eligible for FSM, had the eligibility threshold for households on Universal Credit increased in line with inflation since its introduction in 2018. As with all policies, the government keeps the approach to FSM under review.

If she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of children who would be eligible for free school meals had the income threshold for people on Universal Credit risen with inflation since 2018.

The new government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child.The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty and widening attainment gaps between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers. Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low income family. The government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty by tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new ministerial taskforce has been set up to develop a Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring 2025. The taskforce will consider a range of policies in assessing what will have the greatest impact in driving down rates of child poverty.The department has not made a recent formal assessment of the proportion of children who are eligible for FSM but not registered to receive the entitlement. The last review conducted in 2013 suggested that 89% of eligible pupils were registered for FSM. We recognise the vital role played by FSM and encourage all eligible families to take their entitlement up and join the 2.1 million pupils currently registered to receive FSM. To support FSM take up, we provide the Eligibility Checking System which allows local authorities to quickly verify eligibility for FSM and ensure that it is easily received.The department has not formally assessed the number and proportion of children who would be eligible for FSM, had the eligibility threshold for households on Universal Credit increased in line with inflation since its introduction in 2018. As with all policies, the government keeps the approach to FSM under review.

What age ranges Young Futures hubs will work with.

The government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity. Too many children and young people today do not have access to the same enrichment opportunities as their peers, suffer from poor mental health and, in some cases, end up being drawn into crime rather than going on to achieve and thrive.Young Futures Hubs will bring together the support services that tackle underlying needs and make them more accessible to those that need them. The department is engaging with local areas, communities, statutory partners, charities and other key stakeholders to support the design of the Young Futures Hubs, including the specific age-range they will serve. The department will share further information in due course.

Whether Young Futures hubs will work with local prevention partnerships; and whether those services will be co-located.

Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes, supporting crime prevention and enabling young people to thrive.This is part of the Young Futures Programme alongside which we will establish a network of Young Futures Prevention Partnerships to bring together key partners to identify children and young people at risk of being drawn into crime and offer support in a more systematic way to divert them.To make progress quickly and achieve impact across this programme, the department will need to build upon the existing structures it has in place, from physical buildings to local partnership working and the existing workforce.

When he plans to respond to the correspondence of 2 October 2024 from the hon. Member for Twickenham on the reciprocity of aviation qualifications.

A response was issued on 6 January.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendations by Resolution in its report entitled Domestic Abuse in Financial Remedy Proceedings, published in October 2024.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government, which includes addressing issues of domestic and economic abuse in financial remedy proceedings. The Government will consider Resolution’s recommendations alongside the Law Commission’s recently published scoping report on financial remedies.