Written questions by Timothy.

Whether the Grooming Gangs Taskforce will investigate (a) police officers, (b) local councillors, (c) council officials and (d) social workers.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (or 'Grooming Gangs') Police Taskforce provides expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs. Responsibility for those investigations remains with the relevant local police force, but the Taskforce continues to advise the relevant police force on how to manage any specific lines of investigation appropriately.The Taskforce supported forces in making 807 arrests for group-based child sexual exploitation in 2024. The data held centrally does not allow individual cases to be tracked through the criminal justice system.Further information on the Taskforce is available online at: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/cse-taskforce.

How many people have been (a) investigated, (b) arrested and (c) charged following work by the Grooming Gangs Taskforce by (i) category of offence, (ii) police officers, (iii) local councillors, (iv) council officials and (v) social workers.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (or 'Grooming Gangs') Police Taskforce provides expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs. Responsibility for those investigations remains with the relevant local police force, but the Taskforce continues to advise the relevant police force on how to manage any specific lines of investigation appropriately.The Taskforce supported forces in making 807 arrests for group-based child sexual exploitation in 2024. The data held centrally does not allow individual cases to be tracked through the criminal justice system.Further information on the Taskforce is available online at: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/cse-taskforce.

What discussions (a) ministers, (b) special advisors and (c) officials in her Department have had with (i) Distribution Network Operators and (ii) National Grid on the power capacity of grid infrastructure to support charging points for electric vehicles.

In line with our ambitions for a zero emission car, van, and HGV fleet, the Government is working with industry to make all charging easy, fast and reliable. The Department for Transport regularly engages with Distribution Network Operators, and with National Grid on work related to accelerating the delivery of chargepoint infrastructure. This includes discussions on power capacity and grid infrastructure required to meet growing demand for EV charging. In March, I met with Distribution Network Operators, along with other industry groups, such as motorway service area operators and chargepoint operators, to understand industry’s perspective on improving charging on the Strategic Road Network (England’s motorways and major A roads).

How many prosecutions have been carried out as a result of arrests made by the Grooming Gangs Taskforce.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (or 'Grooming Gangs') Police Taskforce provides expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs. Responsibility for those investigations remains with the relevant local police force, but the Taskforce continues to advise the relevant police force on how to manage any specific lines of investigation appropriately.The Taskforce supported forces in making 807 arrests for group-based child sexual exploitation in 2024. The data held centrally does not allow individual cases to be tracked through the criminal justice system.Further information on the Taskforce is available online at: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/cse-taskforce.

What was the Child Maintenance Service helpline's performance in responding to phone calls against its service level standards.

The Child Maintenance Service are committed to delivering the best possible service to all customers. We continuously monitor telephony performance and through this fully recognise that call waiting times are at times longer than we would like. To address this, we are working extensively to improve the efficiency of our customer interactions through both telephone and digital channels. We introduced the Digital Assist Telephony Service September 2024, which has been a significant step forward in our mission to support and encourage customers to use our online services. We restructured our call routing October 2024 to make more caseworkers available to answer telephone calls. By promoting self-service options online and efficient call routing, we have freed up valuable resources to deliver a more responsive service and allow caseworkers more time to better assist customers who need to reach out to us via telephone. Additionally, we have extended the telephony service to 6pm on weekdays to meet demand. and our online services are available to all customers 24/7. The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are currently available to December 2024. Table 12 of the latest National tables shows the percentage of calls to the CMS that were answered each quarter, from January 2015 to December 2024. Latest published quarterly telephony performance for the period Oct to December 2024 was 75% for Percentage of calls answered.

Communities and Local Government, how much her Department has spent on contingency accommodation for (a) asylum seekers, (b) those granted asylum, and (c) those in the country illegally in each year since 2020.

My department has not provided any funding for contingency accommodation for asylum seekers, those granted asylum or those in the country illegally as the Home Office has departmental responsibility for the asylum system and irregular migration.

How many (a) police officers, (b) local councillors, (c) council officials and (d) social workers have been (i) investigated, (ii) arrested, and (iii) charged in connection to crimes committed by grooming gangs.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (or 'Grooming Gangs') Police Taskforce provides expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs. Responsibility for those investigations remains with the relevant local police force, but the Taskforce continues to advise the relevant police force on how to manage any specific lines of investigation appropriately.The Taskforce supported forces in making 807 arrests for group-based child sexual exploitation in 2024. The data held centrally does not allow individual cases to be tracked through the criminal justice system.Further information on the Taskforce is available online at: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/cse-taskforce.

If her Department will take steps to improve the accuracy of (a) identifying and (b) reporting data on fraud as distinct from administrative error.

As with other parts of the tax system, the term ‘error and fraud’ includes this full range of behaviours, from mistakes and failure to take reasonable care, through to deliberate non-compliance. The Government is committed to further enhancing the administration of R&D tax reliefs. To support this, HMRC published a consultation on 26 March to explore widening the use of advance clearances in the reliefs to help further reduce error and fraud, while also improving the customer experience and providing certainty to businesses.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect the domestic beet sugar industry from (a) tariff and (b) non-tariff barriers.

The Government has made clear commitments to uphold our standards in trade deals and protect our sensitive sectors. The recently agreed trade agreement with India will fully exclude sugar from the UK's tariff reductions. We will continue to do what is right for the UK sugar sector in our trade policy.

What representations she has received from schools on the adequacy of funding for the breakfast clubs early adopters scheme.

The department had over 3,000 schools apply to be part of the early adopter scheme, so as expected there has been some movement in the schools taking part as we finalised the 750 running from April, but that has been minimal.The list of schools taking part in the breakfast clubs early adopter scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/breakfast-clubs-early-adopters-schools-in-the-scheme.The department has used existing programmes and costs to determine the funding rates, and this has been tested and refined with a range of schools. We are confident that the total funding will enable schools to meet the minimum expectations, which is a 30-minute club with breakfast meeting the school food standards, based on existing provision operating in schools.One function of the early adopters is to test how schools utilise the funding, and the department has a robust strategy to capture and analyse this data. Decisions about the overall budget envelope for breakfast clubs national rollout is subject to the next spending review.

Which early adopter schools have opted out of the free breakfast club pilot programme.

The department had over 3,000 schools apply to be part of the early adopter scheme, so as expected there has been some movement in the schools taking part as we finalised the 750 running from April, but that has been minimal.The list of schools taking part in the breakfast clubs early adopter scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/breakfast-clubs-early-adopters-schools-in-the-scheme.The department has used existing programmes and costs to determine the funding rates, and this has been tested and refined with a range of schools. We are confident that the total funding will enable schools to meet the minimum expectations, which is a 30-minute club with breakfast meeting the school food standards, based on existing provision operating in schools.One function of the early adopters is to test how schools utilise the funding, and the department has a robust strategy to capture and analyse this data. Decisions about the overall budget envelope for breakfast clubs national rollout is subject to the next spending review.

What the total value of shipments worth less than £135 to the UK was in each year since 2015, by country of origin.

Goods valued at £135 or less imported into the UK are not subject to customs duty and are predominantly imported through a simplified customs declaration.HMRC can only provide the overall value of shipments containing goods under £135, as data on country of origin is not collected as part of the simplified customs declaration - in other words, the importer is not asked the specific country where the goods were manufactured or wholly obtained.It was not mandatory to provide the total aggregate value as part of the simplified customs declaration until 2023. In 2024, £5.8bn worth of goods under £135 were declared through the Customs Declarations System (CDS).On April 23rd the Government announced a review of the customs treatment of Low Value Imports valued below £135. We intend to engage a broad range of stakeholders over the Spring to further understand their views and gather evidence, including on the volume and nature of low value imports, to support our analysis.

What the average value of shipments worth less than £135 to the UK was in each year since 2015, by country of origin.

Goods valued at £135 or less imported into the UK are not subject to customs duty and are predominantly imported through a simplified customs declaration.As part of this simplified declaration, HMRC does not collect information on the origin of the goods – in other words, the importer is not asked the specific country where the goods were manufactured or wholly obtained.On April 23rd the Government announced a review of the customs treatment of Low Value Imports valued below £135. We intend to engage a broad range of stakeholders over the Spring to further understand their views and gather evidence, including on the volume and nature of low value imports, to support our analysis.

What information his Department holds on the proportion of imports worth less than £135 that did not meet UK safety standards by country of origin in each year since 2015.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) works with local authorities and border forces to detect, deter and disrupt the flow of unsafe and non-compliant goods as they are imported into the UK. Risk-based and intelligence-led approaches are used to target the most high-risk goods for inspection at the border. Therefore, the Government does not hold the information in the form requested. In 2023/24 the targeted approach resulted in checks on consignments covering over 15 million goods at the border, with 2.4 million goods (16%) refused entry to the UK.

What information her Department holds on the proportion of imports from China that were worth less than £135 in each year since 2015.

Goods valued at £135 or less imported into the UK are not subject to customs duty and are predominantly imported through a simplified customs declaration. As part of this simplified declaration multiple goods can be bulk declared without providing the total number of consignments or country of origin - in other words, the importer is not asked the specific country where the goods were manufactured or wholly obtained. HMRC therefore does not routinely collect customs data on the proportion of imports from China that are worth less than £135. On April 23rd the Government announced a review of the customs treatment of Low Value Imports valued below £135. We intend to engage a broad range of stakeholders over the Spring to further understand their views and gather evidence, including on the volume and nature of low value imports, to support our analysis.

Whether her Department plans to increase funding for asylum dispersal to (a) West Suffolk District Council, and (b) other local authorities.

Current accommodation funding arrangements are published on GOV.UK: Asylum Dispersal Grant: funding instruction - GOV.UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with Natural England on the potential impact of issuing a GL43 on the shooting season this year.

In considering the issue of GL43 for this year’s shooting season, Defra took into account Natural England’s statutory advice, noting that the national transmission risk status of avian influenza in wild birds continues to be very high. This included a recommendation to exclude the Lundy Special Area of Conservation (SAC) from the scope of the licence and to include an additional licence condition, requiring best practice biosecurity measures to be undertaken and recorded when managing gamebirds, and those records be produced if requested by a wildlife inspector. The licence was published on 2 May.

How many (a) hospitals and (b) other NHS buildings are in each Integrated Care Board’s area.

The annual Estates Return Information Collection collects data on National Health Service sites and integrated care boards by type and total, for instance hospitals and buildings, and is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/estates-returns-information-collection

What estimate her Department has made of the number of asylum seekers that will be dispersed in (a) West Suffolk District Council and (b) other local authorities in the next twelve months.

The Home Office works with local authorities and other stakeholders across the country to ensure that it can fulfil its statutory obligations, and meet the Government’s commitment to reduce the overall costs of asylum accommodation, including ending the use of hotels over time.The Home Office regularly publishes statistics on the numbers of asylum seekers in receipt of support nationally, and further broken down by region and local authority. These data sets can be found on GOV.UK: (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67bc51acd157fd4b79addd4f/support-local-authority-datasets-dec-2024.xlsx).

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the beet sugar industry to tackle Virus Yellows disease.

This Government acknowledges the critical role of sugar beet farmers in the UK's sugar production and their ongoing contributions to the agricultural sector. This Government recognises the challenge posed to sugar beet growers by Virus Yellows (VY), and we strongly support the industry-led work to develop more sustainable alternative controls for the aphids that spread these diseases. This includes Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques such as novel companion crops, and the development of new pest resistant varieties using both traditional and precision breeding techniques. These novel control methods, alongside new active substances such as Flupyradifurone – approved this year – will ensure that sugar beet growers have the tools they need to address VY. The government is committed towards achieving crop resilience, especially in the sugar beet sector, to support Britain’s food security and nature’s recovery. Defra collaborates with the British Beet Research Organisation on IPM initiatives, with plans to observe their IPM trials in the coming Spring. As part of this, the Government remains fully committed to enhancing crop resilience and is progressing legislation to activate precision breeding in England.