Written questions by Heylings.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of requiring schools to fund extended periods of education following exclusion on safeguarding.

It is for local authorities, under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, to arrange and fund suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, may otherwise not receive suitable education. Local authorities are required to arrange alternative provision for a permanently excluded child as soon as possible, and at the latest by the sixth school day of the child’s absence.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of school funding settlements in meeting pupil need and demographic growth.

Spending per pupil was at its highest ever level in the 2024/25 financial year, in real terms, and there has been further real terms growth in spending in 2025/26. The school funding settlement announced at the Spending Review more than protects per pupil funding in real terms, with a further £1.7 billion increase in 2026/27. Every year, the department uses the schools national funding formula to distribute core funding for 5 to 16-year-old pupils, in mainstream state-funded schools in England. This ensures that funding is distributed based on a fair and consistent assessment of need, based first and foremost on pupil numbers. We recognise the pressures caused by demographic changes in some areas. The lagged funding system helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels. This aids their planning and is particularly important in giving schools with falling rolls time to re-organise their staffing and costs. The department also provides local authorities with growth funding, which they use to support schools whose pupil numbers are rising.

When schools will be reimbursed for the increase in National Insurance contributions.

We have provided schools with over £1.1 billion to support them with the increases to employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025.We published schools’ allocations in May 2025, and payments were made in September and October 2025.

What steps his Department is taking to improve preventative and community care.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Food and Rural Affairs, what her proposed timeline is for publishing the Tree Action Plan.

The Government will publish a new Trees Action Plan in 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, what her planned timeline is for woodland creation for the Oxford–Cambridge National Forest; what interim milestones have been set; and when plans for boundaries and targets will be published.

The Government intends for woodland creation to commence in the Oxford Cambridge Corridor in November 2026. Further detail concerning milestones, targets and boundaries for this New National Forest will be made public in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Tree Action Plan intends to support the restoration of ancient woodland, particularly on smaller plantations on ancient woodland sites or sites that are harder to restore.

The Government will continue to support the restoration of ancient woodland. Woodlands as small as 0.5ha are now eligible for the Countryside Stewardship supplements “Manage and restore Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWs)” and “Manage native woodland including Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands”, ensuring support is available to landowners and managers of smaller ancient woodlands. In 2025, we also updated our Countryside Stewardship offer by simplifying our baseline Woodland Improvement grant. These steps will help to bring more of our smaller ancient woodlands into restoration and management.

Food and Rural Affairs, in relation to the Oxford–Cambridge Forest, what assessment has been made of the impact of afforestation on hydrology in the region.

As part of our approach to the New National Forest in the OxCam region -spatial data will be used to prioritise sites for woodland creation that will deliver public benefits such as flood management and mitigation as well as other water management functions. Afforestation projects above 0.5 hectares will also likely require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which will include a detailed assessment of potential impacts on the water environment. Further details on this new national forest will be announced in the coming months.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that domestic timber production does not adversely impact biodiversity and habitat creation targets.

We encourage woodlands in England to be planted and managed in compliance with the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) which is an agreed UK wide approach to sustainable forest management. In commercial woodlands which are managed in line with the UKFS or where specific biodiversity positive actions are taken, biodiversity benefits can be gained. We will continue to look at how all kinds of woodlands can contribute to our biodiversity targets through the upcoming Land Use Framework.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement mechanisms for the development of tree planting and woodland restoration policy.

Defra Ministers and officials regularly engage with stakeholders on tree planting and woodland restoration policy through one-to-one meetings and wider stakeholder engagement forums. In addition, the Forestry Commission carries out a broad set of stakeholder engagement such as through their Delivery Advisory Group and regional Forestry and Woodland Advisory Committees, as well as regular events across the country. This activity is amplified by extensive regional and national press coverage helping raise awareness of trees and woodlands.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Tree Planting Taskforce's progress; and what involvement that Taskforce has had in the development of the Tree Action Plan.

The UK-wide Tree Planting Taskforce brings together the relevant ministers from across the four UK nations. It has made good progress, enabling cross-UK collaboration and furthered understanding of shared challenges and opportunities. Given the UK-wide nature of the Taskforce, it is not directly involved in the development of the Trees Action Plan for England, although Defra is engaging with relevant delivery partners and arm’s-length bodies on the Action Plan. We will continue to engage with the Taskforce to identify opportunities for cross-UK working.

Food and Rural Affairs, what governance structures are in place to coordinate delivery of the Oxford-Cambridge Forest across local authority boundaries; and whether she plans to establish a dedicated coordination body.

The exact location of the new forest in the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor is subject to design work and discussion with partners. Further detail will be provided in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether indicators of progress for tree planting, canopy cover, ancient woodland condition, tree survival and biodiversity for the Oxford–Cambridge Forest will be published annually.

Forest Research publishes Forestry Statistics annually and these include comprehensive data on woodland creation, canopy expansion, species mix, and sustainability trends across England and the UK. These national reports provide an important context for progress on tree planting and canopy cover, complementing more detailed project monitoring undertaken by the Nature for Climate Fund.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of EIP25 targets for improving plantations on ancient woodland soils with Forestry England’s 2044 target on PAWS restoration.

The Environmental Improvement Plan 2025 (EIP25) target and Forestry England’s Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS) restoration target are compatible. The EIP25 target for improving PAWS is strategic, setting a national ambition to enhance biodiversity and resilience across these irreplaceable habitats. Forestry England’s 2044 PAWS restoration target is more granular, requiring measurable improvement in Semi-Natural Scores. These objectives are entirely aligned: both aim to restore ecological integrity and native woodland character. Early soil eDNA investigations by Forestry England indicate that PAWS restoration works to restore soil health.

Food and Rural Affairs, where saplings planted to meet EIP25 interim targets will be sourced from.

Defra’s Nature for Climate Fund continues to invest working to increase the availability of domestically grown saplings for woodland creation through its Sector Capacity project. Forestry Commission publish annually the Tree Supply Report and Tree Nursery Directories to bring visibility to the market and work closely with the nurseries to assess trends in the market. There is an increasingly strong supply of trees from across the UK and beyond, as highlighted in the Tree Supply Report. Through the Tree Supply Report, we estimate that over 161 million trees were grown in Great Britain in 24/25, 1,000,000 more than the previous year. This has built up resilience in our seed and tree supply, improving ability to meet the interim target of reaching 16.5% tree canopy and woodland cover by 2050. The Nature for Climate Fund funded grants this financial year of up to £7.8 million capital investment in tree production through the Tree Production Capital Grant; £7.8 million supporting innovation in tree production through the Tree Production Innovation Fund and £871K supporting tree seed sourcing through the Seed Sourcing Grant. We have also invested in Forestry England developing a state-of-the-art new Seed processing unit at Delamere. As well as processing seed for use in the nation’s forests, this facility will continue to make surplus seed from a limited number of species available to the private sector.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department are taking to ensure that the restoration of ancient woodland through agri-environment schemes is accessible to small landowners.

Woodlands as small as 0.5ha are now eligible for the Countryside Stewardship supplements “Manage and restore Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWs)” and “Manage native woodland including Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands”, ensuring support is available to landowners and managers of smaller ancient woodlands. In 2025, we also updated our Countryside Stewardship offer by simplifying our baseline Woodland Improvement grant. These steps will help to bring more of our smaller ancient woodlands into restoration and management.

What steps he is taking to improve GP to patient ratios.

We are starting to see consistent growth in the general practice (GP) workforce. We have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified GPs through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. Over 2,500 individual GPs have now been recruited, preventing them graduating into unemployment. We are committed to expanding the GP workforce further, by training thousands more GPs over the course of this Parliament. We have taken the first steps towards this, with an additional 250 training places available this year, taking the total to 4,250 places with plans to expand this further.Each GP is required to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of their patients. There is no NHS England recommendation for how many patients a GP should have assigned, or the ratio of GPs or other practice staff to patients. The demands each patient places on their GP are different and can be affected by many different factors, including rurality and patient demographics. It is necessary to consider the workforce for each practice as a whole, not only GPs but also the range of health professionals available who are able to respond to the needs of their patients.

Communities and Local Government, when he plans to introduce reforms to Energy Performance Certificates, in the context of the development and implementation of the Home Energy Model.

The government consulted on reforms to EPCs to provide consumers with more useful information on the energy performance of buildings, and so that they better support our key objectives of achieving Clean Power by 2030 and accelerating to Net Zero. We are analysing the feedback received to the consultation, and will publish a government response in due course. The Home Energy Model (HEM) will replace the current Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) as the methodology underpinning domestic EPCs. The government expects to introduce HEM and reformed domestic EPCs in 2026.

Communities and Local Government, what his timeline is for publishing the outcome and response to the Reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime consultation.

We are analysing the feedback received to the consultation on reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime, and will publish a government response in due course.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, which specific topics or scientific areas the proposed foundational training programme for PhD students and early-career researchers in non-animal technologies will cover.

These will be developed with stakeholders during the implementation of the Government’s strategy to support replacing animals in science. The strategy also commits to publish biennially from 2026 a list of alternative-methods research and development priorities, coalescing UK scientists around these areas and incentivising partnerships between research organisations, CROs and industry. We would expect this process to inform the topics for the training programme.