Written questions by Heylings.

Communities and Local Government, whether the housing strategy will include measures to help tackle (a) poor quality and (b) unsafe housing stock.

The government intends to publish a long-term housing strategy later this year.

What steps his Department is planning to take to provide support to (a) low-income and (b) vulnerable households through the Warm Homes Plan.

As part of the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency, including £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes. There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures to low income and fuel poor households. Current schemes include the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS). The Government recently announced Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund to support social housing providers and tenants, and the new Warm Homes: Local Grant to help low-income homeowners and private tenants with energy performance upgrades and cleaner heating. Both schemes are expected to deliver in 2025. Support is also available through the Warm Home Discount schemes which provide eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate off their winter energy bill. Further details on the Warm Homes Plan will be set out in due course.

Whether he plans to increase the level of primary care core funding to help support GP practices to hire more staff.

General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.We are investing an additional £889 million in through the GP Contract to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.The Government also committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25, as part of an initiative to address GP unemployment and secure the future pipeline of GPs. Primary care networks (PCNs) can continue to recruit and employ recently qualified GPs through the ARRS in the coming year, as part of the 2025/26 contract.Under the contract changes for 2025/26, the ARRS will become more flexible, to allow PCNs to respond better to local workforce needs. This includes GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot, an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme, and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.In a drive to recruit GPs via the ARRS and to bring back the family doctor, the salary element of the maximum reimbursement amount that PCNs can claim for GPs will be increased from £73,113 in 2024/25, the bottom of the salaried GP pay range, to £82,418, an uplift of £9,305, representing the lower quartile of the salaried GP pay range, as some GPs will be entering their second year in the scheme. Proportionate employer on-costs will also be included within the overall maximum reimbursement amount which PCNs will be able to claim.

What her planned timetable is for an announcement on future funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) provides trauma- and attachment-related therapy and specialist assessments for children and families, where the child has previously been in local authority care and has been adopted or is under a special guardianship order (SGO) or child arrangements order (CAO). The ASGSF has given adopted and SGO/CAO children and families in South Cambridgeshire access to a variety of therapeutic interventions designed to help them with the impact of their early life trauma. Although the department continues to assess the impact of the ASGSF on children, it does not collect information centrally to assess the impact of the ASGSF on wider mental health diagnosis or treatment.Announcements on funding for the ASGSF will be made as soon as possible.

What assessment her Department has made of the impact of the adoption and special guardianship and support fund on looked after children's access to mental health (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment in South Cambridgeshire.

The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) provides trauma- and attachment-related therapy and specialist assessments for children and families, where the child has previously been in local authority care and has been adopted or is under a special guardianship order (SGO) or child arrangements order (CAO). The ASGSF has given adopted and SGO/CAO children and families in South Cambridgeshire access to a variety of therapeutic interventions designed to help them with the impact of their early life trauma. Although the department continues to assess the impact of the ASGSF on children, it does not collect information centrally to assess the impact of the ASGSF on wider mental health diagnosis or treatment.Announcements on funding for the ASGSF will be made as soon as possible.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of closing Long Covid clinics on patients with Post-Covid syndrome.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services for people with long COVID. ICBs are allocated funding by NHS England to meet local need and priorities, and to improve outcomes.NHS England has recently completed a long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), stocktake, aiming to provide a nationwide overview of service delivery in commissioning and contracting, assessing access, activity, and outcomes. The findings confirmed the widely recognised challenges of significant variation in care delivery across England and a lack of comprehensive activity data.Executive NHS England board members were updated on the current provision of long COVID and ME/CFS services, noting those challenges. Discussions considered service prioritisation and potential COVID Inquiry recommendations. It was agreed that long COVID and ME/CFS services are rightly commissioned by ICBs, which have responsibility for ensuring coverage for their population.

Media and Sport, if she will (a) publish the results of the user survey for the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme and (b) use those results in future policy development.

DCMS is currently evaluating the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme. We will take a decision on publishing the findings of the evaluation, including a user survey, once completed.

Media and Sport, whether her Department has had recent discussions with the grant making agencies on the potential merits of providing additional financial support to buildings with projects valued at over £25,000 that are (a) underway and (b) about to commence work that will not be able to claim back VAT under the proposed changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.

Based on the Department’s analysis of previous data, 94% of applications between 2022-2024 have been under £25,000, and most of these claims were for under £5,000. We believe that the modifications were necessary and adequate given the tight fiscal challenges we inherited from the previous government and the capital pressures on other parts of the heritage sector.Guidance has now been published on changes to the Scheme from 1 April 2025, which includes the treatment of works already underway and works about to commence. Claimants should ensure that all claims for work already carried out are submitted before or at 23:59 on 31 March 2025. Claims for work that are submitted from 00:00 on 1 April 2025 will be subject to the cap.The National Lottery Heritage Fund has committed to investing around £100m between 2023 and 2026 to support places of worship. On 20 February, DCMS Secretary of State announced £15 million of additional funding for Heritage at Risk, building on Historic England's existing Repair Grants for Heritage at Risk programme. Listed places of worship may be eligible for this funding in certain circumstances.

Communities and Local Government, how many overdue tree preservation order appeal cases are outstanding.

As of 31 December 2024, there were 423 overdue and outstanding tree preservation order appeal cases.

Whether she is taking steps to ban conversion practices.

This Government’s position is that conversion practices are abuse. Such practices have no place in society and must be stopped. In the King’s Speech, the Government committed to bring forward a full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices.Previous administrations failed to deliver on this issue and allowed the debate to become ever more toxic and divided.We are committed to bringing forward legislation to finally ban these abusive practices, starting with publishing our draft Bill later this session.

Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on equal access to fertility treatment for same sex couples.

We want everyone to have fair access to high quality care, which is respectful, inclusive and supports choice, control, and independence. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) sets out clinical guidelines for the provision of IVF services. NICE is currently reviewing its guidelines. In the light of broader pressures on the NHS and on-going changes within NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care is looking again at achievable ambitions to improve access to services and fairness for all affected couples.

Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the (a) experiences and (b) needs of LGBTQ+ elders in social care.

We want everyone to have fair access to high quality care, which is respectful, inclusive and supports choice, control, and independence. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) sets out clinical guidelines for the provision of IVF services. NICE is currently reviewing its guidelines. In the light of broader pressures on the NHS and on-going changes within NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care is looking again at achievable ambitions to improve access to services and fairness for all affected couples.

What steps she is taking to (a) tackle hate crime against LGBTQ+ people and (b) make LGBTQ+ related hate crime an aggravated offence.

All hate crimes, including those targeting LGBT+ people, are completely unacceptable and we back the police in taking strong action against the perpetrators of these appalling offences.We have committed to ensuring parity of protection for LGBT+ and disabled people under legislation and are currently considering the best way to move forward with this implementation of this commitment.The Government funds an online hate crime reporting portal, True Vision, designed so victims of all types of hate crime - including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We are also continuing to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime, providing expert advice to police to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage the use of nature-based solutions to help tackle the effects of climate change.

When designed well, Nature-based solutions (NbS) can deliver multiple benefits for climate and biodiversity whilst helping communities adapt to climate change risks – for example through natural flood management and urban cooling. NbS, such as restoring peat and planting trees, are key to tackling climate change and averting its impacts, as well as providing habitats which support our native species and functioning ecosystems. Defra has pledged up to £400 million for tree planting and peatland restoration in England over the current and next financial year and we are working towards our statutory target to reach 16.5% tree canopy cover in England by 2050. We also have ambitions to restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of peat across England. We are also actively pursuing the role of NbS to enhance habitats such as seagrass and saltmarsh to deliver blue carbon and biodiversity benefits. We are supporting organisations to develop investment-ready nature projects that use private sector investment to benefit the environment and tackle climate change through the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund. We have backed 127 pioneering projects to develop new business models that generate revenue from nature recovery, through carbon storage, cleaner water or enhanced biodiversity.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to open environmental schemes to increased numbers of farmers.

This Government has secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a two-year period. Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, but existing agreements will continue. We now have over 37,000 live SFI agreements. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed. We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed. SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We recognise farmers need clarity and certainty and we remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes, and to supporting the farming sector. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans he has for the funding of global vaccination programmes, in the context of the reduction in Official Development Assistance spending.

The UK is one of the largest donors to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We have committed £1.65 billion to the current strategic period covering 2021-2025. The UK is working to ensure a successful replenishment of Gavi through our diplomatic and development network. Following the difficult decision to reduce UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.5 per cent of GNI to 0.3 per cent by 2027 we are taking a rigorous approach to ensure all ODA delivers value for money. Announcements on individual investments will be made following the completion of the Spending Review process.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a plan to support farmers who are not able to apply for funding under the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme following its closure to new applicants.

This Government has secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a two-year period. Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, but existing agreements will continue. We now have over 37,000 live SFI agreements. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed. We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed. SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We recognise farmers need clarity and certainty and we remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes, and to supporting the farming sector. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to support farmers following the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

This Government has secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a two-year period. Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, but existing agreements will continue. We now have over 37,000 live SFI agreements. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed. We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed. SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We recognise farmers need clarity and certainty and we remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes, and to supporting the farming sector. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to provide financial support to upland farmers, in the context of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

We fully recognise the importance of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for upland farmers – and we strongly want the scheme to be available to them as we move forward. We have closed SFI for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets. We will be reforming the SFI offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment. We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications. In the meantime, as announced on 25 February, we’re increasing HLS payment rates. We believe this uplift better reflects the contributions made by those with HLS agreements and will support the continued protection and management of these sites. We will also open the rolling application window for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) this summer and have published information that sets out what upland farmers can do now to prepare to apply for CSHT.

What steps he is taking to support the development of green technologies.

I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to her on Question UIN 32430: The Government is committed to supporting the growth and scaling-up of green technologies, including through the creation of GB Energy, as part of its Clean Energy Superpower Mission. A combined total of £1.3 billion has been committed through the 2021-25 Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) to accelerate the commercialisation of green technologies supporting around 5,500 jobs and leveraging £750 million in private investment. The Government will set out its full approach to seizing the growth opportunities from clean energy industries in the forthcoming Industrial Strategy.