Written questions by Lowe.

What information her Department holds on the proportion of children that started secondary school who are (a) new to and (b) have early acquisition of English in each of the last 10 years.

The department does not hold data for children who have learnt English throughout their lifetime. Data for the proportion and number of children who are not known to have English as their first language can be found at school level in the school census publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. This measure is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration.

How many people were (a) added and (b) removed from PAYE each day in 2024.

HMRC does not hold the data requested relating to people added to and removed from PAYE. The PAYE population is made up of around 35 million individuals, and precise numbers change frequently as customers take up their first PAYE employment or pension, start new employments or pensions, and leave old ones. Increasing numbers of customers also take up secondary or additional employments or pensions, and have other income sources which may or may not be taxed through PAYE. HMRC does not hold the data requested relating specifically to sole traders registering for Self Assessment. There are around 12.1 million taxpayers who are expected to submit Self Assessment tax returns by 31 January 2025. That population includes sole traders, some of whom will have commenced or ceased trading during the 2023/24 tax year.

Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to put proposed changes to the structure of local government in Norfolk to voters in that county.

The English Devolution White Paper sets out the Government’s plans for local government reorganisation, and that the Government will write to council leaders as soon as possible to formally invite proposals, setting out information on our criteria for sustainable unitary structures, how and when to submit proposals and how the government intends to respond to proposals.

If will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting a review into the funding of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

There is currently no planned review of the funding of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).The MHRA is funded predominately by charging fees to industry, for the services it delivers, with additional funding being provided by the Department. The fees are set to recover the full cost of delivering the respective services. This follows the HM Treasury guidance, Managing Public Money. This cost-recovery approach means that the regulated bear the cost of regulation, rather than the taxpayer and, by extension, patients.Departmental funding to the MHRA is set in advance through collaborative spending review processes, which consider the MHRA’s needs in detail.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing guidance on the sentencing of people committing offences on social media.

Sentencing guidelines are developed by the independent Sentencing Council for England and Wales, in fulfilment of its statutory duty to do so.The Council is independent of Parliament and Government. As an independent body, the Council decides on its own priorities and work plan for producing and reviewing guidelines. The Lord Chancellor or the Court of Appeal can ask the Council to consider reviewing or producing guidelines in a particular area, but the Council is not required to agree to any such requests.The Council monitors and evaluates all definitive guidelines, as per its statutory duty to do so. The assessment covers the operation and effect of the guideline. A report on the evaluation findings is published online. A variety of different methods of data collection and analysis may be used, as necessary: analysis of existing data on sentencing trends over time, collections of data from sentencers on factors that influence their sentencing of different offences, interviews and focus groups, analysis of Crown Court sentencing transcripts and media reports.Sentencing guidelines for child sexual offences were first published in 2013. Following consultation, revised guidelines were published and came into force in May 2022.

How many notices that a person is to be treated as an illegal entrant or as a person liable to administrative removal under section 10 of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999 have been issued by her Department in each of the last five years.

The specific information requested is not readily available from published statistics, and could only be obtained for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

How many sole traders (a) registered and (b) deregistered each day in 2024.

HMRC does not hold the data requested relating to people added to and removed from PAYE. The PAYE population is made up of around 35 million individuals, and precise numbers change frequently as customers take up their first PAYE employment or pension, start new employments or pensions, and leave old ones. Increasing numbers of customers also take up secondary or additional employments or pensions, and have other income sources which may or may not be taxed through PAYE. HMRC does not hold the data requested relating specifically to sole traders registering for Self Assessment. There are around 12.1 million taxpayers who are expected to submit Self Assessment tax returns by 31 January 2025. That population includes sole traders, some of whom will have commenced or ceased trading during the 2023/24 tax year.

How many and what proportion of civil service job opportunities restricted applications through positive action schemes based on (a) race and (b) sex or gender in the last financial year.

Cabinet Office recruitment policy and practice is conducted in accordance with UK law, including the Equality Act 2010, as well as the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles and the Civil Service Nationality rules (available on GOV.UK). Non-Ministerial departments and Executive Agencies are responsible for managing their own recruitment processes and ensuring they are also compliant with UK law.

How many foreign national offenders were arrested in Great Yarmouth constituency in each of the last 10 years.

This data is not collected centrally, and could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

What the cost to the public purse is of Change NHS.

The public and staff must be at the centre of the development of the plan to make the National Health Service fit for the future, so it makes a positive impact on their day-to-day lives. That is why we are running a series of in-depth deliberative events and have launched an open platform to hear from members of the public and those who work in health and care.The events are being delivered within the Department's budget as part of its responsibility to promote the health and wellbeing of everyone in England. We are determined to do this in a way that gives everyone the chance to get involved, while also ensuring value for money. At this point in time, we are not able to provide accurate costs for the whole engagement exercise, because it is still ongoing.

How many children entered (a) primary and (b) secondary school in Great Yarmouth constituency in each of the last 10 years.

The department publishes the number of pupils in primary and secondary schools in the Great Yarmouth constituency. This data is available in the ’Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication, which is based on the January school census. The most recent figures can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.The publication webpage includes a school-level data file, listed under the dropdown heading ‘Additional supporting files’ as ‘School level underlying data - 2023/24 (csv, 22 Mb)’.This file contains one row per school. The data can be filtered by school phase and constituency. Column GZ provides headcount of pupils.Data from other academic years is available via the ‘Releases in this series’ on the publication webpage. Data on parliamentary constituencies use boundaries as they were when the statistics were published.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department uses sewage to estimate population changes.

Defra does not routinely measure population changes and therefore does not use sewage monitoring for this purpose. Sewerage undertakers account for population changes in their business planning by using local Government growth plans and population data supplied by the Office of National Statistics. Sewerage undertakers use projections of population growth at a sewerage catchment level to assess future capacity needs within their Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMP). Since 1 September 2024, sewerage undertakers in England are required to prepare, publish and maintain a DWMP. The DWMP is a key evidence base to inform future capacity needs in the sewerage undertakers' business plans.

What steps she has taken to reduce antisocial behaviour in Great Yarmouth constituency.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.The Government recently announced Respect Orders, which will be introduced in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. Respect Orders can be applied for by police and local councils and are issued by the courts. They will enable courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. Breach will be a criminal offence meaning officers can arrest and take action quickly to disrupt ongoing ASB. Breaches will be heard in the criminal courts who will have a wide range of sentencing options, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, up to two years’ imprisonment.We will also put thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent further damage following coastal erosion in Hemsby; and what his Department’s timetable is for reviewing the funding formula for flood defences.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answers to his previous questions; PQ 12005, tabled on 30 October 2024, and PQ 8968, tabled on 14 October 2024.

If she will make an estimate of the number of school places in Great Yarmouth constituency (a) available and (b) requested in the next academic year.

As part of the school capacity survey 2023, Norfolk local authority submitted to the department information on school capacity and forecast demand for school places. Forecasts are made for pupil place planning areas, which are not a standard geography and cannot be linked to parliamentary constituency. However, there is a Great Yarmouth planning area.Using school capacity survey 2023 data, as well as information on centrally delivered programmes, the department estimated that in the 2025/26 academic year there would be 426 spare primary places and 323 spare secondary places in the Great Yarmouth planning area.These estimates were made in 2023. These estimated spare places may or may not be available for pupil placements, as this depends on admission policies set by the individual admission authorities covering the Great Yarmouth planning area.The department does not have information on the number of places requested for the 2025/26 academic year, as the national primary and secondary applications and offers rounds have not yet started.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that the Summer Development Internship Programme 2025 is open to all applicants.

As a public body, the Environment Agency (EA) is committed to meeting the obligations set out in the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty. These require public bodies to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people with different protected characteristics. The EA recruits using a fair and open process and appoints on merit, and will only limit a campaign to a specific group as a form of positive action as a proportionate response to achieve a legitimate aim as defined in section 159 of the Equality Act 2010. The EA is focused on addressing known gaps in its workforce, and its Summer Development Internship Programme aims to widen access to careers and attract talented individuals from underrepresented ethnic groups. The latest data (Q2 2024-2025) from the EA shows that 6.4% of Agency staff are from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background, against a representation goal of 7.6% this year and a 2021 Census representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic respondents in England and Wales of 18.3%. The EA also offers various different career entry programmes which are open to all and is committed to supporting other underrepresented communities, including those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds.

What the cost to the public purse was for all non-departmental bodies in the last financial year.

We are currently collecting financial data from arms lengths bodies, which includes non-departmental public bodies, for 2023/24 and will publish it in due course. Financial data for arm’s length bodies, including non-departmental public bodies, in 2022/23 is published on GOV.UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will ensure (a) internships and (b) job opportunities in (i) his Department and (ii) its non-departmental public bodies are open to all applicants.

The core department complies with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles by ensuring that appointments to the Civil Service are made on the basis of merit following a fair and open competition. Defra’s Non-Departmental Public Bodies are accredited by The Civil Service Commission, which means the relevant HR Policies are similarly compliant with the Recruitment Principles. Internships in both the core department and Defra’s Non-Departmental Public Bodies are commonly linked to a specific scheme or programme. They are therefore open to all applicants who meet the relevant advertised entry requirements of the individual scheme or programme.

If he will make an estimate of the costs to the NHS of treating birth defects resulting from cousin marriage in each of the past ten years.

The Government has not carried out an assessment of the costs to the National Health Service of treating birth defects resulting from cousin marriage.We will continue to work with the NHS as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow our maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women and babies receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care.

What recent estimate she has made of the (a) cost of building HS2 and (b) impact of HS2 on economic growth in the next 10 years; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the lessons learned from the construction of Crossrail.

HS2 has faced increases in costs since delivery started and this needs to end and the programme must be brought under control. The Secretary of State has asked Mark Wild, the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, to review the remaining scope, the cost and schedule needed to complete phase 1 of the programme, and advise the government on what is needed.Despite its challenges, HS2 is delivering, and will deliver long-term benefits for people and places. The programme is currently supporting over 31,700 jobs, and it will support wider economic growth, including the delivery of tens of thousands of new homes. A report commissioned by HS2, ‘From Trains to Cranes’, included analysis estimating that HS2 will drive a £10 billion annual uplift within the West Midlands area over the next 10 years (https://www.hs2.org.uk/about-us/our-documents/from-trains-to-cranes-hs2-and-the-west-midlands-development-boom/).Action is being taken to learn lessons from Phase 1 of HS2, as well as previous programmes such as Crossrail. The Department has commissioned an independent review of the governance and assurance of the Department’s major infrastructure projects, drawing primarily on the experiences of HS2. The review, which is led by James Stewart, is part of the Department’s on-going programme of work to learn lessons from HS2 and its other major projects, such as Crossrail.