Written questions by Raja.

What steps her Department is taking to help tackle (a) child poverty, (b) access to mental health services and (c) the provision of adequate support for vulnerable children.

This government is committed to providing timely support to children and families that need help, and our mission-driven approach is critical to delivering this. In particular, through the missions to break down barriers to opportunity, and to make the NHS fit for purpose, we will focus on ambitious, measurable long-term objectives.Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.The Child Poverty Taskforce, which is co-chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will harness all available levers to drive forward action across government to reduce child poverty. More detail on the approach and priorities for the strategy is set out in the publication ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, which was published on 23 October and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.The department is taking steps to reduce the cost of living through our action on the high cost of branded school uniforms and commitment to roll out free school breakfast clubs for primary school-aged children from April this year. The government has also extended the Household Support Fund until the end of March 2026.To improve access to mental health services, we have committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. This support is critical to high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will put in place a package of support to drive high and rising standards throughout our education and care systems so that every child can achieve and thrive. It will protect children at risk of abuse, stopping vulnerable children falling through cracks in services and deliver our commitments on children’s social care to ensure that all children can thrive in safe, loving homes.Across the department, we are already prioritising work that seeks to join up services and provide better local support for disadvantaged and vulnerable children and families to give all children the best start in life. This includes local multi-agency safeguarding partnerships, Family Hubs and targeted programmes like Supporting Families.Family hubs provide access to vital services to improve the health, education and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families. They aim to make a positive difference to parents, carers and their children by providing a mix of physical and virtual spaces, as well as outreach, where families can easily access non-judgmental support for the challenges they may be facing. Staff at family hubs can connect families to a range of health and education services.

What plans his Department has to support the insulation of homes in (a) Leicester East constituency and (b) other areas in England with high levels of fuel poverty.

The Government has kickstarted delivery of the Warm Homes Plan, including an initial £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes over the next 3 years. We are also reviewing the 2021 fuel poverty strategy. Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund in England to support social housing providers and tenants, alongside a new Warm Homes: Local Grant to help low-income homeowners and private tenants in England are expected to start delivery this year. Current targeted schemes include the Energy Company Obligation, the Great British Insulation Scheme, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, and the Home Upgrade Grant. Additionally, the Warm Home Discount provides £150 off bills to over 3 million low-income households.

Media and Sport, if she will provide additional funding beyond the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme to support the maintenance of historic places of worship in (a) Leicester East constituency and (b) England.

I note that the honourable member is asking us to spend more money and would be grateful if they could advise me on which other budget should be cut or tax should be commensurately increased. There is a range of funding available via DCMS and the Department’s Arm’s-Length Bodies that supports historic places of worship. These include the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have committed to investing around £100m between 2023 and 2026 to support places of worship; the Churches Conservation Trust, which funds repairs and maintenance of over 350 churches in the CCT portfolio; and Historic England's Heritage At Risk grants, funding £9 million worth of repairs to buildings on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register between April 2024 and March 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support minority-owned construction firms and builders gain equitable access to housing sector (i) opportunities, (ii) funding and (iii) contracts and (b) promote diversity in the industry in (A) Leicester East constituency and (B) England.

Small and medium sized housebuilders, including those that are minority owned, are essential to meeting the government’s housing ambitions and supporting local economies. The government recently announced a £700m extension to the Home Building Fund which provides financial support to SMEs who would otherwise struggle to access funding. In addition, small and medium-sized housebuilders can access lower-cost lending through the ENABLE Build scheme which was allocated an additional £1 billion guarantees capacity at the Budget on 30 October 2024.My Department is working with DfE and the CITB to explore how we might support diversity, including ethnic diversity, in the construction workforce.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) limiting rent increases, (b) enhancing requirements for landlord entry on the Private Rented Sector Database, (c) restricting advance rent demands, (d) tightening conditions for requesting guarantors and (e) other measures to better protect renters while ensuring a balanced approach to landlord responsibilities.

The Renters’ Rights Bill will transform the experience of private renting in England. It will modernise the regulation of the private rented sector, levelling decisively the playing field between landlord and tenant.It will empower renters by providing them with greater security, rights and protections so that they can stay in their homes for longer, build lives in their communities and avoid the risk of homelessness. It will ensure that we can drive up the quality of privately rented housing so that renters have access to good-quality and safe homes as a matter of course. It will also allow us to crack down on the minority of unscrupulous landlords who exploit, mistreat or discriminate against renters.The Bill will also provide tangible benefits for responsible landlords who provide high-quality homes and a good service to their tenants, ensuring they enjoy simpler regulation and clear and expanded possession grounds, so that they can regain their properties quickly when necessary.The Bill will empower private rented sector tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases. This will prevent unscrupulous landlords using rent increases as a backdoor means of eviction, while ensuring landlords can increase rents to reflect market rates.Measures in the Bill mean a landlord will only be able to require up to one month's rent between a tenancy agreement being signed and that tenancy beginning. This will end an unfair practice which can place considerable financial strain on tenants and excludes some from renting altogether.It will also require all private landlords letting residential property in England to register with the Private Rented Sector Database. We expect these landlords will include data about the ownership and standard of their properties as part of their entries, and we are exploring the feasibility of collecting a wider range of more tenancy-focused information. We will stipulate the specific requirements in regulations.The Bill does not limit the ability of landlords to request a guarantor. The use of guarantors can support people renting for the first time to access the private rented sector. We will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders about any barriers to entering the private rented sector.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) phasing out and (b) banning cages for laying hens; and what steps he plans to take to ensure farmers are provided with support to transition to higher animal welfare systems.

We are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. The use of cages for laying hens is an issue we are currently considering very carefully. The Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare Grant was recently offered to commercial laying hen and pullet keepers in England. It supports these farmers to improve the health, welfare, and productivity of their flocks through access to grants toward the cost of upgrading their housing. Applications closed on the 18 September 2024 and we will be writing to all applicants shortly to notify them of next steps.

Whether she plans to take steps to improve the equitable distribution of practical driving test slots in (a) England and (b) Leicester East constituency.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times. On the 18 December, DVSA set out further plans to reduce driving test waiting times across the country. These steps include recruiting 450 Driving Examiners (DEs) and improving rules for booking driving tests. Full details of these steps can be found on GOV.UK. As part of recent recruitment at Driving Test Centres (DTC) that serve the Leicester East constituency, DVSA has just concluded a campaign at Leicester Cannock Street DTC and has made employment offers to successful candidates. In addition to the recruitment plans at Cannock Street DTC, DVSA has been growing the teams at surrounding sites which will help to balance the demand across the Leicestershire area. At Leicester Wigston DTC, two new DEs were recruited last year, with an additional new entrant due to start later this month. At Loughborough DTC, two new DEs also joined last year, and the DVSA is making offers to two more potential new entrants from the most recent recruitment campaign.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of announcing a national inquiry into grooming gangs; and what steps she is taking to (a) support investigations into alleged crimes and (b) help prevent similar crimes in the future.

This Government is prioritising work to ensure victims and survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse are protected and supported, while pursuing offenders and bringing them to justice. We are continuing to work across government and with policing and law enforcement partners to strengthen the prevention of and response to these despicable crimes.I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary’ statement made on 16 January, which sets out some of the actions the Government is taking forward to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse, including on grooming gangs offending. This includes making grooming an aggravated factor in sentencing, and new help to assist victims in getting prosecutions underway by expanding the remit of the Independent Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel.The Home Secretary has also written to the National Police Chiefs’ Council to ask all chief constables to look again at historical gang exploitation cases where No Further Action was taken, and to work with the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to pursue new lines of inquiry and to reopen investigations where appropriate. These measures are being backed with £2 million of additional funding.The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.

If he will take steps with his international counterparts to negotiate a treaty on ending the (a) use and (b) production of fossil fuels.

We are committed to working with all international counterparts to transition away from fossil fuels, in line with the UK’s domestic and international commitments including from the COP28 Global Stocktake.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support communities affected by recent flooding in Leicester; and whether he plans to make a flood recovery grant available to local authorities.

Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. This Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. During recent flooding, the Environment Agency has been operating flood assets and working with local partners across England to prevent and reduce the severity of the flooding. In Leicester, the Environment Agency will continue to deploy officers to affected communities to assess the impacts of flooding to properties and businesses. It will also continue to work with the local resilience forum to identify further opportunities to reduce flood risk in Leicestershire and support the resilience of communities to flooding. There are no plans to activate Defra's Property Flood Resilience grant scheme as the current scale of flooding has not met the threshold for its activation. Local Authorities should have contingencies in place for flooding and be able to provide support through their normal mechanisms.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to disability benefits on vulnerable individuals in Leicester; and what steps she will be taking to ensure those most

We want to change the system of health and disability benefits across Great Britain to enable people better to enter and remain in work, and to respond to the complex and fluctuating nature of the health conditions many people live with today. We will bri...

What steps her Department is taking to (a) ensure that current prison expansion plans are sufficient to meet projected demand and (b) prevent potential overcrowding in prisons serving Leicester and the surroundin

Our 10-year Prison Capacity strategy published on 11 December sets out plans to deliver 14,000 prison places the previous Government promised but failed to deliver. It also sets out our plans to maintain the places in our estate to ensure we have sufficie...

What steps her Department is taking to reduce levels of child poverty in Leicester.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, and the Child Poverty Taskforce is working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. We published our framework ‘Tackling Child Poverty:...

What steps her Department is taking to support low-income families by (a) improving access to opportunities for children to play and learn, and (b) enhancing financial independence and living standards.

Through our Opportunity Mission, this Government will break the link between a child’s background and their future success. We will deliver across four areas including helping every child to achieve and thrive through excellent teaching and high standards...

What steps his Department is taking to (a) prioritise a roofs first approach to solar panel installation to ensure efficient use of urban spaces and (b) incentivize homeowners and businesses

Changes have been introduced to permitted development rights, enabling more solar installations to benefit from the flexibilities and planning freedoms permitted development rights offer. This includes a new permitted development right that allows for the...

What recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of compensating women impacted by changes to women's State Pension age in Leicester; and what steps she is taking to support the wo

In their investigation into communication of changes to State Pension age, the Ombudsman did not examine changes to the State Pension age itself, they examined how the policy was communicated. So, we have done no such assessment. We are committed to suppo...

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his Bangladeshi counterpart on the recent arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das.

The UK is committed to promoting and protecting human rights, including Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). We monitor human rights in Bangladesh closely, including following student-led protests in Bangladesh. I understand the concerns about the arrest...

Whether her Department plans to review the two child benefit cap.

The Child Poverty Taskforce is exploring how we can harness all available levers to reduce child poverty before publishing a strategy in Spring 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that planning reforms balance new housing development with the protection of (a) green spaces and (b) local heritage in (i) Leiceste

The government published the revised National Planning Policy Framework on 12 December. The Framework reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring the historic environment, both at a local and national level, and local green space are appropriately protect...

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to hold water companies accountable for financial mismanagement.

Ofwat monitors the financial position of all water companies, taking action when needed to strengthen company’s long-term financial resilience and producing an annual ‘Monitoring Financial Resilience Report’ to provide a publicly available assessment of t...