Written questions by Perkins.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the proposed £50 million capital investment in the Coalfields Regeneration Trust to support SME industrial development.

I recognise the excellent work of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, supporting coalfield communities across the country reach their full potential. I met with the Trust recently to hear more about this work and their future ambitions. Our Pride in Place strategy sets out how we will support the most in-need communities to deliver their local priorities. The £5.8 billion Pride in Place programme and the £150 million Pride in Place Impact Fund will support many coalfield communities. However beyond these, every part of the country benefits from our wider Pride in Place strategy to put people in control of their neighbourhoods. We are working to improve high streets through initiatives such as High Street Rental Auctions; the Community Right to Buy, giving communities the chance to take ownership of valued buildings; and streamlining the compulsory purchase process to support regeneration.

What discussions he has had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on access to fampridine for people with multiple sclerosis in England.

Health is a devolved matter and decisions on the availability of medicines in the devolved administrations are a matter for their own governments.Ministers and Department officials have had no recent discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about access to fampridine. NICE’s updated guideline on the diagnosis and management of multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults, published in June 2022, recommends that fampridine should not be offered to treat mobility issues in people with MS as it is not found to be a cost-effective treatment at the current list price. NICE keeps its guidance under active surveillance and decisions on whether published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by the NICE Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE has indicated that it has no current plans to review its recommendations on fampridine.

If his Department will provide long-term funding for the JobsPlus programme.

Jobs Plus is a community-led model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The Department is testing the model in ten social housing neighbourhoods to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work. We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer and make decisions on future funding.

Whether he has made a comparative assessment of the adequacy of availability of fampridine (fampyra) for patients across the four nations of the UK.

Health is a devolved matter and decisions on the availability of medicines in the devolved administrations are a matter for their own governments.Ministers and Department officials have had no recent discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about access to fampridine. NICE’s updated guideline on the diagnosis and management of multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults, published in June 2022, recommends that fampridine should not be offered to treat mobility issues in people with MS as it is not found to be a cost-effective treatment at the current list price. NICE keeps its guidance under active surveillance and decisions on whether published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by the NICE Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE has indicated that it has no current plans to review its recommendations on fampridine.

What plans his Department has to support the national rollout of community-led employment programmes such as JobsPlus following the conclusion of the pilot phase.

Jobs Plus is a community-led model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The Department is testing the model in ten social housing neighbourhoods to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work. We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer and make decisions on future funding.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of expanding the number of JobsPlus sites.

Jobs Plus is a community-led model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The Department is testing the model in ten social housing neighbourhoods to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work. We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer and make decisions on future funding.

How many students starting an undergraduate degree course in 2025 at each Russell Group University had achieved a) 3 or more A Levels and b) a T Level and c) a BTEC; and what was this as a proportion of the number of students passing those qualifications in 2025.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education (HE) sector. These data are shared with the department and includes information on the qualifications held by students on entry to their course at a UK HE provider. The latest student data held by the department refers to the 2024/25 academic year and covers students starting degree courses in 2024.The number of English-domiciled entrants to undergraduate courses in each Russell Group university in the 2024/25 academic year reported by HESA to have achieved either three or more A Levels, a T Level, or a BTEC, can be found in the attached spreadsheet.The spreadsheet also presents the undergraduate entrant figures as a proportion of the total number of pupils in England achieving three or more A Levels, a T Level, or a BTEC in the 2023/24 academic year. Caution is advised when interpreting the data in this spreadsheet due to low and inconsistent reporting rates for HE entry qualifications. Counts in the spreadsheet have been rounded to the nearest 5.

What criteria her Department uses to decide how much 16 to 19 Bursary funding is distributed to each a) Local Education Authority, b) Multi-Academy Trust and c) school within a Local Education Authority and Multi-Academy Trust.

The department allocates the bulk of 16 to 19 bursary funding in advance for institutions to make discretionary bursary awards to students.For mainstream schools and academies, allocations are made to individual institutions. Each local authority-maintained school, or academy within a multi-academy trust, will get its own allocation from the department. It is up to these organisations how to allocate this funding.Calculations for an institution’s discretionary bursary funding are based on data around the financial needs and costs faced by its students. The methodology for calculating discretionary bursary allocations has two elements:Element One: financial disadvantage is based on students’ home postcodes, matched against the Index of Multiple Deprivation.Element Two: student costs is intended to provide a general indicator of the main costs faced by students. It includes funding for travel costs by using the rurality of the student’s home postcode and the delivery location of their learning, together with funding for industry placement costs for students on T Levels.

What progress his Department has made on implementing the Growth and Skills Levy; and when can businesses expect to see changes come into effect.

This government is transforming the apprenticeships levy into a new growth and skills levy which will deliver greater flexibility to employers and more opportunities for young people in England and support the industrial strategy. In August 2025, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills. They are underpinned by additional funding for employers of up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career. We are investing an additional £725 million to deliver the next phase of the growth and skills levy and meet our ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We will expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people, launch a pilot with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to better connect young people to local apprenticeship opportunities, and fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible 16–24-year-olds from the next academic year. From April 2026, employers will also be able to access short, flexible training courses to help respond quickly to evolving skills needs. The first wave of these courses will be called apprenticeship units and they will be available in critical skills areas such as artificial intelligence, digital and engineering.

What steps he is taking to help that the Growth and Skills Levy increases levels of apprenticeship start numbers.

This government is transforming the apprenticeships levy into a new growth and skills levy which will deliver greater flexibility to employers and more opportunities for young people in England and support the industrial strategy. In August 2025, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills. They are underpinned by additional funding for employers of up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career. We are investing an additional £725 million to deliver the next phase of the growth and skills levy and meet our ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We will expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people, launch a pilot with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to better connect young people to local apprenticeship opportunities, and fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible 16–24-year-olds from the next academic year. From April 2026, employers will also be able to access short, flexible training courses to help respond quickly to evolving skills needs. The first wave of these courses will be called apprenticeship units and they will be available in critical skills areas such as artificial intelligence, digital and engineering.

What assessment his Department had made of the potential merits of including the metals recycling industry on the list of eligible sectors for the forthcoming British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.

The Government recently closed a consultation on eligibility for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) where businesses were invited to share their views on the proposed methodology. Decisions on eligibility will now be taken to ensure the scheme is properly geared towards boosting growth in the economy; through attracting investment in Industrial Strategy frontier manufacturing sectors and foundational manufacturing industries that supply key inputs to the Industrial Strategy frontier sectors.The Industrial Strategy frontier and foundational sectors were selected following the Government’s consultation of the Modern Industrial Strategy in the autumn of 2024.

What the average length of time was between charge and trial in a) rape, b) murder and c) GBH cases in each year between 2009 and 2025 for each court in England.

Data showing the time from charge to main hearing for defendants dealt with for the selected offences following the entry of a not guilty plea at the Crown Court from 2016 to 2024 can be found in the attached tables. Data is not available for years prior to 2016. Data has been provided at the lowest geographical level of our published Accredited Official Statistics, Local Criminal Justice Board Level (LCJB).Please note that many of the averages are based on very small volumes of defendants and as such the figures should be treated with caution.Our published timeliness metrics are produced at a sufficiently 'high' level to reduce the volatility and fluctuations associated with low volumes of cases i.e. offence groups. Where court level offence breakdowns are based on fewer than five cases in these tables, timeliness values are suppressed as they are particularly volatile and can be misleading.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the five biggest allocations of funding for nature from International climate finance were in each year between 2021-22 and 2025-26.

The five biggest allocations of funding for nature in each year between 2021-22 and 2024-25 are shown in the tables below, one for each financial year. 2025-26 figures are not yet available as accounts have not yet been finalised:Programme NumberProgramme titleNature - FY21- 22 SpendICF-0040-MFF (DESNZ)Mobilising Finance for Forests£51.1mICF-0005-GCF (DESNZ)Green Climate Fund (GCF)£43.7m300856 (FCDO)Green Climate Fund First Replenishment£40.7m201724 (FCDO)Forest Governance, Markets and Climate£21.1m300057 (FCDO)Global Environment Facility 7th replenishment£15.0m Programme NumberProgramme titleNature - FY22-23 Spend300856 (FCDO)Green Climate Fund First Replenishment£109.6mICF-0004-CIF (DESNZ)New Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) BC - Nature Based Solutions£65.0m301516 (FCDO)UKSIP - The UK Sustainable Infrastructure Programme Latin America£23.8m201724 (FCDO)Forest Governance, Markets and Climate£23.6m202745 (FCDO)Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use£21.5m Programme NumberProgramme titleNature - FY23-24 Spend300856 (FCDO)Green Climate Fund First Replenishment£163.6mICF-0049-AF (DESNZ)Amazon Fund (REDD+)£54.6m301268 (FCDO)Global Environment Facility 8th Replenishment£53.8mICF-0019-REM (DESNZ)REDD Early Movers Programme (REM)£30.0mICF-0040-MFF (DESNZ)Mobilising Finance for Forests£27.5m Programme NumberProgramme titleNature - FY24-25 SpendICF-0053-SCALE1 (DESNZ)Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE) - Pillar One£153.9m400173 (FCDO)Green Climate Fund - 2nd replenishment£90.8m300958 (FCDO)IDA£85.0mICF-R&D (DESNZ)BEIS Research & Development Climate Finance£34.7mICF-GCRF (DESNZ)Ayrton Fund BEIS R&D: Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)£32.4m

How many magistrates served in a) magistrate courts and b) family courts in each year between 2009 and 2025.

Magistrates are the cornerstone of our long and established judicial System. The extraordinary voluntary commitment given by individuals across England and Wales, giving up their valuable free time to make a difference to our Justice system is incredible.The earliest data we have is 2018, when we had a total of 14,008 magistrates. Currently, we have 14,466 magistrates sitting in crime and family.Year Total number of Magistrates - Adult Total number of Magistrates - Family Total number of Magistrates 201813171288014008201912877275213712202012451288113510202111945283913090202211882292613195202311909296713319202412490348914458202512366355414466

How many court days were lost in 2025 due to the unavailability of courtrooms as a result of building failures by a) crown court, b) magistrates court and c) family court.

The number of court days lost due to building failures in the last full financial year (2024/25) is as follows:Crown Court – 258 daysMagistrates’ Court – 36 daysFamily Court – 2 daysTo put this into context, over the same period we sat over 107,000 days in the Crown Court.A lost court day is defined as a planned sitting day consisting of two sessions (one morning, one afternoon session) that is cancelled, adjourned or unable to proceed due to unforeseen circumstances, structural issues or scheduling conflicts. The figures above reflect court days lost due to building failures only. Workforce shortages are also a major cause of lost time: in 2024, over 1,000 trials were cancelled owing to a lack of counsel, which is why we are investing further in legal aid and match funding pupillages for criminal barristers.Thanks to the efforts of court staff and the judiciary, where a building failure occurs, losing court days can often be averted through our ability to move cases to another courtroom or nearby court building, or by using remote hearing arrangements.It is vital that court infrastructure does not prevent hearings from taking place, that is why we announced a boost in court capital maintenance and project funding from £120 million in 2024/25, to £148.5 million for 2025/26.

How many court days were lost in 2025 due to non-delivery of remanded prisoners to court by courier firms by a) prison held in, b) contracted courier company, c) Crown Court and d) Magistrates court.

Data on the number of trials declared ineffective due to the non-production of defendants can be found here: Trial effectiveness at the Criminal Courts tool.In the most recent reported quarter (July to September 2025), non-production of defendants accounted for 2% of ineffective trials in the Crown Court and 4% of ineffective trials in the magistrates’ court.Securing data on the impact that non-production of defendants has had on sitting time would come at a disproportionate cost, due to the time required to process this information.

Whether the UK Steel Council includes representatives from the steel industry supply chain.

The Steel Council was re-established in 2025 to support the development of the forthcoming steel strategy. The list of members can be found using the following link [ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-plan-to-secure-the-long-term-future-of-steelmaking-and-safeguard-steel-communities] and includes the British Metals Recycling Association and UK Steel which represent parts of the steel supply chain.We have committed to revisiting the role and membership of the Council upon publication of the strategy. The date of the next Steel Council meeting is yet to be set, but we continue to engage closely with the sector, including the wider supply chain, on key issues. The Minister for Industry and the Minister for Trade met with steel industry supply chain companies on 10 November 2025 and 19 January 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of banning the usage of non-compostable fresh produce stickers.

The Department has not considered the potential impact of non-compostable fresh produce stickers on the bio-waste industry and soil health and does not currently have plans to discourage or ban the use of these stickers. However, we remain committed to supporting sustainable packaging solutions and continue to monitor developments in this area.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the British Metals Recycling Association’s report entitled Assessing the impact of potential restrictions on UK recycled metals exports, published in August 2025.

The Government acknowledges the UK steel sector's growing need for high-quality scrap supply. We are committed to collaborating with the supply chain to foster sector growth whilst maintaining a fair market for all stakeholders. The British Metals Recycling Association’s August 2025 report provides valuable insights, which we are considering as we progress policy options in this area. We continue to engage with all relevant parties to ensure our approach supports both industry growth and the wider UK economy.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of non-compostable fresh produce stickers on the bio-waste industry and soil health; and whether she plans to take steps to discourage the usage of non-compostable stickers.

The Department has not considered the potential impact of non-compostable fresh produce stickers on the bio-waste industry and soil health and does not currently have plans to discourage or ban the use of these stickers. However, we remain committed to supporting sustainable packaging solutions and continue to monitor developments in this area.