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1718468

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to help increase the rate of reunification of children in kinship care with their birth families.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26536
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.</p><p> </p><p>The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.</p><p> </p><p>The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26537 26538 question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:56 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718469

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the impact of local authority specialist family reunification teams on trends in the number of children who have been reunited with their birth parents in the last 10 years.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26537
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.</p><p> </p><p>The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.</p><p> </p><p>The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26536 26538 question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:56 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718470

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children in Care
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring local authorities to (a) measure and (b) publish their performance on reuniting children in kinship care with their birth parents.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26538
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The department is committed to ensuring that looked after children are able to achieve permanence. Where a looked after child’s permanence plan is to return to the care of their parents, there should be a robust decision-making process to ensure this decision is safe and sustainable and will safeguard and promote their welfare. Local authorities should set out what support and services will be provided following reunification.</p><p> </p><p>In the 2023 update to the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ the department set out that local authorities may consider whether family group decision-making would support the child’s transition home from care, and the role the family network could play in supporting this.</p><p> </p><p>The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme will test family network reforms including through increased use of family group decision making. This reform area will empower families by prioritising family-led solutions, engaging wider family networks throughout decisions made about a child which may support reunification, including back to birth parents.</p><p> </p><p>The number and percentage of looked after children returning home to live with parents or other people with parental responsibility is published annually in the department’s children looked after statistical release and can be interrogated at local authority level on GOV.UK. Figures are available for the last five years. The department does not intend to break down the data any further to identify returns to birth parents from kinship care.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 26536 26537 question first answered 23/05/2024 16:33:56 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718516

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Electronic Cigarettes: Sales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that local authority trading standards bodies have sufficient (a) funding and (b) other resources to tackle (i) illicit vapes and (ii) underage sales.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26539
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2024 answer text <p>The Government is concerned about the increase in the number of illicit vapes in the United Kingdom’s market, and the easy access and availability of these vapes to children. To strengthen our enforcement activity, we are providing an additional £30 million per year for enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards, to support work in tackling illicit and underage sales. We are working closely with Trading Standards to consider how the new funding can best support their programmes of local-level enforcement.</p><p> </p><p>In April last year, we also provided £3 million of new funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in retail outlets and ports, upskilled Trading Standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will also introduce fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for the underage sale of tobacco and vaping products. This will support Trading Standards in taking quicker and more proportionate enforcement action against the irresponsible retailers who allow underage sales. Enforcement authorities will retain all the proceeds from FPNs, to reinvest in the enforcement of tobacco and vaping product legislation.</p> answering member constituency South Northamptonshire answering member printed Andrea Leadsom grouped question UIN 26540 question first answered 21/05/2024 08:31:22 answering member 4117 label Biography information for Andrea Leadsom
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718517

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Electronic Cigarettes: Sales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the sale of illegal vapes to people under the age of 18.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26540
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2024 answer text <p>The Government is concerned about the increase in the number of illicit vapes in the United Kingdom’s market, and the easy access and availability of these vapes to children. To strengthen our enforcement activity, we are providing an additional £30 million per year for enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards, to support work in tackling illicit and underage sales. We are working closely with Trading Standards to consider how the new funding can best support their programmes of local-level enforcement.</p><p> </p><p>In April last year, we also provided £3 million of new funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in retail outlets and ports, upskilled Trading Standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will also introduce fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for the underage sale of tobacco and vaping products. This will support Trading Standards in taking quicker and more proportionate enforcement action against the irresponsible retailers who allow underage sales. Enforcement authorities will retain all the proceeds from FPNs, to reinvest in the enforcement of tobacco and vaping product legislation.</p> answering member constituency South Northamptonshire answering member printed Andrea Leadsom grouped question UIN 26539 question first answered 21/05/2024 08:31:22 answering member 4117 label Biography information for Andrea Leadsom
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718518

registered interest
date	15/05/2024
answering body	Department for Transport
answering dept id	27
answering dept short name	Transport
answering dept sort name	Transport
hansard heading	Biofuels
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential barriers to wider deployment of biomass fuels.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	26541
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The government’s Biomass Strategy, published in 2023, analysed biomass availability and recognised that sustainable biomass is a limited resource and there is uncertainty around future availability for use in the UK. It concluded its use should be prioritised where it offers the greatest environmental, economic, and social benefits.</p><p> </p><p>This analysis has been built on in the government’s response to the second Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate consultation, published in April 2024. This set out that while biofuels have a significant role to play, international availability of different types of sustainable biomass may limit their total application for the decarbonisation of aviation.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is preparing a Low Carbon Fuel Strategy for future publication.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Cambridgeshire answering member printed Anthony Browne question first answered 23/05/2024 10:37:19 answering member 4801 label Biography information for Anthony Browne
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1718175

registered interest
date	09/05/2024
answering body	Women and Equalities
answering dept id	31
answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
hansard heading	Women: Business
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help increase the number of female-led businesses.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	902874
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>In March 2024, the government announced the launch of the Invest in Women Taskforce. Its mission is to make the UK the best place in the world to be a female founder. <br> <br>Since its launch, the Taskforce members have been working with the private sector to begin raising its fund for female founders. This seeks to increase the proportion of investment<br>going to all-female founder teams – which has been stuck at 2% for the past decade.</p> answering member constituency Saffron Walden answering member printed Kemi Badenoch question first answered 15/05/2024 16:46:55 answering member 4597 label Biography information for Kemi Badenoch
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1716452

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Water: Testing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will introduce year-round water quality testing.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	25292
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2024 answer text <p>The Bathing Water Regulations require the Environment Agency to sample bathing waters at a fixed location using a pre-determined sampling schedule during the bathing season, which runs from 15 May to 30 September. The Government is committed to reviewing the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to ensure they reflect changes in how and where people use bathing waters. That is why Defra has recently announced plans to consult on proposals to reform the Bathing Water Regulations for England. The proposed changes will drive work to improve bathing water quality, enhance monitoring and enable more flexibility around the dates of the bathing water monitoring season.</p><p /><p>The EA also conducts wider water quality monitoring for a range of purposes including understanding the state of the environment year-round.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Robbie Moore question first answered 23/05/2024 12:53:32 answering member 4861 label Biography information for Robbie Moore
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1716453

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Teachers: Coastal Areas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the retention rate of teachers in coastal communities.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	25293
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>The department currently has the highest number of teachers on record, with over 468,000 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. This represents an increase of 27,000 (6%) since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.</p><p> </p><p>The department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. For language subjects, the department is offering bursaries worth £25,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £27,000 tax-free in French, German and Spanish. The department is also continuing to offer bursaries and scholarships to all non-UK national trainees in physics and languages. The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a £15 million increase on the last cycle.</p><p> </p><p>For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. As of 2023, 69% of secondary or special schools in coastal towns are eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, compared to 59% of schools elsewhere in the country. This will support both recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.</p><p> </p><p>Coastal communities are also well served by the department’s network of Teaching School Hubs (TSHs), which are school-led centres of excellence in professional development, delivering training and support to teachers and school leaders at every stage of their career. The 87 TSHs cover all of England, with 31 hubs currently serving 146 coastal areas across England.</p><p> </p><p>Regarding recruitment targets, simply looking at post-graduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) recruitment as an indicator of broader teacher recruitment is misleading as it is not the only route into teaching, nor does it represent the available number of teachers in the workforce. The PGITT target is calculated using the Teacher Workforce Model, which considers a broad range of factors including, but not limited to, projected pupil numbers, historical recruitment performance, teacher retention forecasts, economic factors, and recruitment from other non-ITT related routes such as returners and those teachers that are new to the state-funded schools sector.</p><p> </p><p>Therefore, the PGITT target is not based on the total number of entrants schools’ need, but rather on the forecast residual need after accounting for other non-PGITT inflows, such as undergraduate ITT and returners. The department calculates targets on an annual basis, and if retention and entrants from other routes are higher than expected during the time that trainees are applying for and completing their course, this can offset the need to meet the PGITT targets in full.</p><p> </p><p>The department will continue to monitor PGITT and other routes into teaching and have provided targeted support to ensure it recruits and retains sufficient numbers of teachers in all key subjects, including physics and languages.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 25297 25298 question first answered 15/05/2024 12:29:37 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell

1716454

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Employment: Parents
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support parents of children with SEND to remain in the workforce.
tabling member constituency	Eastbourne
tabling member printed	Caroline Ansell
uin	25294
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2024 answer text <p>Eligible Universal Credit (UC) customers can claim back up to 85% of childcare costs making it easier for families to take up and progress in work.</p><p>In the past year the Department has increased the generosity of the UC childcare costs maximum amounts by over 50%, to £1015 for one child and £1,739 for two children or more.</p><p>UC childcare support is paid to registered providers for example, OFSTED and providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 16/05/2024 12:44:33 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4512 label Biography information for Caroline Ansell