The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is responsible for the regulation of the financial advice market and has looked closely at the advice provided to British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) members who transferred from the scheme.

Following this, the FCA has put in place a consumer redress scheme to ensure that the advice given to former BSPS members from the relevant period is reviewed and that redress is paid to those who lost out financially as a result of the poor advice they received.

HM Treasury does not hold internal reviews or audits conducted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) concerning its redress scheme for former British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) members.

I was pleased to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency to meet steelworkers and British Steel management during my visits last month. I know that she is a passionate and dedicated champion for her community and for steelworkers there. I look forward to meeting her again next week ahead of the visit of the Secretary of State to her constituency, and to discussing these matters and others.

My hon. Friend will know how committed this Government are to the steel industry, but at the moment it is going through a transition. We care about having primary steel-making capacity in this country—that is something we want to do and to keep, but as she knows, even now we still import ore. I know she is concerned about British Steel and its future. I will be visiting her constituency in Scunthorpe and we will be able to discuss those matters further.

In December 2023, the department published 'Championing Kinship Care', which is the first ever national kinship care strategy. The department is investing £20 million of funding in the 2024/25 financial year for Championing Kinship Care to help move towards a children’s social care system with kinship at its heart.

Since the publication of Championing Kinship Care, the department has:

• Published its recruitment campaign for the first ever Kinship Ambassador
• Published updated local authority funding allocations for the 2024/25 financial year for Virtual School Heads, including the £3.8 million uplift to cover their extended duties to promote the educational outcomes of children in kinship care.
• Launched a package of training and support that will be delivered by Kinship. The service will provide both online and in-person training sessions for kinship carers and will cover topics such as contact with parents, how to register for a new school and support with caring for teenagers.

The department will provide an update on the financial allowance pathfinder programme in the coming months.

The Hedgerows Regulations 1997 set legal protections for hedgerows in England and Wales. These existing regulations prohibit the removal of most countryside hedgerows (or parts of them) without first seeking approval from the local planning authority.

In June 2023, the Government launched a consultation on how hedgerows should be further protected in England. The responses to the consultation supported bringing hedgerow management rules into regulation and this is what the Government will do as soon as parliamentary time allows. The regulations will require a 2-metre buffer strip, measured from the centre of the hedge, where no cultivation or application of pesticides or fertilisers must take place, and will ban the cutting of hedges between 1 March and 31 August. The regulations will support other Government actions and incentives, including over 90,000 km of hedgerows being managed through 16,000 agreements in the Government’s Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive schemes.

Defra is also working with stakeholders and other Government departments to understand how to support the creation and maintenance of hedgerows in non-agricultural contexts, to maximise the benefits they provide.

Backed by over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase in the high needs budget of 60% over five years, the department’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan will ensure children and young people across England with SEND or in AP get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country.

The department has a clear plan to ensure children and young people enjoy their childhood and achieve good outcomes. The department is delivering on this plan. The department has completed the following:

• In this academic year alone, the department has opened 15 new special schools and one AP free school, which creates over 1,500 new places for children and young people. The department has also approved a further 76 special free schools to create additional specialist school places for those with the greatest needs.

• In September 2023, the department launched a £70 million Change Programme made up of 32 local authorities to test and refine the department’s reforms. The programme is working with local authorities, integrated care boards, school representatives, parent group representatives and professionals to benefit every region in England.
• In November 2023, the department announced the £13 million ‘Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools’ programme to support up to 1680 primary schools to better meet the needs of neurodiverse children

• Since May 2022, over 5,000 online training modules have been completed and over 100,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training provided by the Autism Education Trust through the Universal training offer.
• In January 2024, the department announced a new initial teacher training and early career framework which includes new and updated content on SEND to ensure teachers have the skills and confidence to support all children.
• The department has registered over 5000 practitioners for early years Special Educational Needs Coordinator training to boost their understanding of SEND in the early years, early identification and collaborative working with parents, carers and other professionals.
• Through grant funding, the department has supported all local authorities in England to strengthen the quality of their Supported Internship offers to improve the transition into sustained, paid employment for interns. In the Spring Budget 2023, the department announced up to £3 million to pilot extending Supported Internships to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities but without an Education, Health and Care plan until March 2025

• In August 2023, the department confirmed that it is introducing a leadership level new National Professional Qualification for Special Educational Needs Coordinators, to replace the existing qualification, from Autumn 2024 and ensure special educational needs coordinators receive consistent high-quality, evidence-based training

• The department has provided a further £21 million to train 400 more education psychologists across the academic years 2024 and 2025

• The department has extended the AP Specialist Taskforce programme to March 2025 which has reached over 4000 children to date.
• The department has introduced a strengthened local authority inspection regime between Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to drive better outcomes and standards in line with the department’s ambitious programme of reform, with 23 inspection reports published so far.

Recovery of routine diabetes care following the pandemic is a key priority for the NHS England Diabetes Programme. Transformation funding between 2020/21 and 2022/23 has supported recovery, as such that rates of routine care delivery are now almost back to the pre-pandemic level. Services in the National Health Service are asked to continue this upward trajectory, with a particular focus on ensuring that people from socio-economically deprived areas receive their annual reviews.

Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for commissioning diabetes clinical services for the Scunthorpe area and has an established Diabetes Clinical Network. This network operates across the entirety of the Humber and North Yorkshire geographical area.

The latest National Diabetes Audit 2023-24 Quarterly Report, January 2023 to September 2023 was published on 11 January 2024. The proportion of patients with type 1 diabetes completing all eight care processes at Humber and North Yorkshire ICB is 27.0%, above the England average of 25.3%. The proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes completing all eight care processes at Humber and North Yorkshire ICB is 37% above the England average of 30.5%.

My hon. Friend has a huge amount of knowledge of the steel sector and is a huge champion for Scunthorpe. She knows that we are working incredibly hard with the company in her constituency, and we are waiting for it to respond to the business plans going forward. We know how important virgin steelmaking is,

and we accept, because technology has moved on, that going forward 90% of all steel can be made in electric arc furnaces.

Following publication of our initial report, Major Conditions Strategy: Case for change and our strategic framework, in August 2023, we have continued to develop the strategy, informed by the call for evidence and ongoing engagement. Our intention is to publish the Major Conditions Strategy early this year.

I praise my hon. Friend’s leadership in championing her local community and also the steel industry in the UK. She is right to do so, because it is an incredibly important part not just of our local communities but of our economy and security. She is right to put this issue on the agenda.

We are committed to working with the steel sector to secure a decarbonised future, supporting local economic growth and our levelling-up agenda. That includes our commitment to major support with energy costs and also access to hundreds of millions of pounds of grants to support energy efficiency and decarbonisation. I obviously cannot comment on conversations with individual companies, but my hon. Friend can see from our track record on working with either Celsa or Tata Steel that we have been able to support our fantastic steel industry, and we will always continue to do so.

My hon. Friend is first and foremost an advocate for the steelworks and steelworkers in her constituency. Obviously that letter will be on its way, and I thank her so much for raising it.

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. She has been a long-running champion of the steel sector and its importance to her constituents. Of course, we want a smooth transition between blast furnace and electronic arc steel making technology. Steel remains incredibly important to the defence sector. Take the Type 26: almost 50% of that is British steel. That is 1,400 tonnes per ship. That underlines why it is so important that, in constituencies such as my hon. Friend’s, we continue to support the steel sector.

On 9 November, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published an evaluation of the first year of the bloodborne virus (BBV) opt-out testing in emergency departments in local areas with extremely high HIV prevalence. Findings show that the programme has made a significant contribution to BBV testing in England with more than half the number of tests done in the programme compared to BBV tests in other settings.

We continue to assess available evidence alongside data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030 to decide on further expansion of the programme.

My hon. Friend is a fantastic champion for her local steelworking community. I hope she is reassured by the action that this Government have already taken to support steelmaking in our country, reaching a landmark agreement with Tata Steel to safeguard thousands of jobs there, as well as during the pandemic.

I agree that it is important for our industrial base, and we will continue to have constructive conversations with all those companies to ensure that we can support them in their transition to a cleaner, greener steelmaking future.

There are no current plans to review or extend the prescription charge medical exemptions list to include cystic fibrosis. Almost 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in England and there are arrangements in place to help those with the greatest need.

Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension. Those with cystic fibrosis or another long-term condition may therefore meet the eligibility criteria for prescription charge exemptions and be in receipt of free prescriptions.

To support those who do not qualify for an exemption of prescription charges, the cost of prescriptions can be capped by purchasing a prescription pre-payment certificate, which can be paid for in instalments. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week.

Additionally, people on a low income who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges can also seek help under the NHS Low Income Service, which provides help with health costs on an income-related basis.

Provisional data from NHS England indicates that the opt-out testing programme has helped find more than 550 cases of undiagnosed or untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and more than 1,900 cases of undiagnosed or untreated hepatitis during its first year. A 12-month public health evaluation report will be published by the UK Health Security Agency in October.

We will be assessing all this evidence alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030 to decide whether we further expand the programme. We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas of the country to make the case for implementing the same approach locally.

Steel is vital to the UK, but we know that the industry needs to decarbonise for a sustainable future. The Paris agreement made it clear that the sector had to reduce its global emissions by 93% by 2050. The Government are actively engaging with the sector on

how best to achieve that, but decarbonisation pathways for specific sites will be commercial decisions for individual companies. Industrial sectors, including steel companies, can bid into Government funds worth hundreds of millions of pounds to help them go green. As I mentioned, we have done a huge amount to support energy intensive industries.

I am in constant conversations with specific companies to do with steel, including British Steel in my hon. Friend’s constituency, but of course those conversations are often commercially sensitive. I was delighted to speak at the event she hosted in Parliament to celebrate the launch of the Government’s updated steel procurement policy note, which will help to make opportunities more visible and maintain a level playing field for UK steel producers. In the financial year 2021-22, relevant public procurers bought around £365 million-worth of UK produced steel. Furthermore, the Government have provided around £730 million in energy costs relief to the sector since 2013.

The government recognises that, to support people’s ability to continue to transact using cash, businesses need reasonable access to cash deposit facilities to support them to keep accepting cash.

The government therefore legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator for access to cash and provide it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities.

The government considers that this legislation will support organisations, including local businesses, to continue accepting cash by ensuring that they have reasonable access to cash deposit facilities.

The UK Government was appointed an observer of one of the EU’s informal expert group on monitoring, reporting, quantification and verification related to the CBAM implementation, and is engaging with the EU about their draft Implementing Act, which was published last month. As we gain further clarity on the implication of the CBAM, we will continue to engage UK businesses to offer the support that they need. HM Treasury are leading work to consider whether or not the UK will establish its own CBAM.

The Government published a Border Operating Model which provides guidance on the rules exporters must follow to import and export waste, including plastic waste, from the EU.

We have published and shared guidance material to help businesses strengthen their supply chains resilience. A supply chains resilience framework was published in November 2022 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supply-chain-resilience and, Working with the National Protective Security Authority and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, we have developed tools to help businesses improve their understanding of supply chains and manage risks and future shocks. https://www.npsa.gov.uk/supply-chain-resilience.

We have provided councils with extensive tariff funding, including an additional £150 million to support Ukrainian guests to move into their own homes. Funding is un-ringfenced, which allows councils to use the funding as best suits their area, including measures to support guests to access the private rented sector.

The Local Authority Housing Fund provides capital funding directly to councils in England to obtain housing for Ukrainian and Afghan families and in the longer term will provide a new and permanent supply of accommodation for local communities.

We have published guidance on renting to help households who wish to move on from sponsorship by accessing private accommodation.

The Government expects retailers to pass on savings to consumers and strongly believes rigorous competition is the best way of delivering low fuel prices for consumers. The Government has therefore accepted the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommendations to create a statutory open data scheme for road fuel prices and an ongoing monitoring function for the UK market, and will consult on this in the autumn.

In the interim, the CMA will create a voluntary scheme, by end of August, encouraging fuel retailers to share accurate, up-to-date fuel prices for publication, and continue to monitor prices using its existing powers.

Pollution from industrial sources in England and Wales is controlled through the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016. All large industrial facilities, including large-scale industrial manufacturing, must comply with their environmental permits and use best available techniques (BAT) to reduce emissions to air, water and land. Through the UK BAT standard-setting process, regulators and industry collaborate to identify the most effective technologies and processes for reducing emissions. This process provides stability for industry through predictable review cycles and implementation timelines.

Through the permitting process the Environment Agency works closely with operators of large industrial sites to determine the most appropriate pollution control options for each site.

If a site is not compliant with the conditions in their permit, the Environment Agency works with the operator to agree measures to bring the site back into compliance.

Early diagnosis is key to improving survival rates for pancreatic cancer. The Department is working with the National Health Service to improve diagnosis and treatment for those with cancer. The Elective Recovery Plan, published on 8 February 2022, set out the ambition that 75% of patients who have been urgently referred by their general practitioner for suspected cancer will be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024.

The pancreatic cancer clinical audit, led by the Royal College of Surgeons, began in 2021, with the first outcomes expected in 2023/24. A key aim of the audit is to support NHS services to stimulate improvements in cancer detection, treatment and outcomes for patients, including improving survival rates.

In addition, the NHS has allocated £10 million to innovations to support earlier and more efficient diagnosis, including the PinPoint blood test and a new genetic test that can be used as a ‘liquid biopsy’ for those with suspected pancreatic cancer.

The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer, covering the patient pathway. The strategy will consider a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.

There are global supply issues with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs). The Department has issued two Medicine Supply Notifications (MSNs), the first in September 2022 advising healthcare professionals not to initiate new patients on semaglutide (Ozempic) and to only use semaglutide for its licensed indications. The second was issued in June 2023 addressing all GLP-1 RA’s including Victoza (liraglutide injection) and Rybelsus (semaglutide tablets) advising healthcare professionals on how to manage patients requiring these medicines.

The Department’s guidance is clear that medicines which are solely licensed to treat type 2 diabetes, such as Ozempic, should not be routinely prescribed for weight loss. These medicines should only be prescribed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

GLP-1 RAs have also been added to the list of medicines that are subject to export and hoarding restrictions, to protect United Kingdom supply for UK patients.

The Department has well-established processes to manage supply issues and continues to work closely with national diabetes specialists, the suppliers, wholesalers, all manufacturers of these medicines and the relevant regulatory bodies and agencies to address and resolve these issues as soon as possible.

I am very happy to reaffirm this Government’s commitment to steel manufacturing. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, as I know what a champion she is for steel production in Scunthorpe. Long may she continue to be. We have made meaningful offers of support to Tata and British Steel. The Secretary of State recently visited them to see at first hand the work under way.

The Government worked with NHS England to publish the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care in February 2022. The Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.

This will further be supported by the additional £3.3 billion of funding in each of the next two years announced at the Autumn Statement to support the NHS, enabling rapid action to improve emergency, elective and primary care performance towards pre-pandemic levels.

NHS England’s recent letter ‘Elective care 2023/24 Priorities’ set out the progress to date in reducing the number of patients with urgent suspected cancer waiting longer than 62 days and meeting the faster diagnosis standard for the first time in February. It also confirmed the ongoing priorities to make further progress to improve performance and long waits, prioritise diagnostic capacity and focus on cancer pathway redesign

The Government announced on 24 January that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy. Cancer will be a significant element of the new Strategy, and we will ensure that all the learning from the over 5,000 submissions to the call for evidence will be considered. This will replace the suggested 10-year cancer plan.

The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and their children.

From April, we uprated benefit rates by 10.1%. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap levels have also increased by the same amount.

With 1.05 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting individuals, including parents, to move into, and progress in work, an approach which is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children. The latest statistics show that in 2021/22 children living in workless households were around 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than those where all adults work.

To support those who are in work, from 1 April 2023, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.

At the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced an ambitious package of measures designed to support people wherever they live in the UK to enter work, increase their working hours and extend their working lives.

We are investing billions in additional childcare support for parents of toddlers, investing in wraparound childcare in schools, and increasing financial support for, and expectations of, parents claiming Universal Credit.

This government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023-24 to help households and individuals with the rising bills.

For people who require additional support, the Household Support Fund has been extended until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need in response to the significantly rising cost of living. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential Barnett funding, as with all England-only investment, to spend at their discretion.

For the period April 2023 to March 2024, the total Household Support Fund allocation for North Lincolnshire is £2,647,785.53.

We have delivered an ambitious legislative programme since the publication of the Action Plan, which will deliver significant improvements for animals in the UK and abroad. We are firmly committed to maintaining our strong track record on animal welfare and to delivering continued improvements, both in the course of this Parliament and beyond.

Our recent announcement on delivering the measures in the Kept Animals Bill through single measure Bills will help us to deliver two further commitments in the plan, including the ban on live exports. These are our key priorities. We do not consider the time is right to consult on cage reforms, being mindful of the challenges the sectors are facing. The market is already driving the move away from using cages for laying hen production. The proportion of eggs that come from caged hens has steadily decreased from 47% of total throughput in Q4 2017, to 21% in Q1 2023.

We continue to work with the sector to maintain and enhance our high standards. The Government’s animal welfare priorities for its Animal Health and Welfare Pathway include supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems.

Although the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has recently increased the number of theory test centres by over 10%, this specific proposal is not currently under consideration.

We are diagnosing and treating patients faster. In March, nearly three in four people were diagnosed or given the all-clear within two weeks—ahead of the 28-day target—and nine in 10 patients start treatment within a month.

I welcome the fact that my hon. Friend has raised this point, because the £40 million of funding is available. That money is there, ready to allocate to quality bids. All the bids that have met the National Institute for Health and Care Research standard have been funded, but she is right to say that there is more money available and we stand ready to work with researchers to get that money allocated as soon as those quality bids come in.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into National Health Service mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by March 2024. Part of this increased investment will enable an additional 345,000 children and young people to be able to access NHS funded mental health support, including through appointments with children and adolescent mental health services by March 2024.

To support this, our aim is to grow the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff by March 2024. December 2022 figures show an increase of over 8,900, full-time equivalent staff in the mental health workforce compared to December 2021 and over 20,700 more compared to December 2010.

We are making good progress on expanding access to mental health care for children and young people year on year. 689,621 children and young people in England aged under 18 years old were supported with at least one contact in the year up to July 2022 compared to 618,537 in the year up to July 2021.

To support native breeds, Defra publishes the UK National Breed Inventory annually to help monitor populations of pedigree livestock, including native breeds.  For breeders in England, support for native breeds is available under the SP8: Native Breeds at Risk Supplement, which can be accessed through the Countryside Stewardship scheme.

Defra has also published guidelines on contingency planning in the event of an outbreak of a notifiable disease to identify eligible native breeds on the breed at risk (BAR) list, that may be exempt from culling.

The Department recognises the important role local abattoirs play in supporting native breed farmers and the wider rural economy. We are very much committed to engaging with the smaller abattoir sector to maintain a robust and competitive industry. At the National Farmers Union Conference in February, I announced the Government’s intention to launch capital grant funding to support smaller abattoirs. I will shortly be holding a round table with experts from the native breeds community to explore how we can support this valuable resource.

To support smaller farms wishing to apply for a Farming Equipment and Technology Fund 2023 grant we have reduced the minimum grant from £2,000 to £1,000 and introduced a range of lower priced items on to the list.

On 2 March 2023, the department published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan in response to the Green Paper. This outlines our approach to creating a sustainable system that is better for children with SEND and easier for their families to navigate.

The department will establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND, so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for adulthood and employment. We will also give families greater confidence that their child will be able to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local setting.

For those children and young people with SEND who do require an Education Health Care (EHC) plans and specialist provision, the department will ensure they get prompt access to the support they need, and that parents do not face an adversarial system to secure this. We will strengthen accountability across the system so that everyone is held to account for supporting children and young people with SEND.

The department will test the key reforms by creating up to nine Regional Expert Partnerships through our £70 million Change Programme. Oversight of reform will be driven by a new national SEND and AP Implementation Board, jointly chaired by myself and my hon. Friend, the Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy.

The department recognises that these reforms will take time to implement and continue to support the system in the immediate term to support children with SEND, which is why we are investing £2.6 billion between now and 2025 to fund new SEND and AP places and improve existing provision.

High needs revenue funding for children and young people with complex needs will be rising to £10.1 billion in this financial year 2023/24, which is an increase of over 50% from the 2019/20 allocations. This extra funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting children and young people with SEND.

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for accompanying me on my visit to British Steel last week. We are moving quickly to deliver the supercharger policy. It will reduce energy costs to energy intensive industries, including steel, by around £20 per megawatt hour. She mentioned speed, and we will consult on the capacity market exemption shortly. We intend to bring forward secondary legislation on all three measures around renewable energy obligations and capacity market costs. I will do everything I can to ensure that businesses get the support they need as quickly as they can.

We are actively engaging with the steel industry to secure a positive and sustainable future. Alongside that, my Department announced the British Industry Supercharger in February—a decisive and necessary intervention that will help to reduce energy costs for energy intensive industries such as steel.

My hon. Friend is right to highlight that men can be victims of domestic abuse and domestic violence. All victim survivors deserve access to timely and appropriate support. The updated controlling or coercive behaviour statutory guidance 2022 signposts specialist organisations that support men and boys who are victims of domestic abuse, alongside non-gendered services. Among the specialist organisations that we fund as a Government are ManKind and Dads Unlimited. The Home Office also supports the Men’s Advice Line, run by Respect.

As the Victims Minister I am committed to supporting all victims to pursue an outcome in the criminal justice system and bring perpetrators to justice. That is why we are more than quadrupling funding for victims and witness support services by 2024-25, and

are recruiting to increase the number of independent sexual violence advisers and independent domestic violence advisers by 300—to more than 1,000—by the same time. Through the groundbreaking Domestic Abuse Act 2021, we have introduced important new protections and support for victims of domestic abuse at court.

Ensuring our infrastructure is secure and resilient against cyber attack, in the context of rapidly changing threat and technology, is at the heart of our national approach to cyber security.

Our National Cyber Strategy sets out how we will build a resilient and prosperous digital UK. We are setting clear expectations for operators of critical infrastructures, including ambitious targets for improvement. We have strengthened regulatory frameworks through the Telecoms Security Act, consulted on amendments to the Network and Information Systems Regulations and are considering options to go further.

Through the National Cyber Security Centre we support infrastructure operators with tailored technical advice, guidance, and threat intelligence to build resilience in the national interest. This includes the recent alert on the threat from state-aligned groups following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In February 2022, the National Health Service published a delivery plan setting out a clear vision for how the NHS will recover and reduce waiting times for elective services including elective surgery for children and young people.

Steps being taken include increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector, and engaging with patients to understand their choices.

To support this recovery the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available to systems in 2021/22 to help drive up and protect elective activity.

Having virtually met our target to eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures in July, we have also made significant progress in tackling waits of 78 weeks or more for elective services including elective surgery for children. NHS England will soon publish statistics that demonstrate what has been achieved to date.

The government has sent a clear message to schools that bullying, including cyberbullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. It can have a devastating effect on children, harm their education, and have serious and lasting consequences for their mental health.

All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. The policy should set out the behaviour expected of pupils, the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour, and recognition for good behaviour. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff, and parents. The department issues guidance to schools on how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. This was last updated in July 2017 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.

The department is providing over £2 million of funding between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024 to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate related bullying.

The department is also ensuring that all children in England will learn about respectful relationships, in person and online, as part of mandatory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE). The curriculum has a strong focus on equality, respect, the harmful impact of stereotyping, as well as the importance of valuing difference. Guidance on teaching RSHE is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health.

The Government is driving up the supply of new homes by supporting diversification of the market, investing in affordable housing, and increasing land supply for new homes by investing in infrastructure. We also remain committed to continue working towards our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes per year to help create a more sustainable and affordable housing market.

We welcome new institutional investment in the Private Rented Sector and have made interventions to support the Build to Rent sector. Build to Rent boosts housing supply, diversifies the private rental sector, and increases quality and choice for renters in cities and towns across England.

Enforcement of road traffic law is an operational matter for the Chief Constable based on local policing priorities.

We believe there are sufficient powers to address incidents of vehicular-assisted anti-social behaviour (ASB).

Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 provides the police with the power to deal with ASB when a motor vehicle has caused, alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. This includes the power to seize the vehicles.

In addition, the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB. This includes Civil Injunctions and Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs).

On 27 March 2023 the Government published the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan. The Plan commits to tackling ASB across five key themes: stronger punishment; making communities safer; building local pride; prevention and early intervention; and improving data, reporting and accountability for action.

It is for local authorities, forces and agencies to decide how best to use these powers depending on the specific circumstances as they are best placed to understand what is causing the behaviour in question, the impact that it is having, and to determine the most appropriate response.