The Department’s statutory guidance sets out a robust set of measures that taxi and private hire vehicle licensing authorities should act on to safeguard the most vulnerable in society. This recommends that licensing authorities should require taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers to undertake an enhanced DBS and barred lists check as part of its licensing processes. The City of Wolverhampton Council has advised that it requires this important safeguard and carries out automated criminality checks on a daily basis.

We undertake regular surveys of all licensing authorities to better understand how all licensing authorities ensure the safety of their passengers. Data from the Department’s 2026 survey of licensing authorities in England, which includes details on safeguarding polices, will be published in summer.

The Government is legislating to tackle inconsistencies in taxi and PHV licensing. As a first step, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill seeks a power for the Secretary of State to set national minimum standards. The power was approved by the House of Commons, and the Bill is now being considered by the House of Lords. If passed, this would enable government to set robust standards for licensing right across England, to keep vulnerable children and, indeed, all members of the public safe, wherever they live or travel.

The Deputy Prime Minister and ministerial team work from a number of locations and offices across the country.

Since coming into office, the Deputy Prime Minister has led an ambitious legislative agenda in Parliament to boost renters' rights, fix the planning system to support growth, and make work pay, alongside engagements across the UK on the Government's plan for change. Where the pressures of these commitments allow, the Deputy Prime Minister will visit and work from locations across the UK.

Our plan to get Britain working includes a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. The West Midlands Combined Authority, of which Wolverhampton is a part, is one of the eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England set to receive grant funding to deliver the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, as announced in the “Get Britain Working” White Paper from Spring 2025. We will use the learning from the Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls-out across the rest of England.

DWP currently provides young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside our partners. For example, in Wolverhampton we’ve partnered with Wolves Foundation to set up a programme called “Mindshift” which takes place at Molineux football ground and supports young people with health conditions, in particular mental health conditions, into employment.

Local authorities hold the statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. Local Authorities fund youth services from their Local Government Settlement in line with local need, and this was increased to more than £69 billion in 2025/26 - a 6.8% increase in cash terms compared to 2024/25. We will be launching the Local Youth Transformation pilot this year, which will support local authorities to build back capability to improve local youth offers.

This government has also committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy. As part of the Strategy, we will be consulting closely with young people and the youth sector. The Strategy will be published this summer.

The Deputy Prime Minister and ministerial team work from a number of locations and offices across the country. The Deputy Prime Minister does not regularly work from the Wolverhampton office or Darlington Campus.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.

The Government’s Plan for Change, announced by the Prime Minister on 5 December, included our plan to reduce ASB. This will include a dedicated lead officer in every police force working with communities to develop a local ASB action plan.

As part of our wider reforms, we are delivering on our commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing, putting 13,000 neighbourhood police, community support officers and special constables into local communities so residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.

We will also crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets and in communities by introducing tougher powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to tackle repeat offending, including the new Respect Order to tackle the most persistent ASB offenders.

This government is committed to supporting culture, and making sure that arts and cultural activities will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few. As part of our Plan for Change, we are committed to ensuring that arts and culture thrives in every part of the country, with more opportunities for more people to engage, benefit from and work in arts and culture where they live.

The government supports the arts predominantly through Arts Council England (ACE) funding. ACE’s open funding programme, National Lottery Project Grants, is currently accessible to organisations and individuals across the country, including those in Wolverhampton. This programme provides over £100 million of support annually to individuals and organisations, and since 2020 has invested over £2.3 million into arts projects across Wolverhampton. Alongside this funding, organisations in Wolverhampton currently receive £1,029,081 per annum through ACE’s National Portfolio programme.

Our new Creative Foundations Fund, announced in February, will also invest £85 million into arts and cultural organisations across England to support urgent capital works to keep venues across the country up and running and open to the public. In addition to this, we were pleased to announce last week that Wolverhampton Art Gallery has been awarded a major Capital grant of over £1.6m from Round 4 of the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), and that a fifth Round will launch shortly.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 31737 on 27 February 2025.

The Government recognises that homelessness levels are far too high and this can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people. We will look at these issues carefully and will consider youth homelessness as we develop our long-term, cross-government strategy working with Mayors and councils across the country, to get us back on track to ending homelessness.

The Homelessness Prevention Grant is allocated to councils across England based on local homelessness pressures and is used to meet local needs. Wolverhampton will receive £1,892,940.00 for 2025-26 through the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

Temporary accommodation must be suitable in relation to the applicant and to all members of their household who normally reside with them, or who might reasonably be expected to reside with them. Applicants may ask for a review on request of the housing authority’s decision that the accommodation offered to them is suitable.

The £1.2 billion Local Authority Housing Fund will provide capital funding directly to English councils and is expected to provide up to 7,000 homes by 2026. It will create a lasting asset for UK nationals by building a sustainable stock of affordable housing for local communities. The Local Authority Housing Fund will ease local homelessness pressures, reduce spending on unsuitable B&B accommodation, and provide safe and sustainable housing for those on Afghan resettlement and Ukrainian sponsorship schemes.

The Government recognises that homelessness levels are far too high and this can have a devastating impact on those affected, including young people. We will look at these issues carefully and will consider youth homelessness as we develop our long-term, cross-government strategy working with Mayors and councils across the country, to get us back on track to ending homelessness.

The Homelessness Prevention Grant is allocated to councils across England based on local homelessness pressures and is used to meet local needs. Wolverhampton will receive £1,892,940.00 for 2025-26 through the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

Temporary accommodation must be suitable in relation to the applicant and to all members of their household who normally reside with them, or who might reasonably be expected to reside with them. Applicants may ask for a review on request of the housing authority’s decision that the accommodation offered to them is suitable.

The £1.2 billion Local Authority Housing Fund will provide capital funding directly to English councils and is expected to provide up to 7,000 homes by 2026. It will create a lasting asset for UK nationals by building a sustainable stock of affordable housing for local communities. The Local Authority Housing Fund will ease local homelessness pressures, reduce spending on unsuitable B&B accommodation, and provide safe and sustainable housing for those on Afghan resettlement and Ukrainian sponsorship schemes.

We have carried out an Impact Assessment, which is in the public domain and is available on the Bills Parliament web page. The benefits related to wellbeing in the Impact Assessment are not quantified but are explored through breakeven analysis. The analysis seeks to estimate the non-monetised benefits required to offset the estimated net monetised impacts of the policy.

The bill largely follows the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act, which heard from a broad range of stakeholders and views, including service users and carers, to make recommendations to improve people’s experience of the Mental Health Act.

The government are committed to introducing Awaab’s Law to the social rented sector, setting new time limits for social landlords to fix dangerous hazards which can have a serious impact on the health of residents, including damp and mould. We are working with social housing providers and other stakeholders to determine how we best implement Awaab’s Law. We will develop new guidance for landlords and residents on the new duties under the forthcoming regulations.

The department’s home-to-school travel policy aims to make sure no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. We know how challenging it currently is for local authorities to arrange home-to-school travel for all eligible children, and that the cost of doing so has increased in recent years. We are grateful for local authorities’ considerable efforts in ensuring eligible children can continue to get to school.

Most central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement, which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The government recognises the challenges local authorities are facing. That is why the Autumn Budget included the announcement of £1.3 billion of new grant funding in the 2025/26 financial year for local government to deliver core services. Together with local income from council tax and business rates, this will provide a real terms increase in core spending power of around 3.2%.

Most of the increase in the cost of home-to-school travel can be attributed to transport for children with special educational needs. This is largely due to an increase in the number of children with education, health and care plans and the number of those children who have to travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools so fewer children need to travel long distances to a school that can meet their needs. This will reduce home-to-school travel costs for local authorities over time.

The department publishes statutory guidance to assist local authorities in meeting their home-to-school travel duties, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance. Departmental officials host bi-monthly online meetings to which all local authority school travel officers are invited to share good practice and seek advice from one another and the department.