The government is taking decisive action to better support disadvantaged students, make things fairer for graduates, and create a more flexible, responsive post-16 education system through the introduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement in January 2027.

Since 2024, we have raised the Plan 2 repayment threshold twice, protected borrowers from the risk of inflation shocks by capping interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 loans at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year, and future-proofed maintenance loans by committing to increase them every year in-line with forecast inflation. Further, we are making care leavers automatically eligible for the maximum rate of maintenance loan, and we will be reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants in the2028/29 academic year, funded by a levy on providers for international students.

We will continue to look for ways to make the system fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers in a financially sustainable way.

The Government recognises the vital contribution made by unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they receive the support they need.

The cross-government Unpaid Carers Action Plan, published on 14 July, sets out our work to improve how unpaid carers are recognised, how support is offered, and how they can be helped to reach their full potential and live fulfilling lives.

Financial support is available from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit, Pension Credit, and – in England and Wales – Carer’s Allowance. The Universal Credit Act 2025 introduced, for the first time ever, a sustained above-inflation increase to the Standard Allowance to rebalance support for those on low incomes. This increased by 6.1% in April 2026. The Universal Credit carer element, which is payable in addition to the Standard Allowance for those providing unpaid care of 35 hours a week or more for a severely disabled person, was increased in line with the increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) by 3.8%.

The Standard Minimum Guarantee in Pension Credit was increased in line with average earnings growth by 4.8%. The Pension Credit carer addition, which is payable in addition to the Standard Minimum Guarantee, was increased in line with the increase in the CPI by 3.8%, as was Carer's Allowance.

The weekly earnings limit in Carer's Allowance was increased to £204 per week, aligned with 16 hours at the National Living Wage. This continues the policy we introduced last year, which saw the largest ever increase in the earnings limit since Carer's Allowance was introduced, and means over 60,000 additional people are expected to receive Carer's Allowance between 2025/26 and 2029/30.

Neither the Department nor NHS England holds centrally validated information on the number of secure beds in each region.

The Government recognises the important role that Appropriate Adults play in safeguarding the rights and welfare of children and vulnerable adults within the criminal justice system, ensuring they are treated fairly and able to participate effectively in police processes.

Appropriate Adult services are delivered locally through a range of partnership arrangements, including local authorities, police and crime commissioners and voluntary sector organisations, enabling provision to reflect local need and demand.

The Home Office provides grant funding to support Appropriate Adult services, including through funding to the National Appropriate Adult Network

The Government is committed to upholding the safeguards set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and its Codes of Practice, which requires that children and vulnerable adults are supported by an Appropriate Adult during police interactions.

To provide figures that show education budgets broken down by men’s and women’s prisons over the period requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The budget encompasses various different services which are managed in different ways and are not all apportioned on a per-prison level.

Figures for the budget across both men and women’s prisons are shown in the table below. This only covers education, it does not cover broader skills training and employment work, for example that is delivered through prison industries and workshops.

Budgets for locally commissioned services are allocated to individual prisons based on size of population, type of establishment and geographic area. Other services are commissioned nationally, such as Higher Education provision through the Open University and Distance Learning through the Prisoners’ Education Trust. We are focusing on improving attendance and driving up quality to ensure that every pound spent has greater impact on learners.

Both contracts through which core education was delivered during the period allocated a greater per-prisoner amount to women's prisons.

The field and monitoring service contract, with the provider Serco, has clear contractual requirements governing the delivery of the Electronic Monitoring service, including the fitting of electronic monitoring tags. The latest performance data from Serco evidenced continued improved performance with all contractual KPIs met.

The relevant contract can be found on contract finder via the following links, and have also been attached for ease: Electronic Monitoring Field and Monitoring Service (FMS) - Contracts Finder and Electronic Monitoring - MDSS contract - Contracts Finder.

NHS England has no plans at present to publish the action plan. The action plan is a partnership with HM Prison and Probation Service and other Government departments, and NHS England has a governance route through which it holds itself accountable.

The Government is very grateful to the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody for its report, which highlights the critical issue that there are still too many deaths in mental health services and provides valuable insights and recommendations for change.

The Government is currently considering the report and its recommendation to establish an independent investigative mechanism. We will consider the most suitable way to share the Government’s response to this report in due course and will continue to work with the panel to explore how we can deliver further improvements to the way deaths in mental health detention are investigated.

This information is published in Table 1_A_21 of the Offender Management Statistics ‘annual’ prison population tables.

As of 30 June 2025, the most recent date for which statistics are available, 79 of those in custody described their ethnicity as Roma.

To note, the ‘Roma’ ethnicity code is a recent addition to the prison offender management system, and the ‘as at 30 June 2025’ data is the first publication of these figures. As such, we would expect numbers to increase over time as new prisoners entering the system are able to self-identify as ‘Roma’.

The Department welcomed the Chief Medical Officer’s report and is working across NHS England, HM Prison and Probation Service, and other Government departments on the implementation of its recommendations and the co-production of an action and implementation plan.

The panel has received two representations regarding Health and Justice services. The panel accepted one case for review and did not review the other case. The case that the panel accepted was in the North West of England.

The consultation for proposals to extend medicines responsibilities for paramedics, physiotherapists, operating department practitioners, and diagnostic radiographers closed on 28 October 2025. Our team is currently analysing the large number of respondents received and a Government response detailing next steps will be published in due course.

Non-medical prescribing remains a keen area of interest since the Government took office in 2024, and we support the expansion of professional groups being able to use legal mechanisms to supply, administer, and prescribe medicines to patients, where it is safe to do so, within their scope of practice.

Greater collaboration between adult social care and the National Health Service is a priority for the Government. Adult social care is a central part of our commitment to developing a Neighbourhood Health Service that shifts care from hospitals to communities, with more personalised, proactive, and joined-up health and care services that help people stay independent for as long as possible. In 2025/26, approximately £9 billion is being invested through the Better Care Fund to enable NHS bodies and local authorities to pool budgets and deliver joined-up care.

Starting in the financial year 2026/27, we will reform the Better Care Fund. This reform will provide a sharper focus on ensuring consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for those services that are essential for integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation and reablement. We will set out further details in due course.

We also provide improvement support to local systems to help them strengthen the delivery of integrated health and social care. This includes the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme and also work with the Local Government Association to deliver targeted and universal support to local systems through the Better Care Fund Support Fund. Information on these can be found respectively on the Neighbourhood Health and the Local Government Association websites.

We support the expansion of non-medical professional groups being able to use legal mechanisms to prescribe, supply, and administer medicines to patients where it is safe to do so. There is a robust process in place for making such changes to ensure they are safe and beneficial for patients.

We are considering requests for the extension of existing medicines responsibilities and recently concluded a consultation on proposals to extend the medicines responsibilities of four professions. Further information can be found on the GOV.UK website.

The Government will publish the 10 Year Workforce Plan in spring 2026.

This plan will set out action to create an NHS workforce able to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. It is important we do this in a robust and joined up way. We are therefore engaging extensively with partners to ensure this plan delivers for staff and patients.

Decisions regarding any potential publication for social care remain under consideration and no final position has been reached.

The Department is supporting the Adult Social Care workforce by improving terms and conditions through introducing a new Fair Pay Agreement, and supporting career development and progression by implementing the first ever career structure and investing up to £12 million in training and qualifications.

Baroness Casey’s independent commission into adult social care is underway as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Terms of Reference have been designed to be sufficiently broad to enable Baroness Casey to independently consider how to build a social care system, and workforce, fit for the future.

For many years the Secretary of State has asked the independent Parole Board for advice on whether a prisoner serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) or a life sentence is suitable for transfer to open conditions. Where the Parole Board recommends that a prisoner is so suitable, the Secretary of State is not bound to accept the recommendation, and it is the Secretary of State who is ultimately responsible for determining whether a life or IPP prisoner is safe to be managed in an open prison.

The following tables provide the number and proportion of recommendations made by the Parole Board which were rejected in each month in 2025 for prisoners serving (1) an IPP sentence and (2) a life sentence.

Table 1: Outcomes of consideration of IPP open condition recommendations

Table 2: Outcomes of Consideration of life sentence open condition recommendations

1. These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Data have been provided for the period 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025 to align with the publication of the Parole Board’s data on recommendations for open conditions.

Public protection remains the priority and prisoners will only be approved for a move to open conditions if it is assessed that it is safe to do so.

On 01 October 2025 we introduced a requirement and new tool for Governors to ensure all prisoners receive a screening for additional learning needs within 30 days of reception into custody. Young people entering the youth estate are screened within 10 days of arrival.

The new screening requirement built on an earlier process (since 2023) of carrying out an initial rapid screening for learning difficulties and/or disabilities and more in-depth screening which formed part of the initial education induction.

Data is collected and used locally, however, there is no routine centralised collection of validated data in relation to the numbers undertaking screening and assessment in either the adult estate or in Young Offender Institutions.