Nationally, we are investing in habitat creation, restoration and management through agri-environment schemes. Additionally, funding under the Catchment Sensitive Farming scheme has helped reduce pollution and improve air and water quality. We also committed £60million for the recovery of threatened species.

We have supported Lancashire County Council to prepare their Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which identifies actions to restore nature and enhance biodiversity benefiting both wildlife and local communities. South Ribble supports a diverse range of habitats and species, with protected sites like the Ribble Estuary safeguarding key environments such as saltmarsh and grassland and supporting important bird populations.

The information requested on claimants of unemployment benefits by age is published and available at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp and the guidance for users can be found at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp.

The claimant count can be found by selecting “Query data” on the NOMIS home page and selecting “Claimant Count” and then “Claimant Count by sex and age” in the lists of data sources. The Geography will need to be set for the relevant Westminster constituency from the menus, and then 16-24 selected in the Age menu to access the latest 16-24 year olds on the claimant count. This counts the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance plus those who claim Universal Credit and are required to seek work and be available for work.

The government’s ambition for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is that they will achieve and thrive, and lead happy, healthy and productive lives. The department is working closely with experts on SEND reforms.

The department and NHS England have been supporting local areas to improve their SEND service delivery for several years. This includes a monitoring, support and challenge relationship following an inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Where a local authority does not meet its duties, we can take action that prioritises children’s needs and support local areas to bring about rapid improvement.

Ofsted and the CQC undertook a joint local area SEND inspection of Lancashire County Council in December 2024. The inspection found there are widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND, which the local area partnership must address urgently. We expect a monitoring inspection will be carried out within approximately 18 months. The next full reinspection will be within approximately three years from December 2024.

Where a council does not meet its duties, we can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. We offer a range of universal, targeted and intensive support through programmes managed by the department, such as our Sector Led Improvement Partners which provide peer-to-peer tailored support.

As part of Project Gigabit, Building Digital UK (BDUK) identifies the most appropriate intervention to deliver gigabit-capable broadband in areas that are unlikely to be reached by suppliers’ commercial rollout. For most homes and businesses in the South Ribble constituency, this will be through the Project Gigabit contract being delivered by Openreach across Lancashire.

BDUK is currently exploring if additional premises can be added to the scope of this contract. For any homes or businesses that cannot be added, and remain outside of commercial plans, BDUK will consider alternative interventions, which may include the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

As of January 2025, there are 5,340 people currently in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in the South Ribble Parliamentary Constituency. Of these claimants, 2,530 scored fewer than 4 points in the 10 Daily Living activities. The breakdown of award rates for Daily Living and Mobility can be found in Table 1 below.

The assessment of the Office for Budget Responsibility, published at the Spring Statement, is that most of the current claimants of PIP Daily Living who did not score four points in any of the activities at their last assessment will, nevertheless, because of behaviour changes, be awarded PIP Daily Living again after the proposed eligibility changes take effect.

There will be no immediate changes. We want to reassure anyone concerned that the changes to PIP eligibility and rebalancing of UC aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval.

We will also guarantee that for those on UC, individuals with the most severe, life-long conditions, which mean a person cannot and will never work, will not need to be reassessed in future.

Our intention is that the PIP changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. If you are getting PIP now and could be affected by the changes we plan to make to eligibility, the changes will only apply at your next award review. The average award review is about three years. At your next review, you will be seen by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, and assessed on your individual needs and circumstance.

For those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, we are consulting on how best to support this group, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on your condition, it is based on the functional disability as the result of one or more conditions and it is the additional costs of sum of that disability that PIP is awarded for.

We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment led by the Minister for Social Security and Disability, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.

Table 1: the volume of claimants in the South Ribble constituency split by award rate for Daily Living and Mobility components of PIP

Note:

• Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum seekers awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This table is not broken down by constituency.

Data on asylum seekers on support by local authority is published in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that not all asylum seekers awaiting a decision will be on support.

Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.

The latest available data shows that in Winter 2023 to 2024, there were 14,717 pensioner households living in the South Ribble constituency. This is based on winter-fuel-payments-household-2023-to-2024.ods.

At that point in time, 1,528 pensioner households received Pension Credit in the South Ribble constituency. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-Xplore.

Based on these figures, 10.4% of pensioner households in the South Ribble constituency received Pension Credit in February 2024.

The latest Pension Credit statistics were published in November 2024 and cover the period up to May 2024. The next iteration of Pension Credit caseload statistics will be released on 18^th February, as part of the DWP Benefits Statistics quarterly release. This will contain data for the period from June 2024 to the end of August 2024. Following release, the data can also be accessed at Stat-Xplore - Home.

Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, the Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.

In South Ribble, the £7.3 million Croston Flood Scheme was completed in 2017 - protecting 438 properties. In the last 5 years (2019 -2024) there has been a further investment of around £500,000 for reconditioning projects, electricity running costs and repair works for the scheme and flood defence in Croston Village. An additional £42,000 is planned for 2024/25.

Annual statistics on the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients and households by local authority and by Westminster parliamentary constituency are made publicly available via GOV.UK. The latest release contains data on individual and household level statistics for winter 2022 to 2023. For Winter 2022 to 2023, 22,044 people received a Winter Fuel Payment in South Ribble constituency.

Caseload statistics are routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. At February 2024, there were 1,528 people claiming Pension Credit in South Ribble constituency.

Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.

The Chancellor set out on 29 July a range of pressures on public spending, including £2.9 billion of unfunded transport specific spending. Following this, the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement on 30 July set out that the Department is undertaking an internal review of its capital spend portfolio which will support the development of our new long-term strategy for transport. Any decisions about the portfolio will be subject to broader discussions and fiscal decisions made at Budget and Spending Review.