Children aged 5 to 16 are eligible for free travel if they attend their nearest suitable school and cannot walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or route safety. Statutory walking distances are set at 2 miles for children under 8 and 3 miles for those aged 8 and over.

There are extended rights to free travel for children currently eligible for free school meals, to support low-income families to exercise school choice. More detail can be found in the statutory guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a10649929bb11891b1cf096/Travel_to_school_for_children_of_compulsory_school_age.pdf.

For these pupils, 11 to 16 year-olds may receive free travel to one of their three nearest schools between 2 to 6 miles from home, or to a school 2 to 15 miles away chosen on grounds of religion or belief; and the statutory walking distance is set at 2 miles for those aged 8 and over but under 11.

The department’s reforms are designed to enable all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) including those with dyslexia to succeed.

We are providing £1.6 billion of additional funding to mainstream settings through an Inclusive Mainstream Fund to help settings identify commonly occurring needs and take meaningful steps to improve everyday support. Schools and colleges will also be able to direct funding to develop targeted support for those who need them, such as group interventions, without formal assessment or diagnosis.

Clear statutory duties for schools will also be introduced to identify and meet needs as early as possible and ensure the progress of children and young people is monitored to ensure timely and effective interventions.

To ensure teachers, teaching assistants, support staff and leaders across early years, schools and post-16 settings can be trained to support pupils with special educational needs, we are investing £200 million of new funding to upskill staff and promote an inclusive culture.

We have also introduced a range of measures to support high-quality teaching of reading and writing, including for pupils with SEND and dyslexia and those at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme and the publication of both the reading and writing frameworks.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review considered how the curriculum and assessment system can better support the progress and attainment of all pupils, including those with SEND. In its response, the government committed to developing evidence-led resources to support curriculum adaptation, embedding high-quality adaptive teaching and formative assessment throughout teacher training, and working with Ofqual and exam boards to ensure accessibility is fully considered in the development of qualifications, including GCSEs.

We are carefully reviewing and considering all responses submitted to the SEND Reform consultation and continue to engage widely on our proposals. We will publish a response to the consultation in due course and bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity.

Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The pandemic had a significant impact on attendance across the country, with persistent absence rates roughly doubling. Attendance has been improving year on year, though persistent absence remains above pre-pandemic levels.

The causes of persistent absence are complex and often overlapping. They include physical and mental ill health, special educational needs and disabilities, disadvantage, insecure housing, transport difficulties and other practical barriers.

Persistent absence is substantially higher among disadvantaged pupils. In the 2024/25 academic year, 32.35% of pupils eligible for free school meals were persistently absent, compared with 12.10% for pupils who are not eligible.

Absence also has a significant effect on attainment. Departmental analysis found that pupils who miss just 10 days in Year 11 have around half the odds of achieving grade 5 in English and mathematics compared with otherwise similar pupils. However, measures taken by the government and the sector are having an effect. In 2024/25 pupils attended over 5 million more days than in the previous year, and around 150,000 fewer children were persistently absent.

Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offer patients a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home and greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing the need for hospital visits and potentially speeding up the start of treatment. CDCs are part of the Government’s aim to shift care out of hospitals and into communities.

NHS England publishes guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) on CDCs. The 2026 version of the guidance will be published imminently. The guidance sets out the core tests for a CDC. The following table shows the overall type of core diagnostic tests available, as well as the individual modalities:

In addition, the following table shows the overall type of optional diagnostic tests available, as well as the individual modalities:

Data is not collected on timely access to diagnostic services for those from underrepresented groups including women, and those from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds.

One of the central priorities for CDCs is to offer tests for underserved populations. That is why the vast majority of CDCs are located in, or within easy public transport access from, the areas with the most deprivation and health inequalities in each ICB.

My Department has announced £5 billion of land and infrastructure capital grant funding. This funding, to be administered by a new, single National Housing Delivery Fund (NHDF) that will complement investment from our National Housing Bank, can be used to address viability gaps on brownfield sites.

NHDF funding is delivered by delivery partners including Homes England, established and non-established mayoral strategic authorities, One Public Estate, and others for specific place-based programmes, providing funding across the country.

Homes England will deliver a national programme, drawing on its strong track record of managing major housing and land programmes. Funding has also been devolved to mayoral authorities, with £1.3bn provided to Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, through Integrated Settlements, and £234m to non-established Mayoral Strategic Authorities through the Brownfield Housing Fund. This gives local leaders flexibility to drive delivery in their areas.

My Department has announced £5 billion of land and infrastructure capital grant funding. This funding, to be administered by a new, single National Housing Delivery Fund (NHDF) that will complement investment from our National Housing Bank, can be used to address viability gaps on brownfield sites.

NHDF funding is delivered by delivery partners including Homes England, established and non-established mayoral strategic authorities, One Public Estate, and others for specific place-based programmes, providing funding across the country.

Homes England will deliver a national programme, drawing on its strong track record of managing major housing and land programmes. Funding has also been devolved to mayoral authorities, with £1.3bn provided to Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, through Integrated Settlements, and £234m to non-established Mayoral Strategic Authorities through the Brownfield Housing Fund. This gives local leaders flexibility to drive delivery in their areas.

My Department has announced £5 billion of land and infrastructure capital grant funding. This funding, to be administered by a new, single National Housing Delivery Fund (NHDF) that will complement investment from our National Housing Bank, can be used to address viability gaps on brownfield sites.

NHDF funding is delivered by delivery partners including Homes England, established and non-established mayoral strategic authorities, One Public Estate, and others for specific place-based programmes, providing funding across the country.

Homes England will deliver a national programme, drawing on its strong track record of managing major housing and land programmes. Funding has also been devolved to mayoral authorities, with £1.3bn provided to Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, through Integrated Settlements, and £234m to non-established Mayoral Strategic Authorities through the Brownfield Housing Fund. This gives local leaders flexibility to drive delivery in their areas.

The resource for transforming liver services sits with integrated care boards, who will consider local need and the actions to progress alongside other clinical priorities.

The national team’s role has been to bring together relevant stakeholders to co-ordinate, influence and share learning to support local transformation.

NHS England has identified Clinical and Programme oversight resource to be active during reorganisation, with a lead programme management resource to support prioritised national workstreams.

The programme to date has prioritised reviews of the differential impact of liver disease in relation to health inequalities and deprivation. Examples include evidence of liver-related premature mortality being 4.8 times higher in the most deprived areas, 86% of liver disease deaths, which have increased by 400% since 1970, being related to alcohol harms, South Asian communities being at a higher risk of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and cirrhosis, and type 2 diabetes and MASLD disproportionately affecting the most deprived communities.

The transformation of the liver services programme includes a number of workstreams including awareness, early identification, and treatment of liver disease, and these will benefit people in these communities. Geographically specific data is available to local commissioners to assist them with focusing their work on deprivation and inequalities, to support their prioritisation.

The Government’s ambition is simple: everyone, whatever their circumstances, should be able to get connected and get online, safely and with confidence

In 2025, 20% of those aged 75+ do not have home internet access compared to 5% across all age groups. Those aged 75+ are also less likely to have the foundational level of digital skills (54%) compared to the general population (85%). This has however improved by 23 percentage points since 2022, when only 31% of those aged 75+ had foundational level digital skills.

In the year since the Digital Inclusion Action Plan was published in 2025, over a million people have been connected or supported to get online, more than 22,000 people have received a free device, and communities across the UK have benefited from the £11.9 million Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund. This includes Age UK’s Digital Champion Programme providing digital skills and devices across England.

If salt reduction policies were implemented, we would consider the health benefits of these as part of the policy development cycle. It is recognised that if the food industry lowered the salt content of commonly consumed foods, it would help to support reducing the population’s salt intake.

Statutory tests and assessments at primary school help measure the attainment of pupils in relation to the standards set out in the national curriculum and help teachers and parents identify where pupils may need additional support in a certain subject area. Key stage 2 tests are subject to robust test development processes, which include reviews involving serving teachers and experts in special educational needs and trials with hundreds of year 6 pupils. Where appropriate, schools can use a range of access arrangements to ensure that pupils with specific needs can access the tests.

The department is determined to do more to improve the life chances of our most disadvantaged children and to break the link between background and future success.

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ Schools White Paper establishes the departments plan to improve the outcomes of all children. When children born under this government finish secondary school, it is our ambition that all children achieve higher standards and the KS4 disadvantage gap will be halved. This equates to 30,000 more disadvantaged young people passing their English and maths GCSEs than today.

The department’s approach to tackle this disadvantage gap is comprehensive: rebuilding early family support, reforming how disadvantage funding is allocated and boosting its impact to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, improving teacher recruitment and retention so every child benefits from high-quality teaching, broadening the curriculum alongside access to high-quality enrichment, and launching two place-based missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, to drive improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low.

The Government is committed to ensuring the UK is the fastest AI adopting country in the G7, and to making sure the benefits are felt in every part of the country.

The Government has committed more than £200 million to help companies in Britain adopt AI, including through an expansion of Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme. In June, the Government published the AI Champions’ AI Adoption plans, including the Professional and Business Services AI Adoption Plan, which sets out recommendations to accelerate AI adoption across the sector, including encouraging adoption amongst SMEs. The Government is continuing to work with the AI Champions to help turn these plans into action.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 9161 on 22 June 2026.

The Government recognises the important role that grocery retailers play in providing communities with access to affordable and nutritious food. Decisions on store locations are primarily commercial matters for retailers. The Department engages regularly with retailers on issues affecting the grocery sector through established forums, including the Defra Retailer Forum. We will continue to work with retailers, local authorities and other stakeholders to achieve the Good Food Cycle outcome on access for all to safe, affordable, healthy food.

Through the UK Government's Pride in Place Programme, up to £5.8 billion is being invested over ten years in 284 neighbourhoods experiencing the highest levels of deprivation. In Northern Ireland, this includes up to £20 million funding and support each for Coleraine and Derry~Londonderry in phase one of the programme. In each place, the local neighbourhood board will work with the community to decide how this funding is spent, which may include investment in community facilities, where this reflects community priorities.

Northern Ireland’s share of funding derived from phase two of the Pride in Place Programme and the Pride in Place Impact Fund for 2025-26 to 2028-29 will be delivered as part of the Local Growth Fund.

We are also delivering fairer funding for local government in England, targeting money where it is needed most through the first multi-year Local Government Finance Settlement in a decade. This Settlement strengthens the relationship between deprivation and funding need. By 2028-29, the top 10% most deprived areas will receive 45% more funding per head than the least deprived. The majority of funding in the Settlement is unringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.

Growth is this Governments’ number one priority, and our city regions are identified as a key driver of this. Backing our major city regions is about creating strong growth for their whole areas, not just city centres, so that communities in the surrounding towns within commuting reach can benefit.

Growth priorities achieved through MSA Local Growth Plans will be beneficial for all places, boosting overall regional productivity while also reducing inequalities within regions. Everywhere has an important role to play in driving local growth, with many local authorities having or developing local economic strategies

We are supporting places across the country with our Pride in Place programme, which empowers communities to decide how they would like to shape their area and will provide up to £5.8bn funding and support over 10 years to 284 areas, including many coastal and former industrial areas.