The Department monitors South Western Railway’s (SWR) performance and fleet availability through its regular contractual and operational oversight arrangements, including services on the Salisbury to Exeter route. SWR plans its West of England services on the basis that some Class 158 and 159 trains will be unavailable for maintenance, overhaul or faults, with availability also affected by unplanned repairs and the availability of replacement parts. SWR seeks to mitigate any resulting impact on passengers through train formation changes where possible and continues to work with suppliers and maintenance teams to improve fleet availability and reliability.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) uses the Digital Audio Recording, Transcription and Storage (DARTS) system across the Crown Court estate to record hearings. HMCTS and its suppliers hold various forms of information relating to DARTS maintenance and performance.

However, HMCTS does not maintain or validate data on recording failures (or the percentage of hearings affected by such failures) per se, whether specifically about the Crown Court centre at Exeter or generally.

One million young people are not in education, employment or training. The Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy.

This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn, including through an expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier intensive support in Job Centres through a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, additional work experience and training opportunities, a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant and £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for employers, and the Jobs Guarantee which will provide a fully funded six month job for long-term unemployed 18-24-year-olds.

The Jobs Guarantee will provide over 90,000 jobs to eligible young people over the next three years. The Department will fully evaluate the scheme, and findings will be published when ready.

No estimates are available of the number or proportion of people aged 16 - 25 years who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in these areas. The survey used to estimate numbers of NEETs has too small a sample to produce robust estimates at these levels.

The department publishes figures from the school census on pupil absence in England on a termly basis. The most recent published data relates to the full 2024/25 academic year, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2024-25.

The published data includes absence rates by local authority and school. School level data includes identifiers that can be used to link the middle layer super output area for the school using the ‘Get Information About Schools’ website: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

The latest absence release has been available since 26 March 2026.

The department engages regularly and constructively with its recognised trade unions, including the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) trade union, in line with established frameworks. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education is fully briefed, and engagement with PCS and other unions is taken forward constructively on her behalf by departmental officials, including on workforce changes such as office closures.

My assessment is that government conflates policy and delivery. That is why we will be promoting people from the frontline into the more senior levels of the senior civil service, to make sure that we understand the customer experience and how citizens expect their services to work more than has been the case in the past.

On Tuesday, the Chief Secretary set out plans to “promote the doers” across the civil service by establishing the new national School for Government and Public Services. Will he tell the House what steps he plans to take to ensure that Whitehall is focused on delivering services that actually work really well for my residents in Exeter?

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue. It is absolutely key that people feel safe walking at night, particularly shift workers and residents, and good street lighting is a key part of that.

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Steve Race (Exeter) (Lab):

Residents of Exeter, particularly female residents, have raised with me their alarm at Tory-led Devon county council’s decision to dim or completely turn off 80% of Exeter’s street lights during the night, including on streets and paths to railway stations and bus stops. Many shift workers come home late at night or start early in the morning, and having well-lit routes offers them a sense of security. Does the Minister agree that Devon county council should think again, and should consult with resident groups and other groups on a way forward that puts the safety of residents at the centre of its decision making?

The department has made the decision to close six offices over the next two years, including its office in Exeter, in order to create a more coherent office estate across the UK. The department will continue to have an office in every English region, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that will include an office in Plymouth, to ensure we maintain a presence in Devon.

The department has recently invested in a new office in Plymouth, giving our staff based there a more modern working experience. The new office also has a greater capacity than our previous office in Plymouth, which will allow any staff who are currently based in Exeter the opportunity to work from there should they wish. We will provide a package of measures to support Exeter-based staff who want to transition to Plymouth. All staff in the six offices which will close will be able to continue in their roles and there will be no compulsory redundancies.

The department has made the decision to close six offices over the next two years, including its office in Exeter, in order to create a more coherent office estate across the UK. The department will continue to have an office in every English region, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that will include an office in Plymouth, to ensure we maintain a presence in Devon.

The department has recently invested in a new office in Plymouth, giving our staff based there a more modern working experience. The new office also has a greater capacity than our previous office in Plymouth, which will allow any staff who are currently based in Exeter the opportunity to work from there should they wish. We will provide a package of measures to support Exeter-based staff who want to transition to Plymouth. All staff in the six offices which will close will be able to continue in their roles and there will be no compulsory redundancies.

The department has made the decision to close six offices over the next two years, including its office in Exeter, in order to create a more coherent office estate across the UK. The department will continue to have an office in every English region, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that will include an office in Plymouth, to ensure we maintain a presence in Devon.

The department has recently invested in a new office in Plymouth, giving our staff based there a more modern working experience. The new office also has a greater capacity than our previous office in Plymouth, which will allow any staff who are currently based in Exeter the opportunity to work from there should they wish. We will provide a package of measures to support Exeter-based staff who want to transition to Plymouth. All staff in the six offices which will close will be able to continue in their roles and there will be no compulsory redundancies.

The department has made the decision to close six offices over the next two years, including its office in Exeter, in order to create a more coherent office estate across the UK. The department will continue to have an office in every English region, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that will include an office in Plymouth, to ensure we maintain a presence in Devon.

The department has recently invested in a new office in Plymouth, giving our staff based there a more modern working experience. The new office also has a greater capacity than our previous office in Plymouth, which will allow any staff who are currently based in Exeter the opportunity to work from there should they wish. We will provide a package of measures to support Exeter-based staff who want to transition to Plymouth. All staff in the six offices which will close will be able to continue in their roles and there will be no compulsory redundancies.

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. We are committed to expanding the role of pharmacies and better utilising the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, including by cutting red tape. That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists.

On 30 June 2024 there were 13 pharmacies in the Exeter constituency. Nine out of 10 people in Exeter live within a mile or a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy. The Department does not hold data on how many pharmacies there were in the Exeter constituency in 2010.

The need for pharmaceutical services is best decided at a local level, which is why Local Authority Health and Wellbeing Boards are required to publish Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments every three years. In certain rural areas people may also be able to access Dispensing Doctors, and everyone can access Distance Selling Pharmacies, who provide services nationally, and must send medicines to a patient’s home free-of-charge.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, and to recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. The NHS Devon ICB is responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need, and determine the priorities for investment across the ICB area.

Patients unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice are advised to contact NHS 111 for assistance. NHS dentists are now required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have access to up-to-date information on where they can access care.

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. We are committed to expanding the role of pharmacies and better utilising the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, including by cutting red tape. That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists.

On 30 June 2024 there were 13 pharmacies in the Exeter constituency. Nine out of 10 people in Exeter live within a mile or a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy. The Department does not hold data on how many pharmacies there were in the Exeter constituency in 2010.

The need for pharmaceutical services is best decided at a local level, which is why Local Authority Health and Wellbeing Boards are required to publish Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments every three years. In certain rural areas people may also be able to access Dispensing Doctors, and everyone can access Distance Selling Pharmacies, who provide services nationally, and must send medicines to a patient’s home free-of-charge.

While data for 2010 is not available, as of 10 July 2024, there were 16 open dentistry practices in the Exeter constituency, two of which were showing as accepting new adult patients when availability allows, and two of which were showing as accepting new child patients when availability allows. This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website, and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist

While data for 2010 is not available, as of 10 July 2024, there were 16 open dentistry practices in the Exeter constituency, two of which were showing as accepting new adult patients when availability allows, and two of which were showing as accepting new child patients when availability allows. This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website, and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist

To ask the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what recent assessment the Church of England has made of the potential merits of recruiting additional ordained Ministers into Parish Ministry in the Diocese of Exeter.

I am very pleased to be able to tell my hon. Friend that Ordinand Kenny Wickens is soon to be the curate at Our Lady and All Saints, Torquay. I would also like to pass on my thanks to two inspirational priests in my hon. Friend’s constituency, the Reverend Sam Leach from Saint Mags church in Torquay and the Reverend Matt Bray from the Bay Church in Paignton,

for the work they do in running the Living Room café, and groups for children and young people across the Torbay constituency.