It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The Government has recently announced a £8.3 billion funding uplift for roads resurfacing across England between 2023/24 – 2033/34. As part of this it has provided the London Borough of Bexley Council with an additional £275,000 in 2023/24 and will provide a further £275,000 in 2024/25.

This money has been provided directly to the respective London Borough rather than via the Mayor of London. At a national level, the Department publishes statistics on gov.uk on the condition and maintenance of the highways in England.

Ultimately, however, under the 1980 Highway Act it is the responsibility of the local highway authority, in this case the London Borough of Bexley Council, to maintain and manage the highway network they are responsible for. In London, transport is a devolved matter, and the overall state of London’s roads is a matter for the Mayor.

The department’s recently published 2023/24 T Level Action Plan outlines the developments and next steps for T Levels and includes the latest student data for the programme. It shows that 5,321 students began their T Level in 2021/22. In summer 2023, 3,592 of those students were retained (68%), and 3,510 were retained and assessed (66%). Further data about T Levels, as well as details of the methodology used in the above can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66290c86b0ace32985a7e6d6/T_Level_action_plan_-_analytical_annex.pdf.

This government is committed to delivering a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality, and fit for the future. The department’s reforms are backed with an investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen higher and further education to help more people get good jobs, upskill and retrain throughout their lives and to improve national productivity.

Over 5,000 employers have been involved in the development of nearly 700 high-quality apprenticeships to meet their industry skills needs. To support employers of all sizes offer apprenticeships, the government has increased investment in apprenticeships to over £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes investing a further £60 million to meet overall increased employer demand for apprenticeships and encourage small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to take on young apprentices.

From April, the department pays 100% of training costs when SMEs take on new apprentices aged 16-21. Additionally, larger employers can now transfer more of their levy funds (50% increased from 25%) to support businesses of all sizes, which will help more employers to invest in apprenticeship training.

Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the chance to build sector-specific skills with an offer of a job interview on completion. Training providers work with employers to ensure training is designed to teach the skills employers need. To date, over 1000 employers have been involved in Skills Bootcamps. Employers play a range of roles from supporting the design and delivery of the training, to recruiting learners that complete training into a job, or an apprenticeship. Employers can also use Skills Bootcamps to upskill their existing employees, subject to a 10% contribution for SMEs and 30% contribution for large employers.

Institutes of Technology bring education and business closer together, creating unique collaborations between colleges, universities and industry which deliver higher-level technical education with a clear route to high skilled employment. The department has provided £300 million of capital funding for infrastructure and industry standard equipment to increase capacity to deliver level 4/5 technical skills. In addition, employer partners were encouraged to provide additional support (monetary and in kind) which for the wave 2 competition was set at 35% of value of capital expenditure.

In October 2023, the department launched a new website called Skills for Careers that provides a single digital front door to information about skills training options and careers. A link to Skills for Careers can be found here: https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/skills-for-life. From Skills for Careers, users are guided through government’s skills offer from apprenticeships to Skills Bootcamps, A levels to Multiply. The website provides an overview of each option along with information about writing job applications and CVs.

Across all areas of England, employer-led Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) have helped engage thousands of local businesses and have brought them together with local providers and stakeholders to collaboratively agree and deliver actions to address local skills needs. By giving employers a more strategic role in the skills system, LSIPs are helping to drive greater employer investment in skills and ensure businesses are more actively involved in the planning, design and delivery of skills provision.

Departmental officials are also working with the Office for Investment and Department for Business and Trade to provide support for investors to navigate the skills system at a national and local level and encourage take-up of government funded skills programmes and employer investment in skills, as well as build strategic partnerships with local education and training providers. Whilst it is not a core part of their role, some of the designated employer representative bodies leading the LSIPs have engaged with inward investors as part of developing and implementing their LSIPs.

Since 2010, we have completely transformed how we teach reading in England, expanding the evidence-based methods of phonics across all of our schools. In the 2011-12 phonics screening checks, only 58% of our children met the expected standard of reading. Thanks to those reforms and the hard work of our brilliant teachers, not only is that number now 79%, but our primary schoolchildren have been ranked fourth best readers in the world. We are sticking to our plan, delivering higher reading standards across our schools.

The Home Office has been clear that the use of hotels is a temporary and short-term measure to ensure that we meet our statutory obligation to accommodate destitute asylum seekers. We have made significant progress in closing over 100 asylum hotels as of the end of March. Our actions mean that there are over 20,000 fewer asylum seekers in hotels today compared with six months ago.

The Youth Offer launched 20 September 2020 and provides support for 16–24-year-olds who are on Universal Credit to help them move into employment. It includes three elements:

• The Youth Employment Programme, which provides young people dedicated intensive Work Coach support in finding & applying for jobs, with additional assistance available for those who have recently begun their Universal Credit claim.
• Youth Hubs, which bring together in one location DWP services with local support provided by youth experts. This ensures that the needs of young people are matched to services that help them tackle barriers to employment.
• Youth Employability Coaches, who are focused on supporting young people furthest from the labour market overcome complex challenges so that they can move into work.

As of 01 March 2024, there have been 1,123,000 starts on the Youth Offer. Starts in the requested areas can be found in the table below.

1. A claimant may take part on the Youth Offer multiple times. Each of these starts is recorded as a start on the Youth Offer.
2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. Therefore, the individual elements in the table may not sum to the total figure.
3. Figures are subject to retrospective revision.
4. Youth Offer starts are categorised as “unknown” in cases where limited data is available.
5. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency.

Attached are tables listing the number of Youth Offer starts to date by Region, Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency.

As of 26 February 2024, 2 residential buildings located in the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency have registered with the Cladding Safety Scheme; and in the wider Bexley borough, a further 3 residential buildings have registered with the Cladding Safety Scheme.

The Department has allocated a total of £1.333 million to the London Borough of Bexley for local highway maintenance since 2015, as part of one-off funding uplifts, as set out in the table below. Transport is a devolved matter in London, meaning that the Department for Transport does not routinely allocate highway maintenance funding to London boroughs.

Over the period between 2023/24 - 2033/34, the London Borough of Bexley will receive a minimum of £8.345 million funding through the national Roads Resurfacing Fund, as announced within the Prime Minister’s Network North plan on 4 October 2023 and as set out on gov.uk.

DSIT’s mission is to secure the UK’s status as a world-leading science and technology superpower by 2030; with communities in every corner of the country benefitting from the bold new discoveries, strong economic growth and high-skilled, high-paid jobs this will unlock.

We are building from a position of strength. The UK was the third country in the world to build a $1 trillion tech sector, in addition to having the largest tech ecosystem in Europe, and creating 152 unicorns since 2000 (as of 23rd January 2024). In 2023, UK tech companies raised $21.3bn of investment, more than France ($9.2bn) and Germany ($8.2bn) combined.

However, we cannot rest on our laurels. That is why in January, the Secretary of State announced the new Scaleup Forum which will bring together a group of established founders and bold investors to advise the Government on what it can do unlock the growth potential of British scale-ups and ensure that the scalable businesses of today can become the tech giants of tomorrow.

I assure my right hon. Friend that this Government are committed to improving men’s health. That is why, in November, we announced a suite of measures, including a £16 million fund for a new prostate cancer screening trial, and the recruitment of a men’s health ambassador. We have also launched our men’s health taskforce to tackle the biggest health issues facing men.

Getting on the property ladder is everything that is important about being a Conservative. The Government have a range of schemes available to first-time buyers, including the first homes scheme, shared ownership and right to buy. So far, nearly 900,000 people have been helped on to the property ladder by this Government.

It was estimated that in 2021 obesity related ill-health cost the National Health Service £6.5 billion annually.

The NHS is committed to improving obesity care and other major causes of ill health through a preventive approach as outlined in the NHS’s Long Term Plan. It continues to offer support to the population, enabling them to take greater control of their own health and stay healthy for longer.

On 4 December, I announced a new package of measures to further reduce legal net migration, including limitations on family dependants being brought in by workers and students, creating a salary threshold and raising the minimum income requirement progressively over the next few years.

Data for admissions related to obesity and hyperalimentation is only available from 2019 when it was first collected. The following table shows the number of these hospital admissions since 2019:

Source: NHS England

The Department is committed to action on obesity including raising awareness of obesity related illness. The Department’s ‘Better Health’ campaigns provide resources including free evidence-based digital tools, highlight health effects of obesity, and support people to make and sustain changes to improve their health. They include the Better Health websites, email programmes, and NHS Weight Loss, Food Scanner, Couch to 5K and Active 10 apps.

The NHS Health Check assesses the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes, including body mass index. Each year the programme engages over one million people aged between 40 and 74 years old and identifies around 317,000 people living with obesity who are made aware of the risks of developing CVD and diabetes and are then provided with advice and support to reduce their risk and referral for treatment if needed.

We have also recently published a Major Conditions Strategy case for change which highlights risk factors, such as obesity, in contributing to diseases that are collectively the greatest contributors to ill-health and early mortality. We will be publishing a final strategy next year.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, including Bexley, about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues that they are facing.

Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, the department discusses what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and, where needed, the department will support the local authority with any specific requirements through its childcare sufficiency support contract.

A commitment has been made to ensure that 30 hours of funded childcare is available for every child over the age of 9 months with working parents by September 2025.

More parents are going to be able to return to work while balancing childcare commitments. This is thanks to the government’s £4 billion per year expansion of childcare in England. This is the largest expansion of funded childcare ever and will remove barriers to work for nearly half a million parents with a child under three in England.

Local authorities have received £12 million of delivery support funding for this financial year to support with meeting programme and delivery costs associated with rolling out the expanded early years entitlements. Bexley will receive money from this fund. Bexley Local Authority are due to receive £716,747.72 to enable them to deliver additional wraparound places.

The department is also allocating £100 million for local areas to use to make sure childcare settings in their areas have enough physical space. This funding is anticipated to add thousands of new places across the country. More detail on the £100 million capital funding, including allocation amounts to local authorities and accompanying guidance, will be published shortly.

Since the 2010/11 academic year, there have been 8,480 apprenticeship starts in Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, 22,140 in Bexley and 529,370 in London reported to date. These totals include figures for the 2022/23 academic year, which are provisional and cover the first three quarters from August 2022 to April 2023. The full year figures for the 2022/23 academic year will be published on 30 November 2023.

Apprenticeship starts are recorded on the Individualised Learner Record and published by the department in the apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publication, which can be accessed at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.

Apprenticeship starts for the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, Bexley and London for the 2010/11 to 2022/23 academic years are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/befe0070-1c12-4f0f-6246-08dbea615343.

Mr Speaker, I stand with this House in condemning the barbaric terrorist attacks on Israel. The brutal actions of Hamas have sent shockwaves that have reverberated all the way to our shores. My ministerial team and I recently met leaders from the Jewish education community. I was deeply moved by the experiences that they shared but horrified by the rise in antisemitism that they faced. That is totally unacceptable. All students deserve to learn without fear or harassment.

Disturbingly, I have also seen evidence of students and academics appearing to support Hamas. Let me be crystal clear: Hamas is a terrorist organisation and supporting it is a criminal act. The Government will take action against those who do. With my Ministers, I have written to schools, colleges and universities, reminding them of their duties under Prevent and that incidents of antisemitism will not be tolerated. We teach our children the British values of liberty, mutual respect and tolerance. This Government will always stand by those values.