This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, including in the Tees Valley region. This will ensure an additional half a million children across the country will receive a healthy, nutritious meal, putting £500 back in families’ pockets and lifting 100,000 children out of poverty.

The department publishes data on eligibility for FSM. Regional data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2025-26. In 2025/26, 37,752 children are eligible in the 5 local authority areas within Tees Valley. Following the expansion of FSM to all on Universal Credit from September 2026, the department expects approximately 51,000 children to be eligible based on data from the Department for Work and Pensions.

We are also improving the eligibility checking system to support schools and local authorities to identify and enrol eligible pupils more efficiently. Schools receive funding for FSM as part of their overall core funding. Additional funding for FSM expansion will be provided through the expansion of the grant.

At a national level, we have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multi-year spending review period to cover additional meal costs.

NHS England publishes monthly statistics showing the size and make up of staff employed in the National Health Service in England, and these include the number of full time equivalent (FTE) doctors and nurses employed by NHS trusts and integrated care boards grouped by the seven regional NHS areas. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

The Office for National Statistics publishes estimates of populations resident in the seven NHS England regional areas. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/datasets/populationprojectionsforsubintegratedcareboardsbyfiveyearagegroupsandsexengland

The above information has been used to create the information in the following table which shows, for each of the seven NHS regions, the number of FTE doctors, nurses, and health visitors from which a ratio of nurses to doctors for different geographies can be calculated as well as a comparison of the ratio of the number of doctors and nurses per 10,000 population:

Sources: NHS Workforce Statistics, published by NHS England, and the Population projections for sub-integrated care boards by five-year age groups and sex, England, published by the Office for National Statistics.

The Department is fully committed to setting up the Statutory Public Inquiry into the serious harms that have taken place at the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

The Department has begun work to set up the inquiry, the Inquiry Secretary is in post, and we anticipate announcing the Chair soon. The Terms of Reference are the responsibility of the Chair once in post.

As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Plan, the Government is committed to supporting the growth of the UK video games sector. In April this year we launched the £30 million Games Growth Package, doubling funding to invest in UK games businesses and develop future talent.

Under competition law, responsibility for investigating the impact of mergers and acquisitions on competition falls to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s independent competition authority sponsored by the Department for Business and Trade. The Government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers and expertise to investigate the benefits and risks of mergers in relation to competition, including those that may impact the video games sector.

The department is committed to delivering a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England. There are 34 schools already on the programme within the Tees Valley region.

Early adopter schools opened free breakfast clubs for the first time in April 2025, and the total departmental expenditure on free breakfast clubs in the Tees Valley region was £245,107.23 in the 2025/26 financial year. In the current financial year, total departmental expenditure in the region amounts to £161,156.13.

Details on total spend for the financial year and on future years’ spending are to be confirmed.

Low carbon ammonia could play a role in reaching net zero as part of a diversified energy mix, as a flexible energy carrier or fuel. Ammonia can also be used as an industrial feedstock for essential products such as fertiliser.

However, the scale of future UK demand for low carbon ammonia is uncertain, with a key factor being the decarbonisation pathways chosen by sectors such as maritime.

DESNZ is working closely with other departments, including the Department for Transport, to understand the potential demand for low carbon ammonia, the role for domestic production, and whether further Government intervention may be required.

The next stage of the Hydrogen Allocation Round 2 process is the Invite to Offer stage, and we are working hard across government to begin this as soon as possible. We will be in touch with projects when this commences. We understand that many projects are at critical stages, and that certainty is important to support business planning, resource management and engagement with third parties.

Polyhalite satisfies a proportion of the UK’s sulphur demand, but it is not a direct substitute for nitrogen or phosphate-based fertilisers. It can, however, be blended with other fertilisers to increase nutrient use efficiency and provide a balanced nutrition for plants.

The UK sources fertiliser both domestically and through diverse imports, helping keep supply chains flexible and maintain a diverse nutrient supply.

The department does not collect data on children placed in households where an individual is a registered sex offender.

We collect data on children’s serious incidents that involve death or serious harm to a child where abuse or neglect is known or suspected and any death of a looked after child. At the notification stage, the data collection system does not include an option to record whether a child was placed with a registered sex offender, and information provided at this point may not clearly identify the perpetrator. More detailed and verified information regarding abuse or neglect incidents, is established through subsequent rapid reviews. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, which oversees these reviews, may hold such information.

​Regulation 26 of the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 requires providers to obtain specified information about applicants and adult household members. This includes an enhanced criminal record certificate under section 113B of the Police Act 1997, which contains suitability information relating to children.

​For fostering, an enhanced criminal record certificate with a check of the children’s barred list is mandatory. If a person is on the children’s barred list, they are legally prohibited from working in regulated activity with children and would commit a criminal offence if they did so. ​

​Enhanced certificates may also include relevant local police information, such as allegations or investigations. In addition, services must consider the outcomes of any previous fostering or adoption applications involving the applicant or household members.

The department does not collect data on children placed in households where an individual is a registered sex offender.

We collect data on children’s serious incidents that involve death or serious harm to a child where abuse or neglect is known or suspected and any death of a looked after child. At the notification stage, the data collection system does not include an option to record whether a child was placed with a registered sex offender, and information provided at this point may not clearly identify the perpetrator. More detailed and verified information regarding abuse or neglect incidents, is established through subsequent rapid reviews. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, which oversees these reviews, may hold such information.

​Regulation 26 of the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 requires providers to obtain specified information about applicants and adult household members. This includes an enhanced criminal record certificate under section 113B of the Police Act 1997, which contains suitability information relating to children.

​For fostering, an enhanced criminal record certificate with a check of the children’s barred list is mandatory. If a person is on the children’s barred list, they are legally prohibited from working in regulated activity with children and would commit a criminal offence if they did so. ​

​Enhanced certificates may also include relevant local police information, such as allegations or investigations. In addition, services must consider the outcomes of any previous fostering or adoption applications involving the applicant or household members.

Monthly statistics showing the number of people on Universal Credit by local authority, from November 2013 to February 2026, are published in the People on Universal Credit dataset on Stat-Xplore.

The department regularly publishes benefit expenditure and caseload tables and the latest benefit expenditure by local authority tables include Universal Credit expenditure from 2019/20 to 2024/25. These figures do not include forecasts of future spending. Further figures will be published in due course.

The Department does not produce such specific estimates. For new free trade agreements (FTAs), the Government publishes impact assessments to support the parliamentary scrutiny process of FTAs, which include an assessment of the UK’s regions and nations. We expect all English regions and UK nations to benefit from from the new FTAs we have already signed. The Department’s latest impact assessment for the UK-India FTA (published July 2025) estimated that the gross-value added (GVA) in the North East of England could grow by £70 million (0.12%) in the long run due to the FTA.

Estimates by local authority and parliamentary constituency are not always available due to data reliability constraints.

Around 140,000 workers in the North East were expected to benefit from a direct pay rise following National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) increases in April 2025; and around 130,000 workers following the increases in April 2026. The 2026 NLW uplift is worth around £900 annually for a full-time worker, and over £1,500 for 18–20-year-olds on the NMW.

Further details can be found in the The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2026.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the planning and commissioning of National Health Service healthcare services. In doing so ICBs must take into account the needs of their local population, which includes meeting the healthcare needs of their rural populations and population demographics.

University Hospitals Tees provides a number of services at East Cleveland Primary Care Hospital in Brotton, including in the Tocketts Ward and a wide range of outpatient clinics.

In line with the 10-Year Health Plan for England, University Hospitals Tees, comprising of the South Tees Hospitals and North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trusts, continues to explore the best possible ways in which to continue the transformation of services and optimise patient experience. This includes looking at how services are best delivered across the area and this may involve exploring different models of care, including the Neighbourhood Health Framework.

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

We are currently analysing the feedback received to the consultation in question and will publish our response in due course.