Dartmoor ponies are a vital part of our landscape and history. As the Environment Secretary, I have a duty to protect our native species, which obviously include Dartmoor ponies. I want to see the number of Dartmoor ponies maintained and the condition of Dartmoor improved.

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 delivery of mass transit systems has too often been slowed down by fragmented funding arrangements, difficulties in acquiring land and complex planning processes. Our new mass transit taskforce, made up of an independent panel of experts, will make practical recommendations on how we can speed up delivery and remove some of the blockers. We are also committed to devolving new powers, including Transport and Works Act 1992 orders, to ensure that local leaders have all the tools they need to deliver mass transit schemes quickly and efficiently.

May I begin by wishing the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Frith), a happy birthday, and noting the generosity and co-ordination of the House in not submitting a single question for him to answer today? I encourage Members to submit particularly difficult questions for him in future.

I will update the House on some of the work that I am leading in response to the war in the middle east. As part of our work with the new middle east response committee, I am chairing a new contingency planning ministerial group. It will focus on preparing for and mitigating, where possible, any impact on our economy and domestic security as a result of the conflict. I am convening relevant Secretaries of State twice a week, with their permanent secretaries, to scrutinise plans and ensure that we are prepared for different outcomes across major and relevant UK supply chains. The conflict in the middle east is not our war, and while we do not know how long it will last, we are acting now to protect the British people. I look forward to keeping the House updated on this work in the coming weeks and months.

Just this week and last, I have been across the channel to speak to EU counterparts and counterparts in member states. We are making good progress with the EU in our strategic partnership in a changing world. It is a strategic partnership that is good for bills, good for borders and good for jobs.

Since leaving the European Union, it has never been more important to work alongside the EU in the global context that we face. It is in our country’s interest to have a stronger trading and security relationship. Our new strategic partnership with the EU is good for bills, good for jobs and good for borders. We continue our negotiations ahead of the next summit.

Wales is leading the UK’s clean energy mission and secured two major projects in the UK Government’s contracts for difference scheme last week: Erebus, which is Wales’s first floating offshore wind project in the Celtic sea, and Awel y Môr offshore wind farm, off the coast of north Wales. It is the most successful auction round in European history, and a huge vote of confidence in Wales’s clean energy sector, which will deliver thousands of good jobs.

At the autumn Budget we built on the substantial action that we have already taken to tackle child poverty and announced the removal of the two-child limit, which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty by 2029-30. That rises to 550,000 alongside other measures, such as the expansion of free school meals set out in our child poverty strategy, which was published on Friday. The Secretary of State for Education will be making an oral statement on the child poverty strategy this afternoon.

The House of Bishops has a special role in matters relating to doctrine, liturgy and sacrament, and the right to amend legislation before it is put before the General Synod for approval. There is no need for a two-thirds majority in order to progress all the requirements of “Living in Love and Faith”. The requirement for a two-thirds majority applies only when introducing permanent new services into the Church of England’s liturgy.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 18 November to Question 89032, which sets out the UK's approach to improving nutrition for women and children, including our role as a proud co-founder and Board member of the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF). The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has disbursed £16.7 million in total to the Child Nutrition Fund since its inception in 2020. Of this £13 million has been disbursed through the Child Nutrition Fund's match window, £1 million through the programme window and £2.7 million through the supplier window.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 18 November to Question 89032, which sets out the UK's approach to improving nutrition for women and children, including our role as a proud co-founder and Board member of the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF). The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has disbursed £16.7 million in total to the Child Nutrition Fund since its inception in 2020. Of this £13 million has been disbursed through the Child Nutrition Fund's match window, £1 million through the programme window and £2.7 million through the supplier window.

We are determined to open up opportunities in work for people with health conditions. The Keep Britain Working review will be published soon. In Pathways to Work, we have 1,000 work advisers supporting this group, and we will devolve powers, so that areas can shape their own joined-up local work, health and skills offer.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) does not directly procure therapeutic foods and does not currently hold data on the quantity of therapeutic foods procured by third-party partners using FCDO funds.

Therapeutic foods are primarily procured as part of nutrition-related humanitarian programming. Expenditure on nutrition-related humanitarian programming is captured in the FCDO's annual nutrition accountability reports, which are published 18 months in arrears. The most recent report covers spend from 2022, totalling £238.5 million. This figure which includes funding for food assistance and therapeutic foods, should be viewed as a proxy indicator of the level of investment in such products, rather than a direct measure of procurement. Data on nutrition-related spend for 2023 will be published in Autumn 2025.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) chairs the Reclassification Alliance, a collaborative forum involving the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB), pharmacy bodies and industry stakeholders.

The Alliance was relaunched in July 2023 to explore opportunities for improving the reclassification of medicines in the UK. Although the next meeting has not yet been scheduled, the work of the Alliance remains ongoing. MHRA is working with industry to encourage the application of new therapies for consideration in the over-the-counter setting.

As part of this work, the MHRA has developed an updated reclassification procedure and, in April 2024, published updated reclassification guidance. The MHRA also held a reclassification webinar for industry on 12 November 2024 which focused on the updated procedure and the recently published reclassification guidance.

Further information on the Government’s priorities for reclassification, including the list of conditions and categories identified for potential reclassification, is available at the following link: https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/05/new-opportunities-to-reclassify-medicines-what-you-need-to-know

The Government is committed to the development of alternatives to using animals in science and will publish a strategy to support their adoption later this year.

We support new technologies and approaches that replace animal use in research including organ-on-a-chip, functional genomics and computer modelling.

The impact of individual technical advancements are a matter for individual regulators to consider.

The Government strategy will facilitate the inclusion and adoption of alternative methods in these regulatory contexts.

The persisting high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition referenced in the report are deeply concerning. We are committed to addressing these, working alongside partners to address urgent humanitarian need and support long-term solutions for food and nutrition security.

We are working to better prevent crises and reduce reliance on emergency aid through early action and resilience building, last year enabling hundreds of thousands of food-insecure households to build resilience to climate and other shocks.

Through our partnerships, like the ones with the Gates Foundation and CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), we are investing in science and innovation, helping increase nutritious yields for farmers, while protecting critical ecosystems.

We do this in partnership, supporting global initiatives like the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty and the Global Compact on Nutrition Integration to accelerate action and unlock much-needed finance.