Last year the government passed the groundbreaking Online Safety Act which will place much needed duties on tech companies to protect their users, especially children. We are focused on implementing the act as quickly as possible.

In January, the government introduced new offences to criminalise cyberflashing, fake news intended to cause non-trivial harm and other online abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service has already delivered the first conviction for cyberflashing, and it will not be the last.

On 8 May, Ofcom published its draft child safety codes. Once in force, these protections will significantly improve child online safety, ensuring companies shield children from harmful content, and stop their algorithms pushing inappropriate content at children.

The UK uses its position as penholder at the UN Security Council on Sudan to increase pressure on the warring parties. On 8 March, the UNSC adopted UK-drafted Resolution 2724 calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access. On 27 February, we called for the Council to convene for a closed consultation responding to SAF withdrawing permission for the movement of aid into Sudan from the Adre border crossing. On 20 March, we also highlighted the OCHA White Note's clear warning that obstruction of humanitarian access is resulting in people in Sudan starving. On 19 April, the UK also called for an open briefing on the situation to mark the one-year point in the conflict at the UNSC.

The UK provided £42.6 million in humanitarian aid to support people in Sudan in 2023-2024, including £12.2 million to UNICEF for nutrition activities and approximately £23 million to the Sudan Humanitarian Fund for multisector response, including a high proportion of food security interventions. We also helped those fleeing to neighbouring countries in 2023-24, with £7.75 million to support existing and new Sudanese refugees as well as vulnerable returnees and host communities in South Sudan and £15 million to those in Chad. In 2024/2025, UK ODA to Sudan will nearly double to £89 million, including funding to UNICEF to provide emergency and life-saving food assistance. The UK will also be working with the World Food Programme to assist in the provision of assorted food commodities to people in Sudan.

The UK has pressed the warring parties to agree to a permanent ceasefire, to protect civilians and to allow unrestricted humanitarian access, both cross-line and cross-border, so that aid can reach people in desperate need. On 8 March, the UK-led UN Security Council Resolution 2724 called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access. We welcome unified international messaging at the Paris Pledging Conference on 15 April - at which the UK was represented by the Minister of State for FCDO and DEFRA - as well as plans to re-start Jeddah talks in the next weeks to maintain pressure on the warring parties to facilitate cross-line and cross-border humanitarian access and a permanent ceasefire.

General practitioners are a rock. They are the underpinning force of primary care. I want to take the opportunity to pay tribute to them for all they do for the health of the nation. My right hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of GP retention. During covid and since, GPs have been exhausted and the return to primary care provision has been difficult. The Government are doing a lot, such as improving digital telephony and reducing the administrative workload. I am about to launch a future of general practice taskforce to look at what more we can do to provide more support to this critical part of our primary care.

Ofcom is the independent regulator of the Online Safety Act. The Government are working with it to implement the Act as quickly as possible, including the relevant secondary legislation. Ofcom is taking a phased approach to bringing the duties into effect and is consulting on guidance and codes of practice. Offences around serious online abuse came into effect on 31 January this year.

As announced at Autumn Statement, the Government will consult on the design of a new framework for encouraging the establishment and growth of captive insurance companies in the UK. The consultation will launch in Spring 2024.

The consultation will test views on proposals to introduce an attractive and competitive new UK captive insurance regime that works for businesses. Key to this will also be proportionate regulation that maintains the UK’s high regulatory standards.

The Treasury will continue to work closely with the independent regulators as it considers the case for a UK captives framework.

Out of millions of trips completed since e-scooter trials began, the vast majority of journeys have been completed safely.

From 2020, DfT has been monitoring the frequency of casualties involving e-scooters. The majority of DfT reported road casualty statistics are based on STATS19 data, the system through which the police report road casualties. STATS19 collects data on e-scooter casualties, including those using private scooters, with data published regularly in e-scooter casualty factsheets. The most recent e-scooter factsheet can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-e-scooter-factsheet-year-ending-june-2023/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-e-scooter-factsheet-year-ending-june-2023.

In addition, the Department routinely publishes data on casualties in reported road collisions using all other modes of road transport based upon data provided by police forces via the STATS19 system, including figures for bicycles, motorcycles, cars, HGVs and LGVs. A comparison of the casualty rates for different modes of travel can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/657c4a0983ba380013e1b610/ras0203.ods. Data from STATS19 (2022) found the severity of injuries for e-scooters and pedal cycles to be broadly similar. The most common injuries across both modes were abrasions, sprains, and bruising.

We are committed to keeping children safe online and are delivering a number of initiatives that support that objective. For example, we are investing up to £145m over three years in our County Lines Programme to crack down on the county lines gangs exploiting our children and young people. Through this Programme we are developing a better understanding of how to disrupt online activity that is aimed at recruiting and exploiting children and young people.

The Online Safety Act 2023 is a key piece of legislation to keep children safe. There are a number of priority offences in the Act which relate to child criminal exploitation such as drug related offences, sexual exploitation and weapons and firearms supply offences. Technology companies must take proactive measures and use systems and processes to remove and limit people’s exposure to related content.

The Department does not hold the information required to fully respond to this question. We do hold some data on parking facilities available to households and dwellings, published annually in Live Tables DA2201, DA2202, and DA2203 available online, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/amenities-services-and-local-environments.The Department does not collect data on households’ car ownership.

The Department does not hold the information required to fully respond to this question. We do hold some data on parking facilities available to households and dwellings, published annually in Live Tables DA2201, DA2202, and DA2203 available online, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/amenities-services-and-local-environments.The Department does not collect data on households’ car ownership.

The information is not available. HM Revenue and Customs does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services, including VAT on public electric vehicle charging points. This is because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level within their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.

The information is not available. HM Revenue and Customs does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services, including VAT on public electric vehicle charging points. This is because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level within their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.

The Department monitors changes to the market closely to understand patient access to pharmaceutical services within the National Health Service. The law requires that every three years, local authority Health and Wellbeing Boards undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments to identify if there is a need for improvement or better access to services in the local areas. Contractors can apply to open a pharmacy where there is a gap or a need for improved access to services or if they can make a case for providing other benefits to the local communities.

When their usual local pharmacy closes, patients can choose to access any of the remaining pharmacies nearby. Patients can also choose to access NHS pharmaceutical services remotely through any of the approximately 400 internet pharmacies in England, which are contractually required to deliver medicines to patients’ home address free of charge.

There were 10,673 pharmacies on 31 December 2023 providing NHS services in England. Access remains good with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking distance of a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas of the country.

I know that my right hon. Friend is particularly interested in this issue following cyber-attacks in her constituency in 2019. I can assure her that we are improving cyber-security defences across critical national infrastructure and Government organisations. Initiatives such as GovAssure, which I launched last year, are setting higher standards for resilience, and the Government’s cyber co-ordination centre is enabling collaboration and information sharing on cyber-security best practice.

Departmental records show that between 2010 and 2017 five schools in Chelmsford constituency received or benefited from specific school improvement grants, and between 2017 and the end of December 2023 ten schools received or benefited from specific school improvement grants.

The following grants have been included in this analysis:

• Regional Academy Growth Fund (RAGF) 2016/17
• Multi-academy Trust Development and Improvement Fund (MDIF) 2018/19
• Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) - 2019 to date
• Strategic School Improvement Capital Budget (SSICB) - 2016 to date
• Environmental Improvement Grant (EIG) - 2016 to date
• Emergency Strategic Improvement Fund (ESIF) - 2017 to date
• School Improvement offer (SI) - 2018 to 2020
• Trust and School Improvement offer (TSI) – 2021 to date.

The department has also included grants allocated for sponsored academy conversions (2010 to date), as well as grants for transferring academies between trusts (2012 to date) because these grants may include elements for school improvement activities.

The department has limited this analysis to these grants as they can be quantified for some of the time periods requested. The department's policy of retaining financial records for seven years limits access to data before the 2016/17 financial year. Other department grants may contribute less directly to wider school improvement. In addition, many of these and other grants are allocated via academy trusts or other organisations, and so schools may benefit indirectly without being the designated recipient from department. Finally, not all grant programs have been operational throughout the entire period between 2010 and 2023.

For a summary of the grants awarded, and for relevant school-level data, please refer to the tables below:

Table 1: Summary of school improvement grants paid for supporting schools in Chelmsford constituency.

* Grant programme not operating during this period.

** The RAGF, MDIF, and TCAF funds support growth in the capacity of academy trusts to oversee academies. Funding is allocated to trusts, and available data only reflects the total amounts received at the trust level. We are unable to attribute specific portions of the funding awarded under the RAGF, MDIF or TCaF programmes to individual school improvement efforts within any given trust or locality.

Table 2: Value of school improvement grants awarded where it is possible to identify a value attributable to the Chelmsford constituency.