Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking through the criminal justice system to help young people avoid crime.

Answered by Damian Hinds

The Beating Crime Plan 2021 highlighted the importance of early intervention for all young people; targeted support for those at risk of involvement in criminality; and targeted interventions for those who have started to offend. It is better that children do not enter the justice system at all, which is why the Ministry of Justice works with partners across and outside of government on programmes which provide help earlier on.

The Turnaround programme is providing £56.5m multi-year grant funding to Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) across England and Wales until March 2025, enabling them to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for children on the cusp of entering the youth justice system. This additional funding will enable YOTs to work with up to 17,500 more children not currently on their caseload. The department’s Youth Justice Sports Fund also recently provided £5m to early intervention sport programmes working with 10–17-year-olds considered to be at risk of entering the justice system, who have benefitted from mentoring, volunteering and sports-based activities.

For those children who do enter the justice system, we want to see local areas addressing the underlying needs which drove that offending behaviour. As part of this, last year the Ministry of Justice developed new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor and drive Youth Offending Teams’ and partners’ effectiveness in, for example, ensuring more children who commit crime have the education, training or employment opportunities to break the cycle of offending. These new KPIs came into force on 1 April.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prisoners develop new skills.

Answered by Damian Hinds

We know that getting prisoners into employment on release is key to leading law-abiding lives in the community. Prisoners who participate in in-prison education are 9 percentage points less likely to reoffend on release. To help prisoners develop new skills we are:

• delivering a Prisoner Education Service which raises the level of the numeracy, literacy and skills of prisoners, with the aim of securing jobs or apprenticeships after they leave custody;

• rolling out new Heads of Education Skills and Work to provide expert guidance to governors in designing education and training provision for their populations;

• establishing an Employability Innovation Fund to enable Governors to work with more employers and training providers to repurpose workshops, deliver sector specific skills training and to improve prisoners’ literacy via a Literacy Innovation Fund; and

• allowing prisoners to undertake apprenticeships which they can complete in the community following a change in the law made in September 2022.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the rollout of new prison scanners in preventing contraband from entering those sites.

Answered by Damian Hinds

We have invested £100m to combat crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.

Since 2020, we have installed an additional 75 X-ray body scanners, bringing the total to 97 and providing coverage to the entire closed adult male estate. As of October 2022, there have been 28,626 positive indications recorded on these scanners.

A full evaluation of our security investments is underway and will be published in 2023.

We are also in the process of deploying 83 X-ray baggage scanners across the prison estate. The effectiveness of these scanners will be considered as part of a separate evaluation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade opportunities for the life sciences sector.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

Life Sciences is one of the UK’s top exporting sectors, with £28.1 billion goods exported in 2022. In line with the Export Strategy’s 12-point plan and Board of Trade report on Life Sciences, the department pursues an ambitious and strategic approach to promoting exports. This includes addressing market barriers, global defence of free trade, publishing targeted international sector-specific propositions and delivering focused export campaigns. The department also works closely with our overseas and UK networks and Trade Associations to help businesses identify and exploit export opportunities. These initiatives successfully showcase the UK's life science national strengths to international audiences.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to reduce barriers to global trade for British businesses.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

In addition to our ambitious free trade agreement programme, our latest publicly available figures show that in the year to March 2022, the Department resolved 192 trade barriers in 79 countries; 45 of these alone are estimated to be worth around £5 billion to businesses across the UK over the next five years.

In her first 200 days, the Secretary of State knocked down barriers to global markets worth £11 million every day to UK businesses. As a recent example, the Department resolved a barrier worth £6 million allowing honey exports to Saudi Arabia, unlocking new opportunities for British businesses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve reading standards.

Answered by Nick Gibb

In 2018, the Department launched the English Hubs Programme to spread best practice in the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Since its launch, the Department has concentrated over £40 million of funding in this programme to improve the teaching of reading. The English Hubs are currently delivering intensive support to over 1,000 partner schools, reaching approximately 50,000 pupils in Reception and Year 1.

These schools contain an above average proportion of free school meal pupils, who are over represented in the programme, along with those schools underperforming in phonics.

In 2021, the Department published non-statutory guidance, The Reading Framework, aimed at improving the teaching of the foundations of reading in primary schools, by defining pedagogy and best practice.

These form part of a supportive package of measures which also includes an updated list of validated phonics programmes, and a new National Professional Qualification for Leading Literacy, as well as the funding for the purchase of phonics programmes.

To help schools measure progress, the Government introduced a statutory phonics screening check in 2012 for pupils at the end of Year 1. By 2022, 87% of 7 year olds met this standard, which is a significant predictor of later reading comprehension performance.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support grassroots sport.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Supporting grassroots sport is a key government priority. Last year, Sport England - our Arm’s Length Body responsible for growing and developing grassroots sport - received almost £350 million from the Government and National Lottery to fund grassroots sports projects. The Government also invests £18 million a year into community sport facilities via the Football Foundation alongside the English Football Association and the Premier League.

Sport England uses its funding to support and encourage the development of sport and recreation with the view to increasing participation rates across England. This includes the over £2.2 million of funding Sport England has provided in the Woking constituency since 2019, £240,000 of which supported projects through the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are investing £300 million to develop thousands of state-of-the-art community football pitches and multi-use sports facilities across the UK. The Football Foundation has also invested over £400,000 in nearly 20 grants across the constituency, funding pitches, changing facilities, maintenance and equipment.

We have committed £30 million a year for 3 years to school sport facilities in England, and over £20 million with the Lawn Tennis Association to renovate park tennis courts across England, Scotland and Wales.

At the Spring Budget, we also announced a £63 million package to address the cost pressures facing some public swimming pool providers, and provide investment in energy efficiency measures to make facilities sustainable in the long-term. Both of these interventions aim to ensure that children and adults up and down the country have accessible opportunities to get active.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has committed to delivering a new sport strategy that will set the direction for the Government's priorities and its role in the sport sector. This strategy will support grassroots sport by having a specific focus on ensuring that everyone has access to appropriate and accessible opportunities to get active.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure the financial stability of football clubs in England.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

On 23 February 2023, the Government published a White Paper on reforming club football governance. This set out our detailed plans to improve the financial stability and governance of football clubs across all leagues through the introduction of an independent regulator. The regulator’s primary strategic purpose will be to ensure that English football is sustainable and resilient for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

We recognise the need for urgent action to safeguard the future of football clubs throughout the English football pyramid, so we will legislate to put the regulator on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve early years teacher training.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Shadow Minister (Equalities)

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Woking, to the answer I gave on 16 January 2023 to Question 177575.

No confidence in the Speaker

Found: Howarth Wendy Morton Sarah Champion James Gray Sammy Wilson Mrs Pauline Latham Mr Jonathan Lord

Found: Howarth Wendy Morton Sarah Champion James Gray Sammy Wilson Mrs Pauline Latham Mr Jonathan Lord