Baroness Eaton

Admiralty House residences are valued in Council Tax Band H.

As set out in the Ministerial Code, there is an established process in place for the declaration and management of private interests held by ministers. This ensures that steps are taken to avoid or mitigate any actual or perceived conflicts of interest. Any advice given to ministers as part of this process would be in confidence.

The Council of the Nations and Regions will meet biannually, as provided in its Terms of Reference, published on GOV.UK. The Council first met in October 2024, and will reconvene in the Spring.

The increasing capabilities of AI may exacerbate existing risks and present new risks for which the UK needs to be prepared. There is considerable debate and uncertainty around Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), but the possibility of their development must be taken seriously.

The role of the AI Security Institute (AISI) is to build an evidence base on these risks, so the government is equipped to understand their security implications. AISI focuses on emerging AI risks with serious security implications, including the potential for AI to help users develop chemical and biological weapons, carry out crimes such as fraud, and the potential for loss of control presented by autonomous systems.

AISI works with a broad range of experts and companies to assess the potential risks these could pose as the technology continues to develop.

Further education and skills:

For the full 2023/24 academic year, there were 12,840 apprenticeships achievements in the construction, planning and build environment sector subject area covering all ages. An additional 48,750 adult achievement regulated qualifications in construction, were supported by Adult Skills Budget.

T Levels:

T Levels completions that count towards performance tables in 2023/24 were:

• 687 in Design, Surveying and Planning
• 319 in Building Services Engineering
• 139 in Onsite Construction
• 555 in Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing
• 181 in Engineering, Manufacturing, Processing and Control
• 399 in Maintenance, Installation and Repair for Engineering and Manufacturing

Key Stage 4:

In 2023/24, 9,548 pupils took construction Technical Awards that count towards performance tables.

16 to 18:

Published in the ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results’ statistical release.

For 2023/24, vocational qualifications counting towards performance tables were taken by:

• 35 Applied General students
• 2,567 Tech Level students
• 2,481 Technical Certificate students

More information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2023-24.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed and thrive in their education and as they move into adult life.

The department is aware of the challenges in the current SEND system, and the government is urgently considering how it needs to be reformed. However, these are complex issues which need a considered approach to deliver sustainable change.

The department is working closely with experts on reforms, including appointing a strategic advisor for SEND, who is playing a key role in convening and engaging with the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children and families.

The department has also established an expert advisory group for inclusion to improve the mainstream education outcomes and experiences for children and young people with SEND, and a Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group to provide a shared understanding of what provision and support in mainstream educational settings should look like for neurodivergent children and young people within an inclusive system.

The department is working at pace to address these challenges and will be setting out our plans to do so in due course.

The department is providing an increase of £1 billion for high needs budgets in England in the 2025/26 financial year. Total high needs funding for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is over £12 billion in the 2025/26 financial year.

The department is providing the increase in high needs funding to help meet the increase in costs local authorities will be facing this financial year, as they in turn provide support to schools and colleges, and ultimately to children and young people with SEND.

Nevertheless, the government recognises that the rising costs of SEND provision are putting a strain on local government finances, and in particular, the impact of dedicated schools grant deficits on councils’ finances. In the Spending Review on 11 June, we confirmed that the Core Schools Budget, which includes funding for local authorities’ high needs budgets, will rise to £69.5 billion by 2028/29. We intend to set out plans for reforming the SEND system in further detail later this year. Our objective is to ensure that local authorities, schools and colleges can deliver high quality services for children and young people with SEND in a financially sustainable way.

The funding is being allocated to all local planning authorities, county councils and combined authorities in England. The uses to which the funding can be put are broad and there is no definitive list as requirements will differ across authorities. Some of this funding may be used to help expand the capacity of ecologist and planning teams, but ultimately it is for the local authorities to determine how they spend the funding depending on local circumstances.

The DRS (Deposit Return Scheme) aims to reduce littering of in-scope containers. Once the DRS is operational, our Impact Assessment analysis estimates savings to local authority street cleaning costs of around £30 million per year.

Many of the containers not returned through the scheme may continue to travel through local authority waste streams such as kerbside recycling. The introduction of a DRS has a varying impact on local authorities recycling collections; there may be efficiency savings from collecting and processing less material, however we also understand the DRS will remove a material from local authority recycling streams. Details can be found in the Final Impact Assessment.

We anticipate the scheme administrator – the Deposit Management Organisation – working closely with local authorities to ensure as much material is returned as possible and to help meet collection targets and keep material within the closed-loop model of the DRS.

We will consider enforcement of single-use vapes alongside other types of illicit vapes. In the coming months we will be working closely with the Department for Health & Social Care and relevant enforcement bodies to understand how we can support those enforcing the ban.

Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the new Secretary of State’s five core priorities for Defra.

The Government fully supports the important work internal drainage boards (IDBs) do in managing water and flood risk, benefiting communities, businesses and the environment. To support this important work, and in recognition of the significant impact flooding has on farms and rural communities, the Government has announced [Written Ministerial Statement HCWS214] additional financial support for IDBs.

For calendar year 2024 to date, 75% of incident reports received by the Environment Agency (EA) have been assessed within the target time of one hour. All incidents reported to the EA are classified by their risk to the public and environment. The EA cannot report the time taken to respond to individual incidents by locality but plans for future upgrades to systems should enable this.

The EA inspects flood risk assets on a frequency of between six and 60 months, depending on risk. If the EA is alerted to a concern with an asset, an inspection can be undertaken before the due date. If an asset is identified below required condition, it is fixed within 60 days or, if the damage is significant, a more detailed assessment is completed to determine appropriate actions. Where an asset is likely to remain below required condition for more than 60 days, mitigation measures are put in place to ensure the asset can operate until the full repair is complete. If an asset requires urgent repairs and there is an immediate risk, emergency repairs are undertaken.

Emergency works are defined in legislation as works needed to deal with dangers to life and property and so must be carried out urgently. For these, and other urgent works needed to restore customer connections or deal with leaks, permits must be submitted to the relevant highway authority within two hours of works starting on site. The authority can assess these permits and request works are completed by a particular time.

The Government does not currently have any plans to amend the legislation in this way. Utility companies already have a duty to maintain their apparatus in the street. Where a local authority becomes aware of defective apparatus they should notify the owner of the apparatus. If the apparatus presents a hazard that could result in danger to the public, then the authority should take any appropriate action, which might include an officer remaining on site until the owner of the apparatus attends, or ensuring that suitable actions to make the site safe are carried out. The authority can recover reasonable costs for doing so from the asset owner.

The information requested is not held as the amount of vehicle excise duty collected cannot be broken down by local authority area. The annual amount of vehicle excise duty revenue collected since the financial year 2019/20 is shown in the table below.

The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 provides the right for specified local authorities to withhold their consent for an automated passenger services (APS) operator permit to be granted. This right protects local decision-making.

For services resembling taxies or private hire vehicles, section 85 outlines that an APS permit may not be granted without the consent of each licensing authority in whose areas the service may be provided under the permit. A “licensing authority” is where responsibility sits for the issuing of taxi or private hire licenses, and currently is typically a lower-tier authority, unitary authority or Transport for London.

For services resembling buses where a bus franchising scheme exists, section 86 outlines that an APS permit may not be granted without the consent of each relevant franchising body. Where an automated passenger service is proposed to operate under an APS permit in an area which sits outside of a bus franchising scheme, the legislation does not require consent from local authorities.

To withhold consent, the licensing or franchising authority must provide written reasons within six weeks of receiving a formal request, beginning with the day on which the request is made.

Section 82 of the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 gives the appropriate national authority the power to grant an Automated Passenger Services (APS) permit. The appropriate national authority is defined in section 90 (4) and (5) as the Secretary of State for the provision of any taxi and private hire-like service in England and for the provision of a service in a public service vehicle across Great Britain. In relation to a permit for the provision of a taxi and private hire-like service in Scotland, this is Scottish Ministers, and in Wales, this is Welsh Ministers. The Act further sets out that the appropriate national authority can provide for its functions to be exercisable by Traffic Commissioners instead of or in addition to the appropriate national authority. Consideration is still being given to whether these functions will be exercised by Traffic Commissioners.

The wellbeing and safety of women accessing abortion services, including early medical abortion at home, is our first and foremost priority. Before prescribing abortion medicine for use at home, either an in-person or a virtual consultation is held with the woman concerned. If any health issues are identified during a virtual consultation which could make home use of early medical abortion medicine potentially unsuitable, the woman will be asked to attend an in-person appointment for further assessment.

The Government uses the proceeds of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) and other tax revenues to support public services and investment in infrastructure including the road network. There are no current plans to devolve or hypothecate VED revenues in part or in full to local authorities.

The Government is going well beyond its promise to fix an additional one million potholes per year, by providing a £500 million cash increase on 2024/25 local roads maintenance baseline funding. This will be enough to fix the equivalent of more than seven million extra potholes in 2025/26.

The Government engages regularly with local authorities on a range of issues and is committed to working in partnership with local authorities to deliver for their residents. The Public Works Loan Board lending facility provides cost-effective loans to local authorities and the terms of lending and requirements for interest repayments are set out in published guidance.

The Home Office engaged with Wirral Borough council a number of times and remain committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders to identify and mitigate potential risks and address community concerns regarding asylum accommodation.

The Home Office is committed to engaging with local authorities and other stakeholders to understand and mitigate any risks to and concerns of the wider community. This includes working closely with the police and other agencies in matters relating to the operation of the sites, safety, and security.’

The Home Office engaged with Wirral Borough council a number of times and remain committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders to identify and mitigate potential risks and address community concerns regarding asylum accommodation.

The Home Office is committed to engaging with local authorities and other stakeholders to understand and mitigate any risks to and concerns of the wider community. This includes working closely with the police and other agencies in matters relating to the operation of the sites, safety, and security.’

The Asylum Accommodation Services Contracts set out a number of principles in relation to working with local authorities, and other stakeholders including consultation and liaison regarding the location of accommodation and other issues, ranging from security controls to the impact on local amenities.

It is through this consultation and liaison that local authorities may raise any objection to specific properties being used as asylum accommodation, including on behalf of the local people they represent.

Since 2012, local authority authorisations for directed surveillance under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 have been subject to enhanced arrangements. This includes a requirement for local authorities to obtain prior judicial approval before conducting activity and for that activity to be for the purpose of preventing or detecting criminal offences that are punishable by at least six months' imprisonment.

The Government believes that these additional safeguards remain important to strike the right balance in protecting rights while ensuring local authorities have the ability to authorise directed surveillance to investigate offences in an appropriate and lawful manner, which can include the investigation of the criminal offence of fly tipping.

The Government keeps all legislation related to investigatory powers under review.

This Government inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of people stuck in limbo without any prospect of having their claims processed. At their peak use under the previous Government, in the autumn of 2023, more than 400 asylum hotels were being leased by the Home Office, at a cost of almost £9 million a day.

Inevitably, due to the size of the backlog we inherited, the Government has been forced to continue with the use of hotels for the time being. It remains our absolute commitment to end the use of hotels over time, as part of our reduction in overall asylum accommodation costs.

When a hotel has been identified for use as contingency accommodation, Home Office officials will write to the local authority Chief Executive and the constituency MP to inform them of plans to accommodate asylum seekers there.

The Home Office continues to work closely with local authorities to manage all the pressures arising from the provision of asylum accommodation including the impact on wider local authority obligations and plans.

On 23 October the Housing Secretary and Mayor of London announced a package of targeted and temporary support to drive up housebuilding in London. This includes a new, time-limited planning route and consultation on the removal of some design restrictions which limit the density of development. For further detail, please see the Written Ministerial Statement made on 23 October 2025 (HCWS991).

The National Planning Policy Frameworks sets out that local authorities should identify and update annually a five-year housing land supply (5YHLS) of deliverable housing sites (with appropriate buffer) for decision making. We have restored this test to safeguard the delivery of homes.

While the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) may be aware of an authority’s 5YHLS position at the time of a specific appeal, this position is not static. It may change over time due to annual updates or as a result of subsequent planning appeal decisions. As such, my Department does not collect live data on the 5YHLS status of individual local planning authorities.

I refer the Noble Lady to the answer given to question UIN 81305 on 24 October 2025.

Replacing the statutory requirement to consult on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) will give applicants and local authorities greater flexibility to engage in a more proportionate way. The Government has designed its policy to ensure local authorities can continue to play an important role in the NSIP regime. Applicants will be required by law to notify local authorities of their schemes. Local authorities will also be able to continue to provide Local Impact Reports to the Examining Authority and the Secretary of State outlining the impacts of a scheme on their area. The Government has also committed to extending the power for local authorities to recover costs from applicants for their advice. A consultation seeking views on how to achieve this closed on 28 October. Community benefits are typically secured through legally binding development consent obligations (DC obligations), which remain enforceable regardless of changes to consultation requirements.

The Secretary of State may intervene under the Local Government Act 1999 where they are satisfied that a council is failing to meet its Best Value Duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement. Intervention typically involves directing the council to take specific actions to improve and appointing individuals to work with the council to support their improvement.

Commissioners have been appointed to seven councils to provide challenge and exercise specified council functions if necessary to accelerate improvement.

Ministerial Envoys have been appointed to two councils to provide support and guidance, helping them drive their own improvement, and generally do not have the ability to exercise council functions.

Some Ministerial Envoys hold powers in reserve to exercise council functions, which are intended to be used only as a last resort to ensure compliance with the Best Value Duty.