Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to give (1) council leaders, and (2) directly elected mayors, the statutory right to sit on local resilience forums in their areas.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

There are currently no plans for council leaders or mayors to sit on Local Resilience Forums (LRFs). Through the Devolution White Paper and the UK Resilience Action Plan, the Government has committed to working with local leaders to clarify and strengthen the role of local government and mayors in local resilience. The Government believes stronger links to elected leaders will increase our overall resilience as responses will be better tailored to geographic areas, accounting for local challenges and needs. As part of MHCLG’s Stronger LRF Trailblazers Programme, five local areas have begun testing new methods to strengthen accountability to democratically elected local leaders.

The Government will review the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) and its supporting regulations through the next Post-Implementation Review, with a report due to be laid in Parliament by March 2027. This review will consider the impact of wider reforms on English devolution and will look to clarify and strengthen the role of Strategic Authorities and Mayors in local resilience.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what governance arrangements are in place for strategic authorities that are formed before the election of mayors to those authorities.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Subject to constituent authorities’ consent, we will establish the Mayoral Strategic Authorities in the six Devolution Priority Programme areas as soon as possible, to ensure sufficient time for preparatory work ahead of the Mayor taking office and allowing areas to build local collaboration.

The governance of these new Mayoral Strategic Authorities will be specified in the establishing Statutory Instruments. We laid the establishing Statutory Instruments for Cumbria and Cheshire and Warrington on 18 December 2025,

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Crown Estate holds a register of escheat land based on square footage; and if so, whether that register is a publicly accessible document.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Crown Estate does not manage escheated land, which is effectively ownerless. The Crown Estate has a limited remit in relation to escheated property and the only action that it may take is to dispose of the land to an appropriate person or body. This disposal would create a new freehold interest in the property.

Consequently, there is no requirement for the Crown Estate to be notified of escheated property, and it does not maintain a comprehensive register of such properties.

The Crown Estate does have a record of properties that has been notified to it by external parties as potentially subject to escheat, but this information has not been verified and is not published.