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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to change the electoral qualification and disqualification provisions on whether Members of Parliament can (1) stand for election, and (2) continue to hold office, as (a) councillors, (b) council mayors, (c) Police and Crime Commissioners, and (d) combined authority mayors.

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

I refer the noble Baroness to the response given to Question UIN 47703 on 30 April 2025. Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Mayors who hold the PCC function are disqualified from standing for election or continuing to hold office if they become Members of Parliament. Government has laid out proposals to extend similar arrangements to Mayors of a combined authority, combined county authority or the Greater London Authority who do not hold the PCC function. There are no plans to similarly change disqualification criteria for other elected mayors or councillors.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the best value inspection of Tower Hamlets Council in 2024, what assessment was made by the Commissioners of the standards of behaviour in council meetings.

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

The Best Value Inspection of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets report was published on 12^th November 2024. Inspectors found that “[council] meetings have, at times, been fractious, the tone has been occasionally aggressive and sometimes there has been filibustering… it is our view that this has, unfortunately, over-shadowed and impaired the quality of debate in the chamber.” (paragraph 3.42)

The Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution has appointed three Ministerial Envoys to work with the Council to address the issues found in the Inspection Report, and intends to publish their first report on the Council’s progress this summer.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Minister for Housing and Planning on 10 March (HCWS510), what is their timetable for the publication of the consultation on removing statutory consultees in the planning process; and which elements of the wider reform will be delivered through primary and secondary legislation.

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

We have committed to consult this Spring on the impact of removing a limited number of statutory consultees. A publication date is yet to be confirmed.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Housing and Planning on 7 April (HC40908), what is the evidential basis for the designation of the site of special scientific interest that prevented the development of the town due to jumping spiders.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Natural England (NE) notifies areas as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which, in its opinion are of special interest by reason of their flora, fauna, geological or physiographic features.

The Swanscombe Peninsula SSSI is a corridor of habitats connecting Ebbsfleet Valley with the southern shore of the River Thames between Dartford and Gravesend. It is considered by NE to be of special interest for its:

• Quaternary geology at Bakers Hole, a key Pleistocene site with a complex sequence of periglacial and temperate climate deposits and Middle Palaeolithic archaeology

• Populations of the plants divided sedge Carex divisa, yellow vetchling Lathyrus aphaca, slender hare’s-ear Bupleurum tenuissimum, Bithynian vetch Vicia bithynica and round-leaved wintergreen Pyrola rotundifolia subsp. maritima

• Assemblages of invertebrates associated with bare sand and chalk, open short swards, open water on disturbed mineral sediments, and saltmarsh and transitional brackish marsh

• Two diverse assemblages of breeding birds, one associated with lowland open waters and their margins, lowland fen and lowland damp grassland, the other with lowland scrub.

The more detailed evidence base for the designation of the SSSI is publicly available.

Found: BARONESS O'NEILL OF BEXLEY 29_ Clause 3, page 3, leave out lines 25 and 26 Member's explanatory statement