Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the financial viability of running a small or medium-sized building company and (2) the main financial challenges of running a small or medium-sized building company.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Construction is a cyclical industry, and the financial viability of firms can be affected by a range of factors, including the state of the market, commercial negotiations in relation to contracts, liabilities incurred, and the price of wages, products and materials. Small firms in the construction supply chain are also vulnerable to late or non-payment, which is why the Government has taken steps to improve payment reporting, and is committed to publishing a consultation on legislative measures to ensure prompt and fair payment.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many small and medium-sized building companies have ceased trading in the financial years (1) 2024–25, (2) 2023–24, and (3) 2022–23; and what assessment have they made of the trend of these figures.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Acting National Statistician of the UK Statistics Authority.
Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician
The Lord Mawson OBE
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
2 June 2025
Dear Lord Mawson,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many small and medium-sized building companies have ceased trading in the financial years (1) 2024–25, (2) 2023–24, and (3) 2022–23; and what assessment has been made of the trend of these figures (HL7770).
Using the quarterly business demography release[1], we can show, in Table 1, the number of businesses which were classified to the construction industry which have ceased trading in the financial years listed. Figures for building companies are not separately available so the wider aggregation of the construction industry has been used. This consists of construction of buildings, civil engineering, and specialised construction activities. These figures are classified as ‘official statistics in development’.
Table 1: Number of businesses classified to the construction industry which have ceased trading in the financial years 2022/23 – 2024/25.
Financial year | Number of business closures within the Construction industry |
2022/23 | 46,505 |
2023/24 | 40,700 |
2024/25 | 39,235 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
It is not possible to show these figures for small and medium sized enterprises only since this breakdown is not available from the quarterly release. However, figures from our 2024 UK Business: activity, size and location dataset[2] show that small and medium sized enterprises, taken to be businesses with employment less than 250, make up 99.9 per cent of businesses in the construction industry.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) makes no estimate of the trend of these figures.
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number and percentage of hereditary Peers in the House of Lords with experience of running and growing a business, and how this compares with the rest of the House; what assessment they have made of the impact of the removal of hereditary Peers from the House of Lords on its scrutiny of legislation and its role in holding the Government to account; and what steps they are taking to ensure that relevant business experience is maintained in the House.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises and values the contributions hereditary peers have made to the House of Lords.
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill delivers the Government’s manifesto commitment to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords, completing the work of the House of Lords Act 1999. In the 21st century there should not be places reserved in the legislature for people born into certain families.
The Government is supportive of the inclusion of individuals from all backgrounds in the House of Lords and believes the second chamber is enriched by members who bring diverse experience and expertise. This includes members with business experience.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many plastic spacers for asthma inhalers (1) have been prescribed, and (2) at what cost, in each of the last five years; what guidance there is on how often such spacers need to be replaced; when such guidance was given to providers in the NHS; and what assessment they have made of the cost to the NHS of the implementation of this guidance.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the total number of prescription items, quantities and Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) of spacer/holding chamber devices that were dispensed in England regardless of where prescribed from January 2019 to November 2024:
Calendar Year | Total Items | Total Quantity | Total NIC (£) |
2019 | 1,857,744 | 1,974,051 | 11,960,224.48 |
2020 | 1,437,840 | 1,525,746 | 9,091,373.81 |
2021 | 1,652,145 | 1,752,204 | 10,847,694.23 |
2022 | 1,825,426 | 1,944,489 | 12,241,335.04 |
2023 | 1,900,533 | 2,037,113 | 12,843,890.18 |
2024 Jan-Nov (11 months) | 1,777,964 | 1,918,473 | 11,924,830.03 |
Total | 10,451,652 | 11,152,076 | 68,909,347.77 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA)
Notes:
Information on how to look after a spacer device is included in the patient information leaflet that is provided to patients with their device. This can be found in the section on how to look after the device and includes cleaning and storage instructions as well as advice on when the device should be replaced. The general advice for the spacers available in the United Kingdom is that they should be replaced after one year.
Guidance for patients on device replacement can also be found on patient support websites such as Asthma and Lung UK which includes similar advice: ‘You should replace your spacer at least every year, especially if you use it daily, but some may need to be replaced sooner – ask your GP, nurse or pharmacist if you’re unsure.’
Guidance for healthcare professionals can be found on the Right Breath website and on the NHS clinical guidance page which recommend that all spacers should be replaced annually while the British National Formulary which provides healthcare professionals with up-to-date information about the use of medicines recommends that spacer devices should be replaced every six to 12 months.
NHS England is not aware of any additional clinical guidance it has issued, other than that contained in the product information, about replacing spacers.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average number of hours spent by doctors and nurses in statutory and mandatory training; and what is the cost to the NHS of the time they spend undertaking such training.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The exact amount of statutory and mandatory training completed varies, depending on which organisation they work for, their role or roles, and the frequency of their movement between organisations, for instance resident doctors rotating between organisations may have to repeat some of the training.
On average, it is estimated that nationally defined statutory and mandatory training takes up to eight hours or one day per person per year and locally mandated training will add to this. This considerable investment of time has to be balanced against the fact that this training is both important, for instance safety training and emergency preparedness training, and often required by law.
In early 2024, NHS England commenced work in partnership with the Department, the Care Quality Commission, the Health Services Safety Investigations Branch, and NHS Resolution to reform statutory and mandatory training through a programme to optimise, rationalise, and redesign.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of road accidents in England in the last 10 years where potholes and poor-quality road surfaces were a cause.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Statistics on reported road injury collisions in Great Britain are published based on data reported by police via the data collection known as STATS19.
Within STATS19, reporting police officers can assign up to 6 factors which they believe may have contributed to the collision, including ‘poor or defective road surface’. Contributory factors are assigned based on the opinions of the reporting officer at the scene or within a short time of the collision, rather than a detailed investigation.
The number of collisions in each of the last 10 years with the factor ‘poor or defective road surface’ assigned is published in table RAS0701 on gov.uk and reproduced below:
Year | Reported road collisions in England with ‘poor or defective road surface’ assigned as a contributory factor |
2014 | 660 |
2015 | 544 |
2016 | 519 |
2017 | 465 |
2018 | 446 |
2019 | 437 |
2020 | 376 |
2021 | 429 |
2022 | 432 |
2023 | 532 |
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by the RAC in February 2024 that council road maintenance in England dropped by 45 per cent in 2022–23 compared to the five years previously; and whether road maintenance levels have improved since then.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve their understanding of the condition of local roads; and what plans they have to support local authorities to use exploit AI technologies that make it faster and easier to identify potholes.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to meet experts in the road maintenance industry, including the RAC, Road Surface Treatments Association, the Road Emulsion Association, and the Asphalt Industry Alliance, to discuss best practice.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.
Asked by: Lord Mawson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which local authorities in England undertook preventative road maintenance, such as surface dressing roads to prevent potholes forming, in the last year; and what steps they intend to take to increase the amount of preventative road maintenance undertaken.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department’s officials meet regularly with local authority representatives and other experts in the road maintenance industry to discuss best practice. Ministers have also met with key stakeholder groups, including the Pothole Partnership which comprises organisations representing road users and industry.
The Department agrees that local highway authorities should focus on preventative rather than reactive maintenance activities, and this advice is set out in the Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which is available online. The Department is committed to updating this guidance and has begun work to scope out urgently which parts need updating and how. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes, and encourages authorities to consider all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns, and not just the fixing of potholes or resurfacing of roads.
Decisions on how much to spend on their local highway networks each year are matters for local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Department for Transport collects and publishes on gov.uk each year data on authorities’ capital and revenue expenditure on their highway maintenance activities. The data shows that, at a national level, total spending on local road maintenance in the financial year 2022/23 was broadly similar to total spend in each of the previous five years.
This Government recognises the importance of well-maintained roads and has provided an additional £500m for highway maintenance for the year 2025/26 – a near 50% uplift on the current baseline. This has resulted in an 36% increase on average to individual local highway authority allocations, as well as providing highway maintenance funding top-ups to London authorities and mayoral areas already receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. These allocations can be found on gov.uk.
In addition, the Department is taking a number of steps to improve its understanding of the condition of local roads. It worked with the British Standards Institute and the highway sector to develop a new road condition data standard for local highway authorities, which was published last year. This will enable them to utilise new technologies, including AI, to identify potholes and other defects in their highway network more promptly.