Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support is available to park home residents who face discriminatory practices by park home site owners.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Where a park home resident believes they have experienced discrimination related to a protected characteristic, they can contact the Equality Advisory Support Service.
I otherwise refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 110492 on 11 February 2026.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when she will update the House on her plans to regulate LLMs/AI Chatbots providing therapeutic interventions.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
As outlined in the government’s progress statement following the ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation, we received responses which felt that chatbots could play a beneficial role in supporting children’s wellbeing. However, we also heard concerns about how these services can provide children with harmful, misleading, or inaccurate advice.
Following the publication of the progress statement, we plan to come forward with further measures in July.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of when River Thames Scheme main construction works will begin.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency is progressing the River Thames Scheme following the reset, with an updated Outline Business Case which will be submitted in summer 2026. The programme timeline for the Development Consent Order and Construction phases will be agreed as part of the assurance of the Business Case.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the planned timetable is for the submission of the Development Consent Order for the River Thames Scheme.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency is progressing the River Thames Scheme following the reset, with an updated Outline Business Case which will be submitted in summer 2026. The programme timeline for the Development Consent Order and Construction phases will be agreed as part of the assurance of the Business Case.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it remains Government policy to support the delivery of the River Thames Scheme.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working with the Environment Agency (EA) on the proposal for the River Thames Scheme, with the EA leading the development in line with its National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy.
The scheme’s main objective is to reduce the risk of flooding to the 15,000 homes, 2,500 businesses and critical infrastructure in the Lower Thames. The project will be subject to the usual prioritisation and business case approvals.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what perfomance metrics will be considered as part of SWR's leadership performance review.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department holds South Western Railway (SWR) to account against a range of performance measures focused on the delivery of reliable, safe and high quality services for passengers.
This includes monitoring punctuality and cancellations, safety and operational performance, fleet availability and delivery of the agreed train service, as well as the quality of passenger information and handling of disruption.
Officials regularly review performance with SWR and challenge the operator where standards fall short, including scrutiny of significant incidents and the actions taken to address their root causes.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the potential impact of changes on level crossing down times will be a factor in the upcoming SWR timetable review and consultation.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The potential impact of changes to level crossing down times will be a factor in the upcoming South Western Railway timetable review. This is an issue that is carefully considered as part of wider timetable development. The Department and the operator welcome engagement from interested parties on this and other impacts, including through pre-consultation events and a planned public consultation in the autumn.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of additional house building on the resilience and capacity of a) water and b) sewerage systems in the Runnymede and Weybridge area.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water and wastewater provision for customers. Companies set out how they plan to meet and continue to meet these duties through statutory Water Resources Management Plans, and Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans. Water companies must maintain their plans and are required to review the plans to take account of changes, such as new housing growth.
Defra’s Water Delivery Taskforce, established in Spring 2025, is working to ensure that water supply and wastewater capacity can support housing growth. It does this by holding water companies to account for delivering planned investment and by addressing cross-sector challenges that may affect infrastructure capacity and resilience.
The National Planning Policy Framework makes it clear that local planning authorities should collaborate with each other and with other public bodies to identify relevant strategic matters to be addressed, including providing for sustainable water supplies.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason she has not met with representatives from the National Association of Special Schools as part of her work to improve SEND.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Since July 2024, the department has engaged with thousands of children, young people, parents, families, professionals and local authorities. As part of the National Conversation held between December 2025 and January 2026, the department reached over 8,000 people through online and in-person events.
This engagement continued during the consultation phase through a programme of regional events, and work with children and young people, including activity led by the Council for Disabled Children. During the 12-week consultation period, this programme combined Ministerial oversight, targeted expert input and public participation, ensuring that families, practitioners and young people could engage meaningfully with the proposals. This included a department-led consultation workshop with the National Association of Special Schools on 29 April 2026.
The Chief Executive of the National Association of Special Schools attended a meeting I chaired on 21st April, alongside other special school representatives, to discuss how we can further embed specialist expertise within initial teacher training as part of our plans to improve the SEND system. These discussions are ongoing.
I continue to engage widely with the specialist, schools and FE sectors, as well as parents and young people as we carefully review all responses submitted through our special educational needs and disabilities consultation.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she will make an assessment of the a) resilience and b) capacity of the local water provision following shortages in the Weybridge area.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers. Companies set out how they will continue to meet this duty through statutory Water Resources Management Plans. They must maintain their plans and are required to review the plans to take account of changes, such as new housing growth.
In the Water White Paper, the Government set out our commitment to developing statutory resilience standards, which will be brought forward through the Clean Water Bill announced in the King’s Speech.
These standards will require companies to undertake long-term assessments of their water supply and sewerage assets and systems. Alongside a reformed approach to setting funding and incentives for asset maintenance, these standards will safeguard customer services in the context of a changing climate as well as population growth and other pressures.