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 has been made of the level of resource required to a) repair and b) maintain essential river assets, including weirs and sluice gates, on the River Thames.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 195 sets of weirs and sluices that exist along the 217km of non-tidal Thames are owned and operated by the Environment Agency (EA) and are regularly inspected to assess their condition, operational effectiveness, and safety. Critical parts of the weirs and sluices are replaced throughout their lifetime as part of the EA’s maintenance programme, to ensure they continue to provide effective water level management. Future investment need is considered as part of each Spending Review. Navigation locks have a similar inspection and maintenance regime, and their wider investment need also forms part of the Spending Review process.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures his Department is taking to mitigate any potential increase in waiting times for neurodiverse assessments in Runnymede and Weybridge as a result of the recent ICB decision to pause assessments through the Right to Choose with the provider Psicon.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has recognised that, nationally, demand for assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown significantly in recent years and that people are experiencing severe delays for accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future and recognises the need for early intervention and support.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to autism and ADHD assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October, was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism and ADHD assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.
In April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the NHS to deliver improved outcomes for people referred to an autism assessment service. NHS England has continued to support services to identify challenges and how they might overcome these. NHS England also established an ADHD taskforce to better understand the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing timely and equitable access to services and support. We are pleased that the final report was published on 6 November, and we are carefully considering its recommendations.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the introduction of Indicative Activity Plans limiting neurodiverse assessments through Right to Choose providers on waiting lists for neurodevelopmental assessments in Runnymede and Weybridge.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has recognised that, nationally, demand for assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown significantly in recent years and that people are experiencing severe delays for accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future and recognises the need for early intervention and support.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to autism and ADHD assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October, was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism and ADHD assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.
In April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the NHS to deliver improved outcomes for people referred to an autism assessment service. NHS England has continued to support services to identify challenges and how they might overcome these. NHS England also established an ADHD taskforce to better understand the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing timely and equitable access to services and support. We are pleased that the final report was published on 6 November, and we are carefully considering its recommendations.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the role of British embassies in encouraging overseas voter registration since January 2024.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We encourage all British nationals to register as overseas voters if they move or live abroad. British Nationals abroad can contact their local Embassy or High Commission for more information.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2025 to Question 92210 on Internet: Outages, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill on disruption to government services during the Cloudflare outage.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) recognises the importance of robust protections for the services essential to our society and economy. That is why we introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (CSRB) on 12 November - by enhancing protections for the most important digital services, Government services that rely on them will also benefit.
As the digital centre of government, DSIT also recognises that a step change in cyber and digital resilience is required across the government sector. However, we do not need to wait for legislation to take action.
We are acting in parallel with the approach of the CSRB through our mandate to set robust cyber security standards across government organisations. Government services have been subject to the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Assessment Framework since 2022, which promotes resilience against both cyber attacks and the types of system failure that we saw with the Cloudflare outage.
Despite this progress, we are not complacent. DSIT will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan, which will lay out a detailed programme of work with clear expectations, targets, and milestones to enhance Government's cyber and digital resilience.
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, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the capacity of (a) sectoral regulators and (b) the NCSC to process and respond to cyber incident reports as a result of the expanded reporting requirements in the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Officials have worked closely with regulators and the NCSC in developing the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and will continue to do so throughout its parliamentary passage and implementation planning.
The NCSC already leads the UK’s response to cyber incidents by triaging reports, supporting affected organisations and coordinating government action during major incidents. In the year preceding, September 2025, NCSC received 1,727 incident tips, 429 of which required direct support. The Bill will expand the type of incidents reported to regulators and the NCSC, strengthening understanding of the threat landscape and improving national cyber-defences.
The Bill will also bolster regulator resources by reforming cost recovery. Currently, regulators are constrained – for example, they cannot recover the cost of enforcement. The Bill will enable regulators to fully recover their costs and utilise flexible, sector-appropriate charging mechanisms, ensuring they are properly equipped to meet their duties.
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, whether (a) Government services and (b) critical national infrastructure faced disruption as a result of the Cloudflare outage on 18 November 2025; and what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the economy of that service outage.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is leading government’s response to the Cloudflare outage which occurred on Tuesday 19 November 2025. We understand that Cloudflare services were restored on Tuesday evening, and DSIT is engaging with Cloudflare to understand the full impact of this incident, and how such events can be mitigated in the future.
DSIT has identified disruption to some online Government services, which were restored within hours of the incident. We are not aware of any disruption to Critical National Infrastructure.
The outage affected a wide range of organisations across all sectors, and it will take some time to fully understand the scale of the economic impact.
The Government recognises the importance of robust protections for the services essential to our society and economy – that is why we introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill on 12 November.
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 assessment he has made of the potential impact of financial pressures in local government on the delivery of effective planning enforcement.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local planning authorities have a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance. It is for authorities to decide how and when they use their powers depending on the circumstances of each case.
It is also for local planning authorities to ensure they have the resources in place to carry out their planning enforcement function effectively.
For a summary of the steps the government is taking to support capacity and capability within local planning authorities, including within their enforcement teams, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to question UIN 67508 on 14 July 2025.
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 discussions he has had with (a) officials and (b) local authorities on making planning enforcement a non-discretionary service.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local planning authorities have a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance. It is for authorities to decide how and when they use their powers depending on the circumstances of each case.
It is also for local planning authorities to ensure they have the resources in place to carry out their planning enforcement function effectively.
For a summary of the steps the government is taking to support capacity and capability within local planning authorities, including within their enforcement teams, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to question UIN 67508 on 14 July 2025.
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 assessment he has made of trends in the level of (a) loss and (b) damage to (i) English heritage and (ii) buildings of historic importance due to unlawful development.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has made no specific assessment of trends in relation to historic buildings and unlawful development.
The government is committed to the protection of the historic environment.
There are strong protections in both the National Planning Policy Framework and legislation to support the conservation and enhancement of heritage assets.
The government has also given local planning authorities a wide range of enforcement powers in relation to unauthorised development, including specific powers in relation to designated heritage assets, with strong penalties for non-compliance.