Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of rising block tariffs for water usage on (a) families with young children, (b) households of multiple occupancy and (c) multi-generational households.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has no plans to mandate the introduction of rising block tariffs for water bills.
Several water companies are currently trialling rising block tariffs. Through these trials the sector will learn how to best support customers, including families, with their water bills. Companies must consult with the Consumer Council for Water to protect or exclude vulnerable customers, which ensures customers are protected.
As the trials progress, we will continue to engage with companies and customer advocates on emerging outcomes.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to legislate to mandate the introduction of rising block tariffs for water bills.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has no plans to mandate the introduction of rising block tariffs for water bills.
Several water companies are currently trialling rising block tariffs. Through these trials the sector will learn how to best support customers, including families, with their water bills. Companies must consult with the Consumer Council for Water to protect or exclude vulnerable customers, which ensures customers are protected.
As the trials progress, we will continue to engage with companies and customer advocates on emerging outcomes.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of planning permissions granted since July 2024 that have led to house building starts.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department does not collect data on the time taken between the granting of planning permission for a residential development and the start of housebuilding within the development.
The information that the Department routinely collects on house building starts does not include the date on which planning permission for the development was granted.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the average time since planning was granted for house building starts in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department does not collect data on the time taken between the granting of planning permission for a residential development and the start of housebuilding within the development.
The information that the Department routinely collects on house building starts does not include the date on which planning permission for the development was granted.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas have been issued where the National Health Service is the sponsoring employer since July 2024; and how many of those visa holders are still employed by the NHS.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
You may be interested to note, information on sponsored work visas by occupation and visa route are published in table ‘Occ_D02’ of the sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset in the Immigration System Statistics. This does not provide a sponsor breakdown.
Information on Grants of extensions of stay in the UK, by previous category of leave are published in table ‘Exe_D02’ of the Extensions data tables in the Immigration System Statistics. This does not provide a breakdown of social care visa holders that have transferred to another visa type.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas have been issued where a public sector body is the sponsoring employer since July 2024; and how many of those visa holders are still employed by those bodies.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
You may be interested to note, information on sponsored work visas by occupation and visa route are published in table ‘Occ_D02’ of the sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset in the Immigration System Statistics. This does not provide a sponsor breakdown.
Information on Grants of extensions of stay in the UK, by previous category of leave are published in table ‘Exe_D02’ of the Extensions data tables in the Immigration System Statistics. This does not provide a breakdown of social care visa holders that have transferred to another visa type.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of social care visa holders have transferred to another visa type since July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
You may be interested to note, information on sponsored work visas by occupation and visa route are published in table ‘Occ_D02’ of the sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset in the Immigration System Statistics. This does not provide a sponsor breakdown.
Information on Grants of extensions of stay in the UK, by previous category of leave are published in table ‘Exe_D02’ of the Extensions data tables in the Immigration System Statistics. This does not provide a breakdown of social care visa holders that have transferred to another visa type.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to prepare for resident doctor strikes since July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service makes every effort through rigorous contingency planning to minimise disruption as a result of industrial action and its impact on patients and the public.
Resident doctors in England went on strike for five days from Friday 25 July to Wednesday 30 July 2025. To prepare, NHS England analysed previous strike data to assess financial, operational, and patient impacts.
In response to this assessment, NHS England worked hard to ensure that resources were prioritised to protect all patients using its services during the period of strike action, in particular emergency treatment, critical care, neonatal care, maternity, and trauma, and to ensure we prioritised patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery.
NHS England will continue to iterate its approach based on the most recent industrial action to ensure the NHS continues to deliver for patients.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press release entitled Chancellor announces record investment to rebuild National Health Service, published on 11 June 2025, when he plans to confirm the 350 deprived communities in receipt of funding.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At Spending Review 2025, the Chancellor announced that up to 350 of the most deprived places will receive support from government. Full profiles and detailed guidance will be published in due course.
The programme will adopt a flexible approach offering areas a broad range of options to address the unique challenges in their local area. Youth clubs, libraries, parks, cultural venues, and health and wellbeing services will all be in scope of the programme.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department requires sponsoring employers to notify them when an employee whose visa they are sponsoring leaves their employment.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Sponsors are required to report to the Home Office when they stop sponsoring a worker for any reason, including where the worker resigns, is dismissed or is made redundant.
A sponsor’s reporting duties are set out in the Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors part 3: sponsor duties and compliance which is published on the gov.uk website.