Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, (a) when he will publish the analysis of responses regarding the ‘Strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services’ consultation launched 4 July 2025, and (b) what steps is he taking to help protect leaseholders in Bromsgrove and the Villages from management companies and landlords that do not deliver an adequate level of maintenance.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to Questions UIN 123090 on 31 March 2026 and UIN 85213 on 4 November 2025.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to Question 121253, what assessment has been made of the potential impact on beneficiaries of them paying a net tax rate of 68% when the pension holder passes away after the age of 75 resulting in a 40% inheritance tax and a 45% income tax charge on the remaining private pension.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
More than 90 per cent of UK estates will continue to have no inheritance tax liability in 2030-31 following the reforms to the inheritance tax treatment of pensions. The reforms will only affect a minority of those with inheritable pension wealth.
Income tax is only due from beneficiaries in certain circumstances. It is due at the beneficiary’s marginal income tax rate. Significant tax relief is provided on pension contributions when payments are made into a pension because the Government wishes to encourage pension saving to help ensure that people have an income, or funds on which they can draw, throughout retirement. In cases where income tax is due on pension benefits paid to a beneficiary, contributions into the pension scheme will have received this tax relief when they were made. If the pension benefits had been withdrawn by the original member, they would have been liable to income tax. If the original member died with the cash, or assets purchased with that cash, then this would then generally be included in the valuation of their estate for inheritance tax purposes too and inheritance tax paid if appropriate.
Income tax will not be due on the amount of relevant death benefits equal to any inheritance tax due on that pension death benefit. This means the same value will not be subject to both inheritance tax and income tax. For example, if beneficiaries choose to withdraw their taxable benefits and pay income tax on the full amount, the legislation provides for them to reduce their taxable pension income by any inheritance tax paid. Guidance on this will be published in due course ahead of the changes taking effect in April 2027.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve ADHD diagnosis timeframes, (b) reduce the waiting list for ADHD medication and (c) improve support for patients and their families whilst undergoing the diagnostic process in Bromsgrove and the Villages.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including provision of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
The Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB is committed to wait times for ADHD assessment of less than 18 weeks, however, there are known waits for children and young people to access ADHD diagnostic assessment services due to an increase in demand. There are currently 1,600 children and young people waiting for an assessment via an NHS provider, with an average wait time of 60 weeks. For adults, ADHD assessments are conducted by Right to Choose providers only and these services typically have a waiting time below the 18-week standard.
All patients, including children and young people, can access the Right to Choose pathway for ADHD assessments through their general practice, allowing them to select an alternative provider if the waiting time for NHS services exceeds 18 weeks at the point of referral. The ICB has put in place a number of contracts under Right to Choose to improve choice for patients and is working with its NHS commissioned services to reduce long waits. It has also commissioned additional capacity for those children waiting over 104 weeks in the NHS service in 2025/26 and will continue this in 2026/27.
For children, medication is provided by the NHS commissioned service, and the waiting time is six to eight weeks for first medication reviews, and four to six months to initiate medication following diagnosis. It should be noted that NICE guidelines expect non-pharmaceutical interventions to be considered before medication for all children. The ICB is investing in the local NHS commissioned service to increase medication treatment capacity. For adults, the only pathway available for ADHD assessments is Right to Choose. The ICB advises that there is no waiting list for these patients as they will automatically be initiated and titrated for medication, where that is identified as an appropriate treatment.
Furthermore, the ICB is at the end of a tendering process for a Neurodivergence Support Service for zero to 25 year olds and their families, and this should go live from September 2026. The ICB is considering commissioning a service for adults age 25 years old and over from April 2027.
More broadly, NHS England issued advice to systems on ADHD service delivery and prioritisation on 7 October 2025. This advice includes guidance on managing service provisions, reviewing waiting lists, and providing patient support. The advice can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/adhd-service-delivery-and-prioritisation-advice-to-systems/
Through the NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October 2025, NHS England has set clear expectations for local ICBs and trusts to improve access, experience, and outcomes for ADHD services over the next three years, focusing on improving quality and productivity. The framework was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for ADHD assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many victims of Modern Slavery with a positive conclusive grounds decision were eligible for Local Authority housing during the period 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips
I refer the Hon. Member to the response given to UIN 127995 on 21st April 2026.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
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 March 2026 to Question 121184 on Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: Apprentices, how many of the Department's 57 apprentices were recruited in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The department offers apprenticeships to internal staff as part of our learning and development offer. Since the original PQ, our records have updated to reflect an additional apprenticeship completion in 2025. We therefore now have 58 members of DSIT staff that are either currently undertaking an apprenticeship or have completed an apprenticeship between 2023 and 2025. (GOV.UK). This information is obtained from our Apprenticeship Employer Account on GOV.UK.
Year by year breakdown:
Year | Apprenticeships (live and completed) |
2023 | No records due to creation of the department from fBEIS, CO and DCMS |
2024 | 7 |
2025 | 51 |
Total | 58 |
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many victims of Modern Slavery with a positive conclusive grounds decision were eligible for local authority housing during the period 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips
The Home Office does not hold or publish data on whether victims of modern slavery with a positive Conclusive Grounds decision were eligible for local authority housing, as housing eligibility decisions are made by local authorities and are not recorded in the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) datasets.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the number of nurseries in England restricting free childcare hours due to cost and availability; what steps her Department is taking to ensure parents receive the full free childcare hours they are entitled to; and what support her Department is giving with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to nurseries to sustainably deliver funded places.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to secure free early education and childcare for eligible children in their area. Eligible children are entitled to 570 or 1,140 hours of free early education and childcare over the calendar year from when they become eligible.
Providers should set out how many free hours parents are getting per day and per week, to ensure parents understand what free hours they are receiving over the calendar year from when their child first becomes eligible.
Providers can also charge parents for any additional, private paid hours according to their usual terms and conditions provided taking up private paid hours is not a condition of accessing a free place.
In 2026/27, we are expecting to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years entitlements, investing over £1 billion more this year compared to 2025/26 to deliver a full year of the expanded entitlements and an increase to entitlements funding rates.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what plans he has to introduce additional incentives for non-domestic buildings to use building energy management systems, with consideration to energy costs, carbon emissions and building occupants health.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Building Energy Management Systems can help landlords meet their obligations under the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015.
The Energy Systems Catapult has guidance on Building Energy Management Systems, available to all public sector organisations at https://es.catapult.org.uk/tools-and-labs/public-sector-decarbonisation-guidance/all-tools-and-tutorials/
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her department is taking to introduce minimum animal welfare standards for all food imports that are in line with British animal welfare standards for domestic farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the Hon. Member to the reply given to Mr Lee Dillon on 4 February 2026 to PQ UIN 109910.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that efforts by local authorities to encourage the restoration of empty dwellings by providing exemptions from long-term empty home premiums do not result in buildings becoming more derelict.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities have discretionary powers to change additional council tax on properties which have been left unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for one or more years. The Government recognises that there are circumstances where it may not be appropriate for a premium to apply and we have introduced a number of statutory exemptions to premiums. These include 12 months exemption for empty homes undergoing major repairs or structural alterations to support bringing empty homes back into use and to prevent buildings becoming more derelict. The taxpayer will have to apply for the exception, and provide supporting evidence to the relevant local authority.
It is for the local authorities to decide where it is appropriate to apply the premium, taking into account a number of factors, including local circumstances and government guidance.