Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the total number of households in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency that remain without access to central government-supported flood resilience measures.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Flood Resilience Measures include Natural Flood Management, Property Flood Resilience (PFR), and Sustainable Drainage Systems. These can be effective at reducing the impacts of flooding but are always considered against a range of flood risk management options.

The National Flood Risk Assessment identifies 196 properties at high or medium risk from fluvial flooding within this constituency. The Environment Agency are undertaking a new 'Initial Assessment' for Buckingham which will look at flood risk data and create a high-level evaluation of potential mitigation measures.

A further 2629 properties are identified at high or medium risk from surface water flooding. Surface water flood management is the responsibility of the Lead Local Flood Authority. The FCRM Investment Programme includes the following projects to reduce risk from surface water:

• Leckhampsted Natural Flood Management
• Tingewick Flood Alleviation Scheme
• Buckingham Natural Flood Management
• Buckingham Property Flood Resilience Study

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of GP practices had signed up to the Advice and Guidance scheme by 30 April 2025 in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The specific information requested is not held centrally by the Department as it is held at individual integrated care board (ICB) level. Buckingham and Bletchley constituency is served by two different ICBs, namely Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & West Berkshire ICB and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what processes are in place to review the effectiveness of the new co-operation with the United Arab Emirates in disrupting cross-border money laundering and terrorist financing activities.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The UK-UAE Partnership to Tackle Illicit Financial Flows is long-standing. Engagement to strengthen international cooperation on illicit finance is a Government-wide approach, and cooperation between the UK and UAE includes cross-Department Ministerial oversight.

The UAE’s and UK’s next mutual evaluations by the Financial Action Task Force will be in 2026 and 2027 respectively, which will provide an independent assessment of the effectiveness of our respective anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing regimes, including international cooperation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average reduction in waiting time achieved through the Advice and Guidance scheme was for patients registered with GP practices in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency in April 2025.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No assessment has been made of the average reduction in waiting time as a result of Advice and Guidance in April 2025 for patients in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has established a (a) monitoring and (b) evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of (i) Defence Growth Deals and (ii) Defence Technical Excellence Colleges.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Each Defence Growth Deal will be bespoke to their location and we will work with devolved and local Governments, industry and academia to shape the Deals in a way that is best for that area. This includes developing monitoring and evaluation frameworks that align with the Government’s Plan for Change.

The Department for Education, working with the Ministry of Defence, Defence Technical Excellence Colleges and partners in the skills system, will design a monitoring and evaluation framework that helps support successful delivery of key objectives. This includes boosting defence related skills provision and ensuring clear pathways into defence sector jobs; high quality teaching practice and curricula in defence-related courses; and leveraging employer engagement and investment in defence-skills provision.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact of the Defence Industrial Strategy on (a) regional and (b) sectoral employment figures in (i) cyber-security, (ii) submarine engineering, (iii) aerospace and space systems and (iv) other technical sub-sectors.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Ministry of Defence has not released specific public estimates regarding the regional and sectoral employment impacts of the Defence Industrial Strategy. However, the Defence Industrial Strategy focuses on creating high-skilled jobs and fostering growth in key technical sub-sectors such as cyber-security, submarine engineering, aerospace, other technical sub-sectors and space systems, with the aim of bolstering the UK’s defence industrial base and supporting regional economic development.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that training curricula for the new Defence Technical Excellence Colleges align with capability requirements identified in the Strategic Defence Review.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Defence Technical Excellence Colleges will be recognised for their high-quality provision, including in training curricula, for skills important to the defence sector, including those identified through the Strategic Defence Review and Defence Industrial Strategy. We will work closely with industry to identify their skills needs, including through the newly established Defence Industrial Joint Council.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the partnership with the United Arab Emirates on tackling illicit finance is aligned with the objectives set out in the UK’s Economic Crime Plan, 2023 to 2026.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The UK-UAE Illicit Finance Partnership incorporates objectives from the Economic Crime Plan 2 (ECP2), which sets the UK’s whole-system response to economic crime. Strong progress was made against ECP2 objectives during the UK-UAE Illicit Finance Dialogue in September 2025, when the UAE visited London to advance talks on cooperation in areas such as asset recovery and fraud.

As a global financial centres, the UK and UAE have joint responsibility to tackle illicit finance through our partnership, while achieving strategic outcomes set out in the Economic Crime Plan 2.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much he plans to spend annually on research and development associated with the (a) Future Combat Air System and (b) Global Combat Air Programme in the next five years.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The forthcoming ten-year Defence Investment Plan will outline the Department’s spending plans in line with the Strategic Defence Review and Spending Review outcomes.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what trade barriers his Department has identified in the Chinese market in (a) healthcare, (b) automotive and (c) professional services sectors.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We have identified the following challenges: in healthcare, complex regulatory approval processes for medicines and medical devices; in automotive, certification requirements, consumption taxes and tariffs; and in professional services firms face restrictions on business operations, onerous licencing, data localisation requirements, and limited recognition of qualifications. We regularly raise market access issues with Chinese authorities through diplomatic channels and ministerial engagements, including during the Secretary of State's recent visit to China.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what mechanisms his Department uses to evaluate the effectiveness of export support services for SMEs.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

DBT offers a range of support for SME’s, with the recent Small Business Plan unlocking billions of pounds in finance to support businesses to invest and revitalising the High Street as a place to do business. The new online Business Growth Service will deliver support for Digital Adoption and AI to unlock business potential. And our Trade Strategy offers a more targeted approach to export support, including the launch of the Ricardo Fund to help UK regulators remove regulatory barriers for businesses trading abroad.

DBT has a robust monitoring and evaluation framework in place for export support and the Trade Strategy. The data will be published in DBT's Annual Report.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals to set statutory targets for levels of SME participation in public sector procurement.

Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government is determined to ensure the £385 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually, delivers economic growth and supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Government previously announced that all departments would set SME spend targets, and now plans to expand that requirement to the wider public sector - further prioritising and boosting spending with SMEs.

The Government is analysing responses to our recent public consultation on further reforms to public procurement processes. These proposals aim to drive economic growth, support small businesses, and better support innovation. We will publish our conclusions and further actions to improve public procurement in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what resources his Department has provided to facilitate the participation by GP practices in the Advice and Guidance scheme in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency since 1 April 2025.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Integrated care boards (ICBs) were instructed to invite all general practices to participate in the enhanced service specification for General Practice Requests for Advice and Guidance (A&G) 2025/26, which sees practices entitled to claim a £20 fee per request for pre-referral advice and guidance, no later than 13 May 2025. The Government has made £80 million available to fund up to four million A&G requests so general practitioners (GPs) can access advice ahead of making a referral, recognising the importance of their role in ensuring patient care takes place in the most appropriate setting.

NHS England has developed supporting resources to aid continued use of A&G, including a toolkit with guidance for GPs as well as for commissioners and secondary care clinical teams, and an operational delivery framework which sets a roadmap for ICBs to expand and improve their use of A&G across seven themes and with a set of minimum standards for best practice.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of allowing lenders to offer mortgages of over 4.5 times buyers’ income on the financial stability of mortgage lenders.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The loan-to-income (LTI) flow limit restricts the share of new mortgages that lenders can issue at or above 4.5 times a borrower’s income. It is set by the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which is responsible for identifying and addressing systemic risks to UK financial stability.

In July 2025, the FPC judged that the system-wide cap—limiting high-LTI mortgages to no more than 15 per cent of all new owner-occupier lending—continues to provide appropriate protection against the build up of unsustainable household debt which could pose risks to financial stability in an economic downturn.

However, to ensure the LTI flow limit is implemented proportionately and efficiently, the Committee recommended that the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) amend implementation of the flow limit to allow individual lenders to increase their share of high-LTI lending, provided the aggregate flow remains consistent with the 15 per cent limit. Details on this recommendation can be found in the FPC’s July Financial Stability Report.

The government supports the FPC’s changes, maintaining resilience of the financial system while supporting responsible access to home ownership.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of pesticides used under emergency authorisations will be subject to risk assessments under the new guidance.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The new guidance applies to all applications for emergency authorisation of pesticides. All such applications will therefore be subject to assessments of risks to people, animals and the environment, including risks to pollinators.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what methodology her Department plans to use to assess the effectiveness of the revised emergency authorisation guidance in reducing harm to bee populations.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra has developed a Pesticide Load Indicator which combines data on quantities used with data on the properties of each pesticide. The indicator illustrates trends in the potential pressure on the environment arising from the use of pesticides. The metrics for bees indicate a very substantial reduction in load in recent years, due in large part to the end of widespread use of three neonicotinoid pesticides which carry risks to bee populations.

The National Honey Monitoring Scheme supports estimates of honeybee exposure to pesticides. Defra also contributes funding for the Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, which tracks changes in numbers across the UK.

Defra will continue to monitor trends in these metrics and other data to ensure that risks from pesticides to bees, including the risks of any pesticides given emergency authorisation, are being kept to acceptable levels.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has set any quantitative targets for the reduction in emergency-authorised pesticide applications that risk harming pollinators, following the publication of the revised guidance.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The new guidance makes clear that risks to people, animals and the environment, including risks to pollinators, will be taken fully into account. No pesticide will be granted an emergency authorisation unless the benefits outweigh those risks.

The legislation governing emergency authorisations for pesticides requires that each application is assessed against strict criteria. As each application is considered on its own merits and on the basis of the relevant evidence, it is not appropriate to set a target for the number of emergency authorisations.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many small and medium-sized enterprises in (a) the UK and (b) Buckingham and Bletchley constituency have exported to China in the last three years.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC releases information as Official Statistics called the Trade in Goods by Business Characteristics, which is available via gov.uk. (www.uktradeinfo.com).

Trade in Goods by Business Characteristics includes exports to certain pre-selected Partner Countries that includes China. This data includes exports by Business Size (Number of employees) broken down by the following categories: 0; 1 to 9; 10 to 49; 50 to 249; 250+; Unknown. The user will be able to work out SME by aggregating the first four categories in this list.

Links to the relevant releases for 2021, 2022, and 2023 are below (see tab “2. Business Size” on each release):

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/637ce265d3bf7f5a0b33f87f/UK_TIG_by_Business_Characteristics_2021_Country_Tables.xlsx

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6554d441d03a8d001207f9a7/UK_TIG_by_Business_Characteristics_2022_Country_Level_Tables.xlsx

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6734b5f4f6920bfb5abc7a75/UK_TIG_by_Business_Characteristics_2023_Country_Level_Tables.xlsx

The release for 2024 data will be published on 27 November 2025.

The breakdown by Business Size (Number of Employees) is not available for areas smaller than UK as a whole.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with stakeholders on the potential impact of pay transparency requirements on workplace equality.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As part of our ongoing commitment to advancing workplace equality, we launched a Call for Evidence on Equality Law, including questions on pay transparency. This will help us to better understand how increased transparency may impact women, ethnic minorities, disabled people, and other groups in the workplace.

We are now analysing responses to the Call for Evidence, which closed on 30 June, and will give careful consideration as to whether additional pay transparency measures would be proportionate and effective in improving pay equality in Great Britain.

We thank all respondents—individuals, employers, trade unions, and civil society—for their valuable input.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of how many small businesses in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency are losing all Small Business Rates Relief when opening their second premises.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

We are creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century.

As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with ratable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that RHL businesses benefit from much-needed certainty and support.

This tax cut must be sustainably funded, and so the Government intends to introduce a higher rate on the most valuable properties in 2026-27 - those with RVs of £500,000 and above. These represent less than one per cent of all properties, but cover the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by online giants.

The Government will confirm the rates for the new multipliers at Budget 2025, taking account of the outcomes of the 2026 revaluation as well as the broader economic and fiscal context. When the new multipliers are set at Budget 2025, HM Treasury intends to publish analysis of the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.

The Government does not hold data on how many businesses are eligible for Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR) in individual constituencies. It is worth noting that, if a business expands to a second property, it retains SBRR on the first property for 12 months, and may retain it longer if certain conditions are met.

The Transforming Business Rates: Interim Report published on 11 September sets out the Government’s next steps to deliver a fairer business rates system. This includes exploring a number of reforms to incentivise investment and improve the operation of the business rates system, including how SBRR could be enhanced to more effectively support investment and expansion among small businesses.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential economic impact of proposed business rates reforms on the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

We are creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century.

As set out at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with ratable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that RHL businesses benefit from much-needed certainty and support.

This tax cut must be sustainably funded, and so the Government intends to introduce a higher rate on the most valuable properties in 2026-27 - those with RVs of £500,000 and above. These represent less than one per cent of all properties, but cover the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by online giants.

The Government will confirm the rates for the new multipliers at Budget 2025, taking account of the outcomes of the 2026 revaluation as well as the broader economic and fiscal context. When the new multipliers are set at Budget 2025, HM Treasury intends to publish analysis of the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.

The Government does not hold data on how many businesses are eligible for Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR) in individual constituencies. It is worth noting that, if a business expands to a second property, it retains SBRR on the first property for 12 months, and may retain it longer if certain conditions are met.

The Transforming Business Rates: Interim Report published on 11 September sets out the Government’s next steps to deliver a fairer business rates system. This includes exploring a number of reforms to incentivise investment and improve the operation of the business rates system, including how SBRR could be enhanced to more effectively support investment and expansion among small businesses.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that new affordable housing built under the plan for 1.5 million homes will be accessible to first-time buyers whose deposit is less than 10 per cent.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The affordability challenges facing prospective first-time buyers mean that too many people are now locked out of homeownership.

In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, the government is supporting people into home ownership, including through the shared ownership scheme and the Lifetime ISA.

The government has also introduced a new, permanent Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, available to support and sustain availability of low deposit mortgage products for prospective buyers.

Additionally, the Bank of England is easing the loan-to-income limit, enabling up to 36,000 additional first-time buyers in the first year.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ongoing review of the mortgage market means many buyers can now borrow 10% more towards a property purchase. The government looks forward to ambitious proposals from the FCA’s paper.

First-time buyers may also benefit from home ownership initiatives offered at the local level.