Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to publish guidance for financial institutions on contingency planning for disruption involving critical third parties.

Answered by Rachel Blake

Cyber security is a top priority for the Government, and HM Treasury works with the financial regulators, industry and with international partners to strengthen the financial sector’s resilience to threats and hazards of all origins.

The financial authorities deploy a range of tools to test and ensure financial sector firms are resilient to the wide range of risks that they could face, and we also maintain robust exercising and incident response frameworks to ensure readiness for disruption and coordination across government and industry. The UK financial regulators have implemented an operational resilience framework for the UK financial sector, which sets out rules and supervisory expectations on operational resilience and risk management for financial services firms, including relating to third-party risk management. Technical advice on security and resilience is also provided by the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Protective Security Authority.

The Critical Third Party (CTP) regime complements but does not replace financial sector firms’ obligations in this area. Designated third parties will be subject to oversight by the UK financial regulators, helping to ensure they have robust arrangements in place to identify, manage and recover from operational disruption affecting critical services used across the financial sector. Through the new regime, the regulators will be able to gather information, assess resilience, and work with third parties to address risks to the continuity of critical services, including through making and enforcing CTP-specific rules where necessary. The regulators’ rules and guidance for CTPs include requirements on incident management.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many organisations will be designated as critical third parties by the end of 2027.

Answered by Rachel Blake

On 10 July 2026, the Government announced it had designated four major global cloud services and technology providers as Critical Third Parties (CTPs). These designations came into force on 13 July 2026.

As part of a rolling regime, further providers may be designated over time where this is necessary to protect UK resilience. To maintain the integrity of the regime, it is not appropriate to comment on how many designations may be made in future.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with financial regulators on testing operational resilience against simultaneous failures affecting multiple critical third parties.

Answered by Rachel Blake

Cyber security is a top priority for the Government, and HM Treasury works with the financial regulators, industry and with international partners to strengthen the financial sector’s resilience to threats and hazards of all origins.

The financial authorities deploy a range of tools to test and ensure financial sector firms are resilient to the wide range of risks that they could face, and we also maintain robust exercising and incident response frameworks to ensure readiness for disruption and coordination across government and industry. The UK financial regulators have implemented an operational resilience framework for the UK financial sector, which sets out rules and supervisory expectations on operational resilience and risk management for financial services firms, including relating to third-party risk management. Technical advice on security and resilience is also provided by the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Protective Security Authority.

The Critical Third Party (CTP) regime complements but does not replace financial sector firms’ obligations in this area. Designated third parties will be subject to oversight by the UK financial regulators, helping to ensure they have robust arrangements in place to identify, manage and recover from operational disruption affecting critical services used across the financial sector. Through the new regime, the regulators will be able to gather information, assess resilience, and work with third parties to address risks to the continuity of critical services, including through making and enforcing CTP-specific rules where necessary. The regulators’ rules and guidance for CTPs include requirements on incident management.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the revised Green Book guidance on infrastructure investment decisions affecting rural communities.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The new Green Book ensures that investment decisions are no longer based solely on single metrics, such as benefit-cost ratios, and that decisions instead take into account the full range of impacts on people and places.

This new approach will shape important decisions, such as on Northern Powerhouse Rail, and ensure that government investment brings about higher living standards in every part of the country. This includes urban, rural and coastal communities.

HM Treasury has published a report on its progress in implementing the conclusions of the Green Book Review in 2025. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-review-2025-one-year-on

HM Treasury regularly publishes data on spending in the nations and regions. The latest edition, published in November 2025, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2025/country-and-regional-analysis-november-2025

The Government is delivering on its commitment to publish business cases for government projects. The first set of published business cases can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-case-publications-collection

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of revised Green Book guidance on the regional distribution of public funding across England over the next five years.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The new Green Book ensures that investment decisions are no longer based solely on single metrics, such as benefit-cost ratios, and that decisions instead take into account the full range of impacts on people and places.

This new approach will shape important decisions, such as on Northern Powerhouse Rail, and ensure that government investment brings about higher living standards in every part of the country. This includes urban, rural and coastal communities.

HM Treasury has published a report on its progress in implementing the conclusions of the Green Book Review in 2025. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-review-2025-one-year-on

HM Treasury regularly publishes data on spending in the nations and regions. The latest edition, published in November 2025, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2025/country-and-regional-analysis-november-2025

The Government is delivering on its commitment to publish business cases for government projects. The first set of published business cases can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-case-publications-collection

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to publish annual data on the geographical distribution of projects approved under the revised Green Book guidance.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The new Green Book ensures that investment decisions are no longer based solely on single metrics, such as benefit-cost ratios, and that decisions instead take into account the full range of impacts on people and places.

This new approach will shape important decisions, such as on Northern Powerhouse Rail, and ensure that government investment brings about higher living standards in every part of the country. This includes urban, rural and coastal communities.

HM Treasury has published a report on its progress in implementing the conclusions of the Green Book Review in 2025. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-review-2025-one-year-on

HM Treasury regularly publishes data on spending in the nations and regions. The latest edition, published in November 2025, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2025/country-and-regional-analysis-november-2025

The Government is delivering on its commitment to publish business cases for government projects. The first set of published business cases can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-case-publications-collection

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Multilateral Defence Mechanism on inward investment into the UK defence sector.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM) is an innovative and creative way of financing defence spending that provides greater purchasing power, allowing participating countries to improve their capability within unavoidable fiscal constraints.

Its focus on joint procurement will aggregate demand and standardise defence procurement, pushing down the costs of buying equipment and making our money stretch further, as well as giving greater demand certainty for industry and helping to fix defence cost inflation. Stockpiling consumables on the MDM’s balance sheet will enable the UK to invest more upfront without crowding out other spending.

The MDM will provide supply chain financing – including to SMEs - to deliver orders, expand production and remove financial bottlenecks and will have the option to support early-stage R&D innovation and capability development. This will support economic growth and the development of the UK defence industrial base.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of UK participation in the Multilateral Defence Mechanism.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM) is an innovative and creative way of financing defence spending that provides greater purchasing power, allowing participating countries to improve their capability within unavoidable fiscal constraints.

Its focus on joint procurement will aggregate demand and standardise defence procurement, pushing down the costs of buying equipment and making our money stretch further, as well as giving greater demand certainty for industry and helping to fix defence cost inflation. Stockpiling consumables on the MDM’s balance sheet will enable the UK to invest more upfront without crowding out other spending.

The MDM will provide supply chain financing – including to SMEs - to deliver orders, expand production and remove financial bottlenecks and will have the option to support early-stage R&D innovation and capability development. This will support economic growth and the development of the UK defence industrial base.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Multilateral Defence Mechanism on economic growth.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM) is an innovative and creative way of financing defence spending that provides greater purchasing power, allowing participating countries to improve their capability within unavoidable fiscal constraints.

Its focus on joint procurement will aggregate demand and standardise defence procurement, pushing down the costs of buying equipment and making our money stretch further, as well as giving greater demand certainty for industry and helping to fix defence cost inflation. Stockpiling consumables on the MDM’s balance sheet will enable the UK to invest more upfront without crowding out other spending.

The MDM will provide supply chain financing – including to SMEs - to deliver orders, expand production and remove financial bottlenecks and will have the option to support early-stage R&D innovation and capability development. This will support economic growth and the development of the UK defence industrial base.

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 potential impact of the new resident doctor pay and training settlement on rates of doctor emigration.

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

The new resident doctor pay and training settlement in England (the Deal) is made up of measures which address concerns raised by the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee on behalf of resident doctors. Under the Deal resident doctors in England will benefit from improved pay scales, better working conditions, and improved career progression opportunities with up to 4,500 additional training places delivered over the next three years. We hope that these changes mean resident doctors feel that the National Health Service remains an attractive place to work and develop their careers in.

No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of the new resident doctor pay and training settlement on rates of doctor emigration on long-term retention rates of doctors within the NHS workforce.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the resident doctors’ pay settlement on long-term retention rates of doctors within the NHS workforce.

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

The new resident doctor pay and training settlement in England (the Deal) is made up of measures which address concerns raised by the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee on behalf of resident doctors. Under the Deal resident doctors in England will benefit from improved pay scales, better working conditions, and improved career progression opportunities with up to 4,500 additional training places delivered over the next three years. We hope that these changes mean resident doctors feel that the National Health Service remains an attractive place to work and develop their careers in.

No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of the new resident doctor pay and training settlement on rates of doctor emigration on long-term retention rates of doctors within the NHS workforce.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential for defence investment to increase private sector research intensity in the UK economy.

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

Defence investment in science and technology has the potential to increase private sector research intensity by providing clear demand signals, co-funding opportunities and technology roadmaps that encourage defence industry to undertake additional research and development activity. Evidence from a MOD sponsored UK industry study in 2025 indicated that defence S&T investment supports industry co-investment, attracts venture capital and inward investment, stimulates R&D expenditure, develops intellectual property and skills, and creates opportunities for commercialisation and export.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the planned expansion of resident doctor training places is matched by adequate (i) clinical supervision capacity and (ii) training infrastructure across NHS trusts.

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

On 29 June 2026, the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee announced that their membership had voted to accept an offer from the Government to resolve their dispute on pay and jobs.

The deal for resident doctors includes the introduction of up to 4,500 specialty training places over the next three years. Trusts will be asked to create these roles with funding partially coming from repurposing spending on medical locums, agency work, and some locally employed doctor roles coming to an end.

NHS England will work with trusts to ensure that the appropriate clinical supervision capacity and training infrastructure is in place to deliver these changes.

The Government is committed to ensuring the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. That is why NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that the expansion of places is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of increased resident doctor training places on regional workforce levels, including in underserved and rural areas.

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

On 29 June 2026, the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee announced that their membership had voted to accept an offer from the Government to resolve their dispute on pay and jobs.

The deal for resident doctors includes the introduction of up to 4,500 specialty training places over the next three years. Trusts will be asked to create these roles with funding partially coming from repurposing spending on medical locums, agency work, and some locally employed doctor roles coming to an end.

NHS England will work with trusts to ensure that the appropriate clinical supervision capacity and training infrastructure is in place to deliver these changes.

The Government is committed to ensuring the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. That is why NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that the expansion of places is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the potential impact of the resident doctors’ settlement on staffing in accident and emergency departments.

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

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, regularly discusses a range of matters with NHS England.

No specific discussions on the impact of the resident doctors’ settlement in England on staffing in accident and emergency departments have taken place. However, discussions have taken place on the impact that a resolution of the resident doctor dispute on pay and jobs in England has on the resident doctor workforce, other National Health Service staff, and the running of the NHS. The absence of further strikes by resident doctors will allow NHS services in England to run normally. The details of the expansion of training places are now being developed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to encourage public participation in nature in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

Answered by Mary Creagh

This Government is committed to giving everyone in the country the opportunity to engage with nature. As set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025 there are a range of actions being taken at the national level to improve access to nature including the creation of nine new National River Walks, three new National Forests and the publication of an Access to Nature Green Paper to explore further opportunities to enhance and expand access to green and blue spaces. This Government has announced that the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor, which runs directly through the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency, will host the second of three new national forests. The forest will deliver economic, environmental and social benefits, supporting economic development and improving outcomes for local communities. The competition to identify a delivery partner has recently closed and applications are being reviewed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to restore peatlands.

Answered by Mary Creagh

This Government is committed to peatland restoration. We have announced that we will invest £85 million between 2026 and 2030 to improve and restore our peatlands. This includes extending the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme by an additional year, until March 2027. This scheme has already delivered the restoration of approximately 28,000 hectares of peatland, and this extension will enable thousands more hectares to be restored.

Once the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme comes to an end, peatland restoration will be supported through Environmental Land Management schemes such as Landscape Recovery and Countryside Stewardship. We are ensuring these schemes provide strong support for peatland outcomes.

We have also recently launched the Peatland Restoration Sector Capacity Grant Scheme, a new £1.15m scheme designed to support skills, training, apprenticeships and equipment needed to increase the capacity of the peatland restoration sector.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to tackle wildlife crime in Buckinghamshire.

Answered by Mary Creagh

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protect all wild birds and some wild animals in England. There are strict penalties in place for offences under this and other wildlife legislation.

Defra supports the valuable work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and is providing £530,000 to it in 2026-27. The NWCU helps prevent and detect wildlife crime, assists law enforcers with investigations – supporting Thames Valley Police with 25 wildlife crime cases since 2024 - and provides training on wildlife crime. Ninety-six wildlife crime training modules were completed by Thames Valley Police staff in the year up to February 2026.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the international competitiveness of UK defence manufacturing costs.

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

The Ministry of Defence assesses that UK defence manufacturing remains internationally competitive despite global supply chain pressures and rising costs, with ongoing efforts in innovation, efficiency, and collaboration to sustain its strong global position.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an estimate of the value of UK defence exports that could be supported through programmes developed under the Multilateral Defence Mechanism.

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

The Ministry of Defence is working closely with HM Treasury and with Finland, Netherlands, Poland and other like-minded NATO allies on the establishment of a Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM). The Defence Investment Plan includes £400 million towards the UK’s contribution to the MDM.

This independent international financial institution will address our collective challenges in defence procurement by aggregating demand through procurement to achieve better value for money. It will lend to members for joint procurement, stockpiling on members' behalf, and supply chain finance. This mechanism will help member countries improve capability, interoperability and value for money, while giving industry greater demand certainty.

Work is underway to further progress the MDM which would include building on technical development and move to the next phase of mechanism design and development.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with universities on increasing support for female founders emerging from higher education.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

Women founders make a critical contribution to the UK’s innovation economy. Ministers engage regularly with universities and sector representatives on entrepreneurship, commercialisation and university spin-outs.

The Women in Research Charter, published on 1 July and backed by more than 60 organisations, including over 40 universities promotes family leave, flexible working and inclusive research culture. The Charter will enable women academics to thrive across their careers, including turning their research into commercial ideas.

DSIT also established the Women in Tech Taskforce to address barriers facing women in the tech sector. Following the recent publication of its Call for Evidence findings and an independent report on the economic benefits of removing barriers to participation in the digital economy, the Taskforce is developing interventions to tackle toxic culture and support women-led businesses, to be announced later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the level of private capital investment required to meet the UK’s defence capability requirements over the next decade.

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

The Government is making a generational investment in defence. The Defence Investment Plan is backed by £298 billion over the next four years and sets out the major investment choices needed to deliver the Strategic Defence Review.

Our ambition is to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to invest in defence, security and resilience. The UK has a strong defence industrial base, a growing pipeline of opportunities, and a leading financial sector that can help support capability, resilience, and growth.

Public investment will remain the foundation of UK defence capability. However, private capital has an important role to play in helping innovative companies scale, strengthening supply chains, supporting infrastructure and accelerating delivery where this offers value for money, meets operational need and is deliverable.

Later this year, the Ministry of Defence will publish a Defence Finance and Investment Strategy, setting out how Government will work with investors to mobilise private capital in support of defence capability, resilience and growth.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to publish a framework for measuring the economic return on defence investment.

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

The Department is committed to ensuring defence is an engine for growth.

Defence guarantees our peace and security, which underpins all UK economic growth. The economic return is significant but not amenable to quantification.

Additional growth is achieved as Defence spending in the UK improves the functioning of the economy. We assess these impacts using the Defence Growth Framework which was published in the Defence Investment Plan.

The five core criteria which are used to analyse investments through the Growth Framework are:

• Research & Development
• Skills / human capital
• Frontier industry
• Place
• Market competition

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to improve productivity growth among firms operating in UK defence supply chains.

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

The Ministry of Defence works closely with other Government Departments, particularly the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to support companies in the Defence supply chain to improve their productivity growth.

The Defence Investment Plan published on 30 June is a key part of giving our industrial base the certainty they need to invest, which in turn can drive productivity improvement.

Defence is developing productivity measures to improve our understanding of performance across the defence sector. This work supports commitments in the Strategic Defence Review and will help inform decisions that improve industrial performance, value for money and military readiness.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to reduce the cost of capital for early-stage defence firms.

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

The Ministry of Defence works closely with HM Treasury, the Department for Business and Trade, and the British Business Bank to improve access to finance and reduce the cost of capital for early-stage defence firms. This includes strengthening investor confidence through clear long-term demand signals, co-funding innovation with UK Research and Innovation and UK Defence Innovation, supporting venture and growth finance schemes, and providing export support. The Defence Office for Small Business Growth also helps businesses better understand Defence, attract investment, and grow within the sector.

The Defence Finance and Investment Strategy, due to be published later this year following collaboration with the Financial Conduct Authority, will further support the sector by addressing barriers to finance and investment, helping defence businesses access funding through stronger partnerships with public financial institutions and private capital.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the proportion of defence procurement spending currently awarded to firms less than five years old.

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

The Ministry of Defence does not hold the information requested.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the proportion of defence investment expected to come from domestic rather than overseas private capital by 2030.

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

The Ministry of Defence has not set a fixed target for the proportion of defence investment expected to come from domestic rather than overseas private capital by 2030.

The Government’s priority is to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to invest in defence, security and resilience, while ensuring investment supports national security, sovereign capability, UK-based defence and dual-use businesses, jobs, readiness and growth.

The Defence Finance and Investment Strategy will set out how Government will work with domestic and international investors, public financial institutions and industry to develop credible investment propositions, while protecting national security and commercially sensitive information.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of waiting times for NHS Talking Therapies in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency since July 2024.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

The Department monitors waiting times for NHS Talking Therapies through published monthly statistics and information provided by NHS England and local providers.

For Buckinghamshire Talking Therapies, which covers Buckingham, there has been no clear overall trend in waiting times since July 2024. However, performance against key access standards has remained consistently strong. Across this period, at least 94% of patients started treatment within six weeks of referral, and 100% within 18 weeks. The proportion of patients waiting more than 90 days between first and second appointments has remained low, ranging between 1% and 5%. As of 31 March 2026, 18 people with Buckingham postcodes were waiting for their first appointment.

For Milton Keynes Talking Therapies, which covers Bletchley, performance has varied over the period but continues to meet access standards. In March 2026, 78% of patients started treatment within six weeks of referral, with performance fluctuating between 71% and 98% over the period, and 99% within 18 weeks. The proportion of patients waiting more than 90 days between first and second appointments has fluctuated, ranging between 13% and 38% over the period, with a peak of 53% in December 2025. As of 31 March 2026, 467 people were waiting to start treatment.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with institutional investors on increasing investment in businesses located within the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Secretary of State and Ministers regularly engage with institutional investors about opportunities for investment in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and the Corridor’s strengths in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy sectors, including Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Digital and Tech, Clean Energy and Defence. These discussions support wider efforts to promote the Corridor as a globally competitive location for innovation, growth and high-value business investment. The Office for Investment supports this by securing strategically significant investment projects that drive growth, create high-value jobs and strengthen the UK’s long-term competitiveness.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department are taking to support community energy projects on his Department's land.

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

The Ministry of Defence recognises the potential role that community energy projects can play in supporting estate decarbonisation and energy resilience. We are exploring opportunities for Defence to engage with such schemes as part of our wider work on energy generation and supply across the Defence estate.

The Department also works closely with other Government Departments and public sector partners, including through cross-Government forums on public estate decarbonisation and local energy planning, to understand opportunities and address barriers to future collaboration with community energy projects.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to increase awareness of credit union services among the armed forces community.

Answered by Calvin Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans and People)

Joining Forces Credit Union Services (JFCU) is a Ministry of Defence (MOD) backed initiative that provides the Armed Forces community with ethical, not-for-profit financial services. The Credit Unions that form the JFCU run financial resilience sessions online which are promoted by Service welfare teams.

Information on the JFCU is contained on the Discover My Benefits portal (https://discovermybenefits-dev.mod.gov.uk/army/service-benefits/joining-forces-credit-unions/) and is also published on Gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/veteran-support-organisations/joining-forces-credit-union-services). In addition, Defence Communications run promotional articles on the MOD’s intranet highlighting the benefits provided by the JFCU.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has modelled the potential impact of pension scheme consolidation on member charges over the next five years.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Evidence suggests there are a range of benefits from schemes achieving a greater level of scale through consolidation. This includes better governance, economies of scale, increased diversification of assets and improved bargaining power.

This evidence suggests a greater number of benefits can arise at £25 billion to £50 billion (or greater) of assets under management, as set out in the Department for Work and Pensions’ November 2024 publication “Pension fund investment and the UK economy”. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-fund-investment-and-the-uk-economy/pension-fund-investment-and-the-uk-economy. Increased net returns via lower charges for members and higher net investment returns through diversification, both supported through scale, can drive improved member outcomes. This evidence is set out in the Pension Schemes Act Impact Assessment published in December 2025. The Impact Assessment can be found here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/63860/documents/7447.

The Department will continue to monitor the impact of consolidation on charges, as set out in our recently published Evaluation Strategy which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-schemes-act-2026-evaluation-strategy/pension-schemes-act-2026-evaluation-strategy.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has undertaken international comparisons of pension value-for-money assessment frameworks.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

DWP has explored international evidence, in particular undertaking comparisons with the Australian value for money (VFM) regime. The Pension Schemes Act 2026 Impact Assessment included evidence about annual performance tests in Australia’s superannuation system which are credited with increasing the net returns and decreasing the fees paid by millions of members.

Additionally, the UK VFM framework has, for example, been deliberately designed to avoid the investment herding behaviours that have emerged in Australia’s system, using learnings from the Department’s engagement with Australian officials to understand the challenges they faced. We continue to learn from the Australian experience of VFM in designing the UK VFM framework.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of angel investment for female-led businesses.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department recognises that increasing the number of women angel investors is key to improving access to finance for female-led businesses. Evidence from the DBT-backed Investing in Women Code report shows that more diverse angel groups make a larger proportion of their investments into women founders.

Through the British Business Bank, the Government is supporting more diverse angel investment. This Diverse Angels Syndicate programme will support angel syndicates to recruit, train, and invest inclusively. The Regional Angels Programme addresses regional funding gaps and attracts co-investments; its pilot engaged 185 new angel investors, of whom 176 were women.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the economic contribution of female-led businesses to UK gross value added.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

While the Department has not made an estimate of the economic contribution of female-led businesses to UK gross value added (GVA), independent research demonstrates the significant contribution that women-led businesses make to the UK economy.

The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship (2019) estimated that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men. Frontier Economics has since estimated that achieving gender parity in entrepreneurship could increase cumulative UK GVA by €825 billion (£718 billion) by 2040.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to publish annual monitoring reports on the economic impact of the British Growth Partnership.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department does not plan to publish annual monitoring reports on the economic impact of the British Growth Partnership (BGP). Instead, the British Business Bank will report the value of its stake in BGP through its public annual reporting and has commissioned an independent evaluation of BGP. An initial assessment, focusing on process and early delivery outcomes, is expected in 2027. An interim economic evaluation is expected to begin in late 2028, once sufficient time has passed for BGP’s outcomes and impacts to emerge.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to encourage UK defence manufacturers to participate in programmes established through the Multilateral Defence Mechanism.

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

The Ministry of Defence is working closely with HM Treasury and like-minded NATO allies on the establishment of a Multilateral Defence Mechanism.

This independent international financial institution will help member countries improve capability, interoperability and value for money, while giving industry greater demand certainty.

The Government also expects the UK defence sector, including SMEs, to be well placed to benefit, including through support for supply chains, capacity expansion, and firms with less access to finance, strengthening UK and allied industrial capability while supporting growth, resilience, and readiness across the defence sector.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of defined contribution pension assets that will be managed by schemes with more than £25 billion in assets by 2030.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

As set out in the Department for Work and Pensions’ November 2024 publication “Pension fund investment and the UK economy” the largest 5 and 10 defined contribution funds (either a Master Trust or GPP) in the UK held 55% and 74% of total DC assets respectively. The report can be found here: Pension fund investment and the UK economy.

The Pension Schemes Act scale provisions require defined contribution multi-employer schemes used for automatic enrolment to have scale of at least £25 billion of assets under management in one main scale default arrangement (MSDA) by 2030 or £10bn if approved for transition pathway relief with a credible plan to achieve scale of £25 billion by 2035. As shown in our Impact Assessment it is anticipated there will be approximately 15-20 multi-employer schemes after the scale reforms have taken place. We will continue to monitor the assets that will be managed by schemes as set out in our recently published Evaluation Strategy.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of pension scheme consolidation on investment in UK private markets.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

DWP’s Pension Fund Investment and the UK Economy Report, and the Impact Assessment that supports The Pension Schemes Act 2026, evidence the benefits of how consolidation and scale may be expected to increase investment in UK private markets. These reports evidence how larger pension schemes with over £25bn in assets are best placed to access private markets and that these assets naturally tend to be more UK-focussed, with over a 40% home bias, so have the potential to directly impact the UK economy. The evidence report can be found here: Pension fund investment and the UK economy - GOV.UK and the Impact Assessment here: Impact Assessment.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the co-operative model for energy retrofit.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The government recognises the essential role that local places play in accelerating progress towards net zero and is committed to working in partnership with Local Authorities and Mayoral Strategic Authorities to deliver the Warm Homes Plan through an area-based approach. This includes looking at examples of best practice of localised and community models delivering homes decarbonisation at the scale needed to make more comfortable homes and bring down bills for more people.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support the uptake of the local power plan by (i) Buckinghamshire Council and (ii) Milton Keynes City Council.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

On 10 February 2026, we announced the Local Power Plan (LPP): a joint DESNZ‑Great British Energy (GBE) publication setting out the UK’s largest ever public investment in community energy, up to £1 billion. GBE will aim to support at least 1000 local and community energy projects by 2030.

Buckinghamshire Council and Milton Keynes Council may wish to engage with GBE through its Expression of Interest process, now open on the GBE website. This non‑binding process allows communities, local government and businesses to share proposals so that support can be targeted effectively as funding tools and advisory services are rolled out.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed pension reforms on member engagement with pension saving.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government recognises that engagement with pensions is low, particularly as many savers engage only intermittently with their pension arrangements and may find pensions and retirement decisions complex. And while auto-enrolment has successfully increased pension participation, too many future retirees face incomes that are too low, risks that are too high and a system that is too unequal.

That is why we are transforming the workplace pensions market, with reforms including measures to drive scale provision, Value for Money and default pensions as well as the introduction of pensions dashboards. Taken together with the Pensions Commission’s work on the long-term future of the system, our reforms are focussed on enabling mass market often disengaged pension savers secure decent retirement incomes, while improving opportunity for engaged savers to access information and support to inform choices.