Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the planned commencement date is for the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring separated parents support their children financially, taking robust enforcement action against those who do not.
When a paying parent does not make maintenance payments on time or in full, the CMS will initially negotiate a payment that is feasible for the parent to pay. If this is unsuccessful and the paying parent is employed, the CMS will request that ongoing child maintenance payments be deducted directly from their salary by issuing what we call a Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO). The CMS also has powers to deduct maintenance from a wide range of bank accounts including joint and business accounts.
If this is unsuccessful, the CMS will use further measures, including using Enforcement Agents to take control of goods, disqualification from driving or commitment to prison, and disqualification from holding or obtaining a UK passport.
We continually assess the effectiveness of our enforcement action and in the year to September 2025, the CMS collected £214m through administrative and court-based enforcement actions (including deductions from earnings). This is the highest annual amount collected through enforcement since the CMS began in 2012, and represents a 21% increase compared with the year to September 2024.
Following the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 receiving royal assent in July 2023, secondary legislation is required to bring into force existing powers that allow the CMS to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears. A liability order is a legal recognition of the debt and is required before the CMS can take certain enforcement actions against non-compliant parents to enforce those arrears.
The administrative liability order (ALO) will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, a cumbersome process which can take a long time (in some cases up to 22 weeks). Introducing a simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and will get money to children more quickly.
We expect the new liability order process in the majority of cases to take around 6 weeks. Changes will mean the CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly to go after those who will fully avoid their financial obligations to their children.
We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament as soon as possible.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what enforcement powers are exercised by the Child Maintenance Service pending the commencement of the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring separated parents support their children financially, taking robust enforcement action against those who do not.
When a paying parent does not make maintenance payments on time or in full, the CMS will initially negotiate a payment that is feasible for the parent to pay. If this is unsuccessful and the paying parent is employed, the CMS will request that ongoing child maintenance payments be deducted directly from their salary by issuing what we call a Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO). The CMS also has powers to deduct maintenance from a wide range of bank accounts including joint and business accounts.
If this is unsuccessful, the CMS will use further measures, including using Enforcement Agents to take control of goods, disqualification from driving or commitment to prison, and disqualification from holding or obtaining a UK passport.
We continually assess the effectiveness of our enforcement action and in the year to September 2025, the CMS collected £214m through administrative and court-based enforcement actions (including deductions from earnings). This is the highest annual amount collected through enforcement since the CMS began in 2012, and represents a 21% increase compared with the year to September 2024.
Following the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 receiving royal assent in July 2023, secondary legislation is required to bring into force existing powers that allow the CMS to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears. A liability order is a legal recognition of the debt and is required before the CMS can take certain enforcement actions against non-compliant parents to enforce those arrears.
The administrative liability order (ALO) will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, a cumbersome process which can take a long time (in some cases up to 22 weeks). Introducing a simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and will get money to children more quickly.
We expect the new liability order process in the majority of cases to take around 6 weeks. Changes will mean the CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly to go after those who will fully avoid their financial obligations to their children.
We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament as soon as possible.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency received cost of living support in winter 2025-26.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department provides funding to local authorities in England through the Household Support Fund, to provide crisis support to vulnerable households in the most need with the cost of essentials.
Management Information on how local authorities have used this funding, including the number of awards made by each authority, is published on GOV.UK at:
Household Support Fund management information - GOV.UK.
This information is published at local authority level rather than by parliamentary constituency and is currently available up to March 2024. Management Information for subsequent iterations of the Household Support Fund, including the scheme running from April 2025 to March 2026, will be published in due course.
People in receipt of certain benefits also automatically receive Cold Weather Payments if the average temperature in their area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over 7 consecutive days. Statistics on the estimated number of payments so far in the winter of 2025/26 are published on GOV.UK:
Cold Weather Payment estimates: 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK
This information is available by weather station rather than parliamentary constituency. You can find out which postcodes are linked to each weather station using the published Postcode Checker:
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
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 trends in the level of demand for construction-related skills in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency over the next three years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold up to date data on the projections of construction-related skills at a constituency level. The CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) does produce the Construction Workforce Outlook which projects the growth in construction from 2024 to 2029 and is available at a national and regional level here: https://www.citb.co.uk/cwo/index.html.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps are being taken to ensure that small and medium-sized manufacturers located in (i) Buckinghamshire and (ii) Milton Keynes can access innovation funding.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to supporting innovative SMEs and delivers innovation funding through Innovate UK.
Since 2020/21, SMEs in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes have received over £43 million across more than 200 Innovate UK-funded projects.
Innovate UK works with local authorities on innovation initiatives such as MK Tech Week 2025 and Innovate Local Buckinghamshire 2024. Regional Catapults, including the Satellite Applications Catapult at Westcott and the Connected Places Catapult in Milton Keynes, support SMEs to develop advanced technologies, whilst Innovate UK’s Talent & Skills Connect strengthens workforce pipelines. Innovate UK Business Growth and Innovate UK Business Connect provide embedded local support for innovative SMEs.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how her Department tracks the exposure of financial institutions to UK sovereign debt.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The ONS publishes estimates of holdings of government debt by sector. The latest available data, as at end 2025 Q3, can be found here - UK Economic Accounts - Office for National Statistics - via the July to September 2025 dataset.
HMT works closely with the Bank of England (“the Bank”), including through its membership of the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC), to monitor and manage risks to UK financial stability, including any risks that may occur from the exposure of financial institutions to UK sovereign debt.
As part of this the FPC conducts regular stress tests of the banking sector, which assess how banks’ capital and liquidity would withstand a severe macroeconomic shock, ensuring institutions are able to continue to provide core financial services through severe economic shocks which may impact the value of their UK sovereign debt holdings. You can read more about the Bank’s approach to stress testing and the results of the latest stress tests here.
We also work closely with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which supervises individual firms, to understand the risks arising from those individual firms exposure to UK sovereign debt and ensure that these are managed prudently within the regulatory framework. You can read more about the supervision of financial institutions here.
In 2024, the Bank conducted a world first System‑Wide Exploratory Scenario (SWES), to explore how a broad range of financial institutions (including banks, insurers, pension funds and other non‑bank financial intermediaries) would respond to a severe market shock. The 2024 SWES focused on the functioning and resilience of key markets such as the gilt and gilt repo markets. It sought to understand the behaviour of firms in stress, and how market dynamics can amplify a shock. The Bank’s final report found that actions following previous market shocks have improved gilt market resilience, with the broader financial system showing an improved ability to absorb large price swings in assets, including sovereign bonds, while also highlighting areas for further policy work. You can see the final report from the SWES here.
Taken together these actions – HMTs work with the FPC, regular bank stress tests, PRA supervision, insights from the SWES and ongoing monitoring – ensure that risks arising from financial institutions exposures to UK sovereign debt are well understood and effectively managed.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of national manufacturing research and development grants are allocated to SMEs.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to delivering record R&D funding, and recognises the significant impact of innovative SME’s on the UK’s economic growth. The government delivers grant funding to innovative businesses through Innovate UK, which is a part of UK Research and Innovation.
Since 2023/24, 84% of Innovate UK’s manufacturing research and development grants awarded directly to businesses have been allocated to SMEs. If including the grants awarded to universities and other research partners collaborating with businesses, 58% of all of Innovate UK’s manufacturing research and development grants since 2023/24 have been allocated to SMEs.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many UK businesses have participated in Ukraine trade support programmes.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Under the UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership, the Department for Business and Trade has provided trade support to hundreds of UK businesses in Ukraine through:
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
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 impact of current manufacturing investment incentives on national manufacturing output.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Effective monitoring and evaluation is integral to assessing manufacturing policy. Current investment incentives are tracked through operational metrics and economic indicators including business investment, productivity, exports, GVA, labour market outcomes and growth of large UK firms.
Recent impact reports show that major programmes are delivering strong returns; for example, the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s R&D programme generated £2.20 of additional private investment for every £1 of public funding. Together, these assessments help ensure that incentives support increased manufacturing capability and long term national output.
Delivery progress against new Industrial Strategy commitments, including for manufacturing, is captured in regular Quarterly Updates.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of government debt over each of the past five financial years has been held by (a) domestic investors and (b) overseas investors.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The ONS publishes estimates of holdings of government debt by sector. The latest available data, as at end 2025 Q3, splits holdings by overseas and domestic investors. ONS data shows a split of holdings between overseas and domestic investors of 28% and 72% respectively in 2021 Q3 and 33% and 67% respectively in 2025 Q3.