Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of tax receipts from the hair and beauty sector.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) does not hold readily available analysis on tax receipts from the hair and beauty sector.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the impact of the Business Rates Review on live entertainment venues.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues. The Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties from 2026-27. To provide further support, the government has extended RHL relief at 40% for 2025-26. The Government is prioritising the creative industries, including live music, as part of the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress she has made on a touring agreement with the EU.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The UK Government remains in constructive dialogue with the EU on tackling the challenges facing UK musicians and their support staff when touring in the EU, as well as other EU reset priorities. Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič have been tasked with moving discussions forward and leaders will take stock at the UK-EU Summit in May.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of consulting with suppliers of community care equipment and services to make an assessment of (a) levels of provision gaps and (b) their potential impact on community care patients.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 30 January 2025, NHS England published the guidance Standardising community health services, specifically codifying core services, which is available the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/standardising-community-health-services/
Community health services cover a diverse range of healthcare delivery, and the guidance supports improved commissioning and delivery of community healthcare services. Codifying community health services will help to better assess demand and capacity and will help commissioners make investment choices as they design neighbourhood health provision that shifts care to community based settings.
This publication is available for designing, commissioning, and delivering community health services, including neighbourhood health. Integrated care boards and their partners should consider the core components to support demand and capacity assessment and planning with providers, and should ensure the best use of funding to meet local needs and priorities.
Equipment such as wheelchair services, orthotics, and prosthetics for both adults and children and young people are core components of community health services and are refenced in the guidance.
Local National Health Service organisations have access to a wide range of procurement routes, but the Government has put in place a range of initiatives to help NHS bodies make informed choices about the products and the route through which they are bought. These include the NHS Supply Chain, a national body which is responsible for procuring and delivering the majority of consumables, equipment, and other supplies into the NHS. The NHS Supply Chain was set up to leverage the collective buying power of the NHS, to drive savings and provide a standardised range of clinically assured quality products at the best value.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 the Chancellor of the Exchequer on changes to employer National Insurance Contributions and the potential impact on (a) community care services and (b) wider healthcare services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has discussed the impact of employer National Insurance contributions with HM Treasury, and has been informed of the Department’s allocation.
The Government’s intent is to publish the allocations alongside departmental budgets for 2025/26 at the Mains estimates. This will be published as a supplementary table, with a brief description of the methodology used accompanying it, and the table will not list a breakdown of the specific compensation to individual services.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to reduce the time taken for the licensing process for marine restoration projects.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are working with arms-length bodies to understand whether improvements could be made to the marine licensing regime when considering applications for habitat restoration. This includes reviewing the time taken to grant licences for marine restoration projects to identify any opportunities that may reduce consenting timeframes.
The MMO's key performance indicator for new marine licence applications is to determine 90% of applications within 13 weeks. However, some applications, particularly those with significant public interest or complex characteristics, may take longer.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 the Care Quality Commission on minimising the risk of future backlogs emerging for (a) inspections and (b) reinspections of healthcare providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials meet fortnightly with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to discuss measures CQC have put in place to address among other issues, delays in the production of inspection reports and initial inspection and reinspection.
As part of this process, the CQC provides fortnightly updates to senior Departmental officials on the work it is doing to improve and ensure it has robust systems in place to support the changes it is making to deliver its assessment activity of the providers it regulates. This increased reporting to, and oversight from, the Department also allows the level of risk across the CQC’s delivery to be monitored at a senior level.
Delays to the CQC’s inspection activities are partially due to failures of its IT systems. The CQC has accepted recommendations of the independent review into the CQC’s technology which was published in March 2025 and is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/independent-review-cqc-technology-published
The CQC is currently working to review options for alternative methods of inspection report publication while work is carried out to make necessary changes to its IT systems.
The introduction of a ‘hybrid’ approach which launched on 2 December 2024 aims to streamline the existing process by discontinuing scoring at the evidence category level and instead reporting at the quality statement level. This change is intended to improve efficiency for CQC staff. In addition, efforts are underway to address the backlog of ‘stuck’ assessments within the system. As of 24 April 2025, the current number of ‘stuck’ assessments is 52, a reduction of 448.
Work continues to further lower this number and to strengthen the monitoring and management of assessment delays.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 the Care Quality Commission on reducing the delay in the production of reports for healthcare providers following (a) their initial inspection and (b) reinspections.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials meet fortnightly with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to discuss measures CQC have put in place to address among other issues, delays in the production of inspection reports and initial inspection and reinspection.
As part of this process, the CQC provides fortnightly updates to senior Departmental officials on the work it is doing to improve and ensure it has robust systems in place to support the changes it is making to deliver its assessment activity of the providers it regulates. This increased reporting to, and oversight from, the Department also allows the level of risk across the CQC’s delivery to be monitored at a senior level.
Delays to the CQC’s inspection activities are partially due to failures of its IT systems. The CQC has accepted recommendations of the independent review into the CQC’s technology which was published in March 2025 and is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/independent-review-cqc-technology-published
The CQC is currently working to review options for alternative methods of inspection report publication while work is carried out to make necessary changes to its IT systems.
The introduction of a ‘hybrid’ approach which launched on 2 December 2024 aims to streamline the existing process by discontinuing scoring at the evidence category level and instead reporting at the quality statement level. This change is intended to improve efficiency for CQC staff. In addition, efforts are underway to address the backlog of ‘stuck’ assessments within the system. As of 24 April 2025, the current number of ‘stuck’ assessments is 52, a reduction of 448.
Work continues to further lower this number and to strengthen the monitoring and management of assessment delays.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department has offered to the Care Quality Commission to reduce the backlog of (a) initial inspections and (b) reinspections of healthcare providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials meet fortnightly with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to discuss measures CQC have put in place to address among other issues, delays in the production of inspection reports and initial inspection and reinspection.
As part of this process, the CQC provides fortnightly updates to senior Departmental officials on the work it is doing to improve and ensure it has robust systems in place to support the changes it is making to deliver its assessment activity of the providers it regulates. This increased reporting to, and oversight from, the Department also allows the level of risk across the CQC’s delivery to be monitored at a senior level.
Delays to the CQC’s inspection activities are partially due to failures of its IT systems. The CQC has accepted recommendations of the independent review into the CQC’s technology which was published in March 2025 and is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/independent-review-cqc-technology-published
The CQC is currently working to review options for alternative methods of inspection report publication while work is carried out to make necessary changes to its IT systems.
The introduction of a ‘hybrid’ approach which launched on 2 December 2024 aims to streamline the existing process by discontinuing scoring at the evidence category level and instead reporting at the quality statement level. This change is intended to improve efficiency for CQC staff. In addition, efforts are underway to address the backlog of ‘stuck’ assessments within the system. As of 24 April 2025, the current number of ‘stuck’ assessments is 52, a reduction of 448.
Work continues to further lower this number and to strengthen the monitoring and management of assessment delays.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate he has made of the number of employees required for Ofcom’s Online Safety Directorate to effectively carry out its duties.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In 2023/24, Ofcom had 189 full-time equivalent posts in the Online Safety Group. This does not include staff who work on online safety in other groups such as legal, enforcement and research.
The government has ensured Ofcom has the funding it needs to deliver online safety regulation effectively, with £72.6 million allocated for online safety spend in 2025/26. This additional funding will result in additional staff for the Online Safety Group and other divisions.