Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the affordability of HMRC’s policy requiring people with Self-Assessment liabilities above £3,000 to enter into time to pay arrangements subject to interest; and whether she has considered reviewing the interest rate applied to those arrangements to ensure that individuals experiencing loss of income or financial hardship are not disproportionately affected.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC provides support to taxpayers who are unable to pay their tax liabilities in full through time to pay arrangements.
Taxpayers should contact HMRC as soon as possible so we can support them by working to negotiate time to pay what they owe based on their income and expenditure, designed to help customers pay what they owe in smaller, sustainable instalments. They are a longstanding option available to businesses and individuals who are in temporary financial difficulty and can be amended if the customers’ circumstances change.
Late payment interest is charged whenever tax is paid late and continues to accrue on amounts not paid on time, even if those amounts are included in a time to pay arrangement.
HMRC’s interest rates are set by statutory instrument. It is open to us to alter the rates, and we keep this under review. The rate balances the need to encourage payment, ensure fairness for those who do pay on time, the cost to the public purse of delayed payment, and affordability. Time to pay, and the guidance offered by HMRC advisers, is the mechanism by which additional support is given where needed.
If the rate of late payment interest is too low, HMRC may become the lender of first preference to some customers, impairing our ability to efficiently collect taxes and fund public services. HMRC’s debt balance grew significantly during the pandemic, and there is a risk of anything that encourages taxpayers to delay payment will further increase this. HMRC’s interest rate was linked to the Base of England base rate (BOE) in 2009 to introduce an element of independence in the rate setting. HMRC late payment rate is set in legislation as BOE +4% from April 2025.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that young people from constituencies such as Crewe and Nantwich will have direct opportunities to shape, monitor and influence the rollout of the National Youth Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We will be engaging with local authorities and partners across the country to amplify youth voices through Youth Councils and other mechanisms, so that a diverse range of young people have a role in shaping decisions that affect their lives.
This may look different in every place, and we are eager to work with young people to co-design what this looks like in their local area, including Crewe and Nantwich.
The reporting and governance process across government will allow young people to hold us to account on what we are doing. This will be through a national hearing by young people every year to discuss progress and priorities on the delivery of the strategy.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what mechanisms her Department will put in place to ensure transparent and ongoing accountability for the delivery of the National Youth Strategy, including how progress against its commitments will be reported to Parliament and to the public.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, will put young people from all backgrounds in the driving seat when it comes to decisions that affect their own lives.
We are committed to being accountable to young people, their parents/carers, sector partners, and the wider public to deliver this strategy.
Every year, our department will invite a diverse group of young people to run a national hearing on the delivery of the strategy. This process will be co-designed with young people. We will also publish an interim delivery progress report in 2027.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government intends to begin the review of the statutory duty on local authorities to provide a sufficient youth offer, and whether this review will consider strengthening statutory protections to ensure equal access to high quality youth services nationwide.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In September 2023 DCMS published updated statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing duty and how to deliver it. In the longer-term, we will explore reviewing the current local authorities’ statutory duty for youth services to empower them to better deliver on their responsibilities for youth services. The timeline for this review is not yet finalised.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of introducing zonal electricity pricing on (a) consumer energy bills in regions with high renewable generation, such as those with significant offshore wind capacity, (b) the cost to the public purse of constraint payments to wind generators and (c) future private-sector investment in energy infrastructure in areas of high demand, including the South East.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In July 2025, we announced that we would not be implementing zonal pricing as part of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) and had decided instead to retain a single Great Britain wide wholesale electricity market. We plan to set out the potential impact of zonal pricing − with respect to areas such as consumers, generators and investment, including South East England – in the REMA Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 77869 on Teachers: Disclosure of Information, whether her Department plans to consider the experiences of teachers subject to non‑disclosure agreements in settlement contracts when developing the conditions to be set out in forthcoming regulations.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
School leaders are best placed to make staffing decisions to ensure the workforce reflects the needs of their pupils. That is why schools are provided the freedom to manage employment of all their staff. The department is not the employer of any school staff.
Where school employers use settlement agreements, they are required to comply with employment law. Settlement agreements are entirely voluntary, and employees do not have to enter into them if they do not agree with the proposed content. Academy trusts must comply with the Academies Financial Handbook if they are considering making a settlement agreement. The handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook.
Settlement agreements often include a confidentiality clause, however, the law is clear that confidentiality clauses cannot be used to prevent someone from making a protected disclosure, such as whistleblowing. Further information about whistle blowing for employees can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.
In addition, the government has introduced a new measure, through the Employment Rights Act 2025, that will address the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by employers. The government will consult on the conditions under which NDAs can still be validly made, known in the legislation as an ‘excepted agreement’.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a railcard for adults over the age of 30 who rely on regular rail travel for work in (a) the north and (b) other areas of England; and whether her Department plans to amend existing railcard schemes to support working age passengers.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Adults aged over 30 may be eligible for a number of national and regional railcards. Train operating companies also offer a range of products, such as season tickets, which can be used to support better value regular travel to work.
The Government has no current plans to review existing concessionary discounts. However, the Railways Bill gives Great British Railways the flexibility to update and expand concessionary offers as passenger needs change.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on increasing economic growth in Wales.
Answered by Jo Stevens - Secretary of State for Wales
This Government is investing to unlock growth, create jobs and improve the cost of living.
We are creating thousands of jobs in every corner of Wales. This includes huge investment into new nuclear power in Wylfa, two new AI Growth Zones, a Defence Growth Deal, two Freeports, two Investment Zones, and investment into our semiconductor sector in South Wales.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has issued guidance that parking charges at NHS facilities are (a) equitable, (b) proportionate to the cost of (i) maintaining and (ii) improving parking facilities and (c) not to be used to subsidise clinical services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the provision of car parking are made locally by National Health Service organisations to be consistent with the national guidance provided by NHS England.
This guidance requires free parking to the four free groups: disabled people; frequent outpatient attenders; parents of sick children staying overnight; and staff working night shifts. In addition, parking charges are expected to be fair for the area. Where car parking income exceeds the costs of providing the parking, the excess income is invested into NHS services.
Local charging for NHS parking will depend on a number of local factors including the availability and cost of parking, the demands for parking, for instance the pressure of parking from shopping, and the availability of alternative forms of transport such as public transport and NHS shuttle buses services.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools with provisions for wraparound care.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This government is committed to providing a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. So far, we have delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. Following the success of the early adopters, and as the first phase of national rollout, we are investing a further £80 million into the programme to fund an additional 2,000 schools between April 2026 and March 2027. Since September 2024, over 50,000 additional full childcare places have also been made available to families through the National Wraparound Programme.