Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she will take to improve the processing times for ILR applications for Syrian nationals.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

On 14 July 2025, we published updated country information which enabled decision making on Settlement Protection applications for refugees from Syria to resume. Protection claims can now be processed and safe return reviews conducted where required in line with published policy for any Syrian nationals applying for Settlement Protection.

The department is currently processing a large backlog of outstanding settlement applications. Cases are generally being considered in date order unless there is a specific reason to take them out of turn.

Each application is considered on its individual merits and due to the significant change in the country’s situation, there could be instances where further evidence may need to be gathered to assess these applications and determine if there is an ongoing need for protection.

If anyone has submitted a Settlement Protection application before their permission to stay expires, the conditions of their previous grant of permission to stay have been extended whilst awaiting a decision on their application, under section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971.

We will not remove anyone to their own or any other country where they would face persecution or serious harm.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will produce new guidance on how to complete an Indefinite Leave to Remain application for families holding BNO citizenship, where one or more family members visa expiration date differs to the rest of the family.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Hong Kong British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) route guidance already sets out the requirements for settlement, including the need for applicants to complete a period of five years’ continuous residence in the UK.

Applications under the BN(O) route are considered on an individual basis, and families have flexibility in when they apply, which can result in differing visa expiry dates between family members. Where this occurs, individuals may need to make a further application to extend their leave in order to qualify for settlement.

We keep all guidance under regular review to ensure it remains clear and up to date.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of a single responsible body to receive and investigate incidents of fly-tipping.

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

Individuals can already report illegal waste activity anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online.

Local authorities are often best placed to tackle local issues such as fly-tipping, and so any single national reporting route would need to pass reports on to the relevant local authority. Incidents can already be reported to the relevant local authority online. Individuals can get help on identifying the relevant local authority webpage at: https://www.gov.uk/report-flytipping.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward from 2032 the New Hospital Programme construction work to redevelop Watford General hospital should capacity become available.

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

Watford General Hospital is part of Wave 2 of the New Hospital Programme, as set out in the published Plan for Implementation. Pre-construction activity, which includes business case development and enabling works, is expected to commence from 2028, with main construction expected to begin between 2032 and 2034. There are no current plans to bring forward the construction timetable for the scheme.

As set out in the Plan for Implementation, delivery expectations may be subject to change depending on local and national factors and the programme reserves the right to adjust the delivery plan as schemes develop in the future.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with (a) the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and (b) Israel’s ambassador to the UK on (i) the welfare of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and (ii) access to detention facilities for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 6 August 2025 in response to Question 68153.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Section 51 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, when he will lay regulations to delegate the power to set fees for planning applications to local planning authorities.

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

Between 23 March and 18 May 2026, the government consulted on establishing a new national default fee schedule and the key principles behind local fee setting. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here.

Subject to the outcome of that consultation, we intend to lay the necessary regulations this year.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress her department has made in increasing the availability of driving tests in St Albans since 3 November 2025.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is intensifying its efforts to reduce waiting times and improve access to driving tests.

DVSA is continuing with its recruitment campaigns for new driving examiners. Since November 2025, for those test centres serving the St Albans area, seven driving examiners have successfully passed their training and are now conducting driving tests, with a further two driving examiners being booked onto a training course. Following a recent recruitment campaign, DVSA has made offers of employment to a further eight driving examiners in this area.

The table below shows the number of tests booked and available at the driving test centres (DTCs) serving St Albans of 11 May 2026.

Between June 2025 – April 2026, at the DTCs above, DVSA conducted 144 additional car practical driving tests in overtime, when compared to the equivalent overtime scheme between June 2024 – March 2025. This increase can largely be attributed to the additional test allowance scheme the agency introduced in June 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take legislative steps to end the five year rule on investigating sexual misconduct cases before the House rises for summer recess.

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

The Government is committed to modernising the regulation of all healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom.

As a first step, on 24 March 2026, we published our Reforming the General Medical Council legislative framework consultation, which sets out proposals to modernise the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) regulatory framework. The consultation runs until 23 June 2026. More information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-general-medical-council-legislative-framework/reforming-the-general-medical-council-legislative-framework-consultation-document

The draft General Medical Council Order 2026 includes a modernised fitness to practise process for the GMC, which does not enable the GMC to replicate the five-year rule in its fitness to practise rules for doctors.

Subject to the outcome of the consultation and the parliamentary process, the Government expects to lay the General Medical Council Order 2026 later this year.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he will take to reduce waiting times for those seeking a remedial service statement via Capita for their Civil Service Pension.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Capita, having assumed responsibility for the Civil Service Pension Scheme in December 2025, is currently preparing a delivery plan for the remaining 2015 Remedy work.

The Cabinet Office expects the majority of the remaining Remediable Service Statements (RSS) will be issued by April 2027.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 99812 on Railway Stations: CCTV, whether bike thefts will be included in the assessment of railway stations with the highest crime levels when prioritising CCTV integration across the network.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Further to the answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 99812, this work is in progress by Network Rail who are delivering the project on behalf of the rail industry. These details are not yet available.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 99812 on Railway Stations: CCTV, on what date CCTV systems at St Albans City Station will be integrated with (a) British Transport Police and (b) Hertfordshire Constabulary systems.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Further to the answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 99812, this work is in progress by Network Rail who are delivering the project on behalf of the rail industry. These details are not yet available.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she will take to increase the number of places available for educational psychology courses at universities in England.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is investing £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts who started their studies in 2024 and 2025 as part of the Educational Psychology Funded Training scheme. This is in addition to the £10 million already being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Lifetime ISA property cap threshold for (a) England and (b) St Albans constituency.

Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Data from the latest UK House Price Index shows that while the average price paid by first-time buyers has increased, it is still below the LISA property price cap in all regions of the UK except for London, where the average price paid is affected by boroughs with very high property values.

At Autumn Budget 2025, the Government announced that it will consult on introducing a new, first-time buyer only savings product that will provide the bonus when a person uses it to buy a house, giving savers flexibility in case their circumstances change. Details of the new scheme will be set out as part of the consultation in due course.

The Government keeps all aspects of savings tax policy under review.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 18 December 2025 to Question 99813 on Business Rates: Tax Allowances, how many and what proportion of ratepayers who will see no increases were eligible for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief in 2025-26.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Over half of all ratepayers will see no bill increases from the 2026 business rates revaluation, including 23% seeing their bills go down. Furthermore, most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.

The Government has introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties. The RHL multipliers are being paid for through a high-value multiplier on the top one per cent of most expensive properties, including many large distribution warehouses, such as those used by online giants.

The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since Covid. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 14 April 2026 to Question 127101 on Cancer: Vaccination, (a) (i) how many and (ii) which pharmaceutical companies attended the NHS England webinar in 2025, and (b) (i) how many and (ii) which pharmaceutical companies have since expressed an interest in working with the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) is a platform that is increasing access and speeding up recruitment to clinical trials for personalised cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. In 2025, the scope of the CVLP was expanded beyond personalised cancer vaccines to also include other immunotherapies. NHS England is responsible for the overall delivery of the CVLP and has contracted the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit to manage the day-to-day delivery of the platform. The platform is designed to be company and clinical trial agnostic so any company can contact the CVLP to explore how the platform can support their research.

NHS England hosted a webinar in 2025, and representatives from 12 pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies attended. Since then, discussions have been held with 15 companies to explore potential support from the CVLP. NHS England cannot release the names of the companies as this is commercially sensitive information.

The list of clinical trials supported by the CVLP that were previously or are currently open to recruitment can be viewed on the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit website.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of ending multiple assessments for amputees to qualify for benefits.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

There are many disabled people and people with health conditions in receipt of both Universal Credit (UC) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which means going through two separate assessments – a process that can be complex, time-consuming, duplicative and cause stress for claimants.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper outlined our plan to end the link between capacity to work and additional financial support and the binary categorisation of claimants as “can or can’t work” by abolishing the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Instead, any extra financial support for health conditions in UC will be assessed via a single assessment – the PIP assessment (in England and Wales) – and be based on the impact of disability on daily living, not on capacity to work.

Due to its link with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment, Work Capability Assessment abolition will not take place until after the Timms Review into PIP has reported. We are currently considering how the future system will operate and will provide further information in due course.

Within the current system, some disabled people will meet the Severe Conditions Criteria (SCC).

The SCC are used to identify and apply to those with the most severe, lifelong health conditions or disabilities, who are unlikely to improve, are not expected to ever be able to work, and for whom reassessments are unlikely to provide further new information.

As the condition of a claimant who meets the SCC is unlikely to improve, they do not need to have a reassessment unless they tell us that their condition has changed or improved.

Finally, DWP and our Assessment Suppliers are committed to providing a quality, sensitive and respectful service by conducting accurate and objective assessments. Where there is sufficient evidence on which to make an assessment, the claimant will be assessed on a paper basis.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 20 April 2026 to Question 125150 on Department for Education: Workplace Pensions, whether civil servants who submit applications to retire to receive an accurate retirement quote can rescind that application.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Civil servants in the department can request to withdraw their application to retire, and such requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will approve funding for (a) the Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme and (b) Midland Mainline capacity improvement to mitigate forecasted capacity constraints on the Thameslink route.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department recognises the significant growth pressures and opportunities facing the rail network from major developments such as the expansion of Luton and Gatwick Airports, the proposed Universal Studios theme park in Bedfordshire, and extensive planned delivery of new housing.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has shared initial long‑term demand modelling with the Department, including projections linked to these major developments. This work indicates substantial future growth in passenger demand, and we expect operators to continue working closely with Network Rail and local partners to refine these forecasts and develop the business cases needed for targeted improvements.

Officials at DfT and DFTO are in regular discussions with Network Rail on opportunities to improve services across the Brighton Main Line, including in the Croydon area. As part of Network Rail’s Sussex Railway Upgrade Plan, £900 million is being invested in renewing the Brighton Main Line and its branches between 2024 and 2029.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will conduct a review of the adequacy of the Jet Zero strategy in the context of approved expansion of aircraft capacity at Luton Airport.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The government is committed to meeting its target of net zero emissions by 2050. In line with a precautionary approach to estimating the level of future carbon emissions from aviation, and to reflect the uncertainty around future developments in this area, the department includes all known airport expansion plans, including Luton, when modelling aviation emissions under different technology uptake scenarios. This was the case for the Carbon Budget Growth and Delivery Plan for Carbon Budgets 4-6 published in October 2025 and the 2022 Jet Zero Strategy. We continue keep our approach to aviation decarbonisation under review to ensure we can meet our climate obligations.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she will take to reduce reliance on rest-day working to operate timetabled passenger rail services on the Thameslink route when the operator is nationalised.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

DFTO are supporting GTR in the recruitment of additional Thameslink drivers, which will assist in reducing reliance on rest day working. There have been over 50 new drivers on the GTR network since July 2024, with further drivers currently being trained. As a result, cancellations related to traincrew availability continue to decrease, with Thameslink seeing a 30% reduction in 2025 and a strong start to 2026.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on what date he plans to implement the abolition of marriage value for lease extensions.

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

I refer the hon. Members to the answer given to Question UIN 103549 on 14 January 2026 and the King's Speech 2026 background briefing notes which can be found on gov.uk here.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of permitting shared ownership staircasing valuations to be (a) appealed and (b) negotiated by shared owners using evidence of significant local variations between (i) RICS valuations and (ii) actual sale prices of (1) similar and (2) identical properties.

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

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 71108 on 15 September 2025.

St Albans Interfaith League and support for inter-faith initiatives

Draft Code of Practice on Services, public functions and associations

110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme

Foster Care Fortnight 2026

Digital sovereignty and sovereign public procurement strategy

EU Entry/Exit System and border delays for British travellers

Approval for China’s new embassy

Supporting Ukraine and seizing Russia’s frozen assets

Protections for Hong Kongers

Redress for people impacted by surgical mesh, sodium valproate and Primodos

A UK-EU customs union to help tackle the cost-of-living crisis

National Emergency Briefing

Holding Iran’s regime to account and proscribing the IRGC

Mental Health Awareness Week

Rebuilding UK defence ties with Europe

Issuing defence bonds to help restore Britain’s military

Reaching 3% of GDP on defence by 2030

Two-state solution in Israel and Palestine

UK arms sales to Israel

Responsible use of pesticides in pet flea and tick treatments

UK hauliers and border friction