Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish the final recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report and recommendations will be published this autumn. The government’s response will be published alongside this.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make it her policy to set National Highways key performance indicators for cleaning up litter.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government intends to set National Highways a performance indicator (PI) for cleaning up litter on their roads as part of a wide range of performance indicators for the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) period, covering the years 2026/27 to 2030/31. RIS3 will be published in March 2026.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the (a) shortest, (b) average and (c) longest processing times for a decision on an EU Settlement Scheme application.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not centrally held but the current EUSS processing times are published on GOV.UK - EU Settlement Scheme: current estimated processing times for applications - GOV.UK.
EUSS applications are considered on the specific facts of each case.
The most recent data on EUSS applications is published in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
The latest data relates up to June 2025.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of EU Settlement Scheme applications submitted before December 2022 have yet to be processed.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not centrally held but the current EUSS processing times are published on GOV.UK - EU Settlement Scheme: current estimated processing times for applications - GOV.UK.
EUSS applications are considered on the specific facts of each case.
The most recent data on EUSS applications is published in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
The latest data relates up to June 2025.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2025 to Question 77147 on Personal Independence Payment, if he will make it his policy to collect data on the impact of registration of an appointee on a person's PIP payments to track the number of times benefits are inadvertently (a) missed, (b) delayed and (c) stopped.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to collect this data.
We aim to process applications for appointeeship as soon as possible to avoid delays. It is important that the department conducts checks to ensure that an appointee is both suitable to act and needed by the claimant. Entitlement to PIP would be from the date of claim, meaning the claimant would not lose entitlement because of the appointeeship process.
Payments of benefit are the same whether a claimant has an appointee or not.
Payments would not be inadvertently stopped because someone has an appointee. Payment can be suspended if concerns are raised about the appointee’s suitability to act, or if there are doubts about the claimant’s entitlement.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on how many occasions a repayment of overpaid tax to a customer who has submitted a voluntary self-assessment return been delayed by longer than (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC recognise that repayments are important for customers. They prioritise them and work hard to ensure they are processed as quickly and securely as possible.
Like any financial institution, HMRC are an attractive target for organised criminals who continually test their security and repayment controls. HMRC aim to balance ensuring prompt payments to eligible customers with effective revenue protection from fraudsters.
Voluntary returns are submitted by customers who are not required to file a Self Assessment return but choose to do so, often to reclaim overpaid tax. These cases can require additional manual checks, particularly where PAYE income is involved, to ensure repayments are not duplicated.
Because customers submitting voluntary Self Assessment returns are not required to file, these cases are not currently included separately in HMRC’s reported performance data. While these returns are worked and processed by operational teams, they fall outside the scope of published metrics and are therefore not counted in official service level reporting.
HMRC has communicated to agent communities that customers can help reduce delays by registering for Self Assessment before submitting a return. Additional staff have been deployed to reduce delays in processing voluntary Self Assessment repayment cases, particularly those requiring manual checks. Work is also underway to explore automation opportunities to improve processing times and reduce the number of customers affected by repayment delays.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with NICE on assessing (a) Optune and (b) other tumour treating field therapies for use in the UK.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No discussions have been held between the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on assessing (a) Optune and (b) other tumour treating field therapies for use in the UK.
NICE considered the use of tumour treating fields (TTF) in its guideline on brain tumours (NG99) published in 2018 and recommended that the treatment should not be offered for the management of newly diagnosed glioblastoma or recurrent high-grade glioma, based on an assessment of the evidence available at the time.
Decisions on whether guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by NICE’s Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE’s prioritisation board considered TTF for glioblastoma in July 2024 where they agreed the topic should not be prioritised but reconsidered when relevant key trials have completed.
At the meeting on 15 September 2025, the topic was reconsidered. The prioritisation board noted that some trials are ongoing, including a key trial that is likely to publish in 2026, and consequently agreed that the topic should still not be prioritised at this time, but revisited once those trials have published.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her department has instructed Thameslink to recruit more train drivers since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Since July 2024, the Department has continued to press Govia Thameslink Railway to deliver its on-going train driver recruitment programme which will increase Thameslink drivers by nearly 100 (circa 8 per cent). Training new drivers typically takes around 18 months. There are over 30 new drivers set to qualify this year.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 potential merits of introducing a guest beer agreement scheme for pubs as part of (a) the Pubs Code and Pubs Code Adjudicator: statutory review and post-implementation review, 2022 to 2025 and (b) the review on retaining and expanding access to pubs for small brewers, as referenced in paragraph 2.44 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC295.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government recognises that independent breweries are essential to the diversity and character of our pubs. We're currently assessing the beer market to determine whether there are any structural barriers preventing small brewers from accessing pubs.
This review specifically references market access for small brewers, and will cover all subcategories of the pub sector, including leased and tenanted pubs. It will not, however, consider the merits of different pub models. We’re considering the review’s findings and will announce in due course any measures that may need to be taken.
The Pubs Code (the Code) applies to large pub-owning businesses with 500 or more tied pubs in England and Wales, covering around 8,000 pubs. Separate to the beer market review, the Government is currently conducting a statutory review into the operation of the Pubs Code and the performance of the Pubs Code Adjudicator. Alongside this statutory review, the Government is also conducting a Post Implementation Review (PIR) which will consider the Pub Code’s impact since it was introduced in 2016
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to paragraph 2.44 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC295, when he plans to publish a response to the consultation on retaining and expanding access to pubs for small brewers.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government recognises that independent breweries are essential to the diversity and character of our pubs. We're currently assessing the beer market to determine whether there are any structural barriers preventing small brewers from accessing pubs.
This review specifically references market access for small brewers, and will cover all subcategories of the pub sector, including leased and tenanted pubs. It will not, however, consider the merits of different pub models. We’re considering the review’s findings and will announce in due course any measures that may need to be taken.
The Pubs Code (the Code) applies to large pub-owning businesses with 500 or more tied pubs in England and Wales, covering around 8,000 pubs. Separate to the beer market review, the Government is currently conducting a statutory review into the operation of the Pubs Code and the performance of the Pubs Code Adjudicator. Alongside this statutory review, the Government is also conducting a Post Implementation Review (PIR) which will consider the Pub Code’s impact since it was introduced in 2016