Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the letter from the Leader of the House of Commons of 15 January 2026, reference AC/MP1190, on what date her Department plans to respond to hon. Member for St Albans.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I will write to you as soon as practicably possible.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2025 to Question 90360 on Business Rates, when the Valuation Office Agency provided the draft valuations for the 2026 Rating List to her Department.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury does not receive the full ratings list, as that would require data on named individual businesses to be shared, which would impact taxpayer confidentiality.
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, how organisations providing mental health services to children and young people can engage with the Independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has launched an independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. We are deeply concerned that many adults, young people and children with mental health conditions, ADHD and autism have been let down by services and are not receiving timely or appropriate support and treatment. This Government has already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach to mental health.
Therefore, this independent review will inform our new approach to mental health, so people receive the right support, at the right time and in the right place. Likewise, the review will inform our approach so that people with ADHD and autistic people have the right support in place to enable them to live well in their communities.
As this is an independent review, it is for the Chair and Vice-chairs to consider who to consult and the relevant forums for engagement, that are relevant to deliver the terms of reference, set by the Department.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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)
The Planning and Infrastructure Act provides the Secretary of State with the power to delegate the setting of planning fees to local planning authorities.
The process for local fee setting will be set out in regulations this year. We will shortly also be consulting on a national default fee, which will be the baseline from which local planning authorities can vary and set their own fees.
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 his department are taking steps to support the use of the Play Well Toolkit in NHS healthcare settings.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the importance of supporting and maintaining children’s right to play in healthcare settings. Games and active play in all settings build social skills and promote children’s well-being.
To support this, in June 2025 NHS England and Starlight, a national charity for children’s play in healthcare, co-published the Play Well Toolkit. The toolkit provides guidance on best practice, and includes a checklist to support the auditing, monitoring, and evaluation of services. NHS England is promoting the Play Well toolkit to managers of health play services across a wide range of settings, including community clinics, emergency departments, children’s hospices, and acute paediatric wards.
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 made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national register of opticians licensed to carry out DVLA eyesight tests.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for ensuring that all drivers meet the medical standards required for safe driving, including for eyesight. Drivers who notify the DVLA of a medical condition that may affect their eyesight may be asked to have a formal vision test. These tests are conducted by Specsavers on behalf of the DVLA. The current contract for this purpose was awarded to Specsavers in February 2025 following a competitive tender exercise. There are no plans to introduce a national register of opticians licensed to carry out these tests.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 the Draft National Planning Policy Framework, published on 16 December 2025, whether it is his policy that green belt land between villages should not be considered of importance when assessing whether proposed development may cause the coalescence of established settlements.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government’s proposed changes to Green Belt policy are set out in Chapter 13 of the consultation ‘National Planning Policy Framework: proposed reforms and other changes to the planning system’. The consultation is open for responses until 10 March 2026 and can be found on gov.uk here.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October to Question 77603 on Brain: Tumours, what steps he plans to take to incentivise pharmaceutical companies involved in developing vaccines for brain tumours to approach the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad for funding and support.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In the financial year 2024/25, the NIHR’s reported spend on cancer research was over £141.6 million through its research programmes and infrastructure, reflecting cancer’s high priority.
The Government is taking measures to boost research into brain tumours. In December 2025, the NIHR announced the pioneering Brain Tumour Research Consortium to accelerate research into new brain tumour treatments. NIHR is investing an initial £13.7 million with significant further funding due to be awarded in 2026.
We also support the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. This bill aims to incentivise research and investment into treatment by introducing measures to streamline clinical trial recruitment, allow patients to be more easily contacted by researchers, and also mandates a review of orphan drug regulations.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including brain tumours. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an assessment how social media platforms could use in-built AI to detect and protect children against (a) cyberbullying and (b) online grooming.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government takes tackling cyberbullying and online grooming extremely seriously.
Under the Online Safety Act, services must put in place measures to mitigate the risk of illegal activity, including grooming, and protect children from harmful content, such as bullying.
Ofcom recommends measures services can take to fulfil their duties in Codes of Practice, including using hash matching to detect and remove child sexual abuse material. Ofcom can introduce new measures in future iterations of the Codes.
On 18 December, the government published its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, including a world-leading ban on nudification apps. This government will not allow technology to be weaponised to humiliate and exploit women and girls.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December to Question 96304 on St Albans City Station: 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)
The Department has committed £17 million to improve CCTV connectivity on the railway. Network Rail are delivering the project and as they are currently in the start up phase of the project the details you have requested are not yet available.