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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on ensuring value for money in contracts for the treatment of separately collected household food waste, including where private contractors receive revenue from biomethane and digestate produced from that waste.

Answered by Mary Creagh

Defra does not provide direct guidance to local authorities for the procurement of food waste treatment contracts.

However, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), funded by Defra have provided guidance for local authorities to support the implementation of Simpler Recycling. This includes Good Practice Guidance on Waste and Recycling Collections, including on building in contract flexibility, and more detailed guidance on providing household food waste collections, which also covers food waste treatment.

Furthermore, Local Partnerships has developed a standard Anaerobic Digestion contract, developed with Defra support, and available free on request to local authorities, which includes provisions for revenue sharing.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, (a) what assessment he has made of the extent of barriers faced by disabled leaseholders seeking reasonable adaptions of their homes and communal areas and (b) what steps is he taking to reduce these barriers.

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

The government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling older and disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment.

The Disabled Facilities Grants funds adaptations to improve access to homes, including in respect of communal areas, where applicants satisfy a needs assessment, eligibility criteria and a means test.

The Equality Act 2010 imposes a duty on landlords to allow and make reasonable adjustments to private homes on request from disabled leaseholders. The government keeps under review the commencement of the remaining parts of section 36 of the Equality Act 2010, which would impose a duty on those responsible for common parts of leasehold properties, such as landlords, to make reasonable adjustments to those parts if asked to do so by a disabled leaseholder.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many students are expected to complete approved paramedic training courses in England in (a) 2026 and (b) 2027; how many Band 5 newly qualified paramedic posts NHS ambulance trusts plan to recruit to in each of those years; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the number of funded posts is aligned with the number of students completing paramedic training.

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

The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes annual figures for entrants and qualifiers for paramedic training courses which are available at the following two links:

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/what-study

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/outcomes#qualifiers

The latest available data for qualifiers shows 3,325 across England in 2024/25.

Training places for paramedics are not centrally commissioned by the Government, instead, they are determined by local employers and education providers who decide the number of learners they admit based on learner demand and provider capacity.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of requirements for dual British nationals resident overseas to travel to the UK using British travel documentation, including the cost to families of obtaining British passports for children; what steps her Department takes to match entry and exit records where a dual national uses different passports to enter and leave the UK; and whether she has considered introducing a digital means for dual nationals to demonstrate British citizenship without holding a current British passport.

Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

As part of our commitment to transparent and accountable policy making, the Home Office published an initial impact assessment on the introduction of ETAs. The Full Impact Assessment can be found here: Impact Assessment - ETA (publishing.service.gov.uk). For passengers travelling to the UK, the Home Office uses information provided as part of permission-to-travel and border processes to verify a passenger's status against Home Office records. Where further verification is required, carriers can undertake additional identity and travel document checks and use established Home Office processes to confirm an individual's status. Since 26 February 2026 dual nationals have been able to use a digital certificate of entitlement, linked to their foreign passport, to prove their right to enter and live in the UK, and to show their right to work or rent if needed.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the introduction of the hierarchy of road users in the Highway Code on road users.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Highway Code was updated in 2022 to improve road safety for people walking, cycling and riding horses including the introduction of a hierarchy of road users.

The previous government did not initiate any assessment of the impact of the hierarchy of road users following the introduction of the rule in 2022.

All road users are required to comply with road traffic law, in the interests of their own safety and that of other road users. If road users do not adopt a responsible attitude or if their use of the highway creates an unsafe environment, or causes nuisance, they may be committing a number of offences that can make them liable for prosecution.

Enforcement of the law is a matter for the police who will decide on the evidence of each individual case, whether an offence has been committed and the appropriate action to take.

Found: Jodie Gosling (Labour; Nuneaton) Dr Caroline Johnson (Conservative; Sleaford and North Hykeham) Darren Paffey

Found: Jodie Gosling (Labour; Nuneaton) Dr Caroline Johnson (Conservative; Sleaford and North Hykeham) Darren Paffey

Found: May 2026 Members present1 Helen Hayes, in the Chair2 Jess Asato Mrs Sureena Brackenridge Darren Paffey

Found: Committee members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Sureena Brackenridge; Jodie Gosling; Darren Paffey

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Sureena Brackenridge; Jodie Gosling; Darren Paffey