Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to combat anti-social behaviour, particularly the playing of loud music on public transport.

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

The government is committed to tackling all forms of anti-social behaviour (ASB) on public transport.

The British Transport Police enforce against it on the rail network and the 61016 reporting plays a key role in addressing ASB incidents and providing intelligence to target resources.

In addition, the government is funding five pilot schemes across England which are aimed at tackling ASB through the targeted deployment of Transport Safety Officers. The findings from these pilots will be shared with other local authorities to help them to address ASB on their public transport networks.

The Bus Services Bill aims to provide all local transport authorities with the powers to effectively enforce against ASB on their bus networks and improve safety for passengers. The Bill also seeks to mandate that staff are trained on how to recognise and respond to incidents of ASB on buses.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with the (a) Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and (b) Secretary of State for the Home Department on (i) the playing of loud music and (ii) antisocial behaviour on public transport.

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

Both I and the Secretary of State meet regularly with other ministers from across government to discuss a range of issues within our portfolios. This includes anti-social behaviour on public transport, which incorporates the playing of loud music on public transport.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the number of people in Hertfordshire who do not have access to an NHS dentist on patient wellbeing.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, and we want to make sure that everyone who needs a National Health Service dentist can get one. The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Hemel Hempstead constituency, this is the Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of UK arms exports to Kosovo on (a) Kosovan security and (b) growth of the UK defence economy.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The UK continues to monitor the security situation in Kosovo closely and UK forces are deployed in country supporting NATO’s KFOR mission to maintain a safe and secure environment. This is consistent with our ongoing commitment to support regional defence and security.

HMG are also currently exploring defence export opportunities to Kosovo. This has the potential to help support jobs throughout the United Kingdom and maintain our world-class defence-industrial base alongside bolstering Kosovo’s security and resilience.

UK export licences would only be granted in accordance with the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, which provide a thorough risk assessment framework and require us to consider the possible impact of providing equipment and capabilities. We do not issue licences where to do so would be inconsistent with the Criteria including under Criterion 4 where we determine if there is a clear risk that the items would, undermine overall peace and security.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the NHS Find a Dentist webpage is up-to-date with showing dentists who have available places for NHS patients in Hertfordshire.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

It is a contractual requirement for National Health Service dentists to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. Integrated care boards can review which practices in their area have not updated their profile in a 90-day period, and work with practices to ensure websites are up to date.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help tackle mould in (a) council and (b) housing association properties in Hertfordshire.

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

The government is committed to working with social housing providers to ensure that homes are safe, decent, warm, and free from damp and mould.

The Deputy Prime Minister made a Written Ministerial Statement on 6 February (HCWS423) confirming that the government will be bringing Awaab’s Law into force for damp and mould in October 2025.

Awaab’s Law is vital legislation that will empower social tenants to hold their landlords to account using the full force of the law if they fail to investigate and fix hazards within their homes within set timescales. It will also allow tenants to access the Housing Ombudsman if their landlord does not adhere to strict timelines for action.

The government is also committed to consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards this year.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service takes action against people who are in arrears.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply and has made significant improvements to the process to speed up action when payments first break down and to target enforcement action more effectively.

Where parents fail to take responsibility for paying for their children, the CMS will not hesitate to use the full range of strong enforcement powers available. These include, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving license or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison.

8% (£682.1 million) of the total maintenance due to be paid since the CMS began, remains to be collected through Collect & Pay but this is falling.

In the past year to September 2024, the CMS collected £16.8 million from paying parents with civil enforcement actions in process and an additional £5.4 million from paying parents with our most serious enforcement action in process.

In the twelve months to September 2024, there were 2,857 applications to the courts in England, Wales and Scotland for our most serious enforcement powers. Of these the courts issued two immediate prison sentences and 316 suspended prison sentences.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service takes action against people committing fraud by hiding assets in order to avoid paying child maintenance.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Most parents pay some or all their maintenance liability without issue however, the Child Maintenance Service is aware of a small number of parents whose maintenance liability is inconsistent with their financial resources, usually because they can choose to support themselves via a complex arrangement of assets instead of, or in addition to, taking a salary.

Cases involving complex income or suspected fraudulent behaviour can be looked into by the FIU. This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given.

In the quarter ending September 2024, 300 financial investigation cases were referred to the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) in addition to 875 ongoing cases from previous quarters. In the same quarter, 340 financial investigations were completed of which 210 resulted in a maintenance assessment change.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle speeding by motor vehicles in rural areas of Hertfordshire.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Excess speed is still a major cause of death and serious injury on our roads. Anyone who breaks the speed limit should expect to face sanction.

Enforcement of speeding offences in rural areas of Hertfordshire and the deployment of available resources and capabilities is an operational matter for Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Chief Constable and Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner to determine, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the number of vape shops on high streets in Hertfordshire on the prosperity of those high streets.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The quality of the public realm and the prosperity of high streets and town centres is of vital importance. The Government is supporting local efforts to reduce vacancy on high streets, including through High Street Rental Auctions, because of the damaging effect persistently empty shops can have on the vitality of town centres.

The Government also recognises public sentiment about the value of some high street businesses will be mixed. Occupation of vacant units must in general be preferred to the alternative, including because of the benefits to high street footfall. The government encourages local partnership working between landlords, local government, businesses and residents to develop a unique vision for their high street. The planning system provides some tools to support these efforts, including the emphasis placed on local plans and diversification of primary shopping areas in the National Planning Policy Framework.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to make government digital services accessible to people without strong digital skills.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government Digital Service supports and incentivises departments to design digital services that are simple and easy to use. The Service Manual provides patterns to help departments design both online services for people with limited digital literacy and offline channels to support users, such as in person support at Post Offices for OneLogin.

Found: Noah Law; Alice Macdonald; Brian Mathew; David Mundell; James Naish; David Reed; Sam Rushworth; David Taylor

Found: Noah Law; Alice Macdonald; Brian Mathew; David Mundell; James Naish; David Reed; Sam Rushworth; David Taylor