Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to replace the Points of Light Award.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government wants to recognise the outstanding contribution of volunteers and encourage all to be involved in delivering positive change. The Points of Light programme closed in 2024. While
individual volunteers are recognised through the Honours system, and groups can be recognised through the King’s Award for Voluntary Service, there is consideration to replace the Points of Light
programme with a similar scheme.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will guarantee that planned reductions in civil service headcount in his Department will not result in a reduction in the number of Defence Driving Examiners available to conduct military driving tests.
Answered by Calvin Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans and People)
There are currently no plans to reduce the number of Civil Service Defence Driving Examiners. Since April 2026, all Defence Driving Examiner posts have been established as full-time Civil Service roles, enabling Service personnel to remain focused on their primary operational duties.
The Department will continue to ensure that Defence driving test capacity is maintained to meet operational requirements.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he will take in response to Capita's performance of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and GOV.UK.
While Capita committed to a complete return to standard contractual service levels by the end of June 2026, they have failed to meet this critical milestone. The Government is taking robust action to hold Capita to account. This includes withholding £9.9 million in contract payments for undelivered milestones, alongside confirmation that the Government surge team costs will be recovered directly from Capita.
To enforce strict compliance, independent auditors are being deployed to conduct a technical systems review, and an on-the-ground Remedial Adviser is being appointed at Capita’s expense. Further commercial, legal, and operational options remain on the table during the consideration of long-term structural delivery options.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether the Invite to Offer stage of negotiations will open before the end of 2026 for businesses shortlisted under the second Hydrogen Allocation Round.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are working hard across government to start the Invite to Offer stage of the second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2) as soon as possible and will be in touch with projects when this commences. Contract awards for successful projects will follow shortly afterwards.
We understand that many projects are at critical stages, and that certainty is important to support business planning, resource management and engagement with third parties.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will publish the full list of energy projects whose funding has been delayed, reduced or cancelled to meet the capital reductions required to finance the Defence Investment Plan, together with the value of the reduction in each case.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The savings are a small part of DESNZ’s overall budget, which saw a significant uplift at Spending Review.
Our aim is for a large proportion of the savings to be found through efficiencies. We will set out more details in due course.
The UK clean energy economy is booming, with over £100bn of private sector investment announced since July 2024 thanks to the government’s clean energy mission.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he has made on releasing funding for East Riding of Yorkshire Council from the Local Transport Fund.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department of Transport pays local transport funding to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs). East Riding of Yorkshire council is a constituent authority of Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority, which acts as the LTA.
Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority will receive a total local transport settlement of £288,222,764 from the Department for Transport over the Spending Review period (2026/27 to 2028/29 for RDEL and 2029/30 for CDEL). This is paid as a single Mayoral Transport Fund, giving Hull and East Yorkshire the freedom and flexibility to support the strategic priorities of the local transport network.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help reduce levels of industrial electricity costs for UK steel producers compared to EU ones.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are reducing industrial energy prices for steel businesses through the measures set out in the Industrial and Steel Strategies: the EII compensation Scheme, the uplift to the British Industry Supercharger, and the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme. The overall impact of UK government electricity price support reduces electricity prices for steel producers on average from £168/MWh to £86/MWh, reducing the costs of production for EAFs by approximately £40/t crude steel-based, and bringing UK EAF costs to a more similar level with those in the EU.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate her Department has made of the potential annual revenue to be generated by tariffs under the new steel trade measure; and whether any of this revenue will be used to mitigate cost increases for downstream steel-consuming businesses.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The purpose of the trade measure is not to raise tariff revenue, and therefore we have not made any estimates. The Government is acting in response to the serious threat posed by global steel overcapacity. This continues to distort markets, and threaten the viability of UK steelmaking, which underpins our critical national infrastructure and defence. Tariff-free quotas have been designed with the aim of allowing for a stable supply of imports, taking into account UK production.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the 1 July 2026 implementation date for the steel trade measure on businesses with procurement lead times in excess of three months.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The new trade measure is being applied in response to significant threat of global steel overcapacity. The steel safeguard expired on 30 June under WTO rules. The UK cannot risk a gap in protection, which would see the loss of steelmaking in the UK and leave us dependent on overseas suppliers for our critical national infrastructure and defence sectors. In finalising the details of the measure, we listened to stakeholders across the supply chain. The Government will continue to engage with industry and actively monitor impacts, including through a review after 12 months. To ease potential short-term impacts, a transitional arrangement is available under which the new measure would not apply to goods agreed under contract before 14 March 2026 and imported between 1 July and 30 September 2026.
Asked by: Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of delays to the renewed Hydrogen Strategy on the UK hydrogen technology supply chain.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We understand the importance of providing clarity to businesses across the hydrogen sector, including those in the supply chain. Hydrogen is backed in the Industrial Strategy Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan as a frontier technology, with a public finance offer designed to crowd private investment into UK supply chains.
We plan to publish the Hydrogen Strategy, alongside a package of other hydrogen policy documents, as soon as possible this year. The renewed strategy will set out Government’s vision and objectives for hydrogen, and how we intend to work with industry to continue to transform ambition into action.
In the meantime, we remain focused on delivery, with projects that were successful in HAR1 now moving to the final investment decision and our recent investment in UK electrolyser manufacturing with ITM Power in South Yorkshire.