Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will respond to the correspondence of 16 July 2025 from the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon regarding the Woolmead site in the Farnham and Bordon constituency.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
A response to the hon. Member was issued on 20 October 2025.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken with international partners to support imprisoned human rights supports in China, in the context of reports of (a) torture and (b) denial of medical treatment.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 1 September to Question 70115.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help consistent teaching of (a) safe and unsafe exposure to the sun and (b) how to reduce the risk of sun damage as outlined in the mandatory PHSE curriculum for primary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the revised relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance, published on 15 July, schools must now teach facts about safe and unsafe exposure to the sun, and how to reduce the risk of sun damage, including skin cancer. In secondary school, the curriculum builds on this, and in addition covers the importance of pupils taking responsibility for their own health.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to extend the teaching of sun safety to secondary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the revised relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance, published on 15 July, schools must now teach facts about safe and unsafe exposure to the sun, and how to reduce the risk of sun damage, including skin cancer. In secondary school, the curriculum builds on this, and in addition covers the importance of pupils taking responsibility for their own health.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
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 help prevent patients being treated in (a) corridors, (b) converted office spaces, (c) gyms and (d) other inappropriate spaces in winter 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are doing everything we can as fast as we can to tackle and eliminate corridor care. The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet, so patients can be treated with dignity.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care.
We have been taking key steps to ensure that the health service is prepared for the colder months. This includes taking actions to try to reduce the demand pressure on accident and emergency departments, increase vaccination rates, and offer health checks to the most vulnerable, as well as stress-testing integrated care board and trust winter plans to confirm they are able to meet demand and support patient flow.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to support (a) religious freedom and the (b) protection of minority faith groups.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right. Everyone in Britain has the right to feel safe and at ease where they live. The Government is committed to protecting individuals’ right to practise their religion freely and will not tolerate religious hatred in any form. Those who incite religious hatred will face the full force of the law.
Faith Groups in England and Wales that are particularly vulnerable to religiously or racially motivated hate crime are eligible for funded protective security measures through the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme. This scheme offers physical security enhancements, such as CCTV, intruder alarms, and secure perimeter fencing.
An Antisemitism Working Group has been established to advise the Government on effective strategies to tackle hate against Jewish communities. Additionally, the government continues to work with the independent advisor Lord Mann in combating antisemitism through meaningful engagement with diverse communities.
The Government has also established an independent working group to advise on a non-statutory definition of Anti-Muslim Hatred. The working group have engaged widely to ensure their proposed definition accounts for the variety of backgrounds and experiences of communities across the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will mandate the Health and Safety Executive to audit businesses employing outdoor workers to ensure that high factor sunscreen is provided on site.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recognises the health risks posed by working in the sun in industries such as agriculture and construction. HSE’s guidance is informed by the NHS’s position and is available here: Skin at work: Outdoor workers and sun exposure - HSE.
The information in HSE's guidance encourages employers of outdoor workers to include sun protection advice in routine health and safety training and advises workers to keep covered up during the summer months. Where possible direct exposure to the sun should be avoided, for example by working in the shade. Employers should assess the risks and determine the best control measures.
Sunscreen with a protection factor of SPF30 or above, as per NHS guidelines, should be used to complement these measures and deal with any residual risk, but not as the primary protective measure.
HSE has a range of tools as its disposal to ensure employers are acting in accordance with their legal duties.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate her Department has made of the number of additional telecoms infrastructure sites that will be required to deliver high-quality standalone 5G coverage to all populated areas by 2030.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Government’s ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. It is for the mobile network operators to determine how best to deploy the required infrastructure to achieve this.
The need for additional sites will be determined based on a number of variables, including their existing site portfolios and areas of current network congestion. It is likely that additional sites will be required to deliver our ambition, but the mobile network operators are assessing this as part of their commercial delivery plans.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the British Retail Consortium press notice entitled 400 of Britain’s largest shops at risk, published on 12 September 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
From April 2026, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values below £500,000. This permanent tax cut will ensure that eligible RHL properties benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
This tax cut must be sustainably funded, and so the Government is introducing a higher rate on the most valuable properties in 2026/27 - those with RVs of £500,000 and above. The Government recognises that, ahead of the new multipliers being introduced, RHL businesses need support in 2025-26. So, the Government has prevented RHL relief from ending by extending it for one year at 40 per centup to a cash cap of £110,000 per business and frozen the small business multiplier.
The final design, including the rates, for the new business rates multipliers will be announced at Budget 2025, so that the revaluation outcomes and broader economic and fiscal context can be factored into decision-making. When the new multipliers are set, HM Treasury intends to publish analysis of the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will mandate the Health and Safety Executive to issue updated guidance on outdoor working and sun exposure to include the use of high factor sunscreen.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) currently provides guidance for outdoor workers and sun exposure on both its main website pages and as a short leaflet entitled Keep your top on - Health risks from working in the sun (INDG147), both of which recommend the use of high-factor sunscreen.
I have directed HSE to update its own guidance so that it aligns with the advice provided by the NHS of using sunscreen of at least SPF30.