Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on guidance to schools on children who are questioning their gender.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Department engaged with the EHRC as a part of wider stakeholder engagement to inform our policy on gender questioning children. Guidance has now been published for consultation within Keeping children safe in education. Our guidance to schools and colleges is pragmatic and balanced, with the wellbeing of children at its heart, and is clear that no child should be able to access toilets, changing rooms, or boarding or residential accommodation for the opposite sex.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on support for the life sciences sector.

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

The Life Sciences Sector Plan, published in July 2025, launched a ten year programme to cement the UK’s position as a global life sciences leader. The Secretary of State is in regular contact with Cabinet colleagues, and we have strengthened the Office for Life Sciences as a trilateral unit across DSIT, DHSC and DBT, bringing together health, industrial strategy and innovation, and appointed an Executive Chair, Steve Bates, to provide leadership and accountability.

This collaborative approach is delivering, with the UK securing multibillion pound private investment, building new research infrastructure, scaling manufacturing, streamlining regulation, strengthening clinical trials and driving medical breakthroughs.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much public money has been spent to date on the development and roll-out of Making Tax Digital; and what the projected total cost is for completing the programme.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Originally announced at Budget 2015, Making Tax Digital (MTD) supports UK businesses to transact digitally. It encourages timely and accurate record keeping, reducing the part of the tax gap caused by taxpayer error and failure to take reasonable care.

The most recent Accounting Officer’s Assessment was published on 4 June 2025 and estimated a public sector lifecycle cost of £1.4 billion for the MTD programme. This assessment also estimated an overall lifecycle monetised benefit of £6.2 billion. These are considerable benefits, providing vital funding for public services, which are expected to continue beyond the 5-year window assessed in the business case.

MTD will also generate significant non-monetisable benefits, including through modernising HMRC’s critical national IT infrastructure for the VAT and ITSA regimes.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the compliance costs incurred by businesses to meet Making Tax Digital requirements to date for which the latest data is available.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC’s published assessment of the potential impact of MTD for Income Tax on taxpayers joining from April 2026 is available at:

Extension of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment to sole traders and landlords - GOV.UK

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has here department made of the adequacy of safeguards governing the release of motorists’ personal data by the DVLA to private parking companies; and what steps she is taking to ensure that data belonging to motorists who have not committed an offence is not shared inappropriately and deleted within a timely manner.

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

The law allows the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to release vehicle keeper details in certain limited circumstances, subject to appropriate safeguards. Organisations receiving this data must comply with their obligations under data protection law.

Where a private parking management company makes electronic requests for vehicle keeper data, the data is provided subject to strict contractual terms. Data may only be used the purposes set out in the contract and must be deleted once no longer needed.

All private parking companies are audited to help ensure that the information is requested and used appropriately. The safeguards in place to protect personal data are kept under review to ensure they continue to provide appropriate protection.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the application of inflationary increases on pre-1997 defined benefit pension entitlements is limited to schemes within the Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme; and whether he plans to extend this policy to other defined benefit schemes.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government has brought forward legislation to introduce annual CPI-linked increases, capped at 2.5 per cent, on compensation payments from the Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme based on pensions built up before 6 April 1997. These increases will apply prospectively (i.e. to payments going forward) and where the original scheme rules provided for such increases.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help ensure that data belonging to motorists who have incorrectly received a parking fine, either from a Council, Private Parking Companies, or any other parking provider, is not retained by any such parking provider or the DVLA.

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

The law allows vehicle keeper information to be released to local authorities and private parking companies to allow them to follow up alleged parking contraventions.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides the information as a first point of contact to help the local authority or parking company establish where liability may lie. Controls are in place to help ensure that the information is requested and used appropriately.

When a local authority or parking company has been provided with vehicle keeper information, they become the controller of the personal data and are responsible for complying with their data protection obligations. This includes the requirement not to retain data for longer than is necessary.

The DVLA also maintains record of disclosures from the vehicle record in order to fulfil its own data protection obligations.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps are she is taking to implement a ban on the use of snares in England; and when she expects to publish a timeline for this policy.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation and this included a commitment to bring an end to the use of snare traps in England.

This was recently reaffirmed in the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy, published in December 2025. Defra is now actively looking to bring a ban on snares into force as swiftly as possible.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the backlog of cases at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is independent of Government and reports directly to Parliament. The PHSO has confirmed that their unallocated queue of complaints at the end of March 2026 was 3,428.

Found: (93.8%) Maureen Burke (Labour, Glasgow North East) (added 28 Oct 2024) 30 of 48 (62.5%) Harriet Cross

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Patricia Ferguson (Chair); Maureen Burke; Harriet Cross; Dave Doogan