Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if she will specify which Minister in each government department holds responsibility for oversight of the operations of Mountain Rescue services; and if the Government will consider designating a single minister and department with lead responsibility and full accountability for this function.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)

Mountain Rescue covers a broad range of capabilities provided by civilian, military, and voluntary responders. As such, a number of Ministers and departments are responsible for determining policy relevant to their areas of expertise and sponsoring these various services:

• Any 999 call requesting Mountain Rescue is passed from British Telecom to the Police, who then reroute the call to the relevant Mountain Rescue agency to assist the caller. The Home Office is the sponsoring department for the police, including Police 999 call handlers. The Minister of State for Policing and Crime is Sarah Jones MP.

• Any aircraft from HM Coastguard would be sponsored by the Department of Transport, via the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation is Keir Mather MP.

• Military Mountain Rescue teams are able to deploy without additional ministerial permissions, but the Ministry of Defence would be consulted for novel or continuous activity. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for the Armed Forces is Louise Sandher-Jones MP.

• The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport leads on volunteering policy across government. The Minister for Sport, Tourism, Civil Society and Youth is Stephanie Peacock MP.

Lead Government Departments are assigned to risks, rather than by capability or sector. The Government has no plans to designate a single minister or government department with sole responsibility for Mountain Rescue services.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she met with representatives of the UK oil and gas sector during the summer recess.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly on GOV.UK.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his department undertook constituency-level modelling to estimate trends in the level of support for constituencies from the £53 million emergency support package to help with rising heating oil costs.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Government acted quickly to provide £53m in timely, targeted support to low-income households struggling with the rising price of heating oil and at risk of losing access to heating and hot water.

Funding in England was allocated in a way that accounts for both a Local Authority’s Index of Multiple Deprivation level and the number of households using heating oil, using the 2021 census data.

For Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, instead of the usual Barnett Formulas funding levels were determined by their relative proportion of households using heating oil as their primary heating source across each nation, reflecting their unique reliance on heating oil. It is for Devolved Administrations to take decisions on how that is delivered.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance has his Department issued to pensions schemes on contacting members whose pre-retirement fund suffered crystallised losses following the use of leveraged Liability–Driven investment strategies during the gilt market disruption of September 2022.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Defined benefit (DB) pension schemes provide a predetermined level of pension and/or other benefits. Employers are responsible for funding the pensions and other benefits promised by their DB schemes and, although contributions are paid into the scheme and the scheme funds are invested, the level of pension and other benefits due does not depend on the performance of those investments.

The Department did not issue any guidance to pension schemes in relation to gilt market movements in September 2022. Guidance is regularly issued by the Pensions Regulator on topics, including detailed guidance on Liability-Driven Investment published on 24 April 2023.

Rising gilt yields have contributed to a funding surplus across much of the DB landscape, with the Pensions Regulator’s Annual Funding Statement indicating that around 90% of schemes are in surplus on a Technical Provisions basis.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to visit Aberdeen to meet representatives of the oil and gas sector.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

The Secretary of State visited Aberdeen on the 23rd of July as one of her first engagements.

Aberdeen remains central to the UK's home-grown energy sector and North Sea oil and gas will continue to play an important role in the UK's energy mix for years to come.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of providing Mountain Rescue with a similar level of support to HM Coastguard; and if she will consider providing financial support to mountain rescue stations that record the highest number of callouts each year.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department for Transport have made no assessment of the potential merits of providing Mountain Rescue with a similar level of support to HM Coastguard. Respective Police Services are responsible for the tasking and coordination of mountain rescue which does not fall within the remit of the Department for Transport. In Scotland and Northern Ireland mountain rescue is a devolved matter in line with Police responsibilities.

Mountain Rescue Teams are charities which consist of volunteers who receive no remuneration for their activities. Some mountain rescue teams may receive expenses only through their charitable body.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her policy is on the future licensing of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The North Sea remains a vital national asset, supporting jobs, growth and the UK's energy security. We have always been clear that oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come, alongside renewables, nuclear and other low-carbon technologies.

The Government stands by the commitment in its manifesto not to issue new licences to explore new fields.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications his department received for its Crisis and Resilience Fund to assist with heating oil costs since its launch on 1 April 2026, broken down by local authority area, and how many (a) have been approved or rejected and (b) remain unprocessed.

Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Support for households affected by rising heating oil prices is administered by local authorities through the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF). Local authorities are responsible for determining eligibility, processing applications and holding data relating to applications and awards.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the potential cumulative impact of combined impact overheads such as current or future levels of tax, energy bill, and labour costs on the financial viability of SMEs.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)

The Government recognises that the cumulative burden of taxation, business rates, regulation and reporting requirements impose costs on businesses, recognising that smaller firms can experience these burdens more acutely.

The Government assesses the effects of tax and regulatory measures when they are introduced and keeps wider pressures on businesses under review. For example, tax measures are accompanied by assessments of their impacts on businesses, and the Government has published analysis of the Employment Rights Act. That analysis estimates its costs at around 0.1 per cent of annual employment costs.

The Government has taken action to reduce administrative and compliance burdens, while considering the wider operating environment for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). This includes increasing the monetary size thresholds for micro-entities, SMEs and large companies in April 2025 – moving 132,000 firms onto lighter touch reporting requirements, and saving £185m per year.

Around one third of properties pay no business rates through 100 per cent Small Business Rate Relief, with a further 85,000 benefiting from tapered relief. The Small Business Regulatory Taskforce is identifying further opportunities to streamline regulation and reduce administrative burdens, including those associated with reporting and data requirements. The Government continues to support employers through wider labour market and skills policies, including fully funded apprenticeship training for eligible young people in SMEs.

The Treasury works closely on small business issues with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade which is the lead department on SME policy.

Found: membership Patricia Ferguson (Labour; Glasgow West) (Chair) Maureen Burke (Labour; Glasgow North East) Harriet Cross

At its meeting on 9 September, the Committee agreed to inquire into the Electoral Commission's oversight of the funding and governance of political parties in Scotland, and the policies, processes and safeguards associated with the distribution of Short Money to political parties. Further information on the scope of this inquiry will be published in due course.

The Lord Advocate and her deputy the Solicitor General for Scotland each assume a “dual role” being both senior government legal advisers, and senior public prosecutors. There is a long-standing and ongoing political and constitutional debate within Scotland about whether the dual role should be split to better mitigate actual and/or perceived conflicts of interest between the two functions. This inquiry will appraise the case for and against splitting the dual role, and exploring different options for reform.