Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress has been made by Building Digital UK on the roll-out of Project Gigabit in West Worcestershire; and how many additional premises will be connected to full fibre broadband in that constituency by the end of 2025.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

According to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com, 71% of premises in the West Worcestershire constituency can access a gigabit-capable broadband connection. As part of Project Gigabit, we are putting in place a contract to improve this coverage further. We plan to announce the details of this contract, including how many premises in Worcestershire will be in line to benefit, in early 2025.

Once the contract is in place, the supplier will conduct survey and planning work to determine when premises in Worcestershire will receive a gigabit-capable connection. We anticipate that build will commence in 2025 and complete by 2030.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish the annual profile of the redirected HS2 funds announced for Worcestershire in October 2023.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The previous Government made a series of funding promises in its Network North plan, the affordability of which this Government has had to re-examine. The Department for Transport will say more on long-term highway maintenance and other funding for Worcestershire and other places after phase 2 of the Spending Review which is due to conclude in the late spring. In the meantime, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed in the Budget on 30 October that local highway authorities would benefit from an additional £500 million for local highway maintenance in the 2025/26 financial year. This represents an increase of nearly 50% in comparison to the current financial year. Allocations to individual highway authorities will be announced shortly.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many international trips Ministers in his Department have undertaken since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Since 5^th July 2024, Ministers within the Department for Business and Trade have undertaken 22 international trips.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when his Department plans to publish the small business strategy.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The government will publish its Small Business Strategy in 2025 after the Phase 2 Spending Review. This will set out the government’s vision for supporting small businesses, from boosting scale-ups to growing the co-operative economy and across key policy areas.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on what dates he has met with representatives of Jaguar Land Rover since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

DBT Secretary of State regularly meets businesses including those in the automotive sector. These meetings are recorded in publicly available transparency data on the .GOV web site under ‘DBT: Ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings’ which is being updated to include meetings since July.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on what dates he has met with representatives of BMW since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

DBT Secretary of State regularly meets businesses including those in the automotive sector. These meetings are recorded in publicly available transparency data on the .GOV web site under ‘DBT: Ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings’ which is being updated to include meetings since July.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on what dates he has met with representatives of Nissan since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

DBT Secretary of State regularly meets businesses including those in the automotive sector. These meetings are recorded in publicly available transparency data on the .GOV web site under ‘DBT: Ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings’ which is being updated to include meetings since July.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many applications his Department received for the Second Permanent Secretary for European Union and International Economic Affairs role advertised in November 2024.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Applications have closed for the Cabinet Office Second Permanent Secretary for European Union and International Economic Affairs role. As was practice under the previous administration we do not comment on competitions underway.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December 2024 to Question 17621 on Stellantis, if he will publish the minutes of those meetings.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Minutes of these ministerial meetings cannot be released for reasons of commercial sensitivity. The Secretary of State gave a detailed account of his engagement with Stellantis during his oral ministerial statement on 27 November.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding is available for individual property-level flood protection for frequently-flooded communities.

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

We are investing £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. Property level flood resilience measures can be funded as part of wider flood alleviation schemes.

The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees with local representation.

Build Back Better offers householders up to £10,000 to add property level resilience measures, where it can be offered as part of a flood insurance claim, over and above work to repair damage and loss caused by a flood. We want to see 100% of the UK domestic insurance market offering Build Back Better.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many complaints his Department has received through its official complaints team between (a) July 2023 and July 2024 and (b) July 2024 and November 2024.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department received a total of 20 eligible complaints through its official complaints team between July 2023 and July 2024 and a further 11 eligible complaints between July 2024 and November 2024.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, where the Homebuilding Skills Hubs will be located.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Homebuilding Skills Hubs will be established by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the National Housebuilding Council (NHBC) on a demand led basis, in areas where large scale homebuilding projects lead to a surge in demand. Locations will be confirmed over time. The Hubs will initially provide training for skills in critical demand for homebuilding, including groundwork, site carpentry, and bricklaying.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information she holds on the number of people who have taken advantage of the ability to remove £500 from their pension scheme to pay for financial advice in each of the last five financial years.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

We do not hold the information requested. Neither schemes nor individuals are required to provide HMRC with this information.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward hub and spoke dispensing legislation for pharmacies in 2025.

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

The Government is working towards introducing legislation to enable hub and spoke dispensing between different legal entities in 2025. This change will be enabled via amendments to both primary and secondary legislation, and is subject to the usual parliamentary processes.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Enhanced Trade Partnership between his Department and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on the local economy.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority have developed an enhanced local partnership to target local and national support to identified high export growth potential businesses in the GM region. This was launched on 21st November and we expect to understand initial impacts on export growth after 12 months.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Meg Hillier (Chair); Dame Harriett Baldwin; Rachel Blake; Bobby