Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to ensure that property management companies (a) accurately relay charges to customers, (b) respond to correspondence within reasonable timeframes and (c) do not add administrative charges without explanation.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN  38576 on 24 March 2025 and Question 37829 on 20 March 2025.

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 improve the accessibility of face-to-face GP appointments (a) in general and (b) for people less digitally literate.

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

General practitioners (GPs) must provide face to face appointments alongside remote consultations. Online services must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, in-person consultations.

The GP contract also makes clear that patients have a right to request a face-to-face appointment and practices must make every effort to meet their preference, unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.

We know that some patients can struggle to access digital services. To help address this, digital tools used in primary care settings must meet required minimum standards of functionality set by NHS England, ensuring a consistent quality of service for patients. All organisations providing services in the National Health Service, including primary care providers, must follow the Accessible Information Standard.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to further support Ukraine.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The UK continues to step up its assistance, spending £4.5 billion on military support for Ukraine this year - more than ever before. This includes £2.26 billion of interest from frozen Russian assets which the UK will use to source essential military capabilities for Ukraine.

We also recently agreed a £1.6 billion export finance deal which will supply Ukraine with more than 5,000 air defence missiles. The deal marks a historic step for industrial relations between the UK and Ukraine, building on the 100 Year Partnership signed recently by the Prime Minister and President Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Furthermore, we also announced the biggest package of sanctions in over two years to continue to bear down on Russia's economy.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the adequacy of the service provided by First Port property management.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is committed to ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents.

Legislation is currently enforced by local authorities and by the National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents.

The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group chaired by Lord Best to advise them on how best to do it.

However, they failed to respond to the recommendations set out in the working group’s 2019 Regulation of Property Agents: working group report which can be found on gov.uk here.

Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future. As a result, we are looking again at the 2019 report.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244), the government have made clear it intends to strengthen regulation of managing agents to drive up the standard of their service. As a minimum, this should include mandatory professional qualifications which set a new basic standard that managing agents will be required to meet. We will consult on this matter this year.

We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.

Found: Presented by Robert Jenrick supported by Mrs Kemi Badenoch, Rebecca Harris, Dr Kieran Mullan and Helen Grant