Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
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.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
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.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
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.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
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.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Q3 of the oral evidence given by the Lady Chief Justice of England to the Justice Select Committee on 26 November 2024, HC 421, what estimate she has made of the total cost of sitting the extra 6,500 court sitting days to reach the maximum 113,000 days available.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
113,000 sitting days are a theoretical maximum of judicial sitting days in the Crown Court. It is not clear whether other parts of the system – for example the availability of counsel - could sustain that level of sitting, and therefore it is not correct to say that number of sitting days was 'available' for FY24/25.
In June the previous Lord Chancellor reached agreement with the Lady Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals to sit 106,000 days in the Crown Court in FY24/25 within a total budget of £275 million. In September, the current Lord Chancellor increased the allocation of sitting days for the Crown Court by 500 additional days and then again in December by 2,000, meaning that the total allocation for FY 24/25 is now 108,500, the highest number in nearly a decade.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of accessing court transcripts for each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The cost incurred by HM Courts and Tribunals Service for transcription services in the five most recent financial years (April – March) is as below:
Financial Year | Total Spend (£) |
2019-20 | 1,252,201 |
2020-21 | 939,309 |
2021-22 | 1,258,353 |
2022-23 | 1,104,667 |
2023-24 | 1,043,971 |
These figures do not include transcription spend incurred by Legal Aid Agency which are covered by central funds as these are not included in the accounts for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost of a (a) court and (b) tribunal hearing transcript is.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The cost of a court or tribunal transcript varies, depending on the length of the hearing, whether the transcript is new or a copy, and the speed of delivery requested.
HMCTS contracts with external suppliers to provide court transcripts who hold data on orders that they receive. While HMCTS does not retain data centrally on the costs of court or tribunal transcripts, supplier Management Information data for the period January to December 2024 was extracted as follows:
Total number of court and tribunal transcripts produced: 45,178
The average cost of a transcript order between January and December 2024 based on the transcripts produced: £117.00 (excl. VAT)
Court and tribunal hearings differ significantly in length (from hearings that last less than a day to trials that can last several weeks or months) and transcript costs are in proportion to the volume of audio that must be transcribed and checked on a case-by-case basis. While costs of shorter hearings may be lower, full hearings or trials can cost significantly more. Therefore, the average cost calculated above using supplier data is not reflective of the full range of court and tribunal hearings and is not a general average cost of transcripts.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has plans to increase the use of artificial intelligence in the HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
AI has the potential to enable service improvements across HMCTS, and we are exploring how it can be applied responsibly to our operations and services, including to support document processing, transcription, summarisation and translation. The use of AI in the courts and tribunals will be focused on accelerating and assisting people’s work, not automating decisions.
All use of artificial intelligence in the Ministry of Justice is aligned with the AI Playbook for the UK Government and the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard. The Lady Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals issued AI Guidance for the judiciary in December 2023.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure school uniform policies continue to promote school (a) identity, (b) pride and (c) inclusion, in the context of the proposed cap on branded items.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Uniform, including a small number of branded uniform items, can play a key role in promoting the ethos of a school, providing a sense of belonging and identity, setting an appropriate tone for education, and reducing visible inequalities. However, too many schools require high numbers of costly branded uniform items and it is right that legislation limits the number of branded items schools can require. School uniform should be affordable and no child should be stigmatised due to financial constraints.
In setting an appropriate numerical limit of branded items, the department has looked at the available evidence to ensure we are striking the right balance between reducing costs for parents and recognising the benefits that some branded items may bring to school life.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support the legal services sector.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
One of the Industrial Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors is Professional and Business Services, of which the Legal Sector will play a key role. Professional and Business Services has been selected because it has been successful, has driven growth, and is an area where the UK has a real competitive advantage.
Skills will play a crucial role in the Industrial Strategy, driving growth through increased productivity, as well as creating well paid jobs which increases opportunities for everyone. We will work closely with business, devolved governments, local leaders, trade unions and others to ensure the skills system is responsive and flexible, and that people have the opportunity to get on and fulfil their potential. This includes establishing Skills England and successfully designing the new Skills and Growth Levy.
We’ll publish our specific plans when we launch our new Industrial Strategy.