Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the press release, Cheers! Football fans to raise a glass for the World Cup, published 8 June 2026, and with reference to the answer of 12 September 2025, to Question 75190, Hospitality Industry: Alcoholic Drinks, if she will make it her policy to reintroduce the easement of automatic take-away / off-sales for all licensed premises that expired in March 2025.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the important role that pubs and restaurants play in local communities and the wider economy. The temporary easement introduced during the pandemic, which allowed on-trade premises to provide off-sales without a variation, expired on 31 March 2025.
Licensed businesses wishing to offer off-sales or takeaway pints can apply to vary their existing premises licence through existing processes under the Licensing Act 2003 for £89. New licence applicants already have the ability to request a licence for both ‘on’ and ‘off’ sales at no additional cost than if they were to apply for a licence for on-sales only.
Whilst we do not currently have plans to re-introduce the easement, we continue to consider how the licensing framework can better support hospitality businesses while maintaining appropriate safeguards.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what is the department’s record keeping policy in relation to the retention of (a) responses to consultations and calls for evidence and (b) summaries of responses to them.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department retains information from public consultations/calls for evidence only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the relevant business need and statutory requirements. The department's standard retention period for public consultation responses is two years from the consultation closing date, although this is a guideline rather than a fixed requirement, and the final retention period is determined on a case-by-case basis.
Retention decisions must comply with data protection principles, including data minimisation and storage limitation, ensuring personal data is kept only for as long as necessary. For example, confidential or sensitive personal information may require a shorter retention period and may be deleted or anonymised once analysis is complete.
The applicable retention period for personal information is normally set out in the published consultation documentation.
Similarly decisions on retention of summaries of responses will be determined on a case-by-case basis in line with the departmental retention policy. Retention decisions are made by officials responsible for the consultation/call for evidence in consultation with the department’s records management and data protection teams.
Government responses to consultations are published in line with Government Consultation Principles Guidance Consultation principles: guidance - GOV.UK . The Government does not routinely publish details of individual respondents to calls for evidence.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what is her department’s policy on the disclosure of the names of organisations who are respondents to public consultations and calls for evidence.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department retains information from public consultations/calls for evidence only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the relevant business need and statutory requirements. The department's standard retention period for public consultation responses is two years from the consultation closing date, although this is a guideline rather than a fixed requirement, and the final retention period is determined on a case-by-case basis.
Retention decisions must comply with data protection principles, including data minimisation and storage limitation, ensuring personal data is kept only for as long as necessary. For example, confidential or sensitive personal information may require a shorter retention period and may be deleted or anonymised once analysis is complete.
The applicable retention period for personal information is normally set out in the published consultation documentation.
Similarly decisions on retention of summaries of responses will be determined on a case-by-case basis in line with the departmental retention policy. Retention decisions are made by officials responsible for the consultation/call for evidence in consultation with the department’s records management and data protection teams.
Government responses to consultations are published in line with Government Consultation Principles Guidance Consultation principles: guidance - GOV.UK . The Government does not routinely publish details of individual respondents to calls for evidence.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 14 July 2026, to Question 14979, on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Darlington, for what reason Darlington does not have a 60% office workplace expectation.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department does not currently apply a 60% workplace attendance expectation in Darlington due to office capacity and associated health and safety considerations. The Darlington office has 167 colleagues assigned to it, while 30 desks are contractually allocated for departmental use. Whilst colleagues may make use of other available workstations within the building, these are not guaranteed to be available. The current attendance expectation has therefore been set at a level that reflects the office's available capacity and ensures a safe working environment. The Department keeps attendance expectations under review and will consider changes where capacity permits.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the MHCLG annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026, HC484, 15 July 2026, page 75, whether the two cases of fraud by false representation have been reported to the police by Homes England or the Department.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The two cases referred to in the Annual Report and Accounts were cases of prevented fraud. Homes England identified suspected false representations through the controls it has in place to assess funding applications, and those controls operated effectively and both applications were stopped before any funding was awarded
The cases were not reported directly to the police because no funding was awarded and the suspected activity was disrupted before a loss occurred. Homes England instead referred the matter to the National Crime Agency through the Suspicious Activity Reporting regime, which was considered the appropriate route for sharing the intelligence.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Technical annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base), section heading "methodology", published 9 February 2026, if she will publish the Band D equivalent level of council tax in (a) 2026-27 and (b) the departmental estimate in 2027-28, for each individual local authority, used for comparing with the national notional council tax level, based on the methodology set out in the technical annex.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The technical annex on the resources adjustment published at the final Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-27 sets out how the band D equivalent council tax base is calculated (Technical annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base) - GOV.UK). The technical annex publishes authority-level Band D equivalent tax base figures used in the modelling of the resource adjustment.
The notional council tax used in this adjustment is set at the average level of Council Tax in England. This includes the social care precept and the fire precept but does not include police or parish precepts. Mayoral precepts are not included, except for the fire element.
In response to UIN 20355, the department does not make such a comparison.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, further to the guidance entitled Technical annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base), published on 9 February 2026, which precepts are (a) included and (b) excluded from the national average notional council tax level used in the Local Government Finance Settlement.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The technical annex on the resources adjustment published at the final Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-27 sets out how the band D equivalent council tax base is calculated (Technical annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base) - GOV.UK). The technical annex publishes authority-level Band D equivalent tax base figures used in the modelling of the resource adjustment.
The notional council tax used in this adjustment is set at the average level of Council Tax in England. This includes the social care precept and the fire precept but does not include police or parish precepts. Mayoral precepts are not included, except for the fire element.
In response to UIN 20355, the department does not make such a comparison.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 10 June 2026, to Question 5955, on Council Tax, where (a) police, (b) fire, (c) social care, (d) GLA / combined authority mayoral, council tax precepts are included in the calculation of the notional council tax figure.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The technical annex on the resources adjustment published at the final Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-27 sets out how the band D equivalent council tax base is calculated (Technical annex on the Resources Adjustment (measure of tax base) - GOV.UK). The technical annex publishes authority-level Band D equivalent tax base figures used in the modelling of the resource adjustment.
The notional council tax used in this adjustment is set at the average level of Council Tax in England. This includes the social care precept and the fire precept but does not include police or parish precepts. Mayoral precepts are not included, except for the fire element.
In response to UIN 20355, the department does not make such a comparison.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 27 November 2026 to Question 93055 on Pest Control: Fees and Charges, whether her Department collates or holds information on local authority fees and charges for pest control services.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not collate or hold information on local authority fees and charges for pest control services.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the No10 press release, “PM vows to save hollowed out high streets with crackdown on vape and betting shops”, 10 August 2026, what specific changes are being considered to Small Business Rates Relief; and for what reason the thresholds for small business rate relief was frozen in the 2026 revaluation.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
At the 2026 revaluation, the thresholds for Small Business Rates Relief remained unchanged. Around a third of properties continue to receive 100 per cent relief, with a further 85,000 properties benefiting from tapered relief. The Government also extended the period for which businesses expanding into a second property can retain Small Business Rates Relief and introduced additional support for businesses losing eligibility for relief as a result of the revaluation.
The Government is continuing to review the wider business rates system to ensure it better supports high streets, local economies and small businesses, and further decisions on business rates reform will be set out in the normal way at the Budget.