Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many enforcement actions have been taken (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully by local authorities participating in the Rent Repayment Order pilot since its inception.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A full breakdown of enforcement actions categorised as successful or unsuccessful is not yet available, as several cases remain ongoing and the pilot is in its early stage. However, this will be considered as part of the pilot’s planned formal evaluation.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the enforcement regime under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 for detering unregistered gas works.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR) which address the safe installation, maintenance, and use of gas systems, in commercial and domestic premises. These regulations require that no employer or self-employed person shall carry out gas work if they are not registered with the Gas Safe Register (GSR). HSE and Local Authorities regulate this through enforcement powers set under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Enforcement powers available to regulators include prosecution, prohibition notices and improvement notices.
HSE applies the principles laid down in the published Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS) and Enforcement Management Model (EMM) to ensure that enforcement action is targeted, consistent and proportionate to the health and safety risks present and the seriousness of the breach.
In 2024/2025, HSE issued 44 prohibition notices in relation to unregistered gas work against 42 businesses and prosecuted 3 individuals for illegal gas work. In addition, GSR conducted 522 site investigations into unregistered gas work.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to introduce additional preventative measures to reduce unregistered gas works.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the enforcing authority for gas businesses and engineers (including self- employed gas engineers) who work in people's homes. Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR) requires engineers undertaking gas work to be competent, registered with Gas Safe Register (GSR), and to work in accordance with the appropriate standards and in a way that does not put people in danger.
HSE and Local Authorities regulate this through enforcement powers set under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Enforcement powers available to regulators include prosecution, prohibition notices and improvement notices. GSR also has a dedicated team to investigate allegations of gas work by unregistered engineers and businesses (illegal gas fitters) and provides HSE with evidence of these activities.
In addition to this, GSR publishes a range of gas safety information and guidance on its website, and regularly runs media campaigns to promote key gas safety messages to the public. This includes promoting and delivering the annual national safety campaign “Gas Safety Week” which has wide ranging coverage.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimates her Department has for the number of crimes committed against, or on the grounds of, (a) mosques, (b) synagogues, (c) churches in England and Wales in each year since 2020.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold information on whether police recorded crimes were committed against, or on the grounds, of places of worship.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the press release of 26 December 2025 on defence exports, what proportion of UK defence export contracts in 2025 included participation by small and medium‑sized enterprises; and what steps the Department is taking to increase SME involvement in future export programmes.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The contracts the press release includes are significant in scope and led by large Prime contractors. While these contracts will involve SME subcontractors, the Department does not hold data on the proportion of SME value, as that is a matter for the Prime.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) supports SMEs to export through our Export Faculty, which supports SMEs to access these opportunities. The Faculty membership grew from around 1,900 to over 2,500 SMEs in 2025.
The new Defence Office for Small Business Growth will further boost support for SMEs, signposting sources of expert advice including the Export Faculty and delivering on our target to increase MOD’s spend with SMEs by £2.5 billion by May 2028.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with refence to his Department's oral statement of 18 December 2025 on Local Government Reorganisation, Official Report col 1132, what information his Department holds comparing the rate of housebuilding in reorganised council areas compared to before they were reorganised.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The requested information is not held by my Department.
Housebuilding data is collected on current local authority district boundaries only, in accordance with the single data list which can be found on gov.uk here.
My Department publishes an annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’, which is the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply. This includes estimates of net additional homes in each local authority, in each financial year, from 2012-13 to 2024-25. This data can be found in Live Table 123 on gov.uk here.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the press release of 26 December 2025 on defence exports, what export promotion activities were undertaken by the Department in 2025; and what assessment has been made of their effectiveness in securing new defence export contracts.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy made clear that “The new Office of Defence Exports (ODE) means responsibility for defence exports has been unified under the control of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). This creates a Government-to-Government exports offer which reflects what our allies and our industry need”. The ODE will help deliver our commitments to boost UK export potential.
The MOD and wider HMG participated in nine international tradeshows in 2025, including DSEI UK. The Department continually seeks feedback on the effectiveness of HMG export promotion activities from industry and international partners, and prioritises participation in future tradeshows based on an assessment of future opportunities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to consult voluntary sector organisations on the costs of immigration policy.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in a Fairer Pathway to Settlement, announced that the standard qualifying period for settlement will rise from 5 to 10 years. However, we have proposed that contributions to life and work in the UK should reduce a person’s time to settlement. This includes work done in the community, such as volunteering.
The earned settlement model, including how volunteering should impact a person’s time to settlement, is currently subject to a public consultation, which closes on 12 February 2026. We encourage voluntary sector organisations to participate and provide their perspective on the proposals.
Wider measures contained within the “Restoring Order and Control” policy statement will be the subject of targeted engagement with relevant organisations at appropriate points during policy development.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints relating to the condition of military home accommodation were received in the last 12 months; and how many of those properties were included in recently reported upgrades.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Condition of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) is not a categorisation used by the Department’s Industry Partner, Pinnacle, when recording complaints. Therefore, this information is not held in the format requested and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025 Pinnacle received a total of 4,408 individual complaints in relation to SFA.
For the Department to determine which of those complaints fall into the scope of ‘condition of SFA’, Pinnacle would be required to review a total of 4,408 complaints (with an average of 10 minutes per complaint). Therefore, at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total value of UK defence exports was in 2025.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The figure in the press release stating the UK secures over £20 billion in defence exports to allies in 2025 published on 26 December 2025 refers to the value of several significant and already publicised defence export deals agreed in 2025.
The Ministry of Defence does not publish country level data for defence exports. The most recently published defence export statistics, covering 2023, details exports by destination region.