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, which countries accounted for the largest share of UK defence exports 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.
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 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 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 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 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, 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.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the (a) introduction of pay-per-mile road tax for electric vehicles and (b) changes to fuel duty freezes on small and medium-sized businesses in the logistics sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty. The taxation of motoring is a critical source of funding for public services and investment in infrastructure.
All UK-registered electric and plug-in hybrid cars will pay eVED. Other vehicle types such as vans, buses, coaches, motorcycles and HGVs will be out of scope of the tax upon its introduction. This is because the transition to electric for these vehicle types is less advanced than for cars at this stage.
At Budget 2025, the Government also announced continued support for people and businesses by extending the temporary 5p fuel duty cut until the end of August 2026. Rates will then gradually return to previous levels. The planned increase in line with inflation for 2026-27 will not take place, with the government increasing fuel duty rates in line with RPI from April 2027. This will save the average van driver £100 next year compared to previous plans, and the average HGV driver more than £800.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to ensure that animal rescue and rehoming centres are subject to the same licensing requirements as other animal-related establishments.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in the Animal Welfare Strategy, Defra will launch a consultation on licensing domestic rescue and rehoming organisations.