Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits of calculating maintenance loans through net rather than gross household income and (b) impact of that change on single parental income households.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Entitlement to partially means-tested undergraduate loans for living costs is based on the income of the student’s household.
The income used is the total income on which a person is charged income tax at step 1 of the calculation in Section 23 of the Income Tax Act 2007, before the deductions made by HMRC from step 2 onwards of Section 23.
The use of income charged to tax in the household income assessment applies a standard measure of income to calculate a student’s entitlement to living costs support and allows all students to be assessed consistently and fairly. It also ensures that the most support is paid to students from the lowest income families, including those with single parents, who need it most and who are historically under-represented in higher education. It is not intended to be an exact calculation of disposable income for each household.
Information on income is available from HMRC and allows around 1.3 million assessments a year to be carried out quickly and efficiently each year by Student Finance England.
Maximum grants and loans for living and other costs for the 2025/26 academic year have been increased by forecast inflation, 3.1%, based on the RPIX inflation index.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing funding for the specialist (a) care, (b) advice and (c) assessment provided by hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England, due to be published in Spring 2026. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. St Michael’s Hospice in Hereford is receiving £667,020 from this funding. We are also committing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 ensure that hospice contracts reflect the (a) cost of the services they provide and (b) needs of their local populations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England, due to be published in Spring 2026. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. St Michael’s Hospice in Hereford is receiving £667,020 from this funding. We are also committing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding provided to nurseries to deliver the extended free childcare hours without financial shortfall.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.
In the 2025/26 financial year alone, the department has provided over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, increasing to over £9 billion in 2026/27.
The department has announced the largest ever increase to early years pupil premium since its introduction and have delivered a significant tranche of supplementary funding of £75 million through the early years expansion grant.
The department wants to ensure the sector is financially sustainable and confident as it continues to deliver the entitlements and high quality early years provision going forward.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of changing planning laws to ensure developments with full planning permission are (a) completed on time and (b) not able to exist with minimal work on them.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local planning authorities (LPAs) already have a wide range of enforcement powers, with strong penalties for non-compliance, which they can use in instances where development has not taken place in accordance with the relevant planning consent.
These enforcement powers include the power to issue a completion notice which requires a developer to complete their development if it is left uncompleted.
It is for LPAs themselves to decide how and when they use their powers depending on the circumstances of each case.
On 25 May, the government published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out (which can be found on gov.uk here) inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built.
On the same day, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential development, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the government intends bring forward the regulations to implement these measures at the earliest practical opportunity with the new build out reporting framework coming into force from 2026.
The consultations closed on 7 July and responses are currently being analysed.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 16 October 2024 to UIN 8287, what the status is of the proposed rural design guide; and when that guide will be completed.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Following consultation with stakeholders, Active Travel England’s Rural Design Guidance is currently in its final development stages and is expected to be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the forthcoming Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill will include provisions to (a) regulate the use of estate rentcharges on freehold properties, (b) limit enforcement powers available to estate rentcharge holders under Section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925 and (c) provide homeowners with a statutory right to vary estate rentcharge deeds to remove disproportionate enforcement mechanisms.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The use of Sections 121 and 122 of the Law of Property Act 1925 to enforce rent arrears is draconian and wholly inappropriate given alternative means for rentcharge arrears are available.
We will publish an ambitious draft Leasehold and Commonhold reform Bill before the end of the year.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Section 121 of the Law of Property Act 1925 powers on freehold homeowners' ability to sell properties subject to estate rent charges; and whether he has plans to restrict or remove such powers in relation to estate rent charges.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The use of Sections 121 and 122 of the Law of Property Act 1925 to enforce rent arrears is draconian and wholly inappropriate given alternative means for rentcharge arrears are available.
We will publish an ambitious draft Leasehold and Commonhold reform Bill before the end of the year.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Question 8287answered on 16 October 2024, what is the (a) status of the best practice guide to community consultation and engagement and (b) when this guide will be completed.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Following consultation with stakeholders, Active Travel England’s Rural Design Guidance is currently in its final development stages and is expected to be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on meeting the 18-week treatment targets in the Elective Reform Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, having delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025. This marks a vital first step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the National Health Service constitutional standard, by March 2029.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard. Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
Since April, when the Elective Reform Plan came in to effect, the percentage of patient pathways that involved waits of less than 18 weeks for treatment has improved by 2%, rising from 59.8% to 61.8% as of the end of September. This is the best performance since June 2022. The referral-to-treatment waiting list decreased to 7.39 million in September 2025, a reduction of 231,854 since the start of July 2024. But we know there is still much more to do, and we will continue to support NHS trusts to deliver our targets through innovation, sharing best practice to increase productivity and efficiency, and ensuring the best value is delivered.