Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing parish councils' staff with additional support.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the day to day running of their organisation and workforces. This includes parish and town councils. Government has no remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of local councils, except where specific provision has been made in legislation.
Parish councils are accountable for their actions to their electorate and must act within their statutory powers. Local people can hold councils to account, through the parish councils' own complaints processes.
Central government has no current plans to take any further legislative steps on this matter.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take legislative steps to make parish councils more accountable to their constituents.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the day to day running of their organisation and workforces. This includes parish and town councils. Government has no remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of local councils, except where specific provision has been made in legislation.
Parish councils are accountable for their actions to their electorate and must act within their statutory powers. Local people can hold councils to account, through the parish councils' own complaints processes.
Central government has no current plans to take any further legislative steps on this matter.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take legislative steps to tackle the mismanagement of parish councils.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the day to day running of their organisation and workforces. This includes parish and town councils. Government has no remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of local councils, except where specific provision has been made in legislation.
Parish councils are accountable for their actions to their electorate and must act within their statutory powers. Local people can hold councils to account, through the parish councils' own complaints processes.
Central government has no current plans to take any further legislative steps on this matter.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the DVLA webchat.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In 2025-2026, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s contact centre answered 8,929,400 customer contacts, of which 964,576 were answered via webchat. The webchat service provides customers with an online option to support them when they are using one of the DVLA’s digital services or if they have a general enquiry.
The DVLA’s webchat also incorporates a chatbot function which automatically answered 498,780 customers in 2025-26 without any human intervention. The chatbot function is available constantly, allowing the DVLA to answer some customer enquiries outside of its standard opening hours.
In 2025-26, the average time taken to handle an enquiry via the webchat channel was around 90 seconds quicker than the telephone option.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the support available to schools for hockey provision.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Schools play a vital role in giving many pupils their first experience of playing sport, including hockey, in a structured and inclusive environment. This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that every child can access high quality physical education and school sport.
That is why, in June 2025, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced a new approach to PE and school sport, focused on building strong partnerships between schools, local clubs and National Governing Bodies of sport, such as England Hockey, to support greater participation and physical activity.
National Governing Bodies provide valuable resources, workforce development and teacher support to help schools deliver high‑quality sporting opportunities, both within the PE curriculum and through enrichment activity. The department is preparing to procure a national partner to lead the new PE and School Sport Partnerships, which will provide an opportunity to regularly assess the adequacy of support available to schools across PE and school sport, including hockey provision.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of removing the wear and tear allowance on (a) the finances of childminders and (b) early years and childcare provision in Chichester constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Under HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital’ system, childminders can still claim tax relief for things they buy, repair, or replace for their business, such as furniture, equipment, and household items. This change standardises the way that sole traders record and claim business expenses and means that any business expenses related to childminding will be included in childminder’s tax calculations.
We are however aware of the strength of feeling amongst childminders and those who work with them. We have been talking regularly to Coram Pacey, HMRC and others to understand the issue, the effect that it is having on the childminding sector and to make sure that the concerns of childminders are clearly understood. The department continues to support childminders, who provide high-quality and flexible early education in a way that families across the country greatly value.
The expansion to 30 hours per week of government funded childcare will save families using their full entitlement up to £7,500 per eligible child per year, compared to paying for it themselves.
Thanks to the hard work of early years providers and local authorities, over half a million children have already benefitted from the expansion of 15 funded hours for children aged nine months to two years old, and many parents have increased their working hours, boosting family income and lifting more children out of poverty.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has explored the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnostics.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Most modern electrocardiogram (ECG) machines already include algorithm-based decision support to assist with interpretation and to generate an automated report. As with all diagnostic tests, any automated output must be interpreted by a suitably qualified clinician in the context of the individual patient’s clinical presentation. The Government is engaging with partners developing enhanced ECG technologies, to support wider adoption as evidence and readiness allow.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when self-referral to community audiologists will be enabled on the NHS app.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to enabling patients to access digital health and care services to manage their health. As part of its work to support self-referral services for National Health Service patients in the musculoskeletal community, the Government is assessing how to develop these services for other communities, including those of audiologists. Work is expected to take place this financial year and will consider whether the NHS App is the best mechanism for self-referral.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether support is available to rural households and businesses reliant on LPG in addition to the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) is available in England to support low-income households reliant on LPG who are facing a crisis and need immediate financial support. It is for local authorities to determine individual need and the most appropriate form of support, using a person centred, needs based approach in line with the Fund’s guidance. The CRF does not offer business support.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the context of SEND reforms, how her Department plans to implement identification of special education needs in children younger than five years old; and how early intervention will be enacted.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
We are consulting on proposals to reform the special educational needs and disabilities system, including strengthening early identification and support in early years settings. We also propose introducing a fast track for a Specialist Provision Package for children under 5 whose needs are complex and identified at an early stage and to work with the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England on these proposals, including improving information sharing between health professionals and local authorities.
We have already made the commitment that Every Best Start Family Hub will have a Best Start Inclusion Practitioner, who is a dedicated professional who works across hubs and outreach sites to support early identification and support children with emerging needs, particularly those aged 0 to 5.
Together, these reforms will mean children’s needs will be identified earlier, gaps will be closed sooner, and more children will make strong progress in line with our Best Start in Life ambition.