Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps are being taken to improve intelligence sharing between the armed forces and other security agencies.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The Strategic Defence Review reaffirmed the importance of greater integration across Defence, the intelligence agencies and wider Government to deliver a coherent and integrated national security response to increasingly complex threats. The Military Intelligence Services (MIS) is a single intelligence enterprise across the Ministry of Defence, bringing together our entire intelligence capabilities and organisations to operate as a more integrated and effective force.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has been made of the level of threat from hostile state actors to the UK.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The Government, including the Ministry of Defence, keeps the threat posed by hostile state actors under constant review through the intelligence and security agencies, military intelligence services and other national security partners.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of the UK’s cyber defence capabilities.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

Defence prioritises cyber security and regularly reviews its resilience through the GovAssure scheme. This process relies on the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) to assess risk and drive improvements in cyber security and resilience. We are committed to the delivery of our objectives under the publicly available Cyber Resilience Strategy for Defence.

This is reported to the Cabinet Office on an annual basis. Details of specific assessments are not shared publicly for security reasons.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure the safety of UK service personnel deployed overseas.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

We take the security of all our personnel deployed overseas seriously and robust measures are in place to protect our Armed Forces personnel. Their safety is our top priority. Although for operational security reasons the Department do not comment on specifics for this activity, the Ministry of Defence keeps the force protection measures of our Service personnel under constant review.

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 adequacy of access to social care services for the elderly.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales

In England, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to meet the eligible needs of the people in their area including the elderly.

Local authorities in England are also tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering adult social care, specifically how local authorities are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. All reports and ratings are published on the CQC’s website.

The Government is making over £4.6 billion of additional funding available in England for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding he has allocated for homelessness prevention programmes in the current financial year.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

To support local authorities, we have introduced significant reforms to how we deliver funding to local authorities, to provide multi-year certainty and greater flexibility for them to be able to tailor services to meet local needs.

The government is providing £3.6 billion funding for homelessness services from 2026/27 to 2028/29, including just over £2.2 billion for local authorities to prevent and address homelessness and rough sleeping through the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant. £969m of Temporary accommodation funding, previously part of the Homelessness Prevention Grant is distributed using the new Fair Funding Assessment which, with a new built-in formula now also reflects proportional need for temporary accommodation across the country. You can find out more about how allocations were made here.

In addition to the ringfenced Homelessness and Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant, local authorities are able to draw from their wider funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement to support deliver homelessness and rough sleeping outcomes.

You can find local authority level allocations on gov.uk here.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities to tackle homelessness.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Homelessness is a devolved issue, and the government set out our plans to tackle homelessness in England through the National Plan to End Homelessness in December 2025, which you can find on gov.uk here.

Our Plan sets out a credible plan to get back on track to ending homelessness, including medium-term change to support local authorities and public services to shift from crisis to prevention through cross government targets, £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next 3 years and new duties on services to work together to prevent homelessness.

In the short-term, we are taking action to tackle the worst forms of temporary accommodation and supporting local authorities to develop better alternatives by ending the unlawful use of B&Bs for families and continuing to work with local authorities with the highest use of B&B accommodation over the next through years through an expanded Emergency Accommodation Reduction Programme backed by £30 million funding.

We will also halve long-term rough sleeping by the end of this parliament, including through £159 million new funding for supported housing, £37 million for voluntary, community and faith organisations, and £15 million for councils to test new approaches.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of rough sleepers.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The government publishes quarterly and annual data on the estimated number of people sleeping rough in England on gov.uk here.

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 adequacy of access to temporary accommodation for vulnerable households.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Homelessness Code of Guidance sets out the statutory duties of local housing authorities in England to help prevent and relieve homelessness. Where homelessness cannot be prevented, local authorities have a duty to provide temporary accommodation to households that are eligible, unintentionally homeless and in priority need. You can access the Code of Guidance on gov.uk here.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of youth services in local communities.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient educational and recreational activities for young people.

On the 10th December, the Government published ‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’ alongside a State of the Nation report. It is backed by over £500 million of funding over the next few years from DCMS for things to do outside of school, support when and where young people need it, more safe spaces and access to trusted adults. This includes investing in selected local areas to develop high-quality youth offers and local leadership through our Local Youth Transformation Programme. Learnings will be shared across the youth and local government sectors to establish national best practices.

We have also worked to ensure that metrics covering youth services are included within the Local Outcomes Framework under the priority outcome very Child Achieving and Thriving’ to increase consistency and quality of youth service delivery across local areas.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps he has taken to protect critical national infrastructure from cyber threats.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Government is working tirelessly to improve the cyber resilience of our most critical services and systems, including the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).

The Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill, currently going through Parliament, will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences to tackle the evolving cyber threats we face. The Bill will protect more essential and digital services from cyber attacks, enable cyber regulators to be more effective, and provide the Government with the flexibility to respond to new threats in the cyber landscape.

In addition, the new Cyber Resilience Index, currently under development, will allow us to monitor progress of interventions against cyber resilience across the CNI landscape, ensuring that they keep pace with the evolving threat.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for social housing, including changes to the stock of social and affordable housing; and what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the devolved Administrations on this matter.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Local authorities are responsible for designing and managing their own housing allocations policies to meet local need, including managing their own housing registers (waiting lists).

The government has launched a review into how effectively social housing providers use their properties, including exploring ways to reduce the time homes are left empty, encourage greater movement within the sector to address under-occupancy and overcrowding, and support people to move into more suitable properties.

Housing is a devolved matter but my Department regularly engages with the devolved administrations across a range of issues, including housing.

I otherwise refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statements made on 2 July 2025 (HCWS771) and 28 January 2026 (HCWS1283), and the Social and Affordable Homes Programme policy statement published on 7 November 2025, which can be found on gov.uk here.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help support timely investment in wastewater infrastructure for new housing developments; and what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the devolved Administrations on this matter.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government recognises the importance of wastewater provision on new developments. Water companies are under a statutory duty to provide new sewage connections to residential properties, as well as planning to meet the needs of growth as part of Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans.

The water resources planning guideline published by the Environment Agency and Ofwat, sets out how those companies should forecast demand for water based on existing customers and planned levels of household and non-household growth, with the number of planned developments being based on published local plans.

My officials work closely with other government departments, especially Defra, on matters relating to wastewater capacity and infrastructure. I would also note that responsibility for water and wastewater capacity is devolved, and that devolved institutions are best placed to determine the appropriate approach in their respective nations.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of defence training exercises with allied nations.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The UK Armed Forces constantly reviews the effectiveness of its military exercises according to key metrics to ensure the activity is having the desired impact and improving force readiness, capability, interoperability with allies or deterrence messaging.

The UK continues to enhance the effectiveness of its training exercises with NATO and other allies across all domains, including air, land and maritime. Such examples include the ongoing Op FIRECREST Carrier Strike Group deployment in the High North, Exercise SEA BREEZE, a maritime countermeasures exercise with NATO allies, and the upcoming multinational air exercise COBRA WARRIOR Pt 2.

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 make it his policy to increase the level of funding to local authorities to deliver statutory services.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local authority funding is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland.

The government recognises the significant pressures that councils are facing and is making good on long overdue promises to fundamentally update the way we fund local authorities. We are delivering fairer funding, targeting money where it is needed most through the first multi-year Settlement in a decade.

The 2026-27 Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26, this includes over £4 billion new grant funding.

We are empowering local leaders and giving them flexibility to prioritise spending according to local need.

In England, the new Local Outcomes Framework will be used to understand progress across 16 priority outcomes in local areas. This will improve transparency and enable the public, government, local government and local partners to have a shared view of progress.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure accountability and transparency in local government spending.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local authority funding is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland.

The government recognises the significant pressures that councils are facing and is making good on long overdue promises to fundamentally update the way we fund local authorities. We are delivering fairer funding, targeting money where it is needed most through the first multi-year Settlement in a decade.

The 2026-27 Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26, this includes over £4 billion new grant funding.

We are empowering local leaders and giving them flexibility to prioritise spending according to local need.

In England, the new Local Outcomes Framework will be used to understand progress across 16 priority outcomes in local areas. This will improve transparency and enable the public, government, local government and local partners to have a shared view of progress.

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 adequacy of the level of affordable housing.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statements made on 28 January 2026 (HCWS1283) and 2 July 2025 (HCWS771).

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 trends in the level of brownfield site utilisation in new housing construction.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

My Department publishes a release entitled ‘Land use change’ on previously developed (brownfield) land. Yearly data is available from 2013-14 to 2021-22 and can be found here.

My Department is working to update the land use statistics, which includes the new residential addresses release, to take advantage of new, more granular data from Ordnance Survey. Publication is expected to resume this year.

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 planning restrictions on the level of housing supply.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

My Department has made no assessment of the potential impact of undefined planning restrictions on housing supply.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statements made on 28 January 2026 (HCWS1283) and 2 July 2025 (HCWS771).

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that new developments include adequate infrastructure and community services.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in December 2024 makes clear that local planning authorities should plan positively for the provision and use of shared spaces, community facilities, transport and other infrastructure to enhance the sustainability of communities and residential environments, taking into account local strategies to improve health, social and cultural wellbeing for all sections of the community.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we consulted on a new NPPF. That consultation, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals relating to community facilities and public service infrastructure.

We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken to improve safeguarding for victims of modern slavery.

Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Modern slavery is a vicious crime that dehumanises people. Safeguarding victims of modern slavery, and human trafficking is a priority, and this Government is committed to tackling it in all its forms and to giving survivors the support and certainty they need to recover.

Child victims are supported through statutory local authority support, and the Government-funded Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) service, which provides advocacy and specialist support to children referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and the professionals supporting them. In September 2025, the invitation-to-tender for the national contract was launched, which will expand the current service coverage from two-thirds of local authorities to all child victims referred into the NRM in England and Wales.

Adult victims of modern slavery identified through the NRM in England and Wales can access the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC). The MSVCC provides safe accommodation where necessary, financial support and a support worker to help victims access a range of services, including healthcare and legal advice. The Government will enhance support available to victims through the forthcoming Support for Victims of Modern Slavery contract, which will replace the MSVCC in 2027.

The Government has also taken steps to strengthen safeguarding and support for victims. We have launched an updated NRM referral form to improve the quality of referrals, better reflect victims’ experiences and support more informed and consistent decision-making.

To add, we understand that embedding the voices of people with lived experience in policymaking is imperative to achieving better outcomes. We are strengthening our engagement with existing sector-led Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAPs). These panels, coordinated by trusted experts, offer a safe and inclusive environment and provide access to a broad range of survivor perspectives. In March 2026, we held eight survivor engagement workshops to better understand lived experience on the themes of definitions, identification, and decision-making. The evidence we have received is informing the on-going policy development to improve the process of identifying victims of modern slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants are awaiting reassessment for Personal Independence Payment.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)

The total number of cases outstanding at all stages of the Personal Independence Payment Award Review (PIP) process, at the end of May 2026 is 300,000.

Please note this data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard and represents England and Wales only. The figure has been rounded to the nearest 10,000 cases.

All claims remain in payment whilst award reviews are in progress and award increases identified during a planned review will be backdated as appropriate. Should customers report a change of circumstance and trigger an unplanned review, their claim will be prioritised alongside new claims.

We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner. Reducing customer journey times for our claimants is a priority for the Department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service.

We know PIP can be improved, which is why we launched the Timms Review, which is being co-produced with disabled people and their organisations to ensure the benefit is fair and fit for the future. The Review aims to report to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in Autumn 2026 and we have committed to reporting its outcomes to Parliament.