Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure parity for same-sex couples with other couples in pension inheritance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to ensuring equal treatment for same-sex couples in pension inheritance.
Following a Supreme Court judgment, occupational pension schemes must provide survivor benefits for same-sex spouses and civil partners on the same basis as for mixed-sex spouses and civil partners. Those protections are firmly in place and are protected by law.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle rogue company directors.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I commend the Honourable Member for his relentless work on this issue, and I share his concern, because communities like Portobello Road and Notting Hill Gate should be places where legitimate businesses thrive, not where rogue traders and repeat directors play the system.
Since Budget 2025, action against rogue directors and abusive phoenixism has been stepped up.
£25 million over five years has been allocated to the Insolvency Service to establish a new Abusive Phoenixixm Taskforce, alongside changes to the Company Directors Disqualification Act to widen the circumstances in which directors who break the law can be disqualified.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when Cumulative Impact Assessments for gambling licensing will be introduced.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has now tabled an amendment to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill with the intention of introducing Gambling Impact Assessment (GIAs), formerly referred to as Cumulative Impact Assessments. The implementation date will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he expects to respond to the home buying and selling reform consultation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On 6 October, my Department published two consultations outlining reform proposals to transform home buying and selling. They can be found on gov.uk here and here.
Both consultations closed on 29 December. We are now reviewing the feedback received.
Subject to the outcomes of the analysis being undertaken, we will publish a roadmap setting out further details of our reforms later this year.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies on preventing (a) mass atrocities and (b) genocide of the violence perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces against civilians in (i) El Fasher and (ii) elsewhere in Darfur.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the response provided to the Urgent Question on Sudan: Protection of Civilians on 30 October.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to protect communities vulnerable to flooding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
After 14 years of Conservative Government, we inherited England’s flood defences in their worst state on record.
That is why this Government has announced the largest flooding programme in history to protect homes and businesses across the country.
We will invest £7.9 billion over 10 years protecting 840,000 properties.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when she plans to consult on the valuation rates used to calculate the cost of enfranchisement premiums.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The 2024 Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act sets the method for calculating the price of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition, known as the valuation process.
The Bill removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value, and allows government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium.
Valuation rates will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation, and we have made clear we intend to consult before determining what the rates should be.
Last week the High Court heard challenges to some of the 2024 Act enfranchisement reforms. Leaseholders should be assured that the government is robustly defending those challenges. Following the outcome of the hearing, we will provide further update on the rates consultation.
Once the consultation goes live, we want to hear views from a broad spectrum of stakeholders before making a decision, and we invite all who have an interest to feed these in.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many offences were recorded for enforcement action against delivery e-bikes in the last 12 months.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and other outcomes for motoring offences in England and Wales on an annual basis, as part of the ‘Police powers and procedures: Roads policing’ statistical bulletin. The most recent data, up to 2023, is available here: Police powers and procedures: Roads policing, to December 2023 - GOV.UK
However, the Home Office does not centrally collect data on the type of vehicle involved in the offence.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department has spent on supporting refugees from Ukraine in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Office did not record the costs of supporting refugees from Ukraine in financial year 2023-24 separately from its wider work in this area, and the requested data could only be isolated and verified now for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Joe Powell (Labour - Kensington and Bayswater)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including publicly accessible trust data in the Register of Overseas Entities.
Answered by Justin Madders
While the Government remains committed to enhancing transparency in relation to trusts within the Register of Overseas entities (ROE), we must carefully consider the privacy risks that come with it. The government will be laying regulations in due course to allow applications to be made for public access to unpublished trust information on the ROE in circumstances to be specified in the regulations. We are also currently reviewing responses to the public consultation on Transparency of Land Ownership Involving Trusts which provided a range of views and perspectives.