Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether compliance obligations related to defence procurement will be assessed for potential reduction.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Through our acquisition reforms we are streamlining our processes and taking risk-based approaches to procurement. We will focus assurance activity where it is most needed, reducing bureaucracy to drive pace in delivery, while ensuring compliance with the Department’s legal obligations.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to commission external reviews of digital compliance regulations.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government's independent regulators regularly review regulations and provide their independent recommendations to the Secretary of State to ensure that these regulations are effective and support businesses within the sector.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how frequently his Department reviews compliance costs for the technology sector.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Sections 28–31 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 set the legislative requirements for the inclusion of statutory review provisions in secondary legislation, including that a report of the first review must be published within five years of the relevant legislation's commencement date and subsequent reports published at intervals not exceeding five years. In the absence of a review provision, the post-implementation review statutory guidance made under section 31 of the act states that policies should still be subject to proportionate monitoring, evaluation and non-statutory review, where appropriate.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how often her Department assesses compliance costs associated with local government administration.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department regularly engages with authorities across the country to understand the administrative costs councils face, and to work with the sector to reduce these.
The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The majority of funding in the Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department takes to calculate compliance costs education-related regulations.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department assesses education-related regulation compliance costs for businesses and households as per the Better Regulation Framework, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-regulation-framework.
This typically involves a proportionate assessment of the costs following the steps outlined in the framework:
These RIAs are scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) as required and published alongside legislation when laid before Parliament.
The RPC also publishes opinions of the department’s RIAs, all of which in the past ten years have been Green-rated as fit-for-purpose. These can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/rpc-opinions-for-department-for-education.
Compliance costs of regulations to public sector services such as local authorities, schools and children’s services are estimated in a similar way. This can involve consultation with impacted stakeholders, analysis of expected administration and adaptation costs, evidence from similar regulations and modelling of potential impacts as appropriate.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on health technology assessment methods for evaluating novel therapies for Alzheimer's disease.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department officials have regular discussions with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about a range of topics, including its health technology assessment methods.
The NICE develops its guidance independently on the basis of an assessment of the available evidence, in line with its published health technology evaluation manual. The NICE keeps its methods and processes under review to ensure that they are appropriate to emerging new treatments and aligned with best practice.
The NICE has established a Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory (HTA Lab) that aims to address the challenges that may arise in the assessment of innovative health technologies.
The NICE’s HTA Lab carried out a project to identify the key issues that are likely to emerge during the evaluation of the disease modifying treatments for dementia, including those licensed for Alzheimer’s disease. The project concluded that the NICE’s current approach and methods are appropriate for evaluating these treatments. The report is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/our-research-work/hta-lab-projects#dmdts
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Simpler recycling: workplace recycling in England, published on 29 November 2024, whether offices are now required to rinse or wash empty food containers and bottles to place in recyclable waste.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Yes, as of 31 March 2025 all workplaces with ten or more full-time equivalent employees, including offices, must separate out recycling (plastic, metal, glass, paper and card) and food waste for recycling. Recyclables should be rinsed to remove any food or other contaminants to ensure the materials can be recycled.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what her Department's policy is on whether compliance costs reported for financial regulations should be subject to periodic independent verification.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Following the announcement to cut the administrative costs of regulation on businesses by 25% by the end of this Parliament, the government is now taking forward a baselining exercise to understand how much regulation is costing and where it can be reformed to remove unnecessary burdens and achieve its policy objectives more efficiently. We are considering a range of methodologies to ensure our baselining is robust.
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 requires the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to undertake and publish a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) when consulting on any proposal to make or amend rules, to analyse the likely expected costs and benefits arising from the changes. The FCA and PRA are also required to maintain CBA Panels which provide advice on the preparation of CBAs.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data his Department holds on the average duration that civil service employees remain under performance management before a resolution is reached.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Performance management is managed by individual departments, meaning this information is not held centrally. In March, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster announced that the Government will be strengthening performance processes for the SCS.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2025 to Question 28295 on Wood-burning Stoves: Health Hazards, what the (a) terms of reference and (b) timetable is of his Department’s review of options for reducing emissions from domestic burning.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to taking action to clean up our air and protecting the public from the harm of pollution. Domestic solid fuel burning accounted for 20% of PM2.5 emissions in 2023, with indoor wood burning accounting for 11% of total PM2.5. The Government concluded a rapid review of the existing Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) and published a statement of the rapid review’s key findings on 30 January 2025. Later in 2025 we will publish a revised Environmental Improvement Plan, to protect and restore our natural environment. It will be a clearer, prioritised plan for achieving environmental outcomes, including improving air quality through action on PM2.5.