Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much HM Land Registry has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
HM Land Registry (HMLR) has spent £52,336 on translation and interpretation services, including sign-language interpretation, in the previous 5 years as below.
The significant majority of the expenditure relates to translating HMLR official documents into Welsh under the statutory requirements set out in the Welsh Language Act 1993.
2020-21 14,718
2021-22 10,357
2022-23 8,917
2023-24 6,955
2024-25 11,389
Grand Total 52,336
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 list the titles of all the events organised by Civil Service networks in his Department since 2017.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many (a) single sex and (b) gender neutral bathroom facilities his Department provides in its main Whitehall building.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG’S main Whitehall building, in (Fry) 2 Marsham Street has 60 single sex toilets with 3 cubicles in each, and 0 urinals. We do not have non-gendered universal toilets (individual self-contained lockable toilet rooms which contain a toilet, washbasin and hand-drying facilities). However, we do have 10 accessible toilets for our wheelchair users.
(Fry) 2 Marsham Street does not have any gender-neutral toilets (i.e. toilets where users, of any gender, share a single space containing toilet cubicles, urinal facilities and shared hand washing facilities).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps has he taken to help tackle council tax fraud.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Council tax is administered by local authorities. It is therefore for them to manage and address any potential cases of fraud in the council tax system. Councils have powers to impose penalties on households which knowingly provide false information as well as a range of powers to recover and enforce unpaid council tax. Our plain English guide to council tax highlights councils’ powers to address fraud. The government will continue to keep these powers under review.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the number of fire service call outs in response to fires involving solar panels in England for each of the last five years.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England through the Incident Recording System (IRS), which includes the cause of fire and source of ignition. These statistics are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-statistics.
However, the IRS does not record whether an incident involved solar panels. As a result, the Department does not hold data on the number of fire service call outs specifically involving solar panels for the last five years.
Additional information is available here: Number of fires in England with “solar panel” or “photovoltaic panel” mentioned in the additional information free text - GOV.UK. This dataset is based on free-text searches for “solar panel” and “photovoltaic panel” in IRS records, by calendar year. As these results are not systematically categorised, accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Mentions of solar panels may not be closely linked to the fire, as the phrase “solar panel” may have been included in the free-text as part of a wider context, and some FRSs provide no free-text data. The dataset was last analysed and published in 2023, covering the calendar year to December 2022.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the number of first-time house buyers in Lincolnshire in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department does not collect data on the number of first-time buyers.
The Office for National Statistics publishes data on first-time buyer mortgage sales by local authority in the UK. They can be found on its website here. Data covers the period between 2006 and 2024. Data for 2025 has not yet been published.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of social housing was occupied by people born overseas in each of the last five years.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Housing is a devolved matter, with each of the four nations of the UK developing their own policies and data collections to monitor the impact of them.
The English Housing Survey published by my Department, which can be found on gov.uk here, shows that households living in social housing in England with a non-UK national lead tenant comprised:
It is important to note that such households can contain UK nationals as well as non-UK national lead tenants.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what (a) training and (b) resources her Department has provided to fire and rescue services to respond to fires at large photovoltaic solar developments.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
It is the responsibility of fire and rescue authorities to ensure firefighters receive the training they need to safely respond to incidents, and to do so in light of their individual areas’ risk profiles and Community Risk Management Plans.
We will continue to work closely with stakeholders across the sector to ensure fire and rescue services have the resources they need to protect communities. Standalone fire and rescue authorities will see an increase in core spending power of up to £69.1 million in 2025-26: including the National Insurance Contribution Grant, this is an increase of 3.6% in cash terms compared to 2024-25. Decisions on how their resources are best deployed to meet their core functions and mitigate risks in their local areas are a matter for each fire and rescue authority.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what measures his Department has in place to run critical services in the event of a major internet outage.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Providing critical services in the event of a major internet outage requires that the department has suitable technology solutions in place, that services are well designed and governed, recovery requirements are assessed and they are aligned with business continuity plans.
The department has tested plans in place to keep the department functioning in response to the most serious risks facing the UK, including those that could come about as a result of a significant loss of power, like a major internet outage. As part of wider resilience planning in government, MHCLG works with local partners on resilient communication methods which support contact in the event of a power or internet outage.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocations to Lincolnshire since 2023.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
UKSPF provides a total of £3.5 billion of funding for local investment over four years (2022-26), with all places in the UK receiving an allocation via a funding formula. The funding methodologies for the periods 2022-25 and 2025-26 are published on gov.uk.
Changes were made to the English allocation methodology for 2025-26 to support mayoral combined authorities with capital for early development of local growth plans and local priority investments, as well as targeting places with the highest levels of deprivation.
The county of Lincolnshire received a total of £34.7m (including a £1.97m Multiply allocation) across 2022-25 and a further £14.8m of UKSPF funding for 2025-26 through the newly established Greater Lincolnshire Combined Authority to deliver interventions in line with their local priorities.