Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will commission an assessment of the value for money of vice-chancellors’ salaries in universities which are in receipt of public money.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Higher education (HE) providers are independent and therefore responsible for decisions around pay, including for Vice-Chancellors and other senior staff. The government does not have a role in intervening in pay and staffing matters.
The department acknowledges that Vice-Chancellors manage large and complex organisations, and therefore, deserve a salary that reflects the responsibilities and challenges of their roles.
However, Vice-Chancellors' salaries should not be excessive or disproportionate. Where providers are facing financial challenges, we expect them to work with staff and unions to help identify how best to reduce unnecessary spend. All efficiency measures taken by the sector should provide better long-term value both for students and for the country.
In addition, transparency is crucial for students, staff, and the public. Therefore, the Office for Students, the independent regulator in England, requires HE providers to provide and publish justifications for Vice-Chancellors' remuneration. If concerns arise regarding senior staff pay, the Office for Students has the authority to conduct independent reviews to ensure that a provider’s governance arrangements are appropriate and effective.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to enhance the (a) remit and (b) powers of Town and Parish Councils following the replacement of District and County Councils by unitary authorities; and what the proposed relationship between those two levels of local authorities will be after reorganisation.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The English Devolution White Paper was clear that we know people value the role of governance at the community scale. All levels of local government have a part to play in bringing improved structures to their area through reorganisation. We will therefore want to see stronger community arrangements when reorganisation happens in the way councils engage at a neighbourhood or area level.
Local authorities act independently of central government. Town and parish councils can work with other tiers of local government to determine how they can best serve their communities in their area.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will expand the statutory requirements for local authorities to make mandatory the provision of free journeys for companions of people with (a) physical disabilities, (b) visual impairment and (c) learning disabilities who cannot travel on buses without those companions.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age, currently sixty-six. The ENCTS costs around £700 million annually and any changes to the statutory obligations, such as extending the eligibility criteria, would therefore need to be carefully considered for its impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability.
Local authorities in England have the power to go beyond their statutory obligations under the ENCTS and offer additional discretionary concessions, such as offering companion passes for those travelling with someone eligible for the ENCTS.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what positions other than (a) new regional mayors and (b) parish and town councillors will elections be held in May 2026 in areas where local authority elections have been postponed for 12 months.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The postponed elections of councillors to the county councils of East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and West Sussex and the unitary councils of Isle of Wight and Thurrock are due to take place in May 2026. In addition, scheduled elections of councillors to district councils within the county areas listed above are due to take place in May 2026.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the (a) earliest and (b) latest dates are at which she expects elections to be held to (i) the new unitary authority for the area currently covered by Hampshire County Council and (ii) other new unitary authorities for areas covered by County Councils whose elections have been postponed.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Government has agreed to postpone scheduled local elections for Surrey, Norfolk and Suffolk; Essex and Thurrock; Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; East Sussex and West Sussex from May 2025, until May 2026 only. This postponement is crucial in order to ensure that we can reorganise local government and deliver devolution as quickly as possible. For any area in which elections are postponed, we will work with areas to move to elections to new ‘shadow’ unitary councils as soon as possible as is the usual arrangement in the process of local government reorganisation. The exact date of elections to new unitary authorities in any area will depend on the proposals that are developed and submitted to government by councils in that area, and the decisions that are taken on implementing any such proposal. We also intend for Mayoral elections to take place as soon as possible in these areas.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her policy is on retaining parliamentary constituency boundaries when grouping the areas currently covered by county councils to form the wider areas to be covered by new unitary authorities.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local government boundaries are not directly related to Parliamentary constituency boundaries. Local government boundary changes may be considered when undertaking a future Parliamentary constituency boundary review.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on patient confidentiality in relation to sharing information on (a) inquiry reports and (b) other relevant information on killings by mentally ill people with the (i) families of their victims and (ii) general public; and what his policy is on (A) publishing independent homicide reports and (B) intervening to consider publication in such cases, in the context of patient confidentiality.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on how much and what proportion of the annual budgets of the BBC (a) World Service and (b) Monitoring Service are funded by FCDO; and what discussions he has had with the BBC on preventing cuts in those services.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government provides approximately one-third of the funding for the BBC World Service, with the remainder funded from the BBC Licence Fee. The BBC are operationally and editorially independent and set the budget for the World Service. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provided £104.4 million of grant funding to the World Service in 2023/24, the most recent year for which there are published audited accounts.
FCDO Ministers engage routinely with the BBC on the World Service. The BBC discussed their plans for the World Service in 2025/26 with the FCDO, as part of the Spending Review process.
HMG does not provide any funding for BBC Monitoring.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of including within the terms of reference for the Independent Review of the Loan Charge consideration of the (a) mis-selling by scheme promoters, (b) advice on legality given by accountants, (c) impact of retrospective pursuit on mental health and welfare and (d) measures for protection against recurrence in future; and if she will take steps to revise the terms of reference to include those matters.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 23 January, the Government launched the Independent Review of the Loan Charge, honouring a commitment made at the Budget.
The objectives of the review are to help bring the matter to a close for those affected; ensure fairness for all taxpayers; and ensure that appropriate support is in place for those subject to the Loan Charge. The terms of reference for the review have been published here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-loan-charge.
As I set out in my letter to the reviewer, we want the review to bring the Loan Charge to a close for those people who still owe substantial amounts of money but can see no way to resolve their debts. It is now for the reviewer to conduct his review and make recommendations to the Government.
The Government is also taking action to prevent disguised remuneration in the future. At the Budget, the Government announced the most ambitious ever package to close the tax gap, raising £6.5 billion of additional tax revenue in 2029-30. The package includes measures to tackle promoters of tax avoidance schemes and to address non-compliance in umbrella companies, where most disguised remuneration now takes place.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent steps he has taken to facilitate the (a) recovery and (b) disclosure of medical records held in (i) the Merlin database and (ii) other Departmental archives of service personnel present at UK atomic bomb tests.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Government is deeply grateful to all those who participated in the UK nuclear testing programme. We recognise their Service and the huge contribution they have made to the UK’s security.
I have asked officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway.
This work will enable us to better understand what information the Department holds in relation to the medical testing of Service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests.