Kieran Mullan

Paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May states:

“By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.”

This is known as the Law Officers’ Convention, and it applies to your question.

The electricity generation and heat supply cost estimates from geothermal energy in the UK commissioned by Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and undertaken by Ove Arup & Partners Limited (Arup) will have completed by the of this calendar year (2024). DESNZ are aiming for this work to be published in the first half of next year, but at this time cannot give an exact date as to when the publication of the outcomes will be.

In December 2024, DSIT launched a feasibility study on methods and data to research the impact of smartphones and social media on children. DSIT awarded the contract through an impartial tender process, which required all bids to declare any conflicts of interest. The winning bid was submitted by a consortium of academics with extensive published, peer-reviewed research on the topic, from nine of the UK’s leading universities. Following scientific best practice, the research team pre-published the details of their evidence synthesis, which is available here: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42025641338.

I have been engaged in discussions with the Deputy Prime Minister and my other honourable friends to discuss the Government’s plan to reform planning.

This Government was elected on a mandate to build the homes that Britain desperately needs while protecting nature including National Landscapes. That is exactly what we will do.

The government has allocated £670 million in Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding in the financial year 2025 to 2026. BSIP funding is allocated directly to local transport authorities in England.

On 18 December 2024, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced an additional £515 million in support for local authorities (including combined authorities) in England to mitigate the additional impact of the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions on their budgets, including their transport budgets. More information can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updated-explanatory-note-on-the-employer-national-insurance-contribution-grant-2025-to-2026.

The government is considering a range of development models and financing mechanisms to best meet the objectives of the Euston area while delivering value for money for the taxpayer. Decisions around any further investment at Euston are for the second phase of the Spending Review.

Live grant awards for this financial year total £20.8m, which is in line with historic levels of funding for this scheme. Future budgets are being determined as part of the continuing Spending Review.

The Government expects electrification to play an important role in our programme to achieve our Net Zero 2050 target and improve the passenger experience.

Small businesses including those in the road haulage sector are the beating heart of our communities, and essential to our economic success. This Government will draw on all resources to support these small businesses and boost productivity by delivering commitments made in our nine-point pledge, Plan for Small Business.

We are working on delivering these commitments and announced on 19th September 2024 measures to tackle the scourge of late payments and long payment terms. We are also creating opportunities for UK businesses to compete and supporting small businesses to access the finance they need to scale up and break into new markets.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced continued support for haulage businesses, by extending the 5p fuel duty cut for one year and cancelling the planned inflation increase for 2025-26. This maintains fuel duty rates at the levels set on 23 March 2022 for an additional 12 months and represents a saving of nearly £1,100 for the average HGV in 2025-26.

Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual National Health Service trusts. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

Clinical psychologists are an essential component of the NHS workforce. NHS England’s workforce growth commitment has included significant investment to double the number of NHS commissioned Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training places since 2019/20 to just under 1,100 places in 2024. It is expected this level of commissions will be sustained in the 2025/26 financial year.

However, we know that the NHS has been facing workforce shortages for a number of years and, while there has been growth in the mental health workforce over recent years, more is needed. That is why, as part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.

We are working with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside the refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan, which will revolve around the three shifts to deliver our 10 Year Plan, specifically: moving more care from hospitals to communities; making better use of technology in health and care; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.

The overall elective waiting list stands at 7.48 million patient pathways, with over six million people waiting. We are committed to putting patients first, making sure that patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.

As set out in the Government’s Plan for Change, we will ensure that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015. This includes those patients waiting for mental health services where a referral is made to a medical consultant-led mental health service. The majority of National Health Service mental health care is outside the scope of the elective waiting list and the referral to treatment 18-week constitutional standard.

We know that too many people with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure that mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on hospitals.

The NHS Planning Guidance 2025/26 includes objectives to increase the number of children and young people accessing services to achieve the national ambition for 345,000 additional children and young people aged zero to 25 years old compared to 2019, and to reduce 12 hour accident and emergency waits. We will also ensure every young person has access to a mental health professional at school, and will set up Young Futures hubs in communities, offering open access mental health services for young people.

There are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours, at any grade. The Government has invested in new lifesaving and life-improving research, supporting those diagnosed and living with brain tumours.

In September 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for all cancer patients including those with brain tumours. However, we do not expect to consider the grading of brain tumours as part of the National Cancer Plan.

The target for earlier cancer diagnosis is to diagnose more cancers at stages 1 and 2, because when cancer is diagnosed earlier, there are more potential treatment options and the likelihood of successful treatment is higher. The grading of brain tumours is not directly comparable to the staging of cancers because brain tumours at grade 1 and grade 2 are not considered cancerous. Only brain tumours at grades 3 and 4 are classed as cancerous.

The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) exists to ensure that aviation makes a fair contribution to the public finances and applies to UK-departing flights.

Reforms to APD took effect in April 2023. These included the introduction of the new domestic band for domestic flights, initially set at half the rate for short-haul international flights (except for larger private jets). The domestic band applies to all flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and for 2024/25 is set at £7 for economy passengers.

These reforms also introduced a new ultra long-haul band covering flights that are greater than 5,500 miles from London. This ensures that those who fly furthest, and have the greatest impact on emissions, incur the greatest duty.

The Government keeps all tax policy under review. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy in the round at fiscal events in the context of public finances and any changes will be announced at Budget.

The Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) District Valuer Services (DVS) provides independent, impartial, valuation and professional property advice across the entire public sector, and where public money or public functions are involved. In 2023-24 in total DVS received around 24,500 separate case requests, spread across 139 different case types. The length of time taken to complete a case varies depending on case type and complexity. The VOA does not hold data broken down into timeliness figures for the timeframes specified and as a comparison across all case types.

In 2023-24 the VOA handled around 3,400 cases relating to NHS premises, including over 2,900 cases relating to reimbursement of GP premises costs. Specifically, for cases related to reimbursement of GP premises costs, 55% were completed by DVS in under 3 months, 26% were completed between 3 and 6 months, 15% completed between 6 and 12 months, and 4% took over 12 months to complete. On average it took 121 days to complete a reimbursement of GP premises cost case, including negotiations with GPs and their advisers, so timeframes are not solely within the VOA’s control.

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on car ownership. The tax system encourages the uptake of cars with low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to help meet the UK’s legally binding climate change targets. Cars first registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 pay VED annually according to CO2 emissions. From 1 April 2017, a reformed VED system was introduced for new cars. Under the reformed VED system, zero emission models currently pay nothing on first registration, whilst the most polluting pay over £2,600. In subsequent years, most cars move to a standard rate, currently set at an annual rate of £190. However from April 2025, electric cars will begin to pay VED in the same way as petrol and diesel vehicles, whilst an incentive is maintained for electric cars at the point of purchase.

Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect. The Government annually reviews the rates and thresholds of taxes and reliefs to ensure that they are appropriate and reflect the current state of the economy. As with all taxes, the Government welcomes representations from the public on how the tax system can be improved.

Following the spending audit, the Chancellor has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax to fix the foundations of our economy and address the £22 billion hole the government has inherited. Decisions on how to do that will be taken at the Budget in the round.

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on car ownership. The tax system encourages the uptake of cars with low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to help meet the UK’s legally binding climate change targets. Cars first registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 pay VED annually according to CO2 emissions. From 1 April 2017, a reformed VED system was introduced for new cars. Under the reformed VED system, zero emission models currently pay nothing on first registration, whilst the most polluting pay over £2,600. In subsequent years, most cars move to a standard rate, currently set at an annual rate of £190. However from April 2025, electric cars will begin to pay VED in the same way as petrol and diesel vehicles, whilst an incentive is maintained for electric cars at the point of purchase.

Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect. The Government annually reviews the rates and thresholds of taxes and reliefs to ensure that they are appropriate and reflect the current state of the economy. As with all taxes, the Government welcomes representations from the public on how the tax system can be improved.

Following the spending audit, the Chancellor has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax to fix the foundations of our economy and address the £22 billion hole the government has inherited. Decisions on how to do that will be taken at the Budget in the round.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) exists to ensure that aviation makes a fair contribution to the public finances and applies to UK-departing flights.

Reforms to APD took effect in April 2023. These included the introduction of the new domestic band for domestic flights, initially set at half the rate for short-haul international flights (except for larger private jets). The domestic band applies to all flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and for 2024/25 is set at £7 for economy passengers.

These reforms also introduced a new ultra long-haul band covering flights that are greater than 5,500 miles from London. This ensures that those who fly furthest, and have the greatest impact on emissions, incur the greatest duty.

The Government keeps all tax policy under review. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy in the round at fiscal events in the context of public finances and any changes will be announced at Budget.