Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2025 to Question 65477 on Railways: Capital Investment, if she will publish each iteration of that graph during the fourth quarter of 2022.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The chart(s) in question represent scenario planning that was used to inform decision making of the previous administration and it is not appropriate to disclose them.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42776 on Marriage: Humanism, what progress she has made on reviewing the recommendations of the Law Commission's report on marriage reform, published in July 2022.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government appreciates the importance of this issue and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
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 19 March 2025 to Question 37879 on Cats: Animal Breeding, what progress he has made in reviewing the recommendations of the Animal Welfare Committee Opinion on the welfare implications of current and emergent feline breeding practices, published in December 2024.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is still carefully considering the recommendations of the Animal Welfare Committee’s Opinion on the welfare implications of current and emergent feline breeding practices.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress Network Rail has made on the potential replacement of the Total Operations Processing System.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Network Rail Route Service’s Digital, Data and Technology Services Team has a project progressing to replace the Total Operations Processing System (and related Passenger Operations Information System).
This was started in January 2024 when funding had been allocated from the Control Period 7 settlement and is forecast to complete by Quarter 2 2029.
The System Release Proposal provides additional information about this work. This document was issued for formal consultation on 9 May 2025 to 8 July 2025 to at least 60 stakeholders. (This number may be greater due to onward sharing).
The Network Rail project team has received six formal responses of which only one was negative to the approach. Therefore, the project continues as planned.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Q252 of the oral evidence given by Huw Merriman to the Transport Select Committee on 2 July 2025, HC 575, if she will publish the graph referred to in the answer to that question.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The graph in question is regularly updated. We are unclear precisely which iteration of the graph Huw Merriman was referring to.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to improve the regulation of supported exempt accommodation; and what information her Department holds on levels of supported exempt accommodation in (a) Birmingham and (b) Birmingham Northfield constituency.
Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As set out in the written statement on Supported Housing Regulation (HCWS800) published on 10 July 2025, following the recent consultation on supported housing regulation the government is considering the responses received and will publish a full government response as soon as possible, in advance of consulting on draft regulations in early 2026.
The department does not hold data on supported exempt accommodation. The most recent estimates of national levels of supported housing were published in the gov.uk Supported Housing Review 2023 on 4 November 2024.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 04 July 2025 to Question 64211, on High Speed 2 Line: Compulsory Purchase, if she will extend those compulsory purchase powers until February 2031.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government's priority is the safe delivery of HS2 Phase 1 between the West Midlands and London Euston at the lowest reasonable cost. Whilst we will not reverse the previous government’s decision to cancel Phase 2, we recognise concerns about rail capacity and connectivity between Birmingham and Manchester. We are reviewing our plans for future connectivity in the Midlands and the North, and we hope to say more in the coming months, including our plans for land and property between Birmingham and Crewe.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which children's centres closed in England between May 2010 and July 2024 by (a) name, (b) postcode and (c) date of closure.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data on children’s centres is supplied by local authorities via the department’s Get Information about Schools database portal at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.
Based on the information supplied by local authorities, the attached document provides details of the name and postcode and date of closure of Sure Start children’s centres that closed in England between May 2010 and July 2024.
The list of children’s centres closed since May 2010 and July 2024 is based on information supplied by local authorities as of 8 July 2025. These figures may be different to previous answers, and could change again in future, since local authorities may update the database at any time.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consultation her Department has undertaken with UK-based bus manufacturers on the potential impact of Section 37 of the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [Lords] on future sales of (a) hydrogen-fuel cell and (b) hydrogen combustion engine buses.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Clause 37 of the Bus Services (No.2) Bill will ultimately end the use of new non-zero emission buses on English bus services. The final date will be set out in later secondary regulations, however, will be no earlier than 1 January 2030.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell electric (HFC) buses, which are used in various parts of the country, are what is commonly meant by 'hydrogen buses'. These are available from UK manufacturers and do not emit any nitrogen oxides. They are zero emission at the tailpipe, so would continue to be usable under these regulations, along with battery electric buses. Hydrogen combustion engine buses are not present in the UK. They would emit nitrogen oxides, which are harmful to human health. They would therefore not be considered to be zero emission buses and would not be usable under these regulations.
My Department has engaged extensively with bus manufacturers as we have developed and then progressed this measure through Parliament.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the dates on which the leases for West Midlands Trains' rolling stock expire; and which entity owns those trains.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
West Midlands Trains’ rolling stock leases for the Class 172/0, 172/1, 350/1, 350/3 and 350/4, which are owned by Angel Trains, are set to run until 31 March 2026. The Class 196/0, 196/1, 730/0, 730/1, and 730/2 leases also run until 31st March 2026 and are owned by Corelink. Finally, Porterbrook own the Class 139, 172/2 and 172/3, which expire on 31 March 2026, as well as the Class 350/2 fleet which expire on 30 September 2025.