Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to take steps to require all major broadband providers to operate with an internal audit function.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government keeps the financial health of the market under close review and Ofcom have powers to request financial information from providers. The Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, and its associated Regulations and Code of Practice introduced a robust security framework requiring public telecoms providers to identify, reduce, and prepare for security and resilience risks.
We recently held a public consultation on proposed updates to the Telecommunications Security Code of Practice, which provides guidance on how public telecoms providers can meet their statutory requirements to secure their networks and services. These include requirements relating to reviews, governance and board responsibilities. Ofcom monitor and enforce these requirements.
In response to the consultation, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors raised the matter of independent assurance arrangements. We are now carefully reviewing all feedback to the consultation to ensure that any updates to the Code of Practice are appropriate and proportionate.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the quality and supply of industry placements for T Levels.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
T Levels are providing fantastic opportunities for young people to progress into skilled jobs and careers, and 96% of students completed their industry placement last year.
The department supports employers to host high quality placements through guidance, workshops and direct support. The department’s digital ’Connect’ service supports local providers and employers to connect with each other and our updated delivery approaches allow greater flexibility for providers to design a high quality placement experience.
We provide targeted support for industry placements in specific areas, with seven industry placement coordinators currently in local NHS integrated care systems, and an employer support fund supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and priority sectors with the essential costs of hosting a placement.
The national ’Skills for Life’ campaign raises awareness of skills development and promotes T Levels, ensuring businesses and learners understand their value, and our network of over 1,000 T Level Ambassadors builds T Level understanding and engagement in the business community.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce gynaecology waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing waiting lists is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and we are committed to cutting waiting times across all specialities, including gynaecology. We have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029.
We are making good progress, with waiting lists cut by over 230,000 since the Government came into office, including nearly 14,000 fewer waits for gynaecology treatment.
We also delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025, exceeding our pledge of two million. However, we know there is more to do, and have confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment to expand capacity across diagnostics, electives, and urgent care. This includes expanding the number of surgical hubs, which provide valuable and protected capacity across elective specialities, including gynaecology. As of November 2025, over half of the 123 operational elective surgical hubs in England provide gynaecology services.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, also committed to:
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance the Government provides on ensuring transparent and long-term maintenance of restored habitats.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has published extensive guidance on what should be covered by legal agreements for biodiversity net gain, including detail on habitat monitoring and who is responsible. There is also a set of habitat management and monitoring templates which should be used to set out how and when habitats will be monitored and reported on.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what mechanism is in place to funnel Biodiversity Net Gain funding from developers into county-wide nature recovery partnerships, such as the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Partnership.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Land managers, including Local Nature Recovery partnerships (LNRPs), can sell biodiversity units to those developers who cannot achieve 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) onsite and need to go off-site.
The BNG metric also provides an incentive to achieve off-site biodiversity gains in areas of strategic significance, as set out in the relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
The Local Investment in Natural Capital programme, funded by Defra and delivered by the Environment Agency, has provided grants of over £1 million to five local and combined authorities to create a pipeline of investable projects and develop capacity and capability to crowd in finance from private sources, including from developers. Learnings from this programme will provide guidance to Local Nature Recovery Strategies in these areas on how best to attract and allocate BNG funding and will be available to all LNRPs upon the conclusion of the programme in 2026.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to require planning authorities to publish annual reports on how off-site Biodiversity Net Gain contributions by developers have been a) spent, b) their location, and c) ecological result of habitat d) creation or e) restoration.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act 2021 established a strengthened biodiversity duty, which requires local planning authorities to publish a biodiversity report at least every five years, setting out how they have complied with the duty. As part of this report, local planning authorities are required to include actions they have taken under biodiversity net gain obligations, and information from the biodiversity gain plans they have approved. The first reporting period must end no later than 1 January 2026 with reports published within 12 weeks.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that (a) statutory Biodiversity Net Gain initiatives are implemented fully and (b) local authorities are provided with sufficient resources to monitor long-term habitat improvements.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local planning authorities (LPAs) are provided with funding for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), including £10 million for this current financial year. The Government also funds the Planning Advisory Service to help LPAs meet their BNG obligations.
LPAs can charge for monitoring activity through the legal agreements into which the developer enters .
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department has issued to businesses on how they can contribute to local habitat restoration projects.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has published biodiversity net gain (BNG) guidance on how a business can get involved with providing biodiversity units to developers who need to go off-site for BNG. This can either be through selling units independently on land owned, or working with partners to create habitat banks. Land managers can also combine biodiversity units with other environmental payments for the same piece of land.
In addition, Projects for Nature connects corporate donations with government-screened nature recovery projects across England, which can support the delivery of our statutory biodiversity targets.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether there will be simplified a) permit systems or b) funding mechanisms provided to streamline i) community groups, ii) small landowners or iii) local conservation networks' involvement in habitat creation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are setting the conditions for more private investment to flow into domestic nature recovery, including by exploring how we can further incentivise the private sector to pay for nature’s services - through a Call For Evidence on Expanding the role of the private sector in nature recovery; and ensuring the integrity of UK nature markets by sponsoring the British Standards Institution to develop a suite of UK Nature Investment Standards.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help support farmers and landowners in West Berkshire to participate in the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) was published in October 2025. Responsible authorities have been steered to involve farmers and landowners in preparation of their LNRS. LNRSs will help farmers and landowners to choose which agri-environment scheme options are suitable for their land. However, having land mapped in an LNRS does not compel farmers or landowners to make changes to how they use or manage their land – this will continue to be their choice.