Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of traffic congestion on the economy.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department for Transport publishes transport analysis guidance to help assess the economic cost of congestion associated with different policy interventions. It also regularly publishes statistics on speeds, delay and reliability on different types of roads. However, it does not routinely assess the economic cost of congestion on the road network as a whole.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2025, published on 26 November, HC 1492, on what evidential basis she estimated the saving arising from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and re-organising local government structures.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics.
The figures were calculated based on estimated savings from the potential reduction in local councillors through local government reorganisation and from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners.
These estimates are built from a range of sources including Local Government Boundary Commission data; salaries; office costs; election costs; sampling of councillor expenditure data from current authorities.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's policy is on supporting schools with falling pupil numbers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities hold the statutory place planning function, ensuring there are sufficient schools in their area to meet the needs of pupils. It is for local authorities, in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners, to balance the supply and demand of school places.
The department recognises the pressures caused by demographic changes in some areas. The lagged funding system, where schools are funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census, helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels, and is particularly important in giving schools with falling rolls time to re-organise their staffing and costs.
Where falling pupil numbers results in spare space becoming available, primary schools have been able to apply for capital funding to create or expand school-based nurseries. We have just announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, on top of the £740 million this year, to create special educational needs units and resourced provision, including where there is spare space, and to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of the school environment.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 90424 on New Towns, in which sections of the New Towns Taskforce: Report to government and the Initial government response - September 2025 are references made to consultations with neighbouring local authorities before new towns are built.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The independent New Towns Taskforce final report and the government’s initial response to it stress the importance of community engagement and working with local partners in delivering the New Towns programme.
The government will publish draft proposals and a final Strategic Environmental Assessment for consultation early next year, before confirming the locations that will be progressed as new towns later in the Spring.
At that point, we will publish a full response to the New Towns Taskforce’s report including details of what relevant consultations will take place in respect of each new town location.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his Department's policy is on local authorities who do not wish to engage in local government reorganisation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On 5 February 2025, the Government invited two-tier authorities and their neighbouring small unitary councils to develop proposals for unitary local government. All areas have engaged with their invitation although not all councils have submitted proposals. I am grateful for the vast amount of work undertaken by councils to develop proposals, which have now been received from every area invited, and expect local leaders to continue working collaboratively and proactively with each other as we go through the next stages of this process.
It was for councils to decide whether to submit a proposal in response to the invitation by the deadline that was specified. Whether they submitted a proposal or not, they will be a named consultee in the Government’s statutory consultations.
This Government is determined to streamline local government by replacing the current two-tier council system with new single-tier unitary councils. Empowered local government, based on unitary councils and strategic authorities, is the foundation for growth across the country – the government’s number one mission.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of palliative care services in Broxbourne constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England, due to be published in Spring 2026. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. St Clare Hospice, which cares for patients from the Broxbourne constituency, is receiving £579,780 from this funding.
We are also providing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients. Haven House Children’s Hospice and Noah’s Ark Children's Hospice near Broxbourne will both benefit from this funding.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 88403 on Social Security Benefits: Foreign Nationals and with reference to the Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 12 June 2025, published on 15 July 2025, what progress his Department has made on producing Immigration and Nationality statistics for (a) Universal Credit and b) other benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since first publishing the Universal Credit statistics by immigration status and nationality group on 15 July 2025, the Department has published regular updates, with the latest, published on 11 November 2025, covering statistics to October 2025.
The Department checks immigration status when assessing eligibility for benefits, but this information is not collated centrally across all benefit lines and hence is not readily available.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been provided to schools to support pupils for whom English is an additional language in each of the last three years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Schools attract additional funding through the English as an additional language (EAL) factor in the schools national funding formula (NFF), for pupils recorded as having entered state education in England during the last three years, and whose first language is not English.
The below table sets out the proportion of funding provided through the EAL factor in the NFF from 2023/24 financial year to 2025/26 financial year.
Year | Proportion of total funding through NFF |
2025/26 financial year | 1.1% |
2024/25 financial year | 1.1% |
2023/24 financial year | 1.0% |
The NFF is used to allocate funding to local authorities. How much individual schools receive depends on their local authority’s local funding formula.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to make it easier for local planning authorities to decline repeat applications for development that has already been refused.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Under Sections 70A and 70B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, local planning authorities already have powers to decline to determine applications if they have previously refused permission for two or more substantially similar applications on the same site, or if a substantially similar application has been rejected by the Secretary of State on appeal or following call-in, within the past two years.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether it is his Department's policy that neighbouring local authorities will be consulted before new towns are built.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the independent New Towns Taskforce final report as well as the government’s initial response to it. Both can be found on gov.uk here.