Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of planning applications affecting sports pitches over the last five years by local authority.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has not made a specific assessment about the adequacy of the types of application in question.
Sport England received 1,164 statutory consultations in 2024/25, objecting to 30% of cases.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will set out a timeline for bringing section 102 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 into force.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer to UIN 69488 on 2 September 2025.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the Problem Gambling Severity Index score for players of (a) The National Lottery, (b) Society Lotteries, and (c) instant win scratch cards.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to tackling gambling-related harm. DCMS regularly reviews the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) from the Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey of Great Britain and uses it as one of a range of sources of evidence.
In 2024, the proportion of National Lottery players who experienced ‘problem gambling’ (a PGSI score of 8+) is 3.9% for draw games, 9.5% for instant win games, and 7.9% for scratchcards.
The rate of Society Lottery PGSI 8+ scores is 4.9%.
The rate of non-National Lottery scratchcards PGSI 8+ is 14.5%.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the most recent data held by her Department on the number of registered parks and gardens within each local authority area.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Registered parks and gardens in England are designated by Historic England. Data on the number that exist within each local authority area can be found by consulting the online National Heritage List for England. Data on the number of designed landscapes in each local authority that are currently classed as being at risk can be found by consulting Historic England’s online Heritage at Risk Register. Both resources can be filtered by local authority.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) registered parks, (b) gardens and (c) designed landscapes are currently classed as at risk in each local authority.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Registered parks and gardens in England are designated by Historic England. Data on the number that exist within each local authority area can be found by consulting the online National Heritage List for England. Data on the number of designed landscapes in each local authority that are currently classed as being at risk can be found by consulting Historic England’s online Heritage at Risk Register. Both resources can be filtered by local authority.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October to Question 77717 on Betting: Excise Duties, if she will list relevant engagements with ministers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor discusses a variety of issues with Ministers from other government departments throughout the year.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November, to Question 87899 on Delivery Services: Driving Licences, if she will (a) publish the letter referred to from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Transport, (b) make an assessment of the potential impact of people engaged in delivery work without valid documentation on road safety and (c) review the training, testing, and licensing requirements for motorcycles.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
a) I have placed copies of the letter referred to in my answer to Question 87899 in the Library of the House.
b) The Department has no plans to assess the potential impact of people engaged in delivery work without valid documentation on road safety. This is a matter of enforcement of the law and for the police to decide, on the evidence of each individual case, whether an offence has been committed and the appropriate action to take.
c) We are considering plans to review the existing requirements for motorcycle training, testing, and licensing that take account of both long-standing plans in the Department for Transport and the Driver Vehicle and Standards Agency, and proposals received from the motorcycle sector. The Road Safety Strategy is under development and will include a broad range of policies. We intend to publish the Strategy this year.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of business tax rises on physical activity levels.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important contribution that sport and physical activity make to health and wellbeing in the UK.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties, including those in the hospitality sector as they recover from the pandemic. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including protection for ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. This means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto.
The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, worth nearly £900 million per year and benefiting over 750,000 properties, including sports and physical activity centres with rateable values under £500k.
Additionally, businesses within the physical activity sector can continue to benefit from measures including the increase in the Employment Allowance to £10,500 and the Government remains committed to the small profits rate, under which companies with profits of £50,000 or less are subject to a 19 per cent rate. Marginal relief for companies with profits of between £50,000 and £250,000 means only around 10 per cent of actively trading companies pay the full main rate of 25 per cent. This means firms within the physical activity sector that meet these conditions will continue to face lower effective corporation tax rates.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of business tax rises on the physical activity sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important contribution that sport and physical activity make to health and wellbeing in the UK.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties, including those in the hospitality sector as they recover from the pandemic. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including protection for ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. This means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
More broadly, the Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto.
The Government is doing this by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, worth nearly £900 million per year and benefiting over 750,000 properties, including sports and physical activity centres with rateable values under £500k.
Additionally, businesses within the physical activity sector can continue to benefit from measures including the increase in the Employment Allowance to £10,500 and the Government remains committed to the small profits rate, under which companies with profits of £50,000 or less are subject to a 19 per cent rate. Marginal relief for companies with profits of between £50,000 and £250,000 means only around 10 per cent of actively trading companies pay the full main rate of 25 per cent. This means firms within the physical activity sector that meet these conditions will continue to face lower effective corporation tax rates.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to cease the purchasing of non-essential items, including vapes, for illegal migrants.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not purchase vapes for people held in immigration detention, and no public money is spent on the purchase of these or any other goods sold at immigration removal centres.
Following a comprehensive review of asylum support, we have taken decisive action to block spending on non-essential goods and services on ASPEN cards and implement enhanced due diligence measures.