Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on the financial sustainability of opticians and eye care practices.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government has protected the smallest businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. That means more than half of businesses with NICs liabilities either gain or see no change this financial year.

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to determine the number of educational psychologists required to meet demand as part of the Government's forthcoming plans for SEND.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. That is why we are already investing more than £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.

As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to statutory assessments. Trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required to remain in local authority employment for a minimum period. For trainees beginning their course in September 2024, this period is three years.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of educational psychologists to respond to SEND needs.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Educational psychologists play a critical role in the support available to children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. That is why we are already investing more than £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists over two cohorts, starting their studies in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of more than 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.

As these trainees complete their studies, they will join the workforce to support local authority educational psychology services, including contributing to statutory assessments. Trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required to remain in local authority employment for a minimum period. For trainees beginning their course in September 2024, this period is three years.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will make an assessment of trends in levels of fuel theft, such as drive-offs or biking, from petrol stations and the measures that can be taken to tackle the crime.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

We would encourage retailers to report any instances of fuel theft to the police.

We are also making it easier for retailers to recover the costs when fuel is taken without payment.

Improvements have recently been made to the service provided by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) allowing fuel retailers and their agents to request information to allow recovery of costs when motorists drive away from fuel stations without paying for the fuel taken.

This provides a quicker and more efficient approach compared with the existing manual service.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to Question 100423 answered on 22 December 2025 about Crown Courts Midlands, out of the 111,250 sitting days how many extra sitting days were allocated at [a] Leicester Crown Court, [b] Coventry Combined Court Centre and [c] Warwick Crown Court in the current financial year compared to the 2024-2025 financial year.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is committed to bearing down on the backlog. We allocated the highest number of Cown Court sitting days on record this financial year (2025/26) and have allocated a further 1,250 sitting days for this financial year.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue discussions on the allocation for 2025-26 and we will say more in due course.

The table below shows allocated sitting days for Warwick and Leicester Crown Courts. It should be noted that Coventry Crown Court is a “satellite site” primarily used by Warwick, but also utilised by Birmingham Crown Court for sittings. It therefore has no sitting day allocation (as the sitting days come from the allocations of either Warwick or Birmingham).

Source: Internal HMCTS management information

On top of the above allocations, during 25/26 Leicester has been allocated an additional 60 sitting days, and Warwick has been allocated an additional 25 days.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the speed camera anomaly on the numbers of commercial drivers where the incorrect enforcement of speeding has resulted in the [a] loss of employment, or [b] compromised the ability for prospective drivers to gain driving opportunities.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This anomaly resulted in a very small number of people incorrectly facing enforcement action for speeding offences and the Police have begun the process of redress.

Anybody affected by the anomaly will be contacted directly and, where appropriate, be reimbursed and/or have points removed from the licence. Steps will be taken to remedy any incorrect prosecutions.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she is having with National Highways to determine how many drivers are impacted by the speed camera anomaly and rectify the issue to prevent the anomaly from occurring in the future.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

As set out in the 16 December Written Ministerial Statement, National Highways has confirmed that this technical anomaly has occurred approximately 2,650 times on the impacted cameras over four years since 2021 and National Highways are now looking back to 2019. To place this in context, fewer than 0.1% of activations since 2021 were impacted by this anomaly and not all of the erroneous activations will have resulted in enforcement action.

A Home Office approved solution has been developed which National Highways are now working with the police to implement. It is important that road users have confidence in the technology on our roads and that is why I have committed to an independent investigation into how this anomaly came about to prevent this reoccurring in the future.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the CMA's First Annual Road Fuel Monitoring Report, what assessment he has made about the extent of competition in the road fuel retail market.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government notes the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) annual road fuel monitoring report, which found that fuel margins remain high and are not explained by operating costs.

Addressing the CMA’s findings, the Government is implementing Fuel Finder, a statutory open data scheme for road fuel prices to improve price transparency and incentivise competition in the market from both supermarket and non-supermarket retailers. The CMA also has statutory powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 to monitor the market and advise on any further action.