Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Net Zero during Energy and Net Zero questions on 18 November 2025, on what date he plans to launch the fuel finder service.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government is committed to launching Fuel Finder as quickly as possible.
The Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025 were debated in the House of Lords on 4 December 2025 and should be in place from 18 December 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2025 to Question 31508 on religious freedom, what issues have been recently considered between the Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Minister for Human Right to inform wider foreign policy.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief continues to work closely with ministers and officials across a range of issues and geographies, including the current situations in Sudan, Nigeria and Syria. He also works to strengthen international coalitions and represent the UK internationally, most recently at the High-Level International Religious Freedom or Belief (Article 18) Alliance Conference, held in Prague on 12-13 November.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 20 November 2025 on WPQ 90372 on Agriculture: Subsidies, what plans her department has to (a) conclude and (b) publicise the outcomes of their work on future agricultural grant funding models.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are working to simplify and rationalise our grant funding from 2026 onwards to ensure they are targeted towards those who need them most and where they can deliver the most benefit for food security and nature. We will communicate more on future grants in due course.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to consider legislative and non-legislative options to take forward changes to low-welfare activities abroad.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animals (Low Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023 provides a framework for the introduction of future bans on the advertising and offering for sale, in England and Northern Ireland, of low-welfare animal activities abroad.
We continue to engage with stakeholders including the tourism industry and animal welfare groups to explore both legislative and non-legislative options to stop the advertising of low-welfare animal activities abroad.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on the source of funding for redundancy packages resulting from the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear about the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy in the NHS.
Funding arrangements have been agreed with His Majesty’s Treasury to enable redundancies to be funded within the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC’s) Spending Review settlement. £860 million of planned resource funding has been re-profiled from later to earlier years of DHSC’s Spending Review settlement. This will enable DHSC to continue making progress towards halving headcount across DHSC and NHS England. This will unlock savings of £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament, equivalent to the cost of over 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allocate funding for redundancy packages (a) following the abolition of NHS England and (b) for Integrated Care Boards.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate cost reductions in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.
£860 million of planned resource funding has been re-profiled from later to earlier years of the Department’s Spending Review settlement. This will enable the Department to continue making progress towards halving headcount across the Department and NHS England. This will unlock savings of £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament, equivalent to the cost of over 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with OFCOM on a) the business challenges facing Royal Mail and (b) Royal Mail's ability to meet the Universal Service Obligation.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ministers and officials meet with Ofcom regularly to discuss a range of issues in relation to its role as the independent regulator for the postal sector.
It is for Ofcom to oversee Royal Mail’s delivery of the universal service obligation and decide how to respond should Royal Mail fail to meet its obligations. Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.
In October, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its quality-of-service targets and has told Royal Mail it must urgently publish and deliver a credible plan that delivers major and continuous improvement.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations his Department has received from Integrated Care Boards on (a) the abolition of NHS England and (b) subsequent planned redundancies.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not received any formal representations from the integrated care boards regarding the abolition of NHS England or any subsequent planned redundancies. This includes anything in relation to NHS England’s announced voluntary redundancy scheme, which will be open to applications from Monday 1 December until 11:59pm on Sunday 14 December.
Communications between the Department and the integrated care boards regarding workforce planning are managed within existing operational processes.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 August 2025 to Question 67474 on NHS England: Redundancy, when his Department will provide an update on the cost impact of integrating NHS England with the DHSC.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre. Reducing the size of the Department and NHS England will ultimately deliver hundreds of millions of pounds of savings that can be recycled into front line care. There will be no direct reduction in frontline staff as a result of these changes.
As part of the transition to the new structure, on Tuesday 11 November, NHS England announced a voluntary redundancy scheme, to allow staff to leave before the merger takes place. The scheme will run from Monday 1 December until 11:59pm on Sunday 14 December.
In making these reductions, we will not be cutting any investment into the NHS or frontline services; the savings made will more than offset the cost of redundancy payments.
We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. We are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs.
The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that the public and parliamentarians are appropriately informed of the relevant information, at the appropriate time. Any publication requirements that become applicable will be complied with as a minimum.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding from local budgets will be used to pay redundancy packages, in the context of the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and NHS provider corporate cost reductions in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.
£860 million of planned resource funding has been re-profiled from later to earlier years of the Department’s Spending Review settlement. This will enable the Department to continue making progress towards halving headcount across the Department and NHS England. This will unlock savings of £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament, equivalent to the cost of over 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.