Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
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 help reduce local authority reliance on temporary accommodation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Through our National Plan to End Homelessness the government is putting prevention at the heart of public services, alongside with actions to address the root causes of homelessness through building more homes, reforming renters’ rights, and tackling poverty.
Local councils are at the front line of the response to homelessness and must lead the way in putting prevention at the core of their services. The government has increased funding for homelessness services this year to over £1 billion, including a £50 million top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant announced on 11 December 2025. You can find allocations here.
We are also investing £3.6 billion in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, through more flexible multi-year funding arrangements that enable councils to invest more in prevention. This includes over £2.2 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping through the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant. Allocations are published on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of increases to the Economic Crime Levy on not-for-profit housing associations.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government published its summary of the impacts of the increases to the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy in the policy paper titled "Economic Crime Levy – changes to bands and charges” (Economic Crime Levy — changes to bands and charges - GOV.UK).
The Levy was designed with simplicity and proportionality at its core, to limit the administrative burden on regulated entities. Accordingly, it applies to any entity that carries out activity regulated by the Money Laundering Regulations and no entity pays more than 0.1% of its revenue in charges.
A full review of the Levy will be undertaken in 2027.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
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 deliver a sustainable supported housing sector.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government values the vital role played by supported housing in helping older, disabled and other vulnerable people to live independently and well, and the contribution it makes to wider government objectives, including tackling rough sleeping and homelessness.
Funding for the local commissioning of local housing-related support services is through the Local Government Finance Settlement. The final 2026-27 Settlement makes available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26. The final 2026-27 to 2028-29 Settlement confirms £740 million in new grant funding additional to the provisional Settlement, bringing the total new grant funding delivered through the multi-year Settlement to over £4 billion.
As part of the Local Government Finance Settlement, we have provided £159 million for targeted areas over 2026-29 for support services in supported housing, with the primary focus on reducing single homelessness and rough sleeping.
At the Spending Review, the government announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. This programme also seeks to support an increase in the delivery of specialist and supported housing.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the local authority statutory duty to provide youth services.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government is passionate in delivering for young people, that’s why this Government has set out the National Youth Strategy. This strategy clearly states that young people should have people who care, places to go and things to do, and to feel heard and seen.
As part of the National Youth Strategy we have committed to explore reviewing the current local authorities’ statutory duty for youth services as part of a wider review of local statutory duties. This will look at whether the current duty is working and at how to empower local authorities to better deliver on their responsibilities for youth services.
Local authorities currently play a key part in delivering youth services, reflected in their statutory duty to provide sufficient leisure-time activities and facilities in line with local needs. After years of funding cuts to Local Authority funding we know that some areas have faced challenges in meeting this duty. That’s why this Government is investing nearly £70 million over the next three financial years to better support local authorities' delivery for young people.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that the hardest to reach young people are supported by the National Youth Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The National Youth Strategy outlines our plan to increase young people’s access to enriching activities, safe spaces and support from trusted adults. A key ambition of the Strategy is to halve the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.
To help achieve this, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will increase place-based support in underserved places to increase impact. Some of the first funded steps to achieve this ambition include over £60 million for the Richer Young Lives Fund to provide local organisations with money to deliver high-quality youth work and fun activities.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of silicosis among workers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) uses the Surveillance of Work-related and Occupational Respiratory Disease (SWORD) database to monitor trends in cases of silicosis.
HSE uses SWORD data that is reported voluntarily by around 350 physicians of respiratory disease to monitor cases of silicosis arising from work activity. HSE continues to monitor the number of cases recorded on the SWORD database.
Over the period from January 2024 to October 2025 HSE has seen an increased trend in notifications of silicosis on SWORD. HSE will continue to work with trade associations, material suppliers and manufacturers of products about their legal responsibilities and will continue to carry out a range of activities to raise awareness.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
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 help reduce elective care waiting times (a) in general and (b) for joint replacement surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first and tackling waiting lists as part of our Health Mission. We exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, tests, and operations in our first year of Government, delivering 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025. This marks a vital first step to delivering on our commitment to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.
The Department is taking a range of steps to reduce waiting times for surgery, including joint replacement surgery. There are currently 123 surgical hubs operational across England, and we are committed to expanding the number of hubs over the next three years to increase surgical capacity and deliver faster access to common procedures. Surgical hubs have been shown to deliver approximately 20% increased productivity in the hubs compared to trusts without a dedicated elective hub on site.
The Getting it Right First time (GIRFT) programme published detailed guidance for hip and knee replacements in July 2023 and has been supporting trusts through a multidisciplinary team made up of anaesthetic, surgical, and allied health professional colleagues. Additionally, GIRFT is leading a community musculoskeletal programme, supporting improvements in the early stages of the pathway, to ensure that only those patients who require surgery are referred into secondary care, and that their condition is optimised for surgery as far as possible at the point of referral. Further information on the GIRFT programme is available at the following link:
https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve (a) early diagnosis and (b) treatment of silicosis in the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to increasing the capacity of respiratory services and is improving access to these services through new community diagnostic centres (CDCs). All standard and large CDCs are required to offer diagnostic respiratory tests which can diagnose silicosis, such as spirometry and full lung function tests as part of their core testing offer.
The National Health Service has specialist centres for diagnosing and managing lung diseases that cause scarring, such as silicosis. NHS Interstitial Lung Disease clinics offer expert care from specialist respiratory doctors and nurses, often with access to additional services like lung function testing and research facilities.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the risks of silicosis among workers in the construction and engineered stone industries.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Great Britain has a well-established regulatory framework under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended) (COSHH) that requires employers to control exposure to substances that can cause ill health, such as respirable crystalline silica (RCS) that can cause silicosis. The risk of exposure to RCS in workers in the construction and engineered stone industries can be managed using suitable control measures meeting well established standards.
Suitable control measures include the use of water suppression of dust containing RCS generated in construction and manufacturing processes, control of any mist generated and use of personal protective equipment such as respirators (masks). The effectiveness of controls must be maintained and workers must be trained to use such controls. Employers must also ensure that employees who are, or are liable to be, exposed to RCS are under suitable health surveillance.
Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if it remains her policy to move to a multi-year police settlement model.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the importance of funding certainty to enable policing to deliver for their communities and is committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle crime. That is why the Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years.
As with previous years, more detail on force funding allocations for 2026-27 will be set out at the forthcoming police funding settlement.