Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department will transfer stored class 221 voyager units to Crosscountry.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has funded 12 additional Voyager trains (60 carriages) for the CrossCountry network which entered passenger service in May 2025.
It is for train operators to present their Business Case for any additional trains, setting out the benefits to passengers and how it presents value for money to the taxpayer. CrossCountry is currently working with the Department on a proposal to procure further additional trains for its Inter-City routes.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) Palantir Technologies (b) other analytics contractors and (c) external data warehouses are being considered to support cross-departmental data matching under the digital ID initiative.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We expect the new digital ID to be designed, built and run by in-house Government teams, not outsourced to external suppliers. In the event any specialist external services or expertise are procured to support the delivery of new digital ID, this will be subject to all the usual competitive processes to ensure transparency, and value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what oversight exists when academy trusts increase executive pay in years where frontline teaching posts are reduced.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s Academy Trust Handbook is clear that executive pay must be justifiable and should reflect individual responsibility alongside local retention and recruitment needs. The Handbook is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to support the 2026 pay award recognises that the department is aware of trends of increasing executive pay and monitors this through an annual engagement exercise. The evidence was published in October 2025 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69034343fabc9f10a832a838/Government_evidence_to_the_STRB_2026.pdf.
The evidence also recognises that there are opportunities to drive value for money in this area. The department has started to make progress in this area with the recent introduction of executive pay into the Financial Benchmarking and Insight tool for trusts to encourage boards to make evidence-based decisions when setting executive pay.
The department engages annually on executive pay, requiring academy trusts to demonstrate value for money. The engagement considers executive responsibilities, taking into account peer benchmarking data on the level of pay, the size of trust, pupil numbers and grant income. The department will also engage on executive pay when intervening in an academy trust that is in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the relationship between academy trust executive pay levels and reductions in curriculum offer or staffing.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s Academy Trust Handbook is clear that executive pay must be justifiable and should reflect individual responsibility alongside local retention and recruitment needs. The Handbook is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to support the 2026 pay award recognises that the department is aware of trends of increasing executive pay and monitors this through an annual engagement exercise. The evidence was published in October 2025 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69034343fabc9f10a832a838/Government_evidence_to_the_STRB_2026.pdf.
The evidence also recognises that there are opportunities to drive value for money in this area. The department has started to make progress in this area with the recent introduction of executive pay into the Financial Benchmarking and Insight tool for trusts to encourage boards to make evidence-based decisions when setting executive pay.
The department engages annually on executive pay, requiring academy trusts to demonstrate value for money. The engagement considers executive responsibilities, taking into account peer benchmarking data on the level of pay, the size of trust, pupil numbers and grant income. The department will also engage on executive pay when intervening in an academy trust that is in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What benchmarks her Department uses to assess whether academy trust executive pay represents value for money when trusts are making redundancies.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s Academy Trust Handbook is clear that executive pay must be justifiable and should reflect individual responsibility alongside local retention and recruitment needs. The Handbook is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body to support the 2026 pay award recognises that the department is aware of trends of increasing executive pay and monitors this through an annual engagement exercise. The evidence was published in October 2025 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69034343fabc9f10a832a838/Government_evidence_to_the_STRB_2026.pdf.
The evidence also recognises that there are opportunities to drive value for money in this area. The department has started to make progress in this area with the recent introduction of executive pay into the Financial Benchmarking and Insight tool for trusts to encourage boards to make evidence-based decisions when setting executive pay.
The department engages annually on executive pay, requiring academy trusts to demonstrate value for money. The engagement considers executive responsibilities, taking into account peer benchmarking data on the level of pay, the size of trust, pupil numbers and grant income. The department will also engage on executive pay when intervening in an academy trust that is in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of expanded police powers to use facial recognition on the privacy of residents in Devon.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has not assessed the potential impact of expanded use of facial recognition on the privacy of residents in Devon, specifically, although the Government recognises that facial recognition will usually involve some degree of interference with people’s rights, such as the right to privacy, which must be minimised, necessary and proportionate to a policing purpose.
The existing legal framework governing police use of facial recognition requires compliance with data protection, equalities, and human rights laws, national guidance, the Code of Practice for surveillance cameras, and is supplemented by specific policies published by individual forces.
The Government launched a public consultation on 04/12/2025 on the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies which, will help inform the design of a new legal framework for these technologies. The consultation explores when and how these technologies should be used and asks the public what factors are relevant to consider when assessing interference with privacy.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2025 to Question 98184, whether meetings held by the Prime Minister with external individuals are routinely assigned a subject classification for record-keeping purposes.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Guidance on management of records for official ministerial meetings is published on gov.uk, and available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-management-of-private-office-information-and-records/guidance-for-the-management-of-private-office-information-and-records-html.
The guidance in place in August 2019 is available in the National Archives: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/popapersguidance2009.pdf
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance was guidance in place in August 2019 on keeping a written record of meetings between the Prime Minister and external individuals where public policy, procurement, or government contracts were discussed.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Guidance on management of records for official ministerial meetings is published on gov.uk, and available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-management-of-private-office-information-and-records/guidance-for-the-management-of-private-office-information-and-records-html.
The guidance in place in August 2019 is available in the National Archives: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/popapersguidance2009.pdf
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what information her Department holds on the quality of 5G UK mobile services compared to (a) France, (b) Germany, (c) the USA, (d) China, (e) Spain and (f) other international counterparts.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The department uses Ofcom's Connected Nations data which includes metrics on geographic, indoor and outdoor premises coverage across the UK. Ofcom describes quality of service using coverage confidence levels and signal strength thresholds. The methodology is available at: CN2025 - Methodology Annex.
The department is aware of various external data sources, including the EU commission’s 5G Observatory report 2025 | Shaping Europe’s digital future, The Mobile Economy 2025 - The Mobile Economy and Global Network Excellence Index | Opensignal that publish a variety of metrics for international comparisons. While direct comparisons between countries are difficult to draw, this is an invaluable input into informing the department’s policy development.
The EU commission published data on 5G coverage for households at the end of 2024 which showed that coverage in the UK at the end of 2024 (95%) was on par with India, China and ahead of France (94%) and the EU (94.3%), but behind South Korea (100%), Japan (99.2%), Norway, Iceland and Germany (all 99%) as well as Spain (95.7%) and USA (97.0%). Since this assessment, UK 5G coverage outside premises has increased to 97%.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer received on 21 November 2025 to Written Question 90488, how much additional re-investment her Department anticipates after bringing into force sections 61-64 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government’s ambition is for all populated areas to have access to higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. Operators have set out investment plans that align with our ambition, and we are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment and competition in the market.
The aim of the 2017 reforms was to encourage investment in digital networks and improve coverage and connectivity across the UK. The changes introduced by the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 ensure greater consistency throughout the UK and reduce confusion and uncertainty when agreements come to an end and are being renewed.
While the Department does not monitor levels of reinvestment in networks, Ofcom’s Connected Nations report provides an estimate for the level of investment into mobile networks by industry. Ofcom’s latest report estimates that in 2024, mobile network investment accounted for £1.8bn.