Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her policy is on preventing downgrades in the service offered by acute hospital Emergency Departments in areas of high housing growth.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the challenges that significant housing and population growth can place on health infrastructure. The National Health Service has a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient medical services, including accident and emergency care, in each local area.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning, including planning, securing and monitoring, services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. Integrated care boards should evaluate the needs of the populations for which they are responsible and plan service provision accordingly.
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to determine how the developer contributions system can be strengthened and improved to support the planning and delivery of the required social infrastructure in areas of population growth.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of introducing mandatory salary disclosure at the recruitment stage on (a) job applicants and (b) businesses.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Office for Equality and Opportunity published the consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination on 14 July 2026, following the Call for Evidence on Equality Law in 2025.
The consultation sought views on how we can comprehensively reform the pay discrimination framework so that it works better for workers, businesses and the justice system. This includes seeking views on the potential impact of introducing mandatory pay information disclosure at the recruitment stage.
The consultation closed on 27 October. We will publish a full impact assessment of these measures at the appropriate stage.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether her Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals on salary transparency in job advertisements during this Parliament.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Office for Equality and Opportunity published the consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination on 14 July 2026, following the Call for Evidence on Equality Law in 2025. The consultation was until 27 October.
The consultation sought views on how we can comprehensively reform the pay discrimination framework so that it works better for workers, businesses and the justice system. This includes views on introducing mandatory pay information in job advertisements.
The responses to this consultation will be used to inform our next steps.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the status is of the 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel bilateral relations.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government has paused cooperation under the 2030 Roadmap for UK-Israel Bilateral Relations in response to the Government of Israel's rhetoric and actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what was the longest processing time for an asylum claim in the last five years.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the 'Immigration System Statistics' and the ‘Migration Transparency Data’ releases.
Data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’ and data on the percentage of applications processed within 6 months is published in table ASY_01 of the ‘Immigration and Protection data’. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables. As at 30 June 2026, 11,014 people had been awaiting an initial decision for over a year.
Data on longest processing times is not published. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her department will list the waiting times for asylum decisions to be made, from longest to shortest, in the past two years.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the 'Immigration System Statistics' and the ‘Migration Transparency Data’ releases.
Data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’ and data on the percentage of applications processed within 6 months is published in table ASY_01 of the ‘Immigration and Protection data’. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.
Data on waiting times from longest to shortest is not published. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the amount her Department has spent on Ministry of Defence accommodation in the last five years, listed by year.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum support spend on all accommodation, including ex-military large sites, is included within the Home Office’s published Annual Report and Accounts. As part of a Government Major Programme, the costs of asylum accommodation are also included in regular updates alongside all other Government Major Programmes.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the percentage of people who work from home that claim available tax reliefs for home working.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
Tax relief for non-reimbursed homeworking expenses was withdrawn from 6 April 2026.
Employers may continue to reimburse qualifying additional homeworking expenses free of Income Tax and National Insurance contributions where the relevant conditions are met. As this is a tax exemption rather than a claim made to HMRC, information on the number of employees benefiting from such reimbursements is not collected.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken by his Department is to provide applicants with a written statement of reasons since a revised DLA Disputes Resolution Service process removed the reason for decision from the MRN.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
This information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of Disabled Living Allowance applications for children progressed to mandatory reconsideration in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
This information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.