Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the past 12 months.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the last 12 months the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs concluded 51 disciplinary cases. All 51 disciplinary cases were conduct related and not performance related.

Outcomes from these cases were:

• Dismissal
• Final written warning
• Informal action
• Warning
• Withdrawn
• No action

In the last 12 months the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Rural Payments Agency and the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science concluded a total of 48 disciplinary cases.

All 48 disciplinary cases were conduct related and not performance related.

Outcomes from these cases were:

• Dismissal
• Written warning
• Informal action
• Oral warning
• No action
• Withdrawn
• Final written warning
• Mediation
• Other/not recorded

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason employment and wage costs have increased at the Gambling Commission since April 2017.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Since April 2017, the Gambling Commission’s headcount has increased to maintain its capacity and capability to regulate a growing sector, which is subject to heightened public scrutiny. The Commission has also, like other public bodies, awarded its staff inflationary pay increases which are consistent with the Civil Service Pay Remit. Costs have also increased due to higher statutory pension and National Insurance contributions.

Other factors which have created an increase in employment costs include the Fourth National Lottery Licence competition and transition, and the Commission's delivery of commitments from the 2023 Gambling White Paper

In recent years the Commission has also increased its investment in enforcement and intelligence to tackle illegal gambling, and strengthened its anti-money laundering and sports betting integrity functions.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of staff in her Department were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

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

The Home Office introduced a no-rating performance management system for delegated grades in 2021 in line with external good practice. Therefore, the department cannot compare progression with performance markings / categories.

For the SCS grade please see table below.

Promotions from PB1 (SCS1) to PB2 (SCS2)

Performance markings from the previous year:

Achieved: <5

High Performing: <5

Exceeding: <5

Promotions from Grade 6 to PB1 (SCS1)

Performance markings from the previous year:

Achieved: 8

Partially Met: <5

Not in scope for a performance marking: 8

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, for what reason employment and wage costs have increased at the Intellectual Property Office since April 2017.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is an executive agency of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with delegated responsibility for operational matters including salaries. Salary costs have increased since 2017 due to two main factors. Headcount has increased over this period, driven both by a sustained increase in demand for IP Services plus investment in a Transformation programme aimed at delivering better digital services to our customers and internal frontline staff. The second reason is the application of the annual pay awards. IPO complies fully with the Cabinet Office annual pay remit guidance and annual pay cases are approved by HMT through a rigorous business case process.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the drivers of and reasons for the doubling of the wage and salary costs of the Land Registry since April 2017.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

HM Land Registry’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2016-17 and 2024-25 respectively show that staff costs for permanent HMLR employees have increased from £168 million to £326 million.

The drivers of this increase are a combination of the compound interest of annual pay increases, plus the increase in permanent employees from 4,148 at the end of March 2017, to 6,907 at the end of March 2025.

The principal reason for the staff increase at the Agency has been the need to invest in its people and systems to improve the services it provides following a period of historic underinvestment following the property market crash in 2007-08, prior to which HMLR had over 8,000 permanent employees.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the drivers of and reasons for the doubling of the wage and salary costs of the Planning Inspectorate since April 2017.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Planning Inspectorate deals with a range of planning and environmental casework from across government including:

• planning and environmental appeals, including against refusals of planning related applications by Local Planning Authorities and refusals of applications by other bodies including the Environment Agency.
• advising on and examining applications for nationally significant infrastructure and other infrastructure orders including large scale energy infrastructure and power generation, large road and other transport schemes like airports, and reservoirs.
• examining local plans for compliance with legal tests and national policy.
• deciding or making recommendations on a range of casework on behalf of Secretaries of State including 'called in' planning applications, Crown Development applications, Compulsory Purchase Orders, planning applications in Local Planning Authorities designated for poor performance, Drought Orders and Permits and Necessary Wayleaves.
• deciding a range of casework for Defra relating to access to the countryside, including new rights of ways, changes to existing rights of way, village and town greens and the regime to protect and manage Common Land.

Since 2017 the Planning Inspectorate has increased its employees by approximately 60%, including an increase in full time equivalent Inspectors providing advice, decisions, and recommendations from 261 to 421 (61%).

This reflects the significant increase and complexity in the Planning Inspectorate's casework over that period as well as a significant investment in digital services which has been necessary for the organisation to fulfil its critical role in delivering the agendas of successive governments.

Inflation accounts for about a third of the increase in costs over the period.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 13 January 2026 to WPQ 104190, how many estates were liable to inheritance tax by constituency over the last five years aggregated.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

As stated in my previous answer, these statistics are publicly available. The estimated number of estates liable to Inheritance Tax, broken down by UK (Westminster) Parliamentary Constituency, is published annually as part of HMRC’s Inheritance Tax Liabilities statistics, and is available in Table 12.9 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to MHCLG's Annual Report 2024/5, if he will publish a breakdown of the Gross Outturn and Income of CDEL in the Housing and Planning Estimate Line in FY 2024/5.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Please see table below for a breakdown of income and expenditure on the requested estimate rows and DEL control totals.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for a breakdown of the programme spend and income of RDEL in the Local Growth and Devolution Estimate Line in FY 2024/5, with reference to MHCLG's Annual Report 2024/5, SoPS 1.1.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Please see table below for a breakdown of income and expenditure on the requested estimate rows and DEL control totals.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Forestry Commission's annual reports for 2017-18 and 2024-25, which teams and roles within the Forestry Commission have expanded since April 2017; and for what reason the body's (a) overall headcount and (b) headcount of senior civil servants has increased in that time.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The information on headcount for individual teams and roles is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Headcount changes within the Forestry Commission are a direct result of responding to the Government’s increased ambition for woodland creation alongside ensuring England’s woodlands remain resilient to the challenges associated with climate change and the impacts of pests and diseases.

Forest Research has increased its headcount in a range of scientific disciplines from silviculture to wind modelling and tree breeding. The focus on improving UK biosecurity has also led to an increase in the number of pathologists and entomologists. The Senior Civil Service headcount in Forest Research has increased by two following independent regrading of two existing posts.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will review the Answer her Department provided to Question 99845 on 18 December 2025, with reference to the Answer provided to Question 99844 on 8 January 2026.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

We have corrected the answer to PQ 99845 and apologise for the error.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to table 1 of Annex A of the Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25, if he will publish a breakdown of the spending of Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) spending on Science and Research, excluding CDEL on Science and Research (ALB), net in that financial year.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Please find below a breakdown of the Science and Research line outturn for FY 2024-25 per table 1 in Annex A of the DSIT Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25:

Found: Letter dated 20/01/2026 from Louise Sandher-Jones MP to Neil O'Brien MP regarding a question concerning