Paul Holmes

No representations have been received by the Church Commissioners regarding the occupancy of Wolvesey, the Bishop’s Palace at Winchester.

Work is being carried out to the building, as part of its regular maintenance review. Temporary accommodation for the Bishop and his family has been located nearby for the duration of the work.

It is a long-standing convention that the fact that the Law Officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside Government without their authority. This is known as the Law Officers’ Convention, is provided for in paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May, and applies to your question.

The Prime Minister can allocate official residences gifted to the Government to support Ministers in their official duties. This has been the case under decades of successive governments.

An update on any new allocations will be provided in due course.

The Prime Minister raised a range of domestic and foreign issues in his meeting with President Xi at the G20 on 18 November. A read-out of this meeting is available on the GOV.UK website.

Ministerial meetings with external organisations will be published in the usual way on gov.uk as part of the government’s transparency agenda.

As set out by the Minister without Portfolio, the updated Ministerial Code will be published in due course. It will include details of a new Register of Ministers' Gifts and Hospitality, which will bring the publication of ministerial transparency data more closely into line with the parliamentary regime for gifts and hospitality.

As was the practice under the previous Administration, information about official ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals will be published as part of the Cabinet Office transparency returns and made available on the GOV.UK website.

Government recently consulted on increasing minimum energy efficiency standards in the domestic private rented sector, including proposals for rented homes to achieve Energy Performance Certificate C or equivalent by 2030. We have engaged with landlord and tenant groups in developing this policy and set out several proposals to help landlords reach the new standard. Our proposed changes should not require landlords to increase rents. Instead, they will help tenants cut their energy bills by delivering more energy efficient homes.

The consultation has now closed and we are analysing responses and reviewing evidence on the potential impact of these proposals. A government response will be published in due course.

The government is not neutral about where things are made. We want to see jobs created and supply chains developed here in the UK.

As part of the growth and clean energy superpower missions, the Government is committed to growing the UK’s supply chains and supporting good jobs throughout the country. The Clean Industry Bonus aims to drive investment into sustainable supply chains, particularly in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities. In addition, the Government has set out a package of support for offshore wind supply chains worth up to £1 billion, including £300 million from Great British Energy to provide upfront public investment, £400 million from The Crown Estate, to support new infrastructure, including ports, manufacturing, and research and testing facilities, and £300 million being developed by the offshore wind industry, to deliver new investments into supply chains such as advanced turbines technologies and foundations.

The Government is committed to implementing all remaining provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022 as soon as possible. These measures will help deliver the benefits of advanced digital connectivity.

Most provisions have been implemented. Those remaining are complex and technical. We must ensure they are implemented carefully, to create certainty and avoid post-implementation delays. The Department has policy and legal resources dedicated to deliver these. A technical consultation on draft regulations to implement sections 61 to 64, including transitional provisions, is open until 2 July.

The Government is committed to implementing all remaining provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022 as soon as possible. These measures will help deliver the benefits of advanced digital connectivity.

Most provisions have been implemented. Those remaining are complex and technical. We must ensure they are implemented carefully, to create certainty and avoid post-implementation delays. The Department has policy and legal resources dedicated to deliver these. A technical consultation on draft regulations to implement sections 61 to 64, including transitional provisions, is open until 2 July.

Legal cases relating to telecommunications installations can commence in either the County Court or the Lands Tribunal. The Department does not have comprehensive data, but is aware of an increase in applications to the courts relating to telecommunications infrastructure installation since 2017. Applications can cover a range of different situations. We do not know how many relate specifically to 5G masts. Most applications do not proceed to a full hearing, but are resolved consensually.

Sections 58,59 and 61 – 64 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 have some limited retrospective effects. Other provisions are not considered retrospective.

The distinguished jumping spider (Attulus distinguendus) is found on the northern section of Swanscombe Peninsula, Kent, which is one of only two locations in the UK where it can be found, the other being Thurrock Marshes. Its prevalence is extremely low, and it is a critically endangered species due to habitat loss.

The government has no plans to amend regulations to allow for the conversion of military Air Traffic Controller licences to civil Air Traffic Controller licences.

The government currently has no plans to amend regulations to allow for the recognition of non-UK Air Traffic Controller licences.

The Department has not engaged with their Australian counterparts on negotiating a new reciprocal social security agreement.

While no such specific assessment has been made, we know that in some local areas there is a need for more beds. This is being addressed in part through investment in new units, although this should be considered as part of a whole system transformation approach.

Investment of £75 million of capital funding this year aims to improve inpatient care and help stop mental health patients being sent far from home for treatment. Our neighbourhood mental health centres will also improve continuity of care, drive down waits, and reduce inpatient admissions. These centres provide round the clock, open-access to treatment and support for adults with severe mental health needs. We have opened the first of six 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres in England, in Tower Hamlets, and other local areas are looking to rollout the model more widely.

We also know that pressures in accident and emergency are best addressed by clear, efficient, and adequately resourced routes to appropriate crisis care. NHS Operational and Planning Guidance for 2025/26 tasks local health systems to improve patient flow through mental health crisis pathways and reduce waits longer than 12 hours in accident and emergency departments. Systems should do this by maximising the use of crisis alternatives and through robust system oversight.

Substantial progress has been achieved in building more robust crisis care pathways across all ages ensuring that people in mental health crisis have access to timely and appropriate support. Key developments include the introduction of the NHS 111 ‘select mental health’ option, investment in alternative crisis services, roll-out of the Mental Health Response Vehicles programme, and full national coverage of 24/7 liaison mental health teams in general acute hospitals. We are also investing up to £120 million to bring the number of mental health emergency departments up to approximately 85. Mental health emergency departments provide rapid assessment and support in a therapeutic setting, helping those with mental health needs get the right care quickly and reducing reliance on emergency departments.

Progress is being made in planning and developing work to shape an in-service evaluation (ISE) of newborn blood spot screening for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

This follows a recommendation made in 2023 by the UK National Screening Committee which advises ministers on all aspects of population and targeted screening for an ISE in National Health Services. An ISE is needed to answer several outstanding questions related to the implementation of a newborn screening programme for SMA.

Planning for the ISE is a partnership between the Department, NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and other stakeholders.

Earlier in the year, the NIHR published their Health Technology Assessment research brief to appoint researchers for this work. Applications closed at the end of September 2025, and final funding decisions are expected in spring 2026. A decision on the shape and roll out of the ISE will be made after the research call process has concluded.

The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be the biggest public health intervention in a generation, tackling the harms of smoking and paving the way for a smoke-free United Kingdom. Smoking costs the economy and wider society £21.8 billion a year. This includes an annual £18.3 billion loss to productivity, through smoking related lost earnings, unemployment, and early death, along with £3.1 billion of costs to the National Health Service and social care. This exceeds the £8.8 billion received in tobacco duties in 2023/24.

Alongside the bill, we will publish an impact assessment which will include an estimate for the impact on tobacco duty receipts. HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs have consulted on proposals for a Vaping Products Duty. This would seek to discourage non-smokers and young people from taking up vaping and to raise revenue. HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs are reviewing the responses to this consultation and will respond in due course.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers by my hon. Friend, the Minister without Portfolio, during the Urgent Question, Reporting Ministerial Gifts and Hospitality, on 14 October 2024, Official Report, Columns 594-602.

I refer the hon. Members to the answer given to UIN 101363.

Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set RV. Eligible property under £12,000 will receive 100 per cent relief, which means around a third of properties in England pay no business rates at all. There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000.

Rural Rate Relief aims to ensure that key amenities are available, and community assets protected in rural areas. It provides 100% rate relief for properties that are based in eligible rural areas with populations below 3,000.

At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.

To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down next year. Government support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.

Royal Palaces are valued in the same way as any other class of non-domestic property; through applying the statutory and common law principles that apply across non-domestic rating.

An increase in RV does not mean that business rates liability will increase by the same percentage.

The national multipliers uprate by the previous September’s CPI figure every April before resetting at a revaluation, which occurs every three years. This is the standard approach, as multipliers are uprated yearly with CPI.

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) multipliers will remain 5 pence below their national equivalents every year. The high-value multiplier will remain 2.8 pence above the national standard multiplier every year. However, the rates will remain under review, and the legislation does not preclude the Government from changing the rates for future tax years.

This is set out in the Explanatory Memoranda of the relevant legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/4/memorandum/contents

HM Treasury does not produce forecasts for the UK economy. Forecasting the economy is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which published its latest forecast on 26 November 2025.

In their most recent Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the OBR forecast CPI inflation to be 3.5% in 2025-26, 2.2% in 2026-27, 2.0% in 2027-28 and 2.1% in 2028-29.