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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to review legislation on new home developers selling land in and around new housing estates to maintenance companies which then charge back to homeowners.

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

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether they have made an estimate of the potential impact of abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion roles in their Department on annual staffing costs.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance was issued on the 14th May 2024. DCMS complies with the guidance, and therefore ensures that any D&I activity provides value for money and benefits both DCMS employees and enhances sound policy making.

DCMS has not undertaken an estimate of the impact of abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion roles in the department on annual staff costs. DCMS remains committed to ensuring we have the right skills in place to deliver our services effectively, efficiently and at value for money across the Civil Service.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what criteria she plans to use to assess the effectiveness of a reformed Access to Work scheme.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

As set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published on 18 March 2025, we want to improve accessibility and support more disabled people into work. This includes helping employers increase productivity by supporting their employees with disabilities and health conditions. We want to do this through, in part, a reformed Access to Work. We are keen to ensure that, through future evaluation, we can demonstrate the value for money delivered through a new model as well as the positive impact it is having.

We will determine the nature of the evaluation as part of further policy development, reflecting on consultation responses.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate she has made of number of claimants receiving contributory Employment and Support Allowance who will be affected by the proposed replacement with Unemployment Insurance.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published here alongside the Spring Statement.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, whether her Department plans to publish statistics on the number of claimants who lose their (a) Personal Independence Payment and b) Universal Credit health entitlement following these reforms.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published here alongside the Spring Statement.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many major housing developments have been completed in Mid Leicestershire constituency in the last ten years.

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

Numbers of major and minor residential applications granted permission each quarter for each local planning authority are available here. As more than one planning application is often associated with a single residential development, the published figures should not be regarded as numbers of residential developments granted permission.

Figures are not collected at parliamentary constituency level.

The Department does not collect or publish numbers of completed major housing developments.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many housing developments have been approved in Mid Leicestershire in the last ten years.

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

Numbers of major and minor residential applications granted permission each quarter for each local planning authority are available here. As more than one planning application is often associated with a single residential development, the published figures should not be regarded as numbers of residential developments granted permission.

Figures are not collected at parliamentary constituency level.

The Department does not collect or publish numbers of completed major housing developments.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make a comparative assessment of the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, and the Chance to Work Guarantee.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months alongside the consultation.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate he has made of the potential savings to the public purse of abolishing the Office of Communications.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Office of Communications plays a key role as the regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. Ofcom regulates the TV and radio sectors, spectrum, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, online safety, and postal services. There are no plans to abolish Ofcom, and the government has not made any assessment of the savings or costs that such a decision would entail.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what discussions she has had with employers on mandatory reporting of the disability pay gap.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

On 18 March 2025, the Government launched a consultation on mandatory pay gap reporting for both disability and ethnicity. Responses to the consultation will help to shape proposals which will be included in the upcoming Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which was announced in the King’s Speech in July 2024.

Our engagement with stakeholders has included discussions with employers and employer representative bodies, for example the CBI and the Institute of Directors. We will continue to engage with a wide range of stakeholders including businesses as we develop the legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to expand its procurement activities to UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make a vital contribution to economic growth and are a valuable source of technical innovation in defence. This is recognised in the Defence Industrial Strategy Statement of Intent, and the governments National Procurement Policy Statement.

As announced in the Spring Statement, with defence spending rising, we will spend a minimum of 10% of the Ministry of Defence’s equipment budget on novel technologies, including drones and AI enabled technology. We will establish a protected budget of £400 million within the Ministry of Defence, that will rise over time for UK Defence Innovation.

This is in addition to the announcement the Prime Minister and Defence Secretary made on 3 March which included the launch of a new hub to provide SMEs with better access to the defence supply chain. We have committed to set a direct SME spending target for the Ministry of Defence by June this year, increasing our spend with them and ensuring that thousands of small businesses in the UK will benefit from the historic decision to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 7264 on Liver Diseases, how many community diagnostic centres provide transient elastography liver scans; and what steps his Department has taken to improve early detection of liver disease in high risk groups in (a) primary and (b) community care settings.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As of 16 February 2025, 14 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are providing transient elastography liver scans, also known as fibroscans. By 31 March 2025, one further CDC is expected to become operational and able to offer fibroscans. NHS England is taking steps to improve the early detection of liver disease in high risk groups, both in primary and community care settings.

As of the end of February 2025, the Community Liver Health Check Programme is now in place across 19 areas, helping to identify individual patients at greater risk of cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis. The programme is identifying people at high risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and referring them into, as well as supporting them to stay in, surveillance programmes. From June 2022 to January 2025, over 93,500 fibroscans have been delivered through the pilots, with 6,421 people having enrolled into HCC surveillance.

Primary Care Liver Case Finding pilots have also been funded across 12 primary care networks, as of the end of February 2025. These pilots used primary care records to identify patients at high risk of cirrhosis, in order to offer them blood tests and fibroscans. Over 12,700 people have been tested, and 300 people have been identified as having advanced liver disease requiring cancer surveillance, since the pilot began. These pilots are now being evaluated.

The continued funding of Laboratory Information Management Systems will also be a key step in enabling the development of liver disease pathways starting in primary care, along with the use of intelligent liver function tests, which are an effective primary diagnostic test.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of new legislation to facilitate the transition to non-animal methods of testing.

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

The Labour Manifesto includes a commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal. The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year. The government currently has no plans to legislate on this matter.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a centralised and digitalised ID and traceability system across the UK to prevent the illegal movement of horses and other equine species.

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

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government recognises the importance of the equine sector to the UK economy and of improving equine identification and traceability. We have no current plans to implement mandatory digital identification, but we remain in close touch with the industry to look at potential improvements.

Defra also regularly engages with officials in the devolved governments to discuss matters of equine identification and traceability.  Officials also share data on equines located in the UK with the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland and with the Department for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the Republic of Ireland.  The majority of equine movements into and out of GB take place between the island of Ireland and GB.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Spanish counterpart on increasing the number of days British citizens with property can stay in Spain without a residence permit.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office officials and Ministers regularly engage Spanish counterparts on a range of issues affecting UK nationals, including on visa matters. The UK and the EU allow for visa-free short-term travel in line with their respective arrangements for third country nationals. The UK allows EU citizens short-term visa-free travel for up to six months. Meanwhile, the EU allows for travel within the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period; this is standard for third countries travelling visa-free to the EU. Applications for visas to visit or stay for longer periods of time would be processed according to the rules of individual Member States.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed increase to employers National Insurance contributions on trends in the levels of unemployment benefit claims.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The potential impacts of the changes to employers National Insurance Contributions, have been assessed by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

This assessment is publicly available and can be found here: Economic and fiscal outlook – March 2025 - Office for Budget Responsibility

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the potential savings to the public purse of abolishing the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The budget allocated to the Sentencing Council for 2024/25 is £1.92 million. The savings of abolishing any public body would though depend on a number of factors e.g. wind-up costs, and we do not have a detailed assessment of these factors in relation to the Sentencing Council.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help secure the release of Peter and Barbie Reynolds from Afghan authorities.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan. I met their family on 2 April and I am closely monitoring this case. We are unable to provide comment on the detail of individual consular cases in line with relevant UK data protection legislation: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/foreign-commonwealth-development-office/about/personal-information-charter.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Debbie Abrahams (Chair); Johanna Baxter; Mr Peter Bedford; Steve

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Debbie Abrahams (Chair); Johanna Baxter; Mr Peter Bedford; Steve

The Work and Pensions Committee is undertaking a short inquiry into the impact of the Government’s proposals to reform the disability and health related benefits system, as set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.