Rebecca Smith

I refer the Hon Member to my written answer to PQ92379, dated 26 November 2025, which provides the information you requested.

The EHRC has revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following the consultation and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025. This is a long and legally complex document which will have an impact on service providers up and down the country. Rightfully we are carefully considering it.

The process for laying the Code in Parliament is set out in the Equality Act 2006. The Government will follow this process. If the decision is taken to approve the Code, it will be laid before Parliament for a 40 day period.

In February 2018 the Church of England signed an Accord with HM Government to develop guidance for dioceses, parishes and Chancellors to enable digital connectivity. This was in response to concerns about the social consequences of uneven deployment of digital connectivity, particularly in rural areas. The Accord can be viewed online, here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a86eb9540f0b62305b9559c/2018_02_18_Church_of_England_-_HMG_Accord.docx__1_.pdf

Following its obligations under the Accord, and acknowledging the difficulty for Code Operators in dealing separately with many thousands of self-governing parishes, the Church of England’s commercial arm then signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with all four Mobile Network Operators

These MoUs provide a single point of contact for the Operators, a company called NET CS, a managed process to navigate permissions under church and planning laws for heritage buildings, and a template licence for use by parishes

The Electronic Communications Code, as amended by this Act, requires valuing a property rent at market value, but importantly this must now exclude any value related to it being for the “use of an electronic communications network”. This means that comparable evidence of telecom and Church rental agreements established before the Code was introduced can no longer be used to determine a rent, so that Church rental yields are likely to suffer materially.

In most cases this change to the valuation basis (in the case of churches, a relatively small space in a tower) means that for new agreements, or on renewal of agreements coming to term after perhaps 20 years, the revenue for landlords – churches, local and other public authorities, as well as private landowners - is much lower than it used to be before the changes to the Code, sometimes as much as 85% less

However, the consensual agreement with Operators under the Church of England MoUs is providing much better revenue for parishes than market value under the Electronic Communications Code, so long as parishes elect to use these MoU consensual agreements. This revenue is a useful addition for hard-pressed parochial church councils which are trustees of parishes charged with the costs of maintaining centuries-old listed heritage buildings.

There are strict controls on Cabinet office employees travelling overseas with departmental IT. The Senior Responsible Officer (a Senior Civil Servant in Cabinet Office) is accountable for ensuring that all the potential implications of the individual being abroad have been considered. Cabinet Office employees are not permitted to claim for travel and subsistence expenses for personal travel or international remote working.

The Ministerial Code sets out principles relating to ministerial travel for official business. Section 10.1 of the Ministerial Code states that “Ministers must ensure that they always make efficient and cost‑effective travel arrangements. Official transport should not normally be used for travel arrangements arising from party or private business, except where this is justified on security grounds.” Section 10.4 states “When ministers travel on official business, their travel expenses should be borne by the departmental vote.”

Furthermore, section 8.13 of the Ministerial Code notes that “If a minister meets an external organisation or individual and finds themselves discussing official business without an official present (for example, at a social occasion or on holiday) any significant content should be passed back to the department as soon as possible after the event.”

Baroness Bertin’s independent report made 32 recommendations, including on governance and oversight of pornography policy. The ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, published on 18 December 2025 commits to creating a joint team to address the issues detailed in the report. As this team is not yet set up, I am answering this question from the Cabinet Office, as there is currently no lead department for this work.

The team will be formed by the Home Office, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ministry of Justice and Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It will examine the evidence to inform the government’s approach to pornography policy, including the question of departmental responsibility.

The Government recognises the impact that high energy costs are having on the automotive sector. Through the launch of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) the Government is committed to helping eligible businesses, including many from the automotive sector, to reduce their electricity costs to bring them more into line with other European economies.

Applications for BICS are now open until the 30^th November 2026. If approved, a business will begin to receive exemptions from April 2027. They will also receive an additional payment in 2027 to cover costs approximately equivalent to an extra year’s benefit.

The Government recognises the impact that high energy costs are having on the automotive sector. Through the launch of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) the Government is committed to helping eligible businesses, including many from the automotive sector, to reduce their electricity costs to bring them more into line with other European economies.

Applications for BICS are now open until the 30^th November 2026. If approved, a business will begin to receive exemptions from April 2027. They will also receive an additional payment in 2027 to cover costs approximately equivalent to an extra year’s benefit.

The Department has conducted a review of the beer market to determine whether there are any structural barriers preventing small breweries from accessing pubs. As part of this work, Ministers and officials have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders from across the sector to hear evidence and views directly. The issues raised are complex, and it is important that all relevant evidence is considered carefully alongside advice from competition policy experts before decisions are taken on any potential next steps.

We continue to engage regularly with representatives from across the brewing and pub sectors to ensure policy decisions are informed by the latest evidence and reflect the experiences of businesses operating in the market.

The Regulating for Growth Bill is set to be introduced in the current parliamentary session, when parliamentary time allows.

The UK continues to remain concerned about overcapacity and underlying market distorting practices, in particular the impact this could have on UK domestic industries such as battery electric vehicles. We continue to carefully assess options for addressing this issue including through use of tariffs and will act where necessary, but only in ways that serve UK industry. It is for the independent Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to investigate whether trade remedy measures are needed to protect our industries. As of today, the TRA has not initiated an investigation into electric vehicles.

The UK ETS is technology-neutral, incentivising cost-effective decarbonisation.

Through UK ETS and policies in the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy, the Government is providing strategic certainty for investment. For example, backed by NatPower Marine's £10m of private investment, Heysham is expected to have its first shore power plug this year. The UK SHORE research programme received £448m in September 2025 to accelerate clean maritime technologies. The use of eligible sustainable maritime fuels are incentivised under the UK ETS through zero-rating.

The Government continues to engage with industry, including Northern Ireland ferry operators, to support infrastructure delivery and uptake of clean maritime technologies.

The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently.

The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy with less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

In the short-term, the Government wants to provide businesses with better protection from being locked into unfair and expensive energy contracts, and more redress when they have a complaint. Many businesses secure their energy contracts through Third-Party Intermediaries, such as energy brokers. Last year, the Government launched a consultation on introducing regulation of TPIs. This is aimed at enhancing consumer protections including to prevent opaque contracting practices or mis-selling, particularly for non-domestic consumers. a Government response will follow in due course once all feedback has been reviewed.

From 19 December 2024 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 50 employees can now access free support to resolve issues with their energy supplier through the Energy Ombudsman. This means that 99% of British businesses can now access this service with outcomes ranging up to £20,000 in financial awards.

Yes, the Government plans to publish a response to the consultation in due course.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 15 January 2026 to Questions UIN104313, UIN104352 and UIN104434.

‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’ commits to creating a joint team to address the issues in Baroness Bertin’s Review. The team will be formed by the Home Office, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ministry of Justice and Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It will examine the evidence to inform the government’s approach to pornography policy.

Government has already taken action. Pornography showing strangulation or suffocation will be criminalised under the Crime and Policing Bill and will be a priority offence under the Online Safety Act.

Measures included in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 will extend the statutory valuation framework contained in the Electronic Communications Code to certain cases regulated by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and the Business Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 1996. These measures have not yet come into force and therefore no assessment has been made of their impact on rents.

Following the 2017 reforms to the Electronic Communications Code, government representatives engaged regularly with stakeholders about their impact. The changes made by the 2022 Act were consulted on and received Parliamentary scrutiny during passage of the Act.

No specific assessment has been made on the impact of the 2017 reforms on church properties. In the impact assessment produced in 2016 to accompany the 2017 reforms, it was anticipated that there would be a reduction in rents from operators to landowners but that it would be difficult to precisely predict the effect of the reforms on rental payments. The impact assessment referenced independent analysis conducted by the specialist telecommunications consultancy Nordicity, commissioned by DCMS, which estimated a potential 40% decrease in rents.

From 17 March 2025 services in scope of the Online Safety Act must take action to tackle illegal pornographic content. Publishers of pornography online also have a duty to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing pornographic content. By summer, all user-to-user services that allow sharing of pornographic content should also use highly effective age assurance if necessary to prevent children from accessing such content.

The Government published the final report of the Independent Pornography Review on 27 February 2025 and issued an initial statement in response addressing the important issues it raised. A further update will be provided in due course.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is working closely with civil society representatives to develop a Civil Society Covenant that will act as a foundation for resetting the relationship between government and civil society. We aim to publish the final Covenant in the summer.

Claims received in this financial year are unaffected, assuming that they are eligible claims with the required detail and documentation.

We expect the cap will be applied to all claims received on or after 1 April 2025. We will be publishing guidance on scheme applications and eligibility in due course.

DCMS Ministers received advice on changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, including consideration of the potential impacts of various options to scale the scheme.

We believe that the changes announced will continue the widest distribution of the scheme’s benefits for communities within the available means, including in areas of deprivation and low economic activity. Based on previous scheme data, we expect 94% of claims to be unaffected by this change.

The department consulted earlier this year on proposals for reforming the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system, including how support is given through education, health and care (EHC) plans. Working closely with the Ministry of Defence, we have sought and received extensive feedback from service families with children with SEND about the particular challenges faced by their need to relocate regularly. We will set out further proposals for reform based on the consultation responses.

Education is a devolved matter, and across the UK there are different approaches to supporting those with special educational or additional needs, including different eligibilities for accessing statutory documents such as an EHC plan. When a family moves across borders, statutory documents from the other UK nations can help inform decisions over the support for a child and we encourage this practice in the SEND Code of Practice.

I have held discussions on these issues with ministerial colleagues in Wales and Northern Ireland, and we will continue to look to improve the continuity of support for children in these circumstances.

The government is committed to ensuring that families can access joined-up support through Best Start Family Hubs (BSFH). The department’s guidance sets minimum expectations for services that are not receiving additional investment through the programme.

Local authorities are responsible for shaping delivery to reflect local needs. How they deliver these wider-service expectations is for them to determine. All local authorities have published Best Start in Life local plans and developed BSFH delivery plans explaining how programme funding and activity will deliver against programme expectations.

The department supports and monitors BSFH delivery against the guidance through these plans, local authority data returns and regular engagement with local authorities. A national evaluation will also assess whether the programme is achieving its intended outcomes and help inform future delivery.

The contract for the National Centre for Family Hubs ended on 30 September 2026.

Over the summer, the department undertook an open and competitive procurement exercise to secure a Best Start in Life Implementation Partner. This exercise has now been completed.

The Implementation Partner will provide support to local authorities at individual local authority, regional and national level to improve outcomes for children and families. Further details of the support offer will be communicated to local authorities shortly.

The contract for the National Centre for Family Hubs ended on 30 September 2026.

Over the summer, the department undertook an open and competitive procurement exercise to secure a Best Start in Life Implementation Partner. This exercise has now been completed.

The Implementation Partner will provide support to local authorities at individual local authority, regional and national level to improve outcomes for children and families. Further details of the support offer will be communicated to local authorities shortly.

​​Local authorities are responsible for ensuring they have sufficiency in their area. The government is providing £560 million to refurbish and expand children’s home placements. To enable the supported accommodation reforms, £123 million was provided to local authorities between 2023 and 2025. This has been incorporated into the Revenue Support Grant for 2026/27 to support local authorities in meeting their statutory duties, which includes supported accommodation.

​No specific funding is given to local authorities where Supported Accommodation cannot be secured. As of 31 March 2026, there were 370 ongoing applications from supported accommodation providers, down from 616 in 2025. While registered providers have capacity for a total of 24,700 places, only 7,520 looked after children live in supported accommodation.

​The department does not hold information regarding the number of placements ready to be offered by providers who are awaiting registration. While Ofsted has introduced a prioritisation policy for new children's home applications, no such policy currently applies to supported accommodation, although this remains under review.

​Programme funding from the department has enabled Ofsted to continue its registration and inspection activities to support compliance with regulatory requirements. It can take several months for Ofsted to process and come to a decision on an application, with timescales sometimes affected by factors outside of Ofsted’s control, such as incomplete applications. ​