Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish the total spending by her Department on (a) rail reform and (b) the formation of Great British Railways since 4 July 2025.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The recently published Railways Bill Impact Assessment sets out estimated costs for GBR and the passenger watchdog. Costs will be confirmed in the Full Business Case, which we expect to publish next year.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77649 on Parking: Automatic Number Plate Recognition, whether the Government allows requests from (a) Patrol, (b) the British Parking Association and (c) the Local Government Association for the use of ANPR for civil parking enforcement in off-street parking; and if he will publish responses by his Department to representations made by those bodies on this issue since July 2024.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As stated in my response of 13 October to Question 77649, local authorities can use ANPR for civil parking enforcement. However, the Deregulation Act 2015 restricts the use of any surveillance technology by local authorities as the sole means of enforcing parking contraventions. In practice, this means that local authorities cannot issue Penalty Charge Notices by post following the detection of a parking contravention through surveillance technology, except in the limited circumstances set out in Regulation 10(2) of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022.
In addition to the use of ANPR by local authorities, the 2024 letter from Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London (PATROL), the British Parking Association, and the Local Government Association raised other topics covering policy responsibilities of both the Department for Transport (DfT) and the MHCLG. At that time, my department issued a holding response, committing to provide a more substantive reply following a review of private parking charges. This response has not yet been provided as the department is still considering its response to the consultation on the Code of Practice for private parking which included proposals on private parking charges.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much local authorities made in profit from (a) traffic junction enforcement, (b) clean air zones and (c) congestion charging in 2024-25.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not hold this data.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Valuation Office Agency's guidance entitled Practice Note 3: 2023: Major International and Regional Airports has been updated for the (a) 2026 business rates revaluation and (b) phasing out of the effect of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency's guidance will be updated for the 2026 revaluation and will be published when the Rating List is compiled on 1 April 2026.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much (a) their Department and (b) its arm’s length bodies have spent on (i) installing electric vehicle charging facilities and (ii) purchasing electric vehicles since 4 July 2024; and what estimate their Department has made of the difference in capital cost between (A) the electric vehicles purchased by their Department and (B) comparable (1) petrol and (2) diesel models.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has not purchased any electric vehicles since 4 July 2024.
The Department has also not incurred any expenditure on the installation of electric vehicle charging facilities since 4 July 2024.
We do not hold information of this nature in relation to our arm’s length bodies.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, further to the Point of Order of 30 October 2025, Official Report, Column 350-351, by the Right Hon Member for Basildon and Billericay, on Written Parliamentary Questions, if the Leader of the House will raise this issue with Ministers in the Department for Transport.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The government's position regarding the relationship between the treatment of requests for information through parliamentary questions and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 - as set out in the Guide to Parliamentary Work - is unchanged.
Following the Point of Order from the Hon. Member, I understand the Minister for Roads and Buses has written to him on this matter. The Department for Transport has issued an apology, provided the relevant information released through an FOI request and corrected the initial Written Parliamentary Question.
More widely, I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to parliamentary questions.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to publish a statement of financial relationship between Great British Railways and the Department for Transport, including arrangements with devolved administrations.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Relevant GBR financial information will be published in due course as officials continue to work with industry partners to ensure that the sector’s financial model is best placed to deliver change.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the increase in eating disorders among teenagers and young adults.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future, there is a critical need to shift the treatment of eating disorders from hospital to the community. Improved care in the community will give young people early access to evidence-based treatment involving families and carers, improving outcomes and preventing relapse.
NHS England is currently working to improve children’s community eating disorder services. Improved care in the community will give young people early access to evidence-based treatment involving families and carers, improving outcomes and preventing relapse. By preventing eating disorders from progressing to adulthood, we will help deliver our aim to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answers of 20 October 2025 to Question 78714 and of 30 October 2025 to Question 84271 on Railways: Tickets, whether the Department considers current participation levels in the Digital Pay As You Go trials in (a) Yorkshire and (b) the East Midlands to be sufficient to draw conclusions about the scheme’s effectiveness.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Digital Pay As You Go trials are an opportunity for passengers to test cutting-edge technology and benefit from simpler, more flexible tickets. We have had good engagement from passengers, with 2,214 participants signed up across the three live trials.
The Department and delivery partners are pushing for as close to 1000 participants per trial as possible. We are working with Ipsos, an independent research agency, to effectively evaluate passenger views and participation rates of all trials. The findings from this evaluation will underpin Ministerial decisions on the next steps for any future schemes.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2025 to Question 84310 on High Speed 2 Line, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the four-year deferral of work on the Handsacre link on (a) journey times and (b) the economy during the initial operating period of HS2.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The deferral of work at Handsacre is not expected to have any impact on journey times once the delivery of HS2 is complete.
The economic benefits of the government's delivery plans for HS2 will be considered as part of the updated business case being developed in line with the work on the programme reset.