Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support the rollout of full-fibre broadband.

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

The Government is committed to the rollout of fast, reliable broadband to all parts of the UK. As of February 2024, over 1 million premises had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through government-funded programmes. In total, 36 Project Gigabit contracts have now been signed, to connect over 1 million more homes and businesses, with more contracts to be awarded in the coming months.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is supporting the National Health Service in taking steps to improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer across England, including for the Ealing Central and Acton constituency. The Government is committed to meeting all three NHS cancer waiting time standards across England within the next five years. Meeting these will ensure no patient waits longer than they should for diagnosis or treatment.

We know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. NHS England is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who have symptoms, such as unexplained weight-loss and fatigue, that do not align to a single tumour type, and pancreatic cancer is one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways. NHS England is also providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those patients at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, as well as increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests.

In March 2024, NHS England published guidance for providers and systems to implement a timed Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary cancer pathway with the aim to ensure patients receive a diagnosis or that cancer is ruled out within 28 days of urgent referral. The pathway aims to improve delays in diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of diagnostic tests.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the average cost to leaseholders of marriage value in the last 12 months; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of abolishing marriage value.

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

The Government intend to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. These include measures that will make it easier for leaseholders to exercise their right to take over the management of their properties; enable the introduction of a new valuation scheme that leaseholders must follow to calculate how much they should pay to enfranchise, which includes the removal of the requirement for leaseholders to pay marriage value; and deliver reforms to drive up the transparency of service charges to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable. We will set out details in due course about the extensive programme of secondary legislation needed to bring the Act into force. An impact assessment for the Act, including on the removal of marriage value, was published in December 2023 and received a green rating from the independent Regulatory Policy Committee.

Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will further reform the leasehold system. We will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, reinvigorate commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework, and ban the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure. The Government has made clear it intends to publish draft legislation on leasehold and commonhold reform in this session so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional parliamentary scrutiny. We will announce further details in due course.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of potential irregularities in the recent elections in Georgia.

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

I made clear in a statement on 27 October my support for the findings of the preliminary report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights election monitoring mission. I also outlined the need for irregularities to be investigated thoroughly and independently. The Georgian authorities must reverse their declining commitment to democratic values and we will work with our international partners to encourage Georgia to return to a Euro-Atlantic path.

Found: Dame Caroline Dinenage, in the Chair Bayo Alaba Mims Davies Zöe Franklin James Frith Dr Rupa

Found: Uckfield; Conservative) Zöe Franklin (Guildford; Liberal Democrat) Mr James Frith (Bury North; Labour) Dr Rupa

Found: Uckfield; Conservative) Zöe Franklin (Guildford; Liberal Democrat) Mr James Frith (Bury North; Labour) Dr Rupa

Found: Uckfield; Conservative) Zöe Franklin (Guildford; Liberal Democrat) Mr James Frith (Bury North; Labour) Dr Rupa

Found: debate on amendments to the clause/schedule (Standing Order No. 68) Chairs: Sir Roger Gale Dr Rupa

Found: debate on amendments to the clause/schedule (Standing Order No. 68) Chairs: Sir Roger Gale Dr Rupa

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is to continue work from the last Parliament examining the challenges faced by the British film and high-end television industry and how the sector and its workforce can be better supported.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is to hold a short inquiry into the BBC World Service.