Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Church of England on the application of the statutory duty to report child sexual abuse in the Crime and Policing Act 2026 to disclosures made in religious confessionals.
Answered by Natalie Fleet - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office engages regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including faith organisations, on the implementation of measures to tackle child sexual abuse. Ministers and officials have had discussions on mandatory reporting with representatives of the Church of England as part of this wider engagement.
The Government is clear that compliance with the new statutory duty to report child sexual abuse is a vital step in changing cultures and ensuring that concerns are identified and acted upon. We will continue to engage with faith groups and other stakeholders to support effective implementation of the new duty, including through the development and publication of statutory guidance.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has advised Cambridgeshire County Council that it is prohibited from re-procuring a contract for highway maintenance due to planned local government reorganisation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Councils remain responsible for their own local decisions during the reorganisation process and are expected to continue to deliver services and operate on a business‑as‑usual basis until reorganisation is complete.
The Department has published an explanatory note setting out that decisions taken during this period should not compromise the future sustainability of new councils or fetter the ability of successor authorities to take decisions in the best interests of their areas, which can be found here.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support alleged victims of modern slavery in the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light.
Answered by Natalie Fleet - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The serious events in Crewe are part of an ongoing police investigation. It is for first responder organisations to refer any victims to support services as appropriate.
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. First Responders are made up of statutory and non-statutory organisations, including the police, Local Authorities, Border Force and specific NGOs. National referral mechanism guidance: adult (England and Wales) - GOV.UK
They are trained by their respective organisations to identify indicators of modern slavery and refer potential victims into the NRM for their cases to be considered by the appropriate Competent Authority. Once referred into the NRM, individuals have the option to access specialist Government support.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of expanding the Healthy Start scheme eligibility criteria to include all families on Universal Credit, in the context of recent expansions to free school meal eligibility.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no plans to expand the eligibility of the Healthy Start Scheme to all families on Universal Credit. The Healthy Start prepaid card is a financial product and cannot be issued without the applicant accepting the terms and conditions, therefore the NHS Business Services Authority is not able to automatically provide eligible families with a Healthy Start prepaid card. However, we remain open to all viable routes to improve uptake to ensure that as many eligible people as possible are accessing the scheme.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered automatic enrolment into the Healthy Start scheme for eligible families, in the context of ensuring maximum levels of take-up.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no plans to expand the eligibility of the Healthy Start Scheme to all families on Universal Credit. The Healthy Start prepaid card is a financial product and cannot be issued without the applicant accepting the terms and conditions, therefore the NHS Business Services Authority is not able to automatically provide eligible families with a Healthy Start prepaid card. However, we remain open to all viable routes to improve uptake to ensure that as many eligible people as possible are accessing the scheme.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the mandatory duty to report child sexual abuse, introduced in the Crime and Policing Act, will come into effect.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We expect the requirement to be commenced no earlier than 12 months following the date of Royal Assent to the Crime and Policing Act.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to examine how AI could speed up the issuance of Remedial Service Statements to people in receipt of public sector pensions affected by the McCloud judgement.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Scheme managers of the individual public service pension schemes are responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of the McCloud remedy to affected members. I have written to scheme managers to remind them of their responsibilities to implement the remedy as quickly as possible and I would expect them to work with administrators the most appropiate available tools to do this.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to changes to the inheritance tax treatment of pension pots whether it is her policy that a) the total estate will be taken to include the unused pension pot, and b) donations to charity made from the unused pension pot will be considered as contributing to the 10% minimum.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced that unused pension funds and death benefits payable from a pension will form part of a person’s estate for inheritance tax purposes from 6 April 2027.
Where at least 10% of a person’s net estate is left to a qualifying charity, their estate is taxed at a reduced rate of inheritance tax of 36% instead of 40%. When considering this, the pension will fall within the general component of the estate. This component includes the deceased’s free estate and from 6 April 2027 will also include any unused pension funds and death benefits (called notional pension property). Any notional pension property that is paid to a qualifying charity will count toward the charitable giving conditions for the general component Further guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax- manual/ihtm45003. Guidance will be updated before the changes are implemented in April 2027.
Charity Lump Sum Death Benefits can be paid free of Income Tax. These lump sums are deliberately limited to money purchase arrangements where the deceased member had no dependants. These rules are not changing as this ensures that pension funds are used to support dependants where they exist, while allowing schemes to pay out benefits where there is no other beneficiary.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of amending the definition of a charitable lump sum death benefit so that people with dependents do not face barriers to donating to charity from their pension.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced that unused pension funds and death benefits payable from a pension will form part of a person’s estate for inheritance tax purposes from 6 April 2027.
Where at least 10% of a person’s net estate is left to a qualifying charity, their estate is taxed at a reduced rate of inheritance tax of 36% instead of 40%. When considering this, the pension will fall within the general component of the estate. This component includes the deceased’s free estate and from 6 April 2027 will also include any unused pension funds and death benefits (called notional pension property). Any notional pension property that is paid to a qualifying charity will count toward the charitable giving conditions for the general component Further guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax- manual/ihtm45003. Guidance will be updated before the changes are implemented in April 2027.
Charity Lump Sum Death Benefits can be paid free of Income Tax. These lump sums are deliberately limited to money purchase arrangements where the deceased member had no dependants. These rules are not changing as this ensures that pension funds are used to support dependants where they exist, while allowing schemes to pay out benefits where there is no other beneficiary.
Asked by: Sam Carling (Labour - North West Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the cases currently under consideration by the Planning Inspectorate are appeals against enforcement notices.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Using data as of 31 December 2025, which is in line with the latest published official statistics found on gov.uk here, the proportion of open cases that are enforcement notices is 27%.
This is calculated as open enforcement notices divided by total open cases.