Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many appointments to ministerial private office have been made by exceptions to the civil service recruitment principles since July 2024; and how many transfers of civil servants from other departments by exceptions there have been since that date.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Between July 2024 and 03 November 2025 there were no appointments made by exception to Ministerial Private Offices among the delegated grades (below Senior Civil Servant (SCS) level). However, during this period there was one direct Ministerial appointment at SCS level, this was the Strategic Advisor to the Secretary of State and Head of Review and Challenge.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the meal rate for Universal Free School Meals to cover the costs school face in providing them.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department spends around £600 million annually supporting the provision of free and nutritious meals to around 1.3 million infants and almost £1 billion supporting around 2.2 million of the most disadvantaged pupils. In addition to this, we have set aside over £1 billion over the multiyear spending review period to back our significant expansion of free meals support to all households on Universal Credit, taking effect from September 2026. This will benefit over half a million children.

For the 2025/26 academic year, we have allocated a meal rate of £2.61 for universal infant free school meals. As with all policies, we continue to keep free meals policy, including funding, under review to ensure that nutritious meals continue to be deliverable. Departmental officials meet regularly with the sector, including the school catering industry, and use these insights to inform our work.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken to replenish UK munitions stockpiles.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

As announced in the Strategic Defence Review, we our investing £6 billion this Parliament in munitions to replenish our stockpiles. This investment includes £1.5 billion specifically to develop an “always on” munitions pipeline, building six new munitions and energetics factories to ensure we increase the capacity and resilience of our domestic munitions production.

I look forward to meeting the hon. Member to discuss her perspectives in due course.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of further permitted development protections for registered historic battlefields in England.

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

The government is committed to the protection of the historic environment.

We consider new permitted development rights, and amendments to existing ones, on a case-by-case basis.

Changes to permitted development rights are generally made following public consultation, including consideration of any impacts on the historic environment.

Local planning authorities can also remove national permitted development rights where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the well-being of an area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction.

Found: Current membership Mr Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat; Orkney and Shetland) (Chair) Sarah Bool

Found: Current membership Mr Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat; Orkney and Shetland) (Chair) Sarah Bool

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Alistair Carmichael (Chair); Sarah Bool; Charlie Dewhirst; Helena