Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the (a) operational cost and (b) salary of the Chief Executive of the Office of Road and Rail is; what assessment she has made of the (i) value for money and (ii) effectiveness of that office; and whether she plans to abolish that office.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Office of Rail and Road’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2023/24 show a total expenditure of £40.77 million. This is detailed on page 53 of the report, available at:

https://www.orr.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-07/orr-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-2024-web.pdf

The Chief Executive’s annual salary for 2023/24 is reported as being in the range of £170,000–£175,000, with performance related pay of £5,000–£10,000. This information is published in the Remuneration and Staff Report, available at:

https://www.orr.gov.uk/annual-report-and-accounts-2023-2024/accountability-report/remuneration-and-staff-report

We would note that we expect the 2024/25 Annual Report and Accounts to be published in the next few weeks on ORR’s website which will provide updated information.

The Department for Transport keeps the value for money and effectiveness of the ORR under ongoing review to ensure it delivers against its objectives efficiently and in line with public spending principles.

As set out in our consultation, the Government is committed to delivering a simpler, more accountable railway, ensuring clear responsibilities and an efficient system that delivers for passengers and freight.

The Government proposes that ORR will retain its key regulatory functions, including on safety and will have a robust and independent appeals function on access decisions, ensuring capacity allocation decisions remain fair and non-discriminatory. There are no plans to abolish the ORR.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses (a) claim Small Employers Relief and (b) have more than 100 employees in each (i) region and (ii) nation.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Data for the financial year 2024/25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2020/21 until 2023/24 is provided below.

The table below shows the number of PAYE schemes who claimed compensation for any of the four Statutory Parental Payments, qualifying them for Small Employers’ Relief.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.

3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes who claimed Small Employers’ Relief, with schemes used as a proxy for business count.

The table below shows how much compensation was paid to PAYE schemes claiming Small Employers’ Relief but not the entire value of parental payment claims.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Claims values have been rounded to nearest £100,000.

The table below shows the proportion of claims for Small Employers’ Relief compensation against total parental pay reclaims.

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Total number of claims rounded to nearest 1000.

3) The proportion calculation assumes all schemes claiming compensation are also counted within number of claims for recoveries.

Further breakdowns of information by income decile or of employees by region are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.

Some related information may be found in this call for evidence: Parental leave and pay review: call for evidence - GOV.UK, including the number of claimants by income decile and region up to 2023/24.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much and what proportion of parental leave payments were paid to employers claiming Small Employers Relief in each of the last five years.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Data for the financial year 2024/25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2020/21 until 2023/24 is provided below.

The table below shows the number of PAYE schemes who claimed compensation for any of the four Statutory Parental Payments, qualifying them for Small Employers’ Relief.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.

3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes who claimed Small Employers’ Relief, with schemes used as a proxy for business count.

The table below shows how much compensation was paid to PAYE schemes claiming Small Employers’ Relief but not the entire value of parental payment claims.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Claims values have been rounded to nearest £100,000.

The table below shows the proportion of claims for Small Employers’ Relief compensation against total parental pay reclaims.

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Total number of claims rounded to nearest 1000.

3) The proportion calculation assumes all schemes claiming compensation are also counted within number of claims for recoveries.

Further breakdowns of information by income decile or of employees by region are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.

Some related information may be found in this call for evidence: Parental leave and pay review: call for evidence - GOV.UK, including the number of claimants by income decile and region up to 2023/24.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much was paid in parental leave by recipient's income decile for each of the last five years.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Data for the financial year 2024/25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2020/21 until 2023/24 is provided below.

The table below shows the number of PAYE schemes who claimed compensation for any of the four Statutory Parental Payments, qualifying them for Small Employers’ Relief.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.

3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes who claimed Small Employers’ Relief, with schemes used as a proxy for business count.

The table below shows how much compensation was paid to PAYE schemes claiming Small Employers’ Relief but not the entire value of parental payment claims.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Claims values have been rounded to nearest £100,000.

The table below shows the proportion of claims for Small Employers’ Relief compensation against total parental pay reclaims.

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Total number of claims rounded to nearest 1000.

3) The proportion calculation assumes all schemes claiming compensation are also counted within number of claims for recoveries.

Further breakdowns of information by income decile or of employees by region are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.

Some related information may be found in this call for evidence: Parental leave and pay review: call for evidence - GOV.UK, including the number of claimants by income decile and region up to 2023/24.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employers claimed parental leave pay through Small Employers Relief in each of the last five years.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Data for the financial year 2024/25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2020/21 until 2023/24 is provided below.

The table below shows the number of PAYE schemes who claimed compensation for any of the four Statutory Parental Payments, qualifying them for Small Employers’ Relief.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.

3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes who claimed Small Employers’ Relief, with schemes used as a proxy for business count.

The table below shows how much compensation was paid to PAYE schemes claiming Small Employers’ Relief but not the entire value of parental payment claims.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Claims values have been rounded to nearest £100,000.

The table below shows the proportion of claims for Small Employers’ Relief compensation against total parental pay reclaims.

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Total number of claims rounded to nearest 1000.

3) The proportion calculation assumes all schemes claiming compensation are also counted within number of claims for recoveries.

Further breakdowns of information by income decile or of employees by region are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.

Some related information may be found in this call for evidence: Parental leave and pay review: call for evidence - GOV.UK, including the number of claimants by income decile and region up to 2023/24.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust and (b) Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB has improved according to his Department's matrices for performance and improvement since July 2024.

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

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board are in receipt of national mandated support via NHS England’s Recovery Support Programme.

Since July 2024, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board have both demonstrated improvements across all areas of the requisite transition criteria, including finance, workforce, urgent and emergency care, governance, and leadership.

NHS England continues to support the trust and the integrated care board in a range of areas. We are working closely with NHS England to monitor the situation.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her planned timeline is for the (a) funding and (b) construction of the M54 and M6 link road; and what the split between public and private funding will be.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

On the 8th July, the Transport Secretary announced that the scheme will be progressing, following on from the Spending Review in June. The delivery timetable for the scheme will be confirmed during the setting of the next Road Investment Strategy [RIS3], which begins in April 2026.

The scheme is publicly funded and will support the government’s mission to kickstart economic growth.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when court room six at Shropshire Justice Centre will be re-opened.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The works to make courtroom six operational were completed on 7 June 2025, and the first sitting took place on 10 June 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which (a) wards and (b) super output areas in Telford constituency are within the top (i) 10%, (ii) 5% and (iii) 1% in England for (A) life expectancy inequality, (B) health outcomes, (C) deprivation, (D) child poverty and (E) other factors used to determine health investment into (1) primary care and (2) hubs.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The current national funding formula for primary medical care, known as the Carr-Hill formula, does not use indicators such as life expectancy inequality, health outcomes, deprivation, or child poverty to determine allocations. As a result, data for the areas requested in the Telford constituency is not held centrally for these specific criteria in the context of primary medical care investment.

The Carr-Hill formula instead uses demographic and practice-level characteristics, including patient age and gender, list turnover, and unavoidable costs based on geographical area, which aim to reflect expected workload for general practice services. To account for health inequalities, there is also an additional adjustment applied at the integrated care board level to recognise relative deprivation across geographies.

We know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that general practices (GPs) serving in deprived parts of England receive less funding per patient when adjusted for need, compared to practices in less deprived areas. It is important that funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country, which is why in the 10-Health Year Plan we have committed to reviewing the GP funding formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.

Found: Current membership Dame Karen Bradley (Conservative; Staffordshire Moorlands) (Chair) Shaun Davies (Labour

Maternity APPG
Thursday 10th July 2025

Found: Morecambe and Lunesdale), Jen Craft MP (Thurrock), Emily Darlington MP (Milton Keynes Central), Shaun Davies