Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the Department's long-term strategy is for enabling local communities to save valued community assets from deterioration.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through the English Devolution Bill, we are committed to legislate for a ‘right to buy’, giving local people stronger powers to secure and preserve valued community assets if they come up for sale.
We are also committed to regenerating our country’s neighbourhoods. As the chancellor announced at the spending review the government will be supporting communities with funding for up to 350 places. More details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps are being taken to improve the UK defence industrial base in (a) Shropshire and (b) the West Midlands.
Answered by Maria Eagle
The recent Strategic Defence Review and National Security Strategy have identified the need to grow and enhance resilience in our defence industrial base. The Defence Industrial Strategy will set out the full package of measures to make the UK a defence industrial superpower by 2035. This will include a new partnership with industry to realise defence’s potential as an engine for growth across all the nations and regions of the UK, including Shropshire and the West Midlands.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase the level of apprenticeship opportunities within his Department.
Answered by Catherine West
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all government departments to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Additionally, a new cross-Government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration, The 'Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship' (CLA), will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026.
We are also working on aligning our apprenticeship approach with our capability framework. For example, we are exploring new apprenticeship opportunities to scale our approach and build internal capability on Data and AI.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress she has made on the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to strong neighbourhood policing for everyone in England and Wales, wherever they live. On 10 April, the Prime Minister and Home Secretary outlined further details about our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, including that by July, every community, will have named and contactable officers dedicated to addressing issues facing their communities. Local communities and businesses will also have ongoing opportunities to engage with neighbourhood teams and raise local concerns and priorities through regular local beat meetings.
The Guarantee was developed through close working with the National Police Chief’s Council and other policing leads, and we continue to work closely with them to ensure it is delivered across all police forces in England and Wales.
The Government has made £200 million available in FY 25/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales, including up to 3000 additional neighbourhood officers by March 2026.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships available in her Department.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th May 2025 to PQ51804.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities within her Department.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all government departments to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Additionally, a new cross-Government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration, The ‘Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship’, will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help local authorities in rural areas effectively use compulsory purchase orders to bring derelict buildings back into community use.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Local authorities have various compulsory purchase powers which they can use to acquire and develop derelict or empty properties. To assist them in the use of their powers, the government has implemented the package of reforms in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 to streamline and modernise the compulsory purchase order (CPO) process and clarify that local authorities’ CPO powers can be used to deliver regeneration in their areas. Further reforms to improve the CPO process and land compensation rules have been included in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. We also publish guidance on the compulsory purchase process to help local authorities understand and use their powers.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will increase funding for flood defence schemes in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are investing £2.65 billion over two years to March 2026 to maintain, repair, and build flood defences. We’re committing a further £4.2 billion over three years from April 2026, an increase of 5% per year, as announced at Spending Review 2025.
We are consulting on proposals for reforming flood defence funding, protecting all communities including rural, coastal, and poorer areas.
The list of projects to receive government funding will be consented on an annual basis through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to improve public sector delivery with (a) technologies and (b) AI.
Answered by Feryal Clark
We are taking significant steps to improve and modernise public sector delivery with (a) technology and (b) Artificial Intelligence (AI).
(a) Our "Cloud First" policy mandates that departments default to public cloud solutions, whilst the National Digital Exchange (NDX) Cloud Component acts as a blueprint for transforming government digital and data services. Additionally, the Digital Backbone aims to introduce the capabilities needed to connect fragmented services and allow public bodies to share software solutions. These initiatives will enhance efficiency and reduce duplication, saving time and reducing spend.
(b) We recognise the transformative potential of AI. We carried out a landmark AI trial involving 20,000 Civil Servants across 12 departments to assess the productivity of M365 Copilot, which found that civil servants can save on average 26 minutes per day (circa two weeks annually) using AI assistants. Furthermore, the Incubator for AI (i.AI) works to explore and develop AI solutions for the public sector.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support is available for community sports organisations to help modernise (a) running tracks and (b) other facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.
Grassroots sport is also funded through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, who invest over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year.
Sport England’s Movement Fund also offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most. The Movement Fund can be used for the refurbishment or upgrading facilities to improve or create spaces that can provide opportunities to get more people active.
Alongside funding Sport England also provides extensive guidance to organisations looking to develop and modernise facilities. This guidance is available here.
The Government is also committed to continued funding for grassroots facilities. £100 million will be invested into grassroots sport facilities across the UK through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme. Investment into individual projects is still to be determined for 2025-26.
Future funding of sports facilities beyond 2025/26 will be considered following the Spending Review.