Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reform the (a) procurement and (b) supply chain of medications to (i) ensure timely availability and (ii) reduce shortages at community pharmacies.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The resilience of UK supply chains is a key priority, and we are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages.
As outlined in our recently published policy paper, ‘Managing a robust and resilient supply of medicines’, the Government is committed to building on the important actions already underway across the system to minimise disruption for patients and enhance resilience in our supply chains. The publication includes a number of actions, including:
We will continue to engage with community pharmacy, industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver these actions.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will review eligibility criteria for Carer’s Allowance in cases where unpaid carers support individuals with severe epilepsy.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government keeps eligibility criteria under review to ensure they are meeting the needs of carers. Entitlement to Carer's Allowance depends on certain conditions relating to the circumstances of both the disabled person and the carer being satisfied. A carer must care for a severely disabled person for a minimum of 35 hours per week. The disabled person (including those with severe epilepsy) must be in receipt of a gateway benefit:
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will take steps to ensure transparency in the (a) service charges, (b) insurance premiums, (c) permissions for property alterations and (d) other management practices of freehold companies.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. and Rt Hon. Members to the answer given to Question UIN 80700 on 20 October 2025.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to introduce (a) statutory limits and (b) oversight mechanisms to prevent excessive administrative fees by freeholders for routine property requests.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. and Rt Hon. Members to the answer given to Question UIN 80700 on 20 October 2025.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department provides to (a) local authorities and (b) planning bodies on supporting leaseholders unable to sell homes due to unresolved disputes with freeholders.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Leaseholders involved in disputes may contact the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) which provides free initial legal advice and information on leasehold, building safety, commonhold and park home issues for consumers.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of freehold management practices on the ability of leaseholders to sell properties.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to ensuring that those living in the rented and leasehold sectors are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents.
Property agents must already belong to a government-approved redress scheme. This legislative requirement is currently enforced by local authorities and by the National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents.
The redress schemes publish data on the number of complaints they receive, the amount awarded to consumers, and maintain a public list of agents that have been expelled from their respective schemes.
Many leaseholders face persistent delays and high costs when trying to sell their properties. Currently, freeholders and managing agents are responsible for providing essential sales information, but they often have little incentive to do so efficiently. Homeowners living on private or mixed tenure estates, who contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of communal areas, can face similar challenges when trying to obtain relevant information from their estate manager. The government will take forward measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LFRA) which will speed up the provision of information for leaseholders and homeowners on private or mixed tenure estates who wish to sell their property, and protect sellers from unreasonable fees when requesting this information.
The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group Chaired by Lord Best to advise them how to do it, yet it failed to respond to their findings from 2019. Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future, and so we are looking again at Lord Best’s 2019 report on regulating the property agent sector, particularly in light of the recommendations in the final Grenfell Inquiry report.
On 4 July 2025, we launched a wide-ranging consultation on proposals to hold landlords and managing agents to account for the services they provide and the charges and fees they levy. This included a number of proposals recommended by Lord Best, including the introduction of mandatory qualifications for managing agents and estate managers on freehold estates. We are clear that this consultation is not the final step in the regulation of managing agents and we will continue to reflect on the various other recommendations made in the 2019 report.
We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish a register of freehold management companies subject to repeated (a) complaints and (b) enforcement action.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to ensuring that those living in the rented and leasehold sectors are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents.
Property agents must already belong to a government-approved redress scheme. This legislative requirement is currently enforced by local authorities and by the National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents.
The redress schemes publish data on the number of complaints they receive, the amount awarded to consumers, and maintain a public list of agents that have been expelled from their respective schemes.
Many leaseholders face persistent delays and high costs when trying to sell their properties. Currently, freeholders and managing agents are responsible for providing essential sales information, but they often have little incentive to do so efficiently. Homeowners living on private or mixed tenure estates, who contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of communal areas, can face similar challenges when trying to obtain relevant information from their estate manager. The government will take forward measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LFRA) which will speed up the provision of information for leaseholders and homeowners on private or mixed tenure estates who wish to sell their property, and protect sellers from unreasonable fees when requesting this information.
The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group Chaired by Lord Best to advise them how to do it, yet it failed to respond to their findings from 2019. Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future, and so we are looking again at Lord Best’s 2019 report on regulating the property agent sector, particularly in light of the recommendations in the final Grenfell Inquiry report.
On 4 July 2025, we launched a wide-ranging consultation on proposals to hold landlords and managing agents to account for the services they provide and the charges and fees they levy. This included a number of proposals recommended by Lord Best, including the introduction of mandatory qualifications for managing agents and estate managers on freehold estates. We are clear that this consultation is not the final step in the regulation of managing agents and we will continue to reflect on the various other recommendations made in the 2019 report.
We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to ensure transparency regarding the nature of the data compromised with the people affected by the Capita data breach.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Capita contacted all impacted members to inform them of the potential loss of data. Capita provided all impacted members with clear communications and also a subscription to Experian Plus that allowed members to monitor their online records for any signs of potential issues.
Capita also initiated an independent full review of their systems to review security and to identify any further potential data exfiltration. Capita cooperated fully with investigations into the breach with the Information Commissioner's Office and with Cabinet office in assessing any potential risks to the membership of the scheme.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department had made an assessment of the adequacy of Capita’s cybersecurity protocols prior to the March 2023 data breach.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office (CO), which is responsible for managing the contract with Capita for the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme (RMSPS), ensured the adequacy of Capita's cybersecurity protocols through a robust contractual framework. Capita is required to adhere to Government Security standards and the Security Schedule of the contract, which includes providing annual independent penetration testing by a National Cyber Security Centre-accredited team and maintaining security accreditations such as ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus.
These standards and Capita’s security posture are overseen by CO Information Assurance professionals and captured via regular reporting and audits. It should be noted that all of the accredited RMSPS systems were not compromised during the Capita cyber attack and remained secure; however, a small number of scheme members were unfortunately impacted when some data was extracted from a separate Capita finance file related to compensation payments.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Conservative - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to review its guidance on outsourcing contracts following the Capita data breach.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Sourcing Playbook, which provides policy and guidance on sourcing decisions, is published by the Cabinet Office and is reviewed and updated regularly. The last update was 26 February 2025.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64901fcc5f7bb700127fac5e/Sourcing_Playbook_Final.pdf