Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will (a) have discussions with cabinet colleagues on the merits of reducing student loan debt as part of a recruitment package for attracting and retaining recent graduates into the armed forces and (b) estimate the cost to the public purse of such a policy.

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

The Armed Forces already provide several opportunities to support tertiary education both before service and while serving. These include bursaries, sponsored degree study, in-service degrees and Learning Credits to offset the cost of undergraduate and postgraduate study. These schemes ensure that personnel are supported in gaining valuable qualifications and skills benefiting not only the individual, but also enhancing operational capability.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police forces in England do not require their officers to declare membership of any potentially influential organisation that is hierarchical, has confidential membership and requires members to support and protect each other; and what assessment she has made of the compatibility of membership of such organisations with adherence to the College of Policing's ethical policing principles.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

All police officers are under a statutory obligation to abstain from any activity which is likely to interfere with the impartial discharge of their duties. Failure to do so could lead to disciplinary action being taken.

The Home Office does not hold information on individual force policies regarding membership of organisations.

However, the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on counter corruption sets out that, as part of force notifiable association policies, officers should declare association with any individual, group, organisation or society which may cause a conflict of interest.

The ethical policing principles set out by the College of Policing are designed to support decision-making that is fair, unbiased, and open and honest about the reasons for decisions. The wider Code of Ethics, supported by a statutory Code of Practice for Ethical Policing, provides guidance on ethical and professional behaviour, including how officers and staff should manage business interests or personal associations to ensure there is no conflict with their policing duties.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to improve the defence capability to shoot down ballistic missiles targeted at the UK.

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

Ballistic Missiles are one of several threat categories that are managed through our Integrated Air and Missile Defence enterprise.

Integrated Air and Missile Defence investments will be prioritised appropriately against the threat as part of the future Integrated Force. Work to deliver the Strategic Defence Review recommendations, including on homeland Integrated Air and Missile Defence, will be prioritised appropriately against the assessed threat picture as part of the future Integrated Force and will be set out in the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve the armed forces’ ability to conduct ground launched conventional deep precision strikes.

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

Activities under the Trinity House partnership between the UK and Germany are progressing technical work to mature and inform choices for very long-range Deep Precision Strike capabilities that would expand the UK's options for retaliation to attack, or threat of attack, on the UK or its Allies.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information she holds on the value of US bonds held by the Bank of England.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK’s foreign currency assets are held by:

a) HM Treasury in the Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA). HM Treasury appoints the Bank of England as its agent to manage the EEA on a day-to-day basis.

b) The Bank of England.

Data on the UK’s holdings of foreign currency assets, split by currency, is published quarterly (with a one month lag) by the Bank of England. The latest is available here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/uk-international-reserves/2025/december-2025

As of 30^th September 2025, the EEA holds $60,083 million of US dollar-denominated assets. The Bank of England holds $15,183 million of US dollar-denominated assets.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will write to the hon. Member for Slough outlining (a) why the High Court of Justice King’s Bench Division Administrative Court has been (i) writing to the hon. Member for Slough and (ii) sending him sealed court orders regarding a court case to which he is not a party, (b) why this has continued after correspondence from his office, (c) whether all parties for this case are aware of (A) this case and (B) the orders relating to it, (d) whether all parties for this case are aware that the hon. Member for Slough has been sent this information and (e) whether, if required, the Information Commissioner's Office will be informed.

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

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) processed the claim accurately and in accordance with the information provided by the claimant.

HMCTS has advised that the hon. Member for Slough’s parliamentary email address was included on the claim form by the claimant to the proceedings as the contact address for the Second Defendant. As a result, this was added to the court database and would generate court correspondence including court orders to the hon. Member’s parliamentary email address.

HMCTS received an email from the MP’s office on 29 December 2025 and the court issued a response to him on the same day. The MP continued to receive correspondence because his office did not specify that the email address should be removed. The court would usually require notification and evidence that an administrative error has been made so the individual's details can be removed from the court record.

Documents were sent to the hon. Member for Slough who is not a party to this case rather than to the second defendant. HMCTS has corrected this and is ensuring service on the second defendant and will notify all parties.

This is not a matter for the Information Commissioners Office as HMCTS has followed the process and accurately recorded the claim details from the claimant’s form.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what checks are undertaken to ensure Hon Members and other individuals are not sent court orders to which (a) they are not party and (b) have sensitive personal information of others.

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

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) processed the claim accurately and in accordance with the information provided by the claimant.

HMCTS has advised that the hon. Member for Slough’s parliamentary email address was included on the claim form by the claimant to the proceedings as the contact address for the Second Defendant. As a result, this was added to the court database and would generate court correspondence including court orders to the hon. Member’s parliamentary email address.

HMCTS received an email from the MP’s office on 29 December 2025 and the court issued a response to him on the same day. The MP continued to receive correspondence because his office did not specify that the email address should be removed. The court would usually require notification and evidence that an administrative error has been made so the individual's details can be removed from the court record.

Documents were sent to the hon. Member for Slough who is not a party to this case rather than to the second defendant. HMCTS has corrected this and is ensuring service on the second defendant and will notify all parties.

This is not a matter for the Information Commissioners Office as HMCTS has followed the process and accurately recorded the claim details from the claimant’s form.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps courts take to comply with data protection laws.

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

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. The Department is the data controller for HMCTS data, and the Ministry of Justice Data Protection Officer (DPO) covers HMCTS.

HMCTS has a Data Protection Governance team which works closely with the Ministry of Justice DPO, to maintain a Data Protection Framework. The framework supports HMCTS staff to discharge their duties in compliance with data protection laws. HMCTS publishes Personal Information Charters for court and tribunal users, to help them understand how HMCTS uses and protects personal data. The HMCTS Personal Information Charters can be found here.

HMCTS maintains Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) for processing activities and produces data sharing agreements where HMCTS data is shared with partners across the justice system.

All HMCTS staff must complete annual mandatory data security training which covers handling and protecting personal data. These measures ensure that courts uphold high standards in the handling and protection of personal data in accordance with data protection legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many phone calls to court phone numbers are unanswered on average per day; and what is this number as a percentage of all calls.

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

We are unable to provide data on calls made to local Court and Tribunal venues. However, HM Courts & Tribunals Service regularly publishes data on calls made to service centres which can be found through the following link: HMCTS management information – modernised services - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of support available to parents applying to the Court of Protection for an order authorising access to their child's (a) Child Trust Fund and (b) Junior ISA when their child lacks capacity to manage their financial assets.

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

Where a young adult lacks mental capacity, the law requires parents or a guardian to have legal authority to make decisions on their behalf about financial assets or property. This longstanding requirement is vital in ensuring that vulnerable people are safeguarded and protected from potential financial abuse. The requirement for legal authority extends to accessing funds held in a Child Trust Fund or a Junior ISA.

On 9 June 2023, the Ministry of Justice published the ‘Making Financial Decisions for young people: parent and carer toolkit’ explaining the process by which parents and guardians of disabled children who lack capacity can obtain legal authority if no other arrangements are in place to provide such authority. This can be done by making an application to the Court of Protection for an order authorising access to monies held in a Child Trust Fund or Junior ISA. The toolkit is available on Gov.UK. Information to assist parents or carers in the completion of one of the required court forms can be found here: How to apply to make property and finance decisions on someone’s behalf (including Child Trust Funds) - GOV.UK

Ministers are working closely to consider what further steps could be taken to ameliorate the process for supporting young people without capacity to access small value capital assets. The Ministry of Justice will continue to engage with key stakeholders to understand more about the difficulties and potential changes to address these while maintaining necessary safeguards.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of court phone numbers that, when called, tell you to call a different number.

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

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is committed to improving the experience of users contacting us by telephone. We have migrated call handling for a number of services from local courts and tribunals to centrally managed National Service Centres. Since migration telephony wait times continue to improve, for example, average call waiting times in our digital service centres have fallen year on year, from 17 minutes in December 2023, to 15 minutes in December 2024, and to 13 minutes in December 2025, against our 15-minutes target.

A proportion of callers continue to use older phone numbers that appear on historic paperwork or in third‑party online sources retained by citizens and professionals. To avoid leaving these callers without guidance, HMCTS maintains recorded messages on such lines to signpost to the correct, active number or service.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) customer service, (b) accessibility and (c) the ability of users to speak to a human operator in its court telephone system.

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

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is taking steps to improve the service it provides Court and Tribunal users, for example, through the delivery of the Service Improvement Framework which focuses on written communications, telephone call handling, complaint handling and public facing information. This will be in place from April 2026.

HMCTS has developed an Accessibility Strategy following a Government Internal Audit Agency recommendation in September 2024 and is building an action plan to support delivery of the strategy.

HMCTS’ new digital services are designed and built to be simple, accessible, and easy to use. HMCTS has a digital support service to help those who are digitally excluded (based on access, skills or confidence) to complete digital forms.  HMCTS digital services are required to comply with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018, under the Equality Act 2018. Our digital services are tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA Standard to make sure they comply with the regulations.

To improve call handling within HMCTS, some services, including Crime Magistrates, Civil and Family, have migrated call handling from local Courts into National Service centres. This change was made in recognition that a more efficient and consistent service can be delivered through modern technology and centrally managed, dedicated contact centre teams.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been employed to answer phone enquiries for the High Court in each of the last 5 years.

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

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) HR does not hold information relating to people employed to answer phone enquiries for the High Court. This is because answering telephone enquiries is a responsibility spanning multiple different role profiles.

No HMCTS role has the sole responsibility of answering telephone enquiries in its entirety, and so the word “telephone” or “phone” does not feature in any job titles.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Chair); Mr Calvin Bailey; Lincoln Jopp

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Chair); Mr Calvin Bailey; Lincoln Jopp

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Chair); Mr Calvin Bailey; Lincoln Jopp

Submit Evidence (by 25 Mar 2026)

The inquiry will examine the current and emerging threats in the region. It will ask what the UK’s defence and security interests are, and whether we have the correct strategies, capabilities and alliances to counter these threats, particularly from Russia.