Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her timetable is for laying statutory instruments to withdraw the T8 waste exemption for end-of-life tyres announced in August 2025; and what steps her Department is taking to support the circular economy in the context of unused licensed domestic tyre reprocessing capacity.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is finalising the drafting of the legislation to withdraw the T8 waste exemption for end-of-life tyres, and it will be laid in parliament when parliamentary time allows.

Regarding domestic reprocessing, there are a range of options for recycling tyres including the granulation of tyres for incorporation into carpet underlay, for sports and safety surfaces, as well as use as a fuel in cement kilns. The Government is committed to the wider transition towards a circular economy where resources are kept in use for longer and waste is designed out.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will reinstate the insistence on digital Annex VII prior to shipment and the insistence on geo-tagged location evidence of individual container shipments reaching their nominated end destination as set out in the reforms announced by the Environment Agency in August 2025.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency's (EA) enhanced compliance checks found no evidence of widespread diversion to illegal pyrolysis. As a result, it does not currently require digital Annex VII documentation or geo-tagged proof of arrival for every shipment.

The EA regulates waste shipments using an intelligence-led, risk-based approach. It may require digital Annex VII documentation, geo-tagged evidence of arrival, or other supporting information from individual operators where risk assessments or compliance concerns indicate that enhanced scrutiny is necessary.

The EA keeps its regulatory controls under review and will continue to assess whether additional measures are required to ensure compliance with waste shipment controls, while maintaining a proportionate and effective approach to regulation.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Environment Agency’s 13 August 2026 progress update of waste pneumatic tyres and their export, how many (a) prohibition notices have been served on brokers exporting from the UK and (b) overseas receiving facilities in India have been removed from the Environment Agency's approved list for failing to provide geo-tagged proof of arrival within the required deadline; and for what reason the Environment Agency has amended measures introduced to address UK End of Life Tyre exports going to batch pyrolysis plants in Asia.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

(a) The Environment Agency (EA) has served 50 prohibition notices on exporters of waste tyres from England.

(b) The EA has restricted exports to 31 destination facilities where exporters were unable to provide satisfactory return-tracking evidence, including the required geo-tagged proof of arrival. The restrictions prevent exports of waste tyres to those facilities.

Between October 2025 and July 2026, the EA carried out enhanced checks on more than 10,000 waste tyre shipments. These checks did not identify evidence of widespread exports to batch pyrolysis facilities. In light of these findings, the Environment Agency has revised its regulatory approach to provide proportionate assurance across the sector while targeting activity on operators that present the highest risk of non-compliance.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the Environment Agency changed the evidence threshold for geo-tagged photographic proof of arrival under the enhanced Annex VII verification procedure for waste tyre exports to non-OECD nations, when mandatory Digital Waste Tracking requirements on compliant domestic UK tyre reprocessors is introduced domestically; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of those changes to exporter compliance on UK recyclers.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency's (EA) enhanced verification checks, which required evidence to demonstrate that waste had been correctly received overseas, examined more than 10,000 waste tyre shipments between October 2025 and July 2026 and found no evidence of widespread diversion to illegal pyrolysis. The EA has therefore moved to a risk-based approach, focusing scrutiny on operators of concern while maintaining regulatory oversight. The EA has not identified adverse impacts of this approach on compliant UK recyclers.

Future phases of Digital Waste Tracking are planned to strengthen information reporting requirements for exports of Article 18 wastes, including waste tyres.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her department has made of the potential merits of adopting an Australian-style shred-only export mandate to i) permanently eliminate non-compliance at foreign receiving ports and ii) drive the development of a re-industrialised circular economy using End of Life Tyres as feedstock.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is aware of Australia's shred-only policy for exports of waste tyres, and officials have met with stakeholders, including from Australia, to better understand the rationale for the policy, its implementation, and the impacts reported to date.

The Department continues to monitor international approaches to waste tyre management and considers a range of evidence when assessing options for improving the environmental outcomes associated with end-of-life tyres and strengthening the circular economy.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, further to the publication of the Government's Final Delivery Plan on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome on 22 July 2025, when will the one-year update be published.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We intend to circulate the one-year update to stakeholders in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, further to her answer to written parliamentary question 19983, which department or body holds the patient data recorded using the four categories of severity for myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome that the SNOMED CT codes recognise, namely (a) mild (SCTID: 377181000000104), (b) moderate (SCTID: 377171000000101), (c) severe (SCTID: 377161000000108) and (d) very severe (SCTID: 2897971000000106).

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

SNOMED CT codes are used by general practices (GPs) to record patient diagnoses on their medical records. This is a different system to the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision codes that are used in hospital admissions data.

The NHS England Terminology and Classifications service manages the SNOMED CT codes that GPs use, but this service would not hold any statistics on the use of these codes. Further information on the service is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/terminology-and-classifications/snomed-ct

To be recorded centrally at NHS England, patient data would first need be extracted from GP clinical systems as part of a data collection. We are not aware of any NHS England data extractions that target these specific SNOMED codes.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what statistical information his Department holds on the adequacy of Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors’ performance for each month in the last five years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

During the period January to July 2026, of the 26 recorded instances of court time lost at Bristol Crown Court owing to the late delivery of a prisoner, one was attributable to Serco. The remaining 25 instances were attributable to a range of factors elsewhere in the criminal justice system, including issues arising within prisons, HM Courts and Tribunals Service and prisoner refusals.

HM Prison and Probation Service continually monitors Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contractors through assured performance information and formal contract management arrangements, with service credits, fixed-cost remedies and improvement actions available where failures are attributable to the contractor. In addition, the ministerially-chaired Prisoner Delivery Oversight Board is co-ordinating work across criminal justice system partners to address the end-to-end causes of delay.

In the year ending 30 June 2026, contractors escorted approximately 343,000 prisoners to court. Of around 6,600 reported delays involving prisoners transported by PECS, 504 were attributable to contractor performance, with the majority arising from wider criminal justice system factors. Overall contractor performance remains strong and, where standards are not met, financial deductions, improvement plans and other contractual remedies are applied.

The Department holds monthly performance information for Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors covering the period since the current contracts commenced in September 2020. This includes data on prisoner movements between police stations, courts and prisons to monitor and measure overall PECS supplier service delivery and performance against Contract Delivery Indicators. The information is used to monitor contractual compliance and inform the application of improvement plans, financial deductions and other contractual remedies where required.

Previously published data show that PECS supplier-attributable delays reduced from 0.16% of court productions in 2023 to 0.08% in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025, PECS suppliers delivered prisoners to court on time in 99.91% of cases, compared with an overall criminal justice system timely delivery to court rate of 98.19%.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors’ performance.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

During the period January to July 2026, of the 26 recorded instances of court time lost at Bristol Crown Court owing to the late delivery of a prisoner, one was attributable to Serco. The remaining 25 instances were attributable to a range of factors elsewhere in the criminal justice system, including issues arising within prisons, HM Courts and Tribunals Service and prisoner refusals.

HM Prison and Probation Service continually monitors Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contractors through assured performance information and formal contract management arrangements, with service credits, fixed-cost remedies and improvement actions available where failures are attributable to the contractor. In addition, the ministerially-chaired Prisoner Delivery Oversight Board is co-ordinating work across criminal justice system partners to address the end-to-end causes of delay.

In the year ending 30 June 2026, contractors escorted approximately 343,000 prisoners to court. Of around 6,600 reported delays involving prisoners transported by PECS, 504 were attributable to contractor performance, with the majority arising from wider criminal justice system factors. Overall contractor performance remains strong and, where standards are not met, financial deductions, improvement plans and other contractual remedies are applied.

The Department holds monthly performance information for Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors covering the period since the current contracts commenced in September 2020. This includes data on prisoner movements between police stations, courts and prisons to monitor and measure overall PECS supplier service delivery and performance against Contract Delivery Indicators. The information is used to monitor contractual compliance and inform the application of improvement plans, financial deductions and other contractual remedies where required.

Previously published data show that PECS supplier-attributable delays reduced from 0.16% of court productions in 2023 to 0.08% in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025, PECS suppliers delivered prisoners to court on time in 99.91% of cases, compared with an overall criminal justice system timely delivery to court rate of 98.19%.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure Serco delivers prisoners on time at Bristol Crown Court.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

During the period January to July 2026, of the 26 recorded instances of court time lost at Bristol Crown Court owing to the late delivery of a prisoner, one was attributable to Serco. The remaining 25 instances were attributable to a range of factors elsewhere in the criminal justice system, including issues arising within prisons, HM Courts and Tribunals Service and prisoner refusals.

HM Prison and Probation Service continually monitors Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contractors through assured performance information and formal contract management arrangements, with service credits, fixed-cost remedies and improvement actions available where failures are attributable to the contractor. In addition, the ministerially-chaired Prisoner Delivery Oversight Board is co-ordinating work across criminal justice system partners to address the end-to-end causes of delay.

In the year ending 30 June 2026, contractors escorted approximately 343,000 prisoners to court. Of around 6,600 reported delays involving prisoners transported by PECS, 504 were attributable to contractor performance, with the majority arising from wider criminal justice system factors. Overall contractor performance remains strong and, where standards are not met, financial deductions, improvement plans and other contractual remedies are applied.

The Department holds monthly performance information for Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors covering the period since the current contracts commenced in September 2020. This includes data on prisoner movements between police stations, courts and prisons to monitor and measure overall PECS supplier service delivery and performance against Contract Delivery Indicators. The information is used to monitor contractual compliance and inform the application of improvement plans, financial deductions and other contractual remedies where required.

Previously published data show that PECS supplier-attributable delays reduced from 0.16% of court productions in 2023 to 0.08% in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025, PECS suppliers delivered prisoners to court on time in 99.91% of cases, compared with an overall criminal justice system timely delivery to court rate of 98.19%.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many UK citizens located in countries in the Middle East, whether temporarily or permanently, provided their contact details to his Department during the Iran conflict commencing at the end of February 2026.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Register Your Presence (RYP) is an online portal hosted by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which allows British Nationals and other eligible persons to log their name, location and contact details with the FCDO during a crisis response. On this occasion, RYP was launched in seven countries across the region from 28 February 2026 and remained active for the entirety of the crisis response. It was deactivated as appropriate across different locations in line with situational context and Travel Advice decisions. Around 177,000 individuals registered their details from a range of countries.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in England have been recorded using the SNOMED CT codes as having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis for the four categories of severity that the SNOMED CT codes recognise (a) mild (SCTID: 377181000000104), (b) moderate (SCTID: 377171000000101), (c) severe (SCTID: 377161000000108) and (d) very severe (SCTID: 2897971000000106).

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold information on SNOMED CT for myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome.

Foster care system

Government response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on communication of changes to women’s state pension age

Found: Cabinet Office; • on 3 June 2026, from Ben Obese-Jecty MP, Charlie Dewhirst MP, Edward Morello MP, Tessa Munt

Found: Yours sincerely, Tessa Munt MP Acting Chair Justice Committee

Found: Chelmsford) Carolyn Harris (Labour; Neath and Swansea East) Navendu Mishra (Labour; Stockport) Tessa Munt

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Tessa Munt (Acting Chair); Janet Daby; Sir Ashley Fox; Warinder Juss

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Tessa Munt (Acting Chair); Janet Daby; Sir Ashley Fox; Warinder Juss