Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the information her Department holds on (a) key transport routes (b) main transport bottlenecks for freight movements across transport modes and (c) freight data; and what assessment she has made of whether her Department's analytical capabilities support the improvement of that information.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department holds a broad range of information on the freight and logistics system that provides an effective evidence-base for our work. This includes information that helps understand key transport routes, like our published road traffic and maritime statistics, and information to help understand network bottlenecks, such as our congestion statistics and stakeholder intelligence.
The Department recognises the importance of continually improving its analytical capabilities, as evidenced in the important recent update to the road freight values of time in our Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG). Further actions to improve our freight data provision and analytical capability are ongoing and will be announced in the upcoming Transport Data Action Plan and new plan for freight.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on the impact of Physical Infrastructure Access costs on the deployment of fibre optic broadband in rural areas.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the independent regulator for telecommunications, Ofcom is responsible for making regulatory decisions in the fixed telecoms sector, including on the Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product, and is currently finalising its Telecoms Access Review.
DSIT officials regularly engage with Ofcom on these issues. In July, we published our draft updated Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom that sets out the government’s view on the importance of competition to promote investment in broadband deployment across the UK, including asking Ofcom to demonstrate greater transparency in how they calculate and set PIA prices.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Public Order Act 2023 (Interference With Use or Operation of Key National Infrastructure) Regulations 2025 on the phasing out of the use of animals in scientific research and testing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting the development and uptake of alternatives to the use of animals in science and has published the Replacing Animals in Science strategy which lays out the steps we are taking to achieve that end. The strategy states that the Government will continue to support the use of animals in science where it is necessary and appropriate. The Government assesses that Public Order Act 2023 (Interference With Use or Operation of Key National Infrastructure) Regulations 2025 will have no direct impact on the phasing out of the use of animals in scientific research and testing.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress her Department has made in identifying a National Freight Network.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The 2022 Future of Freight plan committed to developing a fuller understanding of our domestic freight network from a multimodal perspective, before considering how it could be consolidated into a National Freight Network.
The Department is making good progress towards the goal of improving understanding of the freight and logistics system as an integrated multimodal network. This progress includes identifying, developing, and delivering a package of measures to enhance key data and insights capabilities.
Further detail on these measures and the overarching approach we are taking forward will be provided in the upcoming publication of the new plan for freight.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the higher Rateable Values in the 2026 business rate revaluation on revenue from the Crossrail Business Rate Supplement; and whether the multiplier or threshold for the supplement will be amended.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This is a matter for the Mayor of London.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he is taking steps to support remediation in cases where leaseholders fall outside the scope of the Building Safety Act 2022.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Government is not currently considering expanding the leaseholder protections further but is committed to reviewing how to better protect leaseholders from costs. There is a range of support in place for those leaseholders whose lease does not qualify for protection under Part 5 of the Building Safety Act 2022.
All leaseholders in buildings above 11 metres or five storeys are protected from paying towards the remediation of all fire related and structural defects where the developer has signed the developer remediation contract or where the freeholder is, or was associated with, the developer. More information on the developer remediation contract can be found on gov.uk here.
Where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced, or held responsible, funding is available for fire safety related cladding remediation on buildings over 11 metres through the Cladding Safety Scheme. Guidance on the Cladding Safety Scheme can be found on gov.uk here.
The leaseholder protections do not apply to collectively owned buildings because there is no ‘separate’ freeholder to bear the costs, which would be borne by the leaseholders themselves – so the protections would not have their intended effect.
Leaseholders and freeholders of residential buildings of all heights can use rights to redress introduced by the Building Safety Act. The Act extended the limitation period for Defective Premises Act claims to 30 years, providing more time to seek redress for poor workmanship. It also introduced new rights to bring civil claims where defective products have made a home unfit for habitation.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2025 to Question 87776 on Private Rented Housing: Energy, whether new registration and licensing fees are a material consideration in assessing an open market rent increase.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Section 14 of the Housing Act 1988 sets out the factors that must be considered or disregarded by the Tribunal when determining the open market rent for a tenancy.
As set out in my response to Question UIN 87776 on 17 November 2025, the Tribunal must look at the rent the landlord could expect to receive for the property when making a rent determination, rather than costs borne by the landlord.
While it is for the Tribunal to decide in each case, the government considers that it is unlikely that registration and licensing fees would affect the open market rent, due to their limited impact on the rent that the landlord would expect to receive if they were to let the property on the open market.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing charities lotteries to operate UK-wide.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Large-scale society lotteries in Great Britain are legislated through the Gambling Act 2005, which does not extend to Northern Ireland.
Gambling is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland, and therefore the operation of large-scale society lotteries is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) leaseholders and b) residential developments in England affected by ground rent clauses.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 74455 on 15 September 2025.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to support AI development in the West of England.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is putting artificial intelligence at the heart of our mission to grow the UK economy. We are backing British researchers and firms and catalysing regional AI clusters so communities across the country, including in the West of England, can benefit.
We are opening a £250m procurement for the next phase of the AI Research Resource, our publicly owned supercomputers which can be used – for free – by UK researchers and business. One of the supercomputers, Isambard-AI, is based in Bristol and is one of the world’s top 10 public supercomputers and the 4th greenest.
The Government will act as a “first customer” for promising UK AI hardware through an advance market commitment of up to £100 million, giving UK companies the opportunity to grow and compete. We are also backing British scale‑ups via a new Sovereign AI Unit, supported by around £500 million, and driving local productivity through targeted skills and business adoption programmes that help SMEs adopt AI and equip workers with essential AI skills.
Together, these measures will place communities such as in the West of England in a strong position to seize the opportunities presented by AI.