Asked by: Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to evaluate the success of their homelessness strategy.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We are taking a cross-government approach to delivering the long-term solutions we need to get us back on track to ending all forms of homelessness. This includes a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, bringing together ministers from across government to oversee delivery of our strategy. The Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping works across government to maintain collaboration and assure delivery of the commitments in this strategy. The Group will receive quarterly data updates, tracking progress against the targets. We will also publish reports at least every two years that monitor progress on the implementation of measures set out in this strategy, including our national cross-government targets. Our headline targets include: eliminating the illegal use of B&Bs, halving long-term rough sleeping, and increasing prevention and relief rates.
More comprehensive information can be found in Chapter 7 of the National Plan to End Homelessness.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the proposed overnight visitor levy on the self-catering sector.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The precise design and scope of the overnight visitor levy power are still under development, and its impacts will largely be determined by local decisions. The government will respond to the consultation shortly. Evidence from international and domestic schemes suggests that modest rates have minimal impact on visitor numbers.
Mayors and local leaders will decide whether to introduce a levy. As part of that process, they will be required to consult and consider the impacts on businesses and others.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the proposed overnight visitor levy on rural and coastal communities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The precise design and scope of the overnight visitor levy power are still under development, and its impacts will largely be determined by local decisions. The government will respond to the consultation shortly. Evidence from international and domestic schemes suggests that modest rates have minimal impact on visitor numbers.
Mayors and local leaders will decide whether to introduce a levy. As part of that process, they will be required to consult and consider the impacts on businesses and others.
Asked by: Lord Banner (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish up-to-date Housing Delivery Test results for local planning authorities in England; and what are the reasons for the ongoing delay in their publication.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Following delays to the publication of the 2023 Housing Delivery Test (HDT) results under the previous government, this government is committed to re-establishing a regular publication cycle. We therefore combined the data collections for the 2024 and 2025 HDTs and intend to publish both sets of results as soon as possible.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, further to the letter of 22 May from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to the Hon. Member for Stockton West, if he will set out some of the incentives being offered to examiners to perform more tests; and if he will list the average number of tests performed per week per examiner in each of the last 3 years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In June 2025, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) reintroduced overtime incentives via the Additional Test Allowance (ATA) scheme. Since then, the agency has conducted around 9,000 to 13,000 extra tests each month through overtime, and between June 2025 and April 2026 DVSA delivered 217,294 more tests than in the same period the year before.
In April 2026, 5,985 car practical driving tests were conducted by staff qualified to conduct tests but working in non-driving examiner (DE) roles as part of their normal day job. This equates to ~3% of the total 176,690 car practical driving tests, conducted in April 2026. DVSA is still finalising the car practical driving tests conducted data for May 2026, and this will be available later in June.
As well as overtime incentives, DVSA is making an exceptional payment of £5,000 to DEs and eligible roles (divided into two payments) over 12 months to encourage existing DEs to stay. As of April 2026, there were 1,604 full-time equivalent (FTE) DE available to deliver car practical driving tests. The number of tests an individual DE can conduct in a year can differ for various reasons, however, a full-time DE can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.
DVSA has reviewed its DE recruitment and training system to increase capacity. A six-week accelerated DE training pilot is enabling faster qualification without compromising standards. DVSA is also reviewing the trainee‑to‑trainer ratio and increasing the number of permanent trainers to boost test delivery capacity, underpinned by improved end‑to‑end workforce planning.
Between 1 January and 31 May 2026, Ministry of Defence support has delivered 2,686 additional tests in parts of England, including the north east, south west of London, and the south west.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, further to the letter of 22 May from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to the Hon. Member for Stockton West, if he will set out what steps he has taken to increase training capacity so that new examiners can become qualified more quickly.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In June 2025, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) reintroduced overtime incentives via the Additional Test Allowance (ATA) scheme. Since then, the agency has conducted around 9,000 to 13,000 extra tests each month through overtime, and between June 2025 and April 2026 DVSA delivered 217,294 more tests than in the same period the year before.
In April 2026, 5,985 car practical driving tests were conducted by staff qualified to conduct tests but working in non-driving examiner (DE) roles as part of their normal day job. This equates to ~3% of the total 176,690 car practical driving tests, conducted in April 2026. DVSA is still finalising the car practical driving tests conducted data for May 2026, and this will be available later in June.
As well as overtime incentives, DVSA is making an exceptional payment of £5,000 to DEs and eligible roles (divided into two payments) over 12 months to encourage existing DEs to stay. As of April 2026, there were 1,604 full-time equivalent (FTE) DE available to deliver car practical driving tests. The number of tests an individual DE can conduct in a year can differ for various reasons, however, a full-time DE can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.
DVSA has reviewed its DE recruitment and training system to increase capacity. A six-week accelerated DE training pilot is enabling faster qualification without compromising standards. DVSA is also reviewing the trainee‑to‑trainer ratio and increasing the number of permanent trainers to boost test delivery capacity, underpinned by improved end‑to‑end workforce planning.
Between 1 January and 31 May 2026, Ministry of Defence support has delivered 2,686 additional tests in parts of England, including the north east, south west of London, and the south west.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has her Department made of the implications for her policies of Sikhs not being recognised as a distinct ethnic group within official ethnicity classifications.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The GSS ethnicity harmonised standard helps to make statistics and data more comparable, consistent and coherent. MHCLG collects data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics.
I recognise that, for some Sikhs, ethnicity recognition is an important issue. Whilst the current harmonised standard for ethnicity does not include “Sikh” as a specific ethnic group response option, datasets collected using this standard may still capture Sikh ethnicity through write-in responses within the ethnic group question.
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including Government Departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. MHCLG officials have engaged with the GSS harmonisation team over the course of the review to understand the impact of ethnicity data collection on government policy.
ONS will be providing a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which major Government datasets do not permit the identification of Sikhs as a distinct ethnic group.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The GSS ethnicity harmonised standard helps to make statistics and data more comparable, consistent and coherent. MHCLG collects data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics.
I recognise that, for some Sikhs, ethnicity recognition is an important issue. Whilst the current harmonised standard for ethnicity does not include “Sikh” as a specific ethnic group response option, datasets collected using this standard may still capture Sikh ethnicity through write-in responses within the ethnic group question.
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including Government Departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. MHCLG officials have engaged with the GSS harmonisation team over the course of the review to understand the impact of ethnicity data collection on government policy.
ONS will be providing a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when her department will begin to engage with local highways authorities ahead of reviewing the highways capital funding formula ahead of the 2030/31 financial year.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department engages regularly with local highway authorities and sector bodies to support the maintenance and renewal of the local road network.
The review of the funding formula will be conducted to align with the end of the period for which highways maintenance block allocations have already been made; formal engagement with local highway authorities will commence ahead of this.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to align apprenticeship policy with youth employment patterns.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is investing in young people’s futures and reversing the sharp decline in apprenticeship starts amongst young people – which have fallen by 40% over the last decade. Over half of all apprenticeship starts are now for learners aged 25 and over.
We are investing an additional £2.5 billion into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy to support nearly one million 16–24-year-olds into work, education or training. Over the next three years, this investment will deliver up to 300,000 opportunities for workplace experience and training ,and unlock up to 200,000 jobs, including through the £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant and guaranteeing jobs for long-term unemployed young people on Universal Credit.
We have introduced foundation apprenticeships for 16-21-year-olds and recently expanded these into the hospitality and retail sectors which traditionally recruit significant numbers of young people. These are entry-level, paid jobs with structured training designed for young people aged 16-21 and come with a £2,000 payment for employers.
We will launch a new level 2 administrative assistant apprenticeship from August and at the same time, will make apprenticeship training for all eligible under 25s at non-levy paying employers (typically SMEs) completely free of charge. In addition, we are introducing a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 for non-levy paying employers that take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees.
We have also announced £140 million to test, with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, the best ways of brokering more apprenticeship opportunities for young people at the local level.