Written questions by Rosindell.

What progress she has made on increasing the number of potholes that are repaired in (a) Romford constituency and (b) England.

The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local road network. Havering Council is the local highway authority for the Romford constituency, and it is therefore responsible for the maintenance of its local road network. Havering Council has received £333,000 from this Department during 2024/25 to help it carry out its local highway maintenance responsibilities: it is up to the Council to decide how that funding is used. For England as a whole, the Government has a commitment to enable local highway authorities to fix up to a million more potholes a year.

What steps he is taking to increase domestic defence production capabilities.

This Government recognises the vital role of the defence industry in both keeping our country safe and in providing businesses, jobs, prosperity and tax in all corners of our United Kingdom. Our UK industry partners, of all sizes, are very much at the heart of our One Defence approach and we recognise the value that suppliers bring to the defence enterprise. That is why this Government is committed to bringing forward a Defence Industrial Strategy. The Defence Industrial Strategy will align our national security and economic priorities and will aim to create a better, bigger, more modern, connected, innovative, and resilient defence sector. It will also consider requirements for onshore production capability to ensure the UK has the industrial base needed to meet potential future threats.

If he will publish the 20 earliest covid-19 related deaths in the UK by (a) five year age-cohort, (b) sex, (c) nation, (d) week of occurrence and (e) week of registration; and whether each of those deaths were (i) referred to a coroner and (ii) subject to an inquest.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Questions of 14th October is attached.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help local authorities fund public libraries.

Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.I will work with my colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to get local government back on its feet after fourteen years of savage and drastic underfunding. We will do the basics right, providing councils with more stability through multi-year funding settlements and ending unnecessarily expensive competitive bidding for tiny pots of money.

Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to increase funding for Trading Standards officers.

For 2024/25, the Local Government Finance Settlement made available £64.7 billion. The majority of this funding is unringfenced for local authorities to use as they wish, including funding for Trading Standards officers.Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement in which we are engaged. The department will work with local government leaders to ensure they are better able to fulfil their statutory duties.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) ensure good relations with countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and (b) encourage investment from such countries in the UK economy.

The UK's partnerships with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are historic and enduring. These are underpinned by shared prosperity, security interests and deep people-to-people links. This government has committed to deepening cooperation with the Gulf. Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have had early engagement with all six of their Gulf counterparts.We have resumed negotiations on the UK-GCC Free Trade Agreement and are working closely with Gulf partners to boost trade and investment ties.

Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions she has had with the Mayor of London on housebuilding targets in outer London.

In my recent meeting with the Mayor of London, he reiterated his commitment to help reach our target of 1.5 million homes.This Government is committed to work in partnership with our Mayors to achieve our shared aims.I look forward to working with the Mayor, boroughs and the wider sector to build the homes London needs across the entire capital – and do the same for the whole country.