Written questions by Snowden.

What guidance his Department provides to (a) NHS local health boards and (b) trusts on treating jellyfish stings.

The General Medical Council sets the overall standards and outcomes for medical training, and the Royal Colleges develop the specific curricula for each medical specialty.The Department does not provide guidance to National Health Service trusts or integrated care boards on this topic. Patient-facing information on how to treat jellyfish stings is already available on the NHS website.

If he will provide a breakdown of Government spending on advertising via social media platforms broken down by Department, over the last 12 months.

As with any media planning approach, channels are selected based on their ability to engage with relevant audiences in alignment with the government's strategic objectives. The Cabinet Office is consistently tracking and reviewing spending on communications to ensure efficiency and that the appropriate strategy is implemented. We will not spend more than is needed to be effective and ensure best value for the taxpayer. Please see the breakdown below of spend on social media broken down by department between 1st August 2024 and 31st July 2025. Please note that this may not be the complete spend as the Cabinet Office does not centrally manage Departmental social media spend directly. DepartmentSpend on social media platformsCABINET OFFICE£917,392.78DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS£108,685.84DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT£55,776.43DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION£5,790,404.71DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT£853,893.06DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS£1,174,253.06DEPARTMENT FOR ENERGY SECURITY AND NET ZERO£168,576.98DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS AND TRADE£2,932,130.17DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY£145,503.62DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE£1,689,076.17UK EXPORT FINANCE£336,808.09FOREIGN COMMONWEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE£455,653.02HM REVENUE AND CUSTOMS£1,692,096.15HOME OFFICE£1,655,160.54MINISTRY FOR HOUSING COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT£528,370.47MINISTRY OF JUSTICE£1,605,710.08MINISTRY OF DEFENCE£5,938,304.99

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 September to Question 73498 on Housing: heating, what recent estimate his Department has made of the average efficiency rating of radiator systems being installed in new-build properties.

The energy performance of radiator systems in new-build homes is governed by the Building Regulations, which are the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. Associated statutory guidance is provided in the Approved Documents which accompany the Building Regulations. We draw on evidence from industry and the public to inform Approved Document guidance and ensure new homes are high-quality and energy efficient. While the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation did not include specific questions on sizing radiators, the existing Approved Document L Volume 1 provides guidance on this.This guidance was last updated in 2021 following two consultations which provided housebuilders and end-users with the opportunity to provide feedback, and an impact assessment was published at the time of implementation. Separately, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero recently ran a consultation on raising product standards for space heating. This set out proposals which would drive improvements in the efficiency of new heating appliances and closed in March 2025.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of whether building safety regulations are being applied proportionately to low-rise, low-occupancy buildings that have historically met all safety standards and fire service inspections.

In the initial stages, a building control application is usually required for new buildings. This is reviewed by building control bodies to ensure compliance with building regulations.During the build process, progress on site may be checked and monitored, using a number of methods, including on site visits, where the inspector may ask the builders on site to open up parts of the build in order to check compliance, and give advice if needed.At the end of the build process, if a building complies with relevant regulations, a completion certificate will be issued.Building control bodies conduct checks to assure building work or material changes of use are compliant with the building regulations. However, ultimately, it is the responsibility of the person carrying out the work (and, where appointed, the principal designer and principal contractor) to ensure building work complies with these requirements.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the recent arrests for alleged online speech crime on freedom of speech; and if she will make a statement.

The police are operationally independent of Government. It would not be appropriate for Ministers to comment on individual cases.The Government is absolutely committed to upholding free speech and legislation is in place to protect this fundamental right. The UK is an open and diverse country and freedom of speech is one of the values that defines us as a society. Our legislation values free speech and enables people who wish to engage in debate to do so. However, freedom of expression is a qualified right and can be restricted in certain situations, including where it is used as an excuse to cause harm or spread hatred.We keep our legislative framework under review to ensure it remains effective in tackling hate crime and protecting communities whilst also upholding the fundamental right to freedom of expression. The Government will always work with policing to ensure that the criminal law supports the common-sense approach we all want to see being taken. The Home Office stands ready to consider the proposals for change currently being developed by the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of buildings under 18m in height but classified as higher-risk solely due to the treatment of non-residential basement or semi-basement garages as storeys on leaseholders.

If the building is below 18m in height (measured from ground level) and has fewer than 7 storeys, it should not be classed as higher-risk under the current regulatory framework. Importantly, storeys located below ground level - including non-residential basements or semi-basement garages - should not be counted when determining whether a building meets the higher-risk threshold. Therefore, such buildings should not be classed as higher-risk.A comprehensive review of the higher-risk regime is scheduled for 2027, and the Building Safety Regulator is expected to publish its initial review and ongoing review by the end of summer 2025. These may address how impacts are assessed and inform future policy adjustments.

If she will prohibit the entry of Greta Thunberg to the UK on the basis of her support for Palestine Action.

It is longstanding Home Office policy not to comment on individual cases.Where a foreign national is seeking to enter or stay in the UK, in order to qualify they will be assessed by UK Visas & Immigration (or Border Force when presenting at the border) against a range of provisions in the current Immigration Rules relating to criminality and other adverse conduct and character prior to their entry to, and any previous time spent in, the UK. Failure to satisfy these criteria may mean their application for a visa, entry clearance, permission to enter or permission to stay will be refused, depending on the severity of past offences or other factors in their history.Details of these criteria can be found in Part 9 of the Immigration Rules, available on the GOV.UK website here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-9-grounds-for-refusal.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that buildings previously deemed compliant by local fire services are not subject to excessive remedial costs due to reinterpretations of insulation or other materials under the new Higher-Risk Building regime.

The higher-risk building regime fundamentally reforms the way higher-risk buildings are designed, built and managed. They change the building control process, and place new duties on accountable persons when these buildings are managed, to make sure that safety and performance of these buildings is considered right at the start of the design process and all the way through the building’s lifecycle.The changes will reassure residents, mitigating negative mental health impacts arising from fears around safety or financial insecurities; reduce the risk of fire and structural incidents occurring; reduce the likelihood of systemic risks arising and the cost associated with putting them right; and provide confidence to the insurance and mortgage market.It is worth noting that the regime has only introduced new procedural requirements for dutyholders to robustly demonstrate how their projects will meet compliance. The functional requirements under the building regulations with which dutyholders need to comply remain the same as under the previous regime.We do recognise that these new procedural requirements in the regime may result in some additional costs for leaseholders. Our expectation is that these requirements will help dutyholders to get things right from the outset, which should reduce additional time at later stages and the need to correct non-compliant or defective work, saving time and money in the longer term.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 September 2025 to to Question 73498 on Housing: heating, whether the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation received representations from housebuilders and end-users on the (a) performance and (b) sizing of radiator systems in new homes.

The energy performance of radiator systems in new-build homes is governed by the Building Regulations, which are the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. Associated statutory guidance is provided in the Approved Documents which accompany the Building Regulations. We draw on evidence from industry and the public to inform Approved Document guidance and ensure new homes are high-quality and energy efficient. While the Future Homes and Buildings Standards consultation did not include specific questions on sizing radiators, the existing Approved Document L Volume 1 provides guidance on this.This guidance was last updated in 2021 following two consultations which provided housebuilders and end-users with the opportunity to provide feedback, and an impact assessment was published at the time of implementation. Separately, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero recently ran a consultation on raising product standards for space heating. This set out proposals which would drive improvements in the efficiency of new heating appliances and closed in March 2025.

What assessment he has has made of the potential impact hospital specialists providing advice through the Advice and Guidance scheme on their workload; and whether additional (a) resources and (b) staffing have been provided to specialist departments to manage this increased demand for consultation.

Advice and Guidance (A&G) is a proven method of reducing unnecessary referrals into elective care, by diverting potential referrals where specialist advice determines that the most appropriate setting for care is in primary or community settings. Unnecessary referrals can waste valuable clinical time assessing and or treating patients in secondary care who could be cared for in the community. Allocating existing resources and staff time to handling A&G requests reduces demand for first outpatient appointments where a referral to secondary care is not considered necessary, so where referrals are made, they are a good use of patient and clinician time and result in the most appropriate treatment.NHS England is leading a programme of work to improve clinical job planning to support trusts to provide high quality and timely A&G responses back to general practitioners alongside their existing work with patients. There are also robust mechanisms for system oversight and reporting on A&G, including the operational delivery framework for integrated care boards to identify and help resolve local operational barriers to delivering increased A&G volumes.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of information provided to prospective homebuyers regarding the (a) terms and (b) implications of leasehold ownership at the point of sale.

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.On 9 February, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time.In addition, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains measures to protect leasehold homeowners, including specific measures to improve the home buying and selling process by ensuring information required to sell a leasehold home is accessible at a reasonable cost. We will be consulting on the secondary legislation that is required to switch on these measures in due course.We continue to work with stakeholders across industry, government, and the public sector to understand the most effective way of supporting buyers to make the right decisions.

Whether she will have discussions with the Solicitors Regulation Authority on standards of ethical behaviour of (a) solicitors’ and (b) barristers’ during (i) police interviews and (ii) court proceedings.

The legal profession and regulation of the profession in England and Wales operates independently of government. This framework is set out in the Legal Services Act 2007. Regulation of the sector is carried out by independent regulators, overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales, while the Bar Standards Board (BSB) regulates barristers.An independent legal services sector is a pillar of the rule of law. Accordingly, it would not be appropriate for ministers or their officials to seek to influence how individual solicitors or barristers are regulated.Nevertheless, while ministers do not play any role in individual disciplinary matters, the Ministry of Justice maintains regular dialogue with the legal regulators in respect of their statutory functions. This ensures that regulatory independence is respected while also supporting the wider objective of protecting consumers and maintaining public confidence in the justice system.Solicitors advising clients during police interviews or throughout court proceedings are bound by professional duties, as set out in the SRA’s Code of Conduct. Barristers are bound by the BSB Handbook, which requires them to act with honesty, integrity, and independence. Both regulators have powers to investigate allegations of professional misconduct and to take disciplinary action where necessary. For solicitors, this includes sanctions such as fines or referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which can suspend or strike a solicitor off the roll. The BSB can refer cases of professional misconduct to the independent Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service, whose Disciplinary Tribunal has powers to impose sanctions, including suspension or disbarment.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing (a) penalties and (b) redress mechanisms where leaseholders were not properly informed about the (i) risks and (ii) financial obligations associated with their lease.

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.On 9 February, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time.In addition, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains measures to protect leasehold homeowners, including specific measures to improve the home buying and selling process by ensuring information required to sell a leasehold home is accessible at a reasonable cost. We will be consulting on the secondary legislation that is required to switch on these measures in due course.We continue to work with stakeholders across industry, government, and the public sector to understand the most effective way of supporting buyers to make the right decisions.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2025 to Question 73363 on Manchester Airport: Air Traffic Control, whether her Department has had correspondence with individual airlines operating out of Manchester airport on (a) European air traffic control and (b) its potential impact on flight (i) arrivals and (ii) departures.

Department Ministers and officials meet regularly with UK airlines, including those that operate out of Manchester Airport, to discuss resilience issues such as impacts on UK operations from delays in European airspace. The UK is a member of EUROCONTROL, a Pan-European inter-governmental body, which is responsible for working with Member States and their Air Navigation Service Providers to ensure that the airspace across Europe is used efficiently. My department has and continues to engage with European states and industry to discuss air traffic control capacity and mitigations to delays which impact UK airspace users and passengers.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to require estate agents and other sellers of residential property to include risk warnings in property listings where the tenure is leasehold.

Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, property listings must not omit information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision.On 9 February, the government announced action to improve the availability of property information. This will help transactions run more smoothly by ensuring all parties are able to access the information they need at the right time.In addition, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 contains measures to protect leasehold homeowners, including specific measures to improve the home buying and selling process by ensuring information required to sell a leasehold home is accessible at a reasonable cost. We will be consulting on the secondary legislation that is required to switch on these measures in due course.We continue to work with stakeholders across industry, government, and the public sector to understand the most effective way of supporting buyers to make the right decisions.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2025 to Question 73362 on Air Traffic Control: EU Countries, what representations her Department has made to other Eurocontrol members on delays at Manchester Airport caused by (a) inadequate air traffic control staffing levels and (b) out-of-date systems.

The UK is a member of EUROCONTROL, a Pan-European inter-governmental body, which is responsible for working with Member States and their Air Navigation Service Providers to ensure that the airspace across Europe is used efficiently. My Departmental officials have and continue to engage with European states to discuss European air traffic control resilience issues including resourcing and operating systems that impact UK operations users including those travelling to and from Manchester Airport.

What steps he is taking to help tackle regional variations in the uptake of the Advice and Guidance scheme; and what support is being provided to regions with lower adoption rates.

The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, outlines actions to significantly increase the use of Advice and Guidance (A&G), including reducing geographic variation. This includes the introduction of funding from April 2025 for general practitioners to recognise the importance of their role in ensuring patient care takes place in the most appropriate setting, as well as developing supporting resources such as an A&G toolkit with guidance for commissioners, referrers and secondary care clinical teams.The Department and NHS England closely monitor progress on A&G volumes, and there are robust mechanisms for system oversight and reporting. This includes the operational delivery framework for integrated care boards. The framework sets out a roadmap to help services develop their ability expand and improve their use of A&G across seven themes and with a set of minimum standards for best practice. This is helping NHS England work with local teams to address known barriers causing variation of uptake in A&G, including use of digital platforms, improving the quality of A&G, and workforce planning, training and development.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, what steps her Department has taken to introduce (a) clearer and (b) fairer leasehold practices.

The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 puts an end to ground rents for most new long residential leasehold properties in England and Wales. Ground rents have already been banned for most new residential long leases. This prevents landlords requiring a leaseholder to pay a financial ground rent. From 30 June 2022, if any ground rent is demanded as part of a new residential long lease it is regulated by that Act and cannot be for more than one peppercorn per year.  This limit for ground rent also applies to retirement homes for which the provisions came into force on 1 April 2023. The government remains firmly committed to its manifesto commitment to tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, and we will deliver this in legislation.

Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department provide to (a) local authorities and (b) the police on the reassessment of exempted dogs where owners believe the dogs were wrongly classified as XL Bully type.

We are currently working to develop a withdrawal scheme so that owners who no longer believe that their dog is an XL Bully can apply to have their certificate of exemption for their dog withdrawn. Information about this process will be available soon.

If she will hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the potential merits of including the housing market in the national curriculum.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review wants to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work. The Review is considering whether there is sufficient coverage of knowledge and skills that are essential to sufficiently prepare children and young people for future life and to thrive in a fast-changing world.The Review will not be able to address every issue facing the curriculum and assessment system. It therefore seeks to identify and focus on addressing the most significant and pressing issues facing curriculum and assessment without destabilising the system.The Review Group published its Interim Report in March 2025, which can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6821d69eced319d02c9060e3/Curriculum_and_Assessment_Review_interim_report.pdf.Recommendations will be included in the final report, which will be published in autumn. The department will work with other government departments where implementation of the Review’s recommendations require a cross-government approach.