Written questions by Snowden.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a mechanism allowing dog owners to apply for the un-exemption of dogs previously exempted 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.

How many arrests were made for online speech offences in the last five years.

The Home Office does not hold the information requested.The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests and mental health detentions, March 2024 - GOV.UKHowever, the data is collected by wider offence group e.g. “Public order offences”, and information on specific offences is not held.

What guidance is issued to police forces on deploying armed officers for arrests relating to alleged online speech offences.

The College of Policing issues Authorised Professional Practice guidance around the deployment of armed officers.Decisions around the deployment of armed officers are operational matters for Chief Officers to determine based on a thorough assessment of threats and risks.

Whether she plans to conduct a review of (a) hate speech and (b) incitement legislation.

Hate crimes and incitement to violence are inexcusable. We have robust legislation in place to address threatening, abusive, or harassing behaviour, as well as incitement to hatred on the grounds of race, religion, and sexual orientation.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 this 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.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential security risks posed to military sites by (a) what3words and (b) other digital mapping platforms.

Defence is committed to maintaining the highest standards of security and will continue to adapt and respond to all threats to safeguard our national defence capabilities. While we are unable to comment on specific security arrangements including the security risks posed by what3words and other digital mapping platforms, I can assure the hon. Member that we take the security of our sites extremely seriously and we are continually reviewing and updating our security measures.

Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Independent Football Regulator’s ownership rules on (a) smaller and (b) community-owned football clubs.

The Government recognises the different levels of resources and the different ownership models of smaller and community-owned football clubs. That is why the Football Governance Act has designed the owners’ and directors’ tests to be applied by the Independent Football Regulator in a proportionate way in line with its regulatory principles. For example, the Regulator will recognise that an owner’s financial plans and resources required for a smaller club will understandably be very different to that of a Premier League club. The Act also accounts for community-owned football clubs in its definition of an owner, ensuring that the tests will be applied appropriately.

Media and Sport, whether she has made provision for the ability of the Independent Football Regulator to require an owner to divest from a club to be subject to (a) Ministerial oversight and (b) parliamentary scrutiny.

The Football Governance Act establishes an operationally independent regulator. The Act does not provide for any ongoing ministerial or parliamentary role in the IFR’s ownership tests. This is to stop undue political interference in football.

What the average length of time spent by prisoners in open prisons was in the last (a) 12 months, (b) three years and (c) five years.

Prisoners may be accommodated in more than one open prison during the course of a sentence. The data that would need to be collated to calculate the average length of time in open conditions is not held centrally and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.

What proportion of prisoners failed drugs tests upon arrival in the last 12 months.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Data on the total number of random mandatory drug tests carried out is published as part of the HMPPS Annual Digest. The most recently released version confirms that in the 12 months to March 2025, there were 53,341 random mandatory drug tests, however, the data is currently not sufficient to robustly estimate the percentage positive. The Digest can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-april-2024-to-march-2025. Statistics regarding needs, rather than use, are included in the 'Identified offender needs, custody and community, 31 October 2024'. This shows the level of drug misuse need amongst the prison population. It can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/identified-offender-needs-custody-and-community-31-october-2024/identified-needs-of-offenders-custody-and-community-31-october-2024. We conduct targeted drug testing in custody to help keep people safe and identify individuals who may benefit from a treatment referral, or inform disciplinary action. To drive down demand for drugs and support recovery, there are also 85 prisons with Incentivised Substance Free Living Units. These provide a dedicated, supportive environment for any prisoner who wants to live drug-free in prison. To bring together this rehabilitative and security focused approach to tackling drug use, 54 Drug Strategy Leads in key prisons are working to ensure that local drug strategies are effectively implemented.

If she will require the mapping platform what3words to limit access to the prison estate.

To protect the public, prisons must hold prisoners securely to prevent further crime, maintain order and provide an environment conducive to reform. The Department is committed to taking every possible measure to strengthen prison security.Whilst we cannot share our full range of countermeasures, our approach is continually evolving, and includes working closely across Government, with law enforcement, and also the private sector to identify and mitigate emerging threats. This includes mitigating any threats from geocoding services. For example, in this 2025-26 financial year we are investing over £40 million in physical security across 34 prisons. This includes circa £10 million on anti-drone measures such as secure windows and robust netting at 15 prisons.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the requirement for leaseholders to require a landlord certificate from freeholders when (a) remortgaging and (b) selling a property.

A landlord certificate demonstrates, among other things, whether a leaseholder is exempt from paying for all costs associated with non-cladding defects. As such, the majority of leaseholders (defined as qualifying under the Building Safety Act) and potential purchasers will benefit from the provision of a landlord certificate. If a mortgage lender requests a copy of the landlord certificate for a mortgage or remortgage, whether they do so is their commercial decision and subject to their individual lending criteria. A certificate should be produced within four weeks of a leaseholder request, and this should not hold up a mortgage transaction.