Written questions by Dixon.

Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for introducing the technical consultation on the M4(2) requirement in building regulations.

Housing is one of this Government’s top priorities. Everyone deserves to live in a decent home that is suitable for them and meets their needs. The revised National Planning Policy Framework, published on 12 December 2024, requires local planning authorities to assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community, including those of older and disabled people, and to reflect this in planning policies. Where an identified need exists, plans are expected to help bring forward an adequate supply of accessible housing. The Government will shortly set out its policies on accessible new build housing, reinforcing our commitment to ensuring everyone has access to a safe, suitable home.

Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for publishing the outcome of the technical consultation on the reform of planning committees.

We are considering responses to the consultation in question and will publish a response in due course.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 56485 on Children: Maintenance, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of aligning the child maintenance responsibilities of those who receive the limited capability for work and work-related activity element of Universal Credit and people who receive comparable incomes through employment.

The child maintenance calculation is designed to be fair and proportionate and broadly represent an amount that the paying parent would spend on the child as if they were still living with them. The calculation takes the paying parent’s gross income into account – regardless of whether that income comes from earnings or benefits. Where a paying parent earns under £100 per week, or receives certain benefits including Universal Credit, they pay a flat rate of £7 per week. In those few instances where someone is eligible for the flat rate but has other income, that can be captured by means of a variation. The Department has recently conducted a programme of strategic work to review the child maintenance calculation. The focus of the review is to explore options to update the calculation to reflect modern societal and economic changes, with the aim of making it fair, affordable and responsive to parents’ circumstances, but importantly, to avoid introducing complexities to the system. A consultation on proposed changes is planned for late 2025.

If she will publish an economic impact assessment on the potential impact of the National Insurance exemption for Indian nationals posted temporarily to the UK under the UK–India Free Trade Agreement on (a) wages, (b) employment opportunities and (c) recruitment practices in the UK information technology sector.

The OBR will certify the impact of the trade deal including the Double Contributions Convention in the usual way at a fiscal event, once the deal is finalised and ratified. The agreement to negotiate a Double Contributions Convention was made in the context of the wider deal, which will bring billions into the economy.

If she will take steps to extend the Young Futures Programme to include young people up to the age of 25.

Young Futures Hubs will build on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, with the government establishing a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. The multi-year Spending Review set overall resource departmental budgets until 2028/29 and overall capital departmental budgets until 2029/30. Departments are now working to determine allocations and further details will be provided in due course.Young Futures Hubs will be co-designed using local knowledge to best serve their communities and will serve a core age range of 10-18, but with flexibility to support young people at each end of this age range in line with local needs.

What (a) capital and (b) revenue funding will be allocated for Young Futures Hubs.

Young Futures Hubs will build on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, with the government establishing a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. The multi-year Spending Review set overall resource departmental budgets until 2028/29 and overall capital departmental budgets until 2029/30. Departments are now working to determine allocations and further details will be provided in due course.Young Futures Hubs will be co-designed using local knowledge to best serve their communities and will serve a core age range of 10-18, but with flexibility to support young people at each end of this age range in line with local needs.

What proportion of PIP claims are fraudulent; how many existing PIP claimants are expected to lose their allowance as a result of proposed changes to limit eligibility to those scoring at least four points on one domain; and what data her Department holds on how PIP claimants are spending their allowance for people who are (a) in work and (b) not in work.

Information on Fraud and Error in the Benefit System, including Personal Independence Payment, is published here.Information on the impacts changes to PIP have been published here: Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.We will be making changes so no one currently on PIP will lose PIP as a result of the four-point change. The four point eligibility requirement will be implemented from November 2026 for new claims only, subject to Parliamentary approval.The number of people currently on PIP who did not score 4 points in one category in their last assessment should not be equated with the number who are likely to not to be awarded the daily living component of PIP in future. Our intention is that changes will start to come into effect from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. After that date, people already in receipt of PIP will continue to be treated under the current rules, with only new claimants having the new criterion applied. As a result of behavioural responses to the change, we expect that a higher proportion of new claimants will score 4 points against at least one activity than happens currently.We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including ensuring health and care needs are met. We have also announced a wider review of the PIP assessment to make it fair and fit for purpose, which I am leading. We are bringing together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progressInformation on how claimants spend their benefit is published in The Uses of Health and Disability Benefits, and, for a subset in receipt of the Support Group rate of Employment and Support Allowance and its Universal Credit equivalent, in chapter 3.4 of The work aspirations and support needs of claimants in the ESA Support Group and Universal Credit equivalent.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure the assessment framework used for commissioning the adult social care resource formula focuses on outcomes.

It is important that the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula accurately reflects the relative need for services to ensure funding is allocated to the places that need it most and to enable all local authorities to focus on improving adult social care outcomes.The Department commissioned independent academics at the Adult Social Care Research Unit to develop an update to the current Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula. This update reflects a more up to date assessment of relative adult social care need in England and is being consulted on as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Funding Reform consultation. The Adult Social Care Research Unit’s research report is available at the following link:https://ascru.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_06_16_Revision-of-ASC-RNF-2024.pdf

(a) which stakeholders he has consulted and (b) what data sources he has used to develop the basis of the adult social care resource formula.

It is important that the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula accurately reflects the relative need for services to ensure funding is allocated to the places that need it most and to enable all local authorities to focus on improving adult social care outcomes.The Department commissioned independent academics at the Adult Social Care Research Unit to develop an update to the current Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula. This update reflects a more up to date assessment of relative adult social care need in England and is being consulted on as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Funding Reform consultation. The Adult Social Care Research Unit’s research report is available at the following link:https://ascru.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_06_16_Revision-of-ASC-RNF-2024.pdf

If he will take steps to encourage businesses to use pin pads that are accessible to people with sight impairments.

The government expects people who provide goods, services, and facilities to members of the public, to anticipate the requirements of disabled customers and the adjustments that may have to be made for them, in line with the Equality Act 2010.In April, the Minister of State for Social Security and Disability and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury jointly wrote to UK Finance, the leading trade association for the UK banking sector, to urge further progress on ensuring touchscreen card terminals remain accessible for blind and partially sighted consumers. As well, the British Standards Institution has developed and published a British Standard that provides guidelines for the adoption of an inclusive approach to the design of products.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to extend the time limit on exceptions to council tax premiums for category G properties to cover the full period for which a property is being actively marketed for sale for (a) long-term empty homes, (b) second homes and (c) leasehold retirement properties.

The government has published guidance on the implementation of council tax premiums and exceptions to those premiums. This is available gov.uk here. The government does not have any plans to change the exceptions to the council tax premiums.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that multi academy trust executives are paid appropriately; and what action was taken by the 37 trusts her Department issued with outlier pay challenge letters in October 2024.

The 37 academy trusts listed in the October 2024 publication on GOV.UK were engaged with on executive pay to ensure compliance with the Academy Trust Handbook.The Academy Trust Handbook requires that:An academy trust’s board of trustees ensures its decisions, when setting levels of executive pay (including salary and any other benefits), follow a robust evidence-based process.Academy trusts’ decisions on pay must be a reasonable and defensible reflection of the individual’s role and responsibilities.No individual can be involved in deciding their remuneration.Academy trusts must be transparent on pay and publish the number of employees whose benefits exceed £100,000 on their websites in £10,000 bandings. Where employees are also trustees, this information must be disclosed in £5,000 bandings.Following provision of evidence from the academy trusts, all 37 were found to be compliant with the Academy Trust Handbook.

How many claims to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund were rejected as a result of the total fund limit being reached in 2024-2025; and how many claims made in 2024-25 exceeded the new limits for individual claims in 2025-26.

No claims to the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) were rejected as a result of the total fund limit being reached in 2024/25.Applications exceeding £3,000 were made for 4,832 children in 2024/25. This figure may include some double counting, if more than one application exceeding £3,000 was made for the same child, as could be the case if an application for match-funding was being made.However, the department’s systems do not enable it to make an accurate calculation of the number of children for whom two or more separate applications under £3,000 were made, but which together totalled more than £3,000. This could, as a result, lead to some under-counting of children in this category.

What estimate he has made of the number of mental health staff that will be placed in schools; and what assessment he has made of the level of qualification that will be required by those staff members; and how those staff members will be funded.

We are working closely with local commissioners to deliver mental health support teams in schools in England so they cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30. NHSE have estimated that around 2,400 Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP) are placed throughout the 600 current operational Mental Health Support Teams. Actual numbers will vary slightly at a local level, according to need. The average coverage of schools per team can change from year to year and an extensive independent evaluation is due to publish in 2026 that will inform future roll-out.EMHP undertake a year-long training course to qualify. They can train for a postgraduate or graduate diploma, depending on whether they already have a degree qualification.Annual National Health Service day-to-day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms, via a £53 billion cash uplift, by 2028/29, compared to 2023/24. This will take the NHS resource budget to £226 billion by 2028/29, the equivalent to a 3% average annual real terms growth rate over the Spending Review period.In the Spending Review announcement, we have confirmed that we will fulfil the Government’s commitments to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff by the end of the Parliament.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that disabled people are able to access (a) music concerts and (b) other live events.

The Government supports the Arts Councils of each UK nation and Ireland and the British Film Institute in launching All In, a free, UK wide arts access scheme. This scheme will help remove barriers for disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people in music venues, festivals, theatres, museums, galleries, libraries and more. It will introduce the UK and Ireland’s first set of industry standards to improve access to arts and culture as well as launch new digital tools to support accessible ticket booking. Work so far has included consultation with potential users, as well as feasibility studies to inform how the scheme can address access barriers faced by disabled audience members.The Office for Equality and Opportunity has also appointed David Stanley as Disability and Access Ambassador for arts and culture - to drive improvements in the accessibility and quality of services and facilities in the sector for disabled people, helping to ensure businesses are doing all they can to support disabled customers.We are continuing to support Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) Supporting Grassroots Music Fund (SGMF), which as well as aiming to bolster the grassroots music ecosystem, aims to promote inclusivity within the sector. For example, through support from the SGMF, a music venue in Bristol has become the first grassroots music venue in the country to secure an Attitude is Everything Gold Award, a widely-coveted Industry award, given only to those that show a significant and ongoing commitment to improving accessibility.

Whether her Department has considered the potential merits of offering (a) enhanced and (b) conditional Agricultural Property Relief on (i) land farmed with certified organic production standards and (ii) farms making the transition to certified organic standards.

There are no plans to change the qualifying conditions for agricultural property relief to distinguish between conventional and organic farming. The Government is supporting organic farming, along with other environmentally friendly farming techniques, through Environmental Land Management schemes that are paying thousands of farmers for pesticide free farming and natural soil management methods such as the use of companion crops. This support helps ensure farmers can produce the food the country needs while also protecting nature.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 15144 on Teachers: Workplace Pension, what the updated planned timetable is for resolving the backlog of people waiting for cash equivalent transfer value details from Teachers’ Pensions.

The scheme administrator has made significant progress to reduce the backlog of Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) figures that built up whilst the necessary guidance was developed following the Transitional Protection (McCloud) remedy taking effect.The backlog of 3,062 at the end of October 2024 has been reduced to 472 as of 3 June. The current outstanding figure includes recent applications and as such there will always be a number of outstanding CETVs at any given time.The scheme administrator is now working through the more complex cases for members who have not retired who have scheme flexibilities to take account of, which must be processed clerically as a result.Addressing the remainder of the backlog remains a key priority for both the department and the scheme administrator and it is anticipated that these outstanding cases will be completed before October 2025.

What steps she is taking to ensure that people who receive the limited capability for work and work-related activity element of Universal Credit contribute an adequate share of child maintenance responsibilities.

The child maintenance calculation is designed to be fair for the paying parent, while ensuring they contribute a significant proportion of their income to support their children. A banding system ensures that the very lowest earners and those on prescribed benefits pay a flat rate of £7 per week. Those that can afford to make a bigger contribution do so at a rate that reflects what they earn. For child maintenance calculation purposes, a paying parent who is in receipt of Universal Credit and also has earned income will not be considered as being in receipt of benefit. Their liability to pay child maintenance will therefore be calculated based upon the income they receive. The department is reviewing the calculation to make sure it is fit for purpose. This has included updating the underlying research and considering how we ensure the calculation reflects current and future societal trends.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of statutory regulation for the bailiff industry.

Whilst most enforcement agencies have already signed up to the Enforcement Conduct Board’s (ECB) voluntary accreditation scheme, the Government believes that it is necessary to take action so that all enforcement agents, High Court Enforcement Officer and agencies are regulated to the same standards and overseen by the same body. To that end, a public consultation was launched on 9 June to explore how best to achieve this. The package of measures on which we are consulting includes a proposal to place the ECB on a statutory footing and for all enforcement agents to come within its auspices.Responses to the consultation will inform legislation to be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic pressure his Department has exerted on the El Salvador government to ensure that the human rights of detainees at the Terrorism Confinement Centre in Tecoluca are protected.

The UK continues to urge the authorities in El Salvador to establish an exit strategy from the current State of Exception and ensure respect for human rights, including ensuring that prisoners are treated in line with international human rights standards and afforded the protections to which they have a right under El Salvador's Constitution. The UK reaffirmed this in its statement during El Salvador's Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council in January this year, calling on El Salvador to ensure the right to fair trial, with the guarantee of legal representation for defendants, and the release of individuals detained without clear evidence.