Written questions by Evans.

What steps she is taking to reduce the administrative cost of the tax system.

At Autumn Budget 2024 the government committed to simplifying the tax system as part of its three strategic priorities for HMRC: closing the tax gap, modernisation and reform, and improving customer service. A key aim for the Government is to reduce the administrative burdens for businesses when dealing with the tax system. To this end the Government announced, for example, on 28 January that it has listened to businesses and stakeholders and decided that employers will no longer have to provide more detailed employee hours data to HMRC from April 2026. The Government is meeting with stakeholders, including the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board, to understand their priorities for administration and simplification, ensuring that this work is driven by the views of taxpayers.

What steps she is taking to tackle the building maintenance backlog for courts and tribunals.

It is important that the infrastructure of our courts does not prevent hearings from taking place. It is a priority for this Government to ensure that cases can be heard, and victims can be given the justice that they deserve.HM Courts & Tribunals Service has a plan for future works to improve the resilience and quality of the court estate, and this is kept under regular review to make sure it meets operational priorities. Available maintenance funding is prioritised to sites that need it most, to ensure that buildings are safe, secure, meet statutory requirements and protect continuity of service.£120 million was allocated for court maintenance and capital project funding for 2024/25. Funding for 2025/26 will be agreed through the concordat process and will be announced in due course. Funding for 2026/27 and beyond will be agreed through the Spending Review process, which is currently ongoing. The Chancellor has confirmed that the Spending Review will conclude on 11 June 2025.

Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of whether there is an association between video game loot boxes and problem gambling behaviours in young people.

Loot boxes in video games are not classed as gambling as individuals are unable to cash out their purchases as currency. However, we are aware of the challenges posed by the blurring of boundaries between gambling and video games and, where products do amount to unlicensed gambling, the Gambling Commission has shown that it will take swift action. The Gambling Commission’s annual Young People and Gambling survey monitors awareness and prevalence of purchasing loot boxes among secondary school pupils in Great Britain.In 2020, the previous Government ran a call for evidence on loot boxes which found an association between purchasing loot boxes and problem gambling behaviours, although research has not established whether a causal link exists.In response, DCMS convened a Technical Working Group of video game representatives which developed new industry-led guidance, published in July 2023, to improve player protections. The Government has urged all video games companies to adopt the guidance in full and have commissioned independent academic research to assess its effectiveness.

What steps his Department is taking to tackle the building maintenance backlog on Ministry of Defence properties.

Service Family Accommodation (SFA): The Ministry of Defence (MOD) conducts more than 300,000 maintenance tasks per year. These tasks relate to health and safety works, as well as proactive and reactive repairs, to maintain safe and compliant homes in line with the Decent Home Standard. Of those 300,000 tasks, there are circa 2% which are currently on hold (these form the ‘backlog’). None of these tasks are priority work and they will be addressed once discretionary funding is available. Built Estate (including Single living Accommodation): Maintenance and life cycle replacements are identified though visual inspection regimes or via MOD’s Asset Lifecycle and Replacement Model (ALaRM) tool which predicts works needed to restore assets to a good condition. This provides the Defence Infrastructure Organisation with a picture of the works required on the assets. Safety works are addressed immediately, or the risk mitigated, for example, by building closure. The remaining maintenance requirements are prioritised for funding by the Asset owner within Defence. Infrastructure assets are categorised against their operational need. The safety of Service personnel and their families remains a top priority for the MOD.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to limit children's exposure to gambling advertisements on popular streaming platforms.

We are committed to protecting children and young people from harmful gambling. There are existing robust rules in place to ensure that gambling advertising, whenever it appears, is socially responsible, with a particular regard to the need to protect children and young people. As part of the advertising codes which cover both broadcast and non-broadcast advertising, including on Video on Demand (VOD) or streaming platforms, operators are required to ensure advertising is not targeted at children, and must not appear in media created for children or for which children make up 25% or more of the audience.

What recent progress her Department has made on tackling benefit overpayments made due to (a) fraud and (b) error.

This government is determined to reduce fraud and error in the social security system. To tackle benefit overpayments, we agreed £8.6bn of savings at the Autumn Budget 2024 – the biggest fraud and error package on record, which led the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to forecast that we will reduce fraud and error to pre-pandemic levels. On January 22nd 2025, we introduced the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill which will help the government better identify, prevent and deter public sector fraud and error and enable the better recovery of debt owed to the taxpayer. As part of the £8.6bn savings, this Bill is estimated to deliver benefits of £1.5bn over the next five years, as scored by the OBR. This is made up of £940 million in savings related to fraud and error overpayments, and £565 million in additional debt recoveries.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure (a) university students and (b) other young people have access to education on gambling harms.

Since 2020, children have been taught about the risks relating to gambling as part of the statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum in England. There are also a range of initiatives in place to inform university students about gambling-related harm. For example, the independent charity YGAM provides free CPD training on gaming and gambling for university students.The government is introducing a statutory levy charged to licensed operators raising £90 to £100 million each year for research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harms. 30% of this funding will be allocated to prevention activity, including education and early intervention to help raise awareness of harmful gambling and the support available.

Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of gambling advertising on (a) children under 18, (b) adults and (c) people with a gambling addiction.

This government recognises that while advertising is a legitimate advantage which licensed operators have over illegal gambling firms, increased exposure to gambling advertising can have an impact on gambling participation. Some forms of advertising can also have a disproportionate impact on particular groups, such as children and those who are already experiencing problems with their gambling.There are existing robust rules in place to ensure that advertising, whenever it appears, is socially responsible, with a particular regard to the need to protect children, young persons and other vulnerable persons from being harmed and exploited. The Gambling Commission is also introducing new requirements for operators to allow customers to have greater control over the direct marketing they receive, and have also consulted on measures to ensure that incentives such as free bets are constructed in a socially responsible manner.However, we recognise that more can be done to improve protections. We have set the gambling industry a clear task to raise standards and this work will be monitored closely.

What steps he is taking to help reduce late payment to SMEs (a) directly contracted by the Ministry of Defence and b) in the supply chain of firms contracted by the Ministry of Defence.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) aims to pay 90% of undisputed and valid invoices from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within five days. In the last quarter of this financial year, over 95% of invoices have been paid within this timescale. Additionally, 100% of all undisputed and valid invoices should be paid within 30 days. Information relating to the Department's supplier payment performance can be found at the gov.uk website. Along with all major suppliers to Government, direct suppliers to the MOD are required to comply with the Government’s prompt payment policy (PPN 10/23), and can be excluded from MOD procurements if they do not meet the standards of fair payment laid out in the policy. Suppliers must ensure that 95% of invoices in their supply chain are paid within 60 days and that they pay their invoices within an average of at least 55 days.

What recent progress has been made by the (a) Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and (b) the Commission on Human Medicines to (i) understand the (A) current and (B) historic risks of sodium valproate when taken during pregnancy, and (ii) in communicating these risks to (1) healthcare professionals and (2) patients.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), taking advice from the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), has worked to raise awareness among healthcare professionals and patients of the risks of valproate when taken during pregnancy through several updates to the valproate Summary of Product Characteristics, for healthcare professionals, and the Patient Information Leaflets, as well as updates to associated educational materials as required.The magnitude and type of risks associated with valproate use in pregnancy have been communicated in articles in the MHRA bulletin, Drug Safety Update, and via letters cascaded out through the NHS Central Alerting System. These communications have been supported by messages from the relevant professional bodies and regulatory requirements reinforced through changes to clinical guidelines and improved alerts on general practitioner prescribing systems.The valproate Pregnancy Prevention Programme, implemented in 2018, is supported by educational materials for healthcare professionals and patients which describe the neurodevelopmental disorders and major congenital malformations associated with the use of valproate in pregnancy, and are available electronically and sent in hard copy format to healthcare professionals.In January 2024, the MHRA communicated, in an article in a Drug Safety Update, the latest advice from the CHM, that valproate must not be started in new patients, male or female, younger than 55 years old unless two specialists independently consider and document that there is no other effective or tolerated treatment, or if there are compelling reasons that the reproductive risks do not apply. It was advised that women and girls of childbearing potential who are already receiving valproate should have their treatment reviewed by two specialists at their next annual review. The requirement for two specialists to review these patients is a one off, and subsequent annual reviews required under the Pregnancy Prevention Programme are undertaken by a single specialist.Updated educational materials were made available to healthcare professionals and patients electronically, and sent to healthcare professionals in hard copy format, that could be provided to patients and which could support the discussions between healthcare professionals and patients.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle homophobia in boxing.

Sport must be open to everyone. There is absolutely no place for homophobia, or discrimination of any kind, in sport or society.The Government expects sports bodies, including the boxing authorities, to take robust action to tackle discrimination whenever and wherever it occurs. The Government will continue to work with National Governing Bodies and sector organisations to fight all forms of discrimination at all levels of sport.

Whether she plans to amend the list of protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010 to include hair colour.

The Government has no such plans.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of making wildlife crimes notifiable offences.

Wildlife crime can have devastating consequences for our natural environments and countryside communities. This Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas and anyone exploiting or deliberately harming British wildlife should face the full fo...

What steps she is taking to support the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

Wildlife crime can have devastating consequences for our natural environments and countryside communities. This Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas and anyone exploiting or deliberately harming British wildlife should face the full fo...

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of standards of (a) maintenance and (b) repair work to (i) Single Living and (ii) Service Families Accommodation.

Within each Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) contract, there is an embedded assurance and verification process to check the adequacy of the maintenance and repair service provided to Single Living and Service Families Accommodation. The asses...

What assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendations of the report entitled Releasing Mortgage Prisoners: proposed solutions and illustrative costings, published by the LSE in Feb

This Government understands the challenges that mortgage prisoners face and will work with regulators and the industry to ensure that this issue is properly considered, including looking at the recommendations of the 2023 LSE report. There are significant...

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with charities and advocacy groups on the impact of fireworks on (a) wild animals and (b) pets.

The Department regularly engages with stakeholders on a wide range of issues. Government officials intend to engage with businesses, consumer groups and charities to gather evidence on issues with and impacts of fireworks, including on animal welfare. Off...

Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with relevant stakeholders on protecting sport participants from (a) concussion and (b) chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The Government takes the issue of head injuries very seriously. The first national guidance for concussion in grassroots sport was introduced in 2023, developed by international experts on concussion and acquired brain injury to better identify, manage an...

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to promote community cohesion.

The Government has made £15 million available to the places most severely affected by the violent disorder of the summer through the Community Recovery Fund. Officials from my department have also carried out an extensive engagement process with these pla...

Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions he has had with (a) industry, (b) civil society and (c) other relevant stakeholders on facilitating the end of animal testing.

The Government is committed to supporting alternative methods to the use of animals in science and the Labour Manifesto included a commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing.” T...