Every parliamentary written question tabled by Darren Paffey this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 1–20 of 130 · this parliament
Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on ensuring value for money in contracts for the treatment of separately collected household food waste, including where private contractors receive revenue from biomethane and digestate produced from that waste.
Awaiting answer.
Communities and Local Government, (a) what assessment he has made of the extent of barriers faced by disabled leaseholders seeking reasonable adaptions of their homes and communal areas and (b) what steps is he t
Awaiting answer.
(a) what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the inclusion of weekends and bank holidays in the 5 day legal requirement to register a death on the timeliness of death registr
Awaiting answer.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress her Department has made on restoring spending on official development assistance. to 0.7% of Gross National Income.
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided in response to Question 66549 on 21 July 2025.
What steps his Department is taking to modernise communications with the public and claimants, including increased use of email correspondence.
The Department is modernising communications with the public and claimants as part of its wider digital-first strategy, while ensuring that support remains available for those who need non-digital channels. We are moving towards the digitisation of notifi...
Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provisions in the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill for leaseholders of houses on mixed estates containing flats and houses.
Owners of existing leasehold houses will benefit from a number of the provisions of our draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill including the abolition of forfeiture for leasehold; regulation of estate rentcharges; and the capping of ground rents at £2...
What steps his Department is taking to ensure families are not penalised under the 5 day legal requirement to register a death when facing delays caused by (a) lack of appointments and (b) administ
The Department has policy and operational responsibility for the death certification process in England and Wales, which includes the medical examiner function which scrutinises all non-coronial deaths. Medical examiners and their officers are expected to...
Whether she plans to respond to the consultation entitled Improving disabled people’s access to let residential premises: reasonable adjustments to common parts, a new duty, which closed on 18 August 2022.
This Government will provide a response to this consultation in due course.
Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring newly elected councillors to undergo Disclosure and Barring Service checks after taking office.
We keep local government member criminal record check policy under review. All local government members are eligible for Basic criminal records checks provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service. Members in unitary and upper tier authorities who are be...
Whether his Department plans to review guidance to Integrated Care Boards on access to NHS-funded frozen embryo transfers for patients with remaining embryos from previous NHS-funded IVF cycles see
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.On 31 March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its updated fertil...
Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential risks posed by vehicles parking facing oncoming traffic.
Rule 248 of the Highway Code states that drivers must not park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space. The Department has made no such assessment and does not plan to extend this requiremen...
What assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of the recent changes to teacher training funding eligibility on the provision and uptake of language teaching in schools.
The department has now achieved over 70% of our target to recruit 6,500 additional expert teachers by the end of this Parliament. There are 4,654 additional expert teachers in secondary and special schools and colleges.Recruitment of physics trainee teach...
What assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of the recent changes to teacher training funding eligibility on recruitment to Modern Foreign Languages and Physics teacher training courses.
The department has now achieved over 70% of our target to recruit 6,500 additional expert teachers by the end of this Parliament. There are 4,654 additional expert teachers in secondary and special schools and colleges.Recruitment of physics trainee teach...
Whether she plans to respond to the consultation entitled Improving disabled people’s access to let residential premises: reasonable adjustments to common parts, a new duty, which closed on 18 August 2022.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Communities and Local Government, what the remit is of the external remediation team at the Building Safety Regulator; and how it is engaging with stakeholders on applications.
The External Remediation team assess building control applications for proposed remediation works to the external envelope of a building, such as cladding, renders, and balconies. Individual team members liaise with the applicant throughout the application lifecycle, updating them on key milestones and offering wider support through regular educational webinars. An Account Manager function was established in March 2026 responsible for proactively identifying and engaging with key stakeholders to support improvements in the quality of applications. A new Remediation Enforcement Unit (REU) became operational in March 2026. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has identified 650 registered higher-risk buildings that have either combustible Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) or high-pressure laminate as part of their external wall system. The principal accountable persons of buildings with combustible ACM have been directed to apply for a building assessment certificate and are already being assessed via that route. During April, the REU will contact the remaining buildings to ask for a relevant fire risk assessment and plan, and check that the removal (of cladding) proposal is appropriate to the materials and layout. The REU is also investigating 83 buildings referred to the BSR by the Cladding Safety Scheme (run by Homes England) with unconfirmed combustible materials. The REU has ruled out 20 of these buildings as not having combustible materials, with the remainder being contacted to provide the necessary fire risk assessments and plans.
What the average processing time is for a support for mortgage interest claim; and what proportion of claims have been approved over the last two years.
In answer to your first question, we do not record processing times for Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) Loans. This is because the start date of the process is not consistently defined or easily identifiable. There is flexibility built into the timings of the process to meet the needs of the customer. As SMI is a loan, those offered the loan can choose to accept or decline at any time and payments can be backdated to the day someone first became eligible. On your second question, all eligible benefit recipients are offered a loan when they become eligible for SMI and they can choose to accept or decline. We publish the number of households receiving SMI on a bi-annual basis here.
Communities and Local Government, what progress the remediation enforcement unit within the Building Safety Regulator has made on its objectives.
The External Remediation team assess building control applications for proposed remediation works to the external envelope of a building, such as cladding, renders, and balconies. Individual team members liaise with the applicant throughout the application lifecycle, updating them on key milestones and offering wider support through regular educational webinars. An Account Manager function was established in March 2026 responsible for proactively identifying and engaging with key stakeholders to support improvements in the quality of applications. A new Remediation Enforcement Unit (REU) became operational in March 2026. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has identified 650 registered higher-risk buildings that have either combustible Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) or high-pressure laminate as part of their external wall system. The principal accountable persons of buildings with combustible ACM have been directed to apply for a building assessment certificate and are already being assessed via that route. During April, the REU will contact the remaining buildings to ask for a relevant fire risk assessment and plan, and check that the removal (of cladding) proposal is appropriate to the materials and layout. The REU is also investigating 83 buildings referred to the BSR by the Cladding Safety Scheme (run by Homes England) with unconfirmed combustible materials. The REU has ruled out 20 of these buildings as not having combustible materials, with the remainder being contacted to provide the necessary fire risk assessments and plans.
Communities and Local Government, if he will publish details of the new batching model being trialled by the Building Safety Regulator to reduce the length of time taken to assess building control applications, including the number of applications being considered.
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) publishes monthly data on Building Control Approval applications, including progress on the batching pilot launched in September 2025. Latest data, published in February 2026, showed average approval times for new cases of 18 weeks, representing an almost threefold improvement in processing times when compared to May-July 2025. More complex cases managed through Account Managers are taking around 25 weeks on average for approval. The BSR has also addressed the backlog of legacy Gateway 2 applications through a substantial expansion of operational capacity and the integration of specialist expertise. These measures have strengthened decision-making, sped up the processing of both new‑build and remediation cases, and supported more efficient partnership working with industry. In parallel, enhanced guidance, developed jointly with the Construction Leadership Council, is supporting applicants to submit clearer, higher‑quality applications that demonstrate compliance, helping to further reduce determination times. There are currently four live Gateway 2 applications within the Stockport constituency (SK1–SK5): two remediation cases and two Category A applications.
What steps her Department is taking to promote the National Year of Reading 2026 in educational settings.
This government has committed to strong foundations in reading and writing for all children, to help every child achieve and thrive at school. We know that reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a range of benefits, including strong links with attainment, wellbeing, empathy, confidence, and aptitude for learning, with reading holding the key to accessing the rest of the curriculum. However, recent evidence shows that only one in three children report enjoying reading in their free time with just one in five reading daily. This is even lower for certain groups, for example, in 2025, just 25.7% of boys aged 8-18 said they enjoy reading, compared to 39.1% of girls. The National Year of Reading 2026 is a UK wide campaign to address the decline in reading for pleasure. It includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year. It encourages people of all ages to “Go All In” and explore reading as a way to deepen their interests and passions. As part of the National Year of Reading, we are investing an additional £5 million for secondary schools to purchase books and other reading material to promote reading enjoyment amongst their pupils. This funding will be distributed during 2026, and further details will be communicated to schools in due course. In addition to this, we have committed over £10 million, via the Dormant Assets Strategy, to ensure every primary school in England has a library by the end of this parliament. These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that every child has access to high-quality reading opportunities, to inspire a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. We also look forward to engaging with the Education Select Committee’s inquiry into Reading for Pleasure and reviewing its findings.
What assessment she has made of the potential merits of alternative arrangements for British dual nationals travelling to the UK who do not hold a British (a) passport and (b) certificate of entitlement but are unable to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation as British citizens.
British citizens seeking to enter the UK may only evidence their right of abode in the UK at the border with a valid British passport, or other passport endorsed with a certificate of entitlement to the right of abode. On 26 February 2026, certificates of entitlement transitioned from physical vignettes in passports to digital records. There are no plans to make alternative arrangements at this time.