Every parliamentary written question tabled by James McMurdock this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 401–420 of 3,598 · this parliament
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what the higher bar will be for reporting and consultation requirements in legislation.
Consultation should only be used when it is the most effective tool for good policymaking and not used for other reasons. Reporting requirements should not disproportionately slow down delivery.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, which government department was consulting on a change to how it produces its annual report, as referenced in the press release; and how many of these consultations had it undertaken previously.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
With reference to his Department’s press release entitled NHS patients and British businesses to benefit from historic changes to medicines access following pharmaceutical partnership with USA, published on 2 April 2026, what plans his Department has to report to Parliament on the outcomes of the partnership and its effects on NHS spending and patient access.
The Government has already enabled parliamentary scrutiny on this subject and will continue to follow standard processes to update Parliament on developments as appropriate.Members of Parliament continue to have the opportunity to table parliamentary questions on this subject.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, if he will make an assessment of which cabinet decisions since July 2024 would have been sped up as a result of the proposed reform to the process for collective Cabinet agreement of government policy.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation
What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that students are not disadvantaged by errors made in the initial approval of student finance.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, whether the new accountability framework for Permanent Secretaries, designed to focus on delivering the Prime Minister’s priorities, will result in a reduction in responsibilities for other cabinet ministers.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what the new process will be for collective Cabinet agreement of government policy.
The Cabinet Office has launched a programme of work to simplify the state, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and speeding up the timeline from ministerial decision to delivery for citizens, including through the process for collective agreement of government policy.
How many students have had their maintenance loans or grants withdrawn due to being reclassified as distance learners in the last 12 months.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that cases of retrospective withdrawal of student finance do not occur in future.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
What recent guidance her Department has issued to education providers regarding the eligibility of students to receive maintenance loans on courses.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
With reference to his Department’s press release entitled NHS patients and British businesses to benefit from historic changes to medicines access following pharmaceutical partnership with USA, published on 2 April 2026, what modelling his Department has undertaken of the long-term cost implications for the NHS of the changes to medicines access and pricing.
The Department has already been clear that the estimated costs of the United Kingdom’s medicines pricing commitments are approximately £1 billion in England over the remaining three-years of the Spending Review. The final and longer-term costs of these changes will depend on future growth in spending on medicines.This is not something that we can pre-empt at this time as it depends on which drugs come to market and which are assessed as approved for use on the National Health Service accordingly.
What estimate she has made of the number of students likely to withdraw from their courses as a result of losing access to maintenance support.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled Interest rate cap introduced to protect Plan 2 borrowers, published on 7 April 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the cap on the Government’s projected receipts from student loan repayments.
The government is capping the maximum interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 student loans at 6%, instead of the Retail Prices Index (RPI) plus 3%, for the 2026/27 academic year. This short term measure will protect students and graduates from the potential of inflationary pressures due to the situation in the Middle East.Student loan interest rates are ordinarily set for each academic year by reference to the RPI value for the year to the preceding March. On that basis, interest rates for the 2026/27 academic year would normally be determined using the RPI figure for March 2026, which is due to be published on 22 April 2026.The impact of the interest rate cap on long term repayments for graduates, and on forecast cost impacts for the public purse, will depend on the March RPI value. Costs will be set out at Budget in the usual way.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what criteria will be used by AI systems to determine whether consultation requirements should be removed.
AI tools are being used to identify statutory requirements to consult. Decisions remain the purview of Ministers.
Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2026 to Question 123457 on Local Government and Voluntary Organisations: Social Impact Bonds, whether her Department has any plans to consult areas due to become Mayoral Strategic Authorities in 2028 upon their creation for participating in the delivery of Better Futures Fund-based projects.
DCMS remains in the design stages of the Better Futures Fund (BFF). We are aware of the need to consider the views of areas that will become Mayoral Strategic Authorities over the lifetime of the Fund, and will determine how best to do this in due course.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, if he will publish a list of the regularly identified excessive processes and checks which are clogging up the system referenced in his press release.
There are currently no plans to publish a list of excessive processes and checks that are clogging up the system. However, we continue to develop policy options for the sludgebusting agenda, and all options are currently open for how we communicate any changes to the public.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what estimate his Department have made of the (a) number of, and (b) cost of Equalities Impact Assessments since July 2024 which would not have taken place under the new policy.
Equalities Impact Assessments are carried out for a variety of reasons, for both internal policies and processes within the Cabinet Office under Public Sector Equality Duty to assess the impact of external policies and processes. Although there is a small central team who provide advice and guidance, it is the responsibility of individual business units to assess whether a formal assessment is required, and if so, these are typically conducted locally by the teams themselves. There is currently no requirement for teams to report activity, and we do not hold a central record across the department. It is therefore not possible to provide an accurate estimate of the number of assessments conducted. Given Equalities Impact Assessments are conducted internally, there are no direct costs associated, however the amount of official time taken to carry out the activity would be relevant. It is similarly not possible to provide an accurate estimate of time taken, as this varies significantly based on the scale and complexity of the policy or process being developed. The new policy referenced will ensure it is far clearer when an assessment is required, and what parameters need to be followed, with the intention of reducing the amount of official time spent on this activity, whilst still providing robust challenge.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what the projected savings to the public purse are as a result of reduced consultations.
Policy analysis is currently ongoing to develop recommendations to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. We have already identified initial targeted first steps, but this is a significant piece of work requiring ministerial decisions across a range of policy areas. We are developing our plan of work and raising our ambition. Once this has been agreed, we will be in a position to develop quantifiable metrics in terms of resource savings to the public purse.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what systems of artificial intelligence will be used to identify disproportionate consultation and reporting requirements.
We are using state-of-the-art large language models to identify all duties to consult within the statute book, as well as contextual information such as responsible department and the circumstances under which consultation is required.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what mechanisms will be in place to allow Parliament to scrutinise decisions to reduce consultation requirements.
The government is committed to protecting the necessary checks and balances to ministerial and Parliamentary decision making. In line with standard processes, Parliament will have the opportunity to scrutinise and challenge any changes to consultation requirements where they are legislative.