Written questions by McMurdock.

Whether her Department collects data on the proportion of reported potholes attributable to (a) standing water and (b) poor drainage.

Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. Although the Government does not monitor the frequency of potholes caused by suspected drain related instances, it does encourage authorities to maintain their drainage assets through guidance. For example, the Pothole Guide (2019), commissioned by the Department for Transport and produced by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT), set out that avoiding water penetration into the road surface is of paramount importance in preventing pothole formation, and that “keeping highway drainage systems working as effectively as possible is therefore a key area of maintenance activity.” Further guidance on asset management for local highways authorities can be found in the Code of Practice for Well-Managed Highways Infrastructure. This states that “drainage assets should be maintained in good working order to reduce the threat and scale of flooding. Particular attention should be paid to locations known to be prone to problems, so that drainage systems operate close to their designed efficiency.”

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's existing upstream migration prevention work in North Africa.

The UK works closely with the Greek Government on a large number of issues, as set out in the Foreign Secretary's remarks in Athens on 18 December, including our close trading relationship, our cooperation on migration issues, and our partnerships within NATO and the United Nations Security Council. Further details of our work in all areas will be set out in the usual way in due course.

What assessment she has made of the relationship between vehicle weight and the formation or deepening of potholes.

The Government recognises that heavier vehicles can accelerate road surface wear. While we have not undertaken a specific assessment of this effect, we are actively considering the implications of introducing zero-emission heavy goods vehicles, including the potential for additional road wear. The increasing weight of all road vehicles, both electric vehicles (EVs) and their petrol and diesel counterparts, is one of many factors affecting the condition of our roads. While EVs tend to be heavier than their equivalent petrol or diesel counterpart, on average all passenger cars have been increasing in weight for many years. This trend has been driven by consumer choice and improving safety features for passengers. It is the much heavier commercial vehicles, rather than passenger vehicles, that cause the most wear and tear to road surfaces and other highway structures. More broadly, there are many reasons why loadings on local roads may change, such as commercial development increasing traffic and the number of heavier vehicles on a road. Because of this, guidance for local authorities already highlights the need for maintenance plans to account for changes in circumstances. The main guidance for local highway authorities on asset management is the Code of Practice for Well-Managed Highways Infrastructure, published by the UK Roads Leadership Group and funded by the Department for Transport. The guidance sets out a national framework for how local highway authorities should manage their networks using a risk-based, evidence-led approach, taking account of current and expected highways usage.

Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether campaign spending restrictions will continue to apply to individuals whose candidacy was declared for local elections which have been deferred.

The earliest the regulated period for local election candidates can begin is the day following the last day for publication of the notice of poll.For deferred elections, this will be in March of the year the election is deferred to. There are no ongoing campaign spending restrictions on candidates before this date.Relevant guidance is available on the Electoral Commission’s website.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the use of digital and AI‑driven communications provides clear, accurate and authoritative information to the public.

The Government uses a range of channels to reach and engage the public. Any use of these platforms is assessed against the high standards for digital safety set out in the Government Communication Service (GCS) SAFE framework. To ensure all government communications are clear, accurate and authoritative, GCS has established general guidance at https://www.communications.gov.uk/guidance/. This includes the Generative AI Policy (https://www.communications.gov.uk/publications/gcs-generative-ai-policy/) and the Framework for Ethical Innovation in Government Communications (https://www.communications.gov.uk/publications/gcs-framework-for-ethical-innovation/) .

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to her speech at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 18 December 2025, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the North Africa Migration and Development Programme on levels of illegal migration to the UK in the next five years.

The UK works closely with the Greek Government on a large number of issues, as set out in the Foreign Secretary's remarks in Athens on 18 December, including our close trading relationship, our cooperation on migration issues, and our partnerships within NATO and the United Nations Security Council. Further details of our work in all areas will be set out in the usual way in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, in what circumstances Natural England may propose that an Environmental Delivery Plan be made mandatory.

The majority of Environmental Delivery Plans are expected to be voluntary. In exceptional circumstances it is possible for Environmental Delivery Plans to be mandatory if it is recommended by Natural England and the Secretary of State agrees that this is necessary. Further detail on the circumstances in which Natural England may propose mandatory Environmental Delivery Plans will be set out in guidance.

What assessment she has made of the overall condition of the local road network in England.

The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network, which is why the Government has announced a record of £7.3 billion investment for local highway maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This investment to improve the condition of our roads will make journeys faster and smoother but also protects drivers from paying hundreds of pounds in costly repairs following pothole-related breakdowns. This builds on nearly £1.6 billion in capital funding that has been provided for local highways maintenance in England for the financial year 2025/26, a £500 million increase compared to the previous financial year. Funding allocations for individual local authorities can be found on gov.uk. DfT collects and collates information on the condition of roads from local authorities in England annually. This information is published as official statistics. The latest release of these statistics was in December 2024, which covered data for the financial year ending March 2024. These statistics showed that in the financial year ending March 2024:Local ‘A’ roads: 4% should have been considered for maintenance, and 27% may require maintenance soon.‘B’ and ‘C’ roads: 7% should have been considered for maintenance, and 31% may require maintenance soon.Unclassified roads: 17% should have been considered for maintenance.The statistics can be found online, at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/road-conditions-in-england-to-march-2024

What estimate she has made of the cost of cyber attacks on UK-based businesses in the last 12 months.

An increasingly hostile cyber threat poses a risk to the UK economy and public finances. According to the Office for National Statistics, the decline in the manufacture of motor vehicles, observed in the wake of the cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover, reduced September’s GDP by 0.17%. In the 2022 Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated that a cyber-attack on critical national infrastructure could temporarily increase borrowing by around £30 billion – equivalent to 1.1% of GDP. Cyber-attacks have significant costs for UK businesses. Recent KPMG modelling for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology suggests the average cost of a significant cyber-attack for an individual business in the UK is around £194,729. KPMG estimate this could represent a total yearly cost to businesses in the UK of £14.7 billion, representing 0.5% of the UK’s annual GDP. The government is committed to strengthening cyber security across the UK. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides a range of tools, guidance and support to businesses to improve their cyber security. At last year's Spending Review, the government increased the Single Intelligence Account's budget by £1 billion over the SR period, which funds the critical cybersecurity work conducted by NCSC. The UK’s cyber resilience relies on all businesses playing their part. The Chancellor of the Exchequer; Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology; Secretary of State for Business and Trade; Minister for Security; CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre and Director General of the National Crime Agency wrote to chief executives and chairs of FTSE 350 companies in October 2025 year asking them to make cyber security a top priority.

What data she collects on the frequency with which the same potholes are repaired multiple times within a year.

Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards for maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. The Department does not gather information from local highway authorities about the causes or recurrence of individual potholes. There are occasions where potholes need to be repaired quickly for safety reasons, but the Department encourages local authorities to focus on long-term preventative maintenance, which is more cost-effective than the reactive patching of potholes. This is a core aspect of the Code of Practice for Well-managed highways infrastructure, which states that “when determining the balance between preventative and reactive maintenance, authorities should adopt the principle that prevention is better than cure”. This is available online, at: https://www.ciht.org.uk/ukrlg-home/code-of-practice/. The Government is also encouraging local highways authorities to take a long-term preventative approach by making some of their funding conditional on meeting certain best practiced criteria. To qualify for their full share of this financial year's £500m uplift in highways maintenance funding, local authorities had to publish transparency reports and set out how they comply with best practice, for example in relation to the extent to which they prioritise preventative maintenance. In this context, the Department for Transport wrote to all local highway authorities in England in December to inform them whether they would be receiving their full funding uplift, and emphasised the importance of following the guidance set out in the Code of Practice with regard to preventative maintenance. The findings from the transparency reports will enable the department to identify where extra support may be needed to ensure compliance with best practice. The department will set out more detail on the further support and training it will make available to local authorities in due course. Finally, regarding analysis of the effectiveness of preventative maintenance approaches, in November 2024 the Department for Transport published an Economic Appraisal of Investing in Local Highway maintenance. The analysis found that proactive maintenance can be more cost effective. In contrast, reactive maintenance was shown to be less cost-effective and associated with higher long-term expenditure. This report can be accessed at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/economic-appraisal-for-investing-in-local-highways-maintenance

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Environmental Delivery Plans on public access to green space in Basildon and Thurrock.

Public access to green space is not the primary policy objective of the Nature Restoration Fund, however Natural England will seek to increase public access to nature in support of both the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and their recently published strategy for recovering nature for growth, health and security: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-englands-strategy-recovering-nature-for-growth-health-and-security.

What assessment she has made of whether temporary pothole repairs represent value for money where defects repeatedly appear.

Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highway network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards for maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. The Department does not gather information from local highway authorities about the causes or recurrence of individual potholes. There are occasions where potholes need to be repaired quickly for safety reasons, but the Department encourages local authorities to focus on long-term preventative maintenance, which is more cost-effective than the reactive patching of potholes. This is a core aspect of the Code of Practice for Well-managed highways infrastructure, which states that “when determining the balance between preventative and reactive maintenance, authorities should adopt the principle that prevention is better than cure”. This is available online, at: https://www.ciht.org.uk/ukrlg-home/code-of-practice/. The Government is also encouraging local highways authorities to take a long-term preventative approach by making some of their funding conditional on meeting certain best practiced criteria. To qualify for their full share of this financial year's £500m uplift in highways maintenance funding, local authorities had to publish transparency reports and set out how they comply with best practice, for example in relation to the extent to which they prioritise preventative maintenance. In this context, the Department for Transport wrote to all local highway authorities in England in December to inform them whether they would be receiving their full funding uplift, and emphasised the importance of following the guidance set out in the Code of Practice with regard to preventative maintenance. The findings from the transparency reports will enable the department to identify where extra support may be needed to ensure compliance with best practice. The department will set out more detail on the further support and training it will make available to local authorities in due course. Finally, regarding analysis of the effectiveness of preventative maintenance approaches, in November 2024 the Department for Transport published an Economic Appraisal of Investing in Local Highway maintenance. The analysis found that proactive maintenance can be more cost effective. In contrast, reactive maintenance was shown to be less cost-effective and associated with higher long-term expenditure. This report can be accessed at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/economic-appraisal-for-investing-in-local-highways-maintenance

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the logistics industry to the achievement of the Modern Industrial Strategy.

Government recognises the logistics industry as a critical enabler of the Modern Industrial Strategy (IS) and its wider economic growth ambitions. The IS identifies freight and logistics as a cross-cutting sector, essential to the success of the Government’s growth ambitions across the eight frontier industries.Page 159 of the Strategy also recognises ports as a key foundational sector, providing critical inputs that enable growth across these frontier industries. This approach is supported by the National Wealth Fund, which will help unlock long-term private investment in strategically important infrastructure, including ports and associated logistics capacity, where this supports economic growth, industrial competitiveness and the transition to net zero.Logistics therefore plays a central role in strengthening national supply chain resilience and supporting delivery of the Industrial Strategy. This contribution will be further reflected in the forthcoming plan for freight, which will set out how Government will work with industry and investors to support long-term growth.

What assessment her Department has made of the role of (a) drainage and (b) road foundations in the recurrence of potholes.

Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances. Although the Government does not monitor the frequency of potholes caused by suspected drain related instances, it does encourage authorities to maintain their drainage assets through guidance. For example, the Pothole Guide (2019), commissioned by the Department for Transport and produced by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT), set out that avoiding water penetration into the road surface is of paramount importance in preventing pothole formation, and that “keeping highway drainage systems working as effectively as possible is therefore a key area of maintenance activity.” Further guidance on asset management for local highways authorities can be found in the Code of Practice for Well-Managed Highways Infrastructure. This states that “drainage assets should be maintained in good working order to reduce the threat and scale of flooding. Particular attention should be paid to locations known to be prone to problems, so that drainage systems operate close to their designed efficiency.”

Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria will be used to assess whether Environmental Delivery Plans meets the Overall Improvement Test.

The Overall Improvement Test requires the Secretary of State to consider whether, by the end date of an Environmental Delivery Plan, the positive effect of all the conservation measures set out in the Environmental Delivery Plan will materially outweigh the negative effect on the environmental feature of all the development that it enables. This is a determination that will be informed by the best available scientific evidence.

Pursuant to Answer of 28 October 2025 to Question 84090: Asylum, whether those charities are consulted on the development of immigration policy.

The Home Office maintains regular engagement with a wide range of stakeholders on asylum and immigration matters. Their input is valued; however, external advice is considered advisory and does not determine policy.Ministers are responsible for setting Home Office policy.

Whether the National Asylum Stakeholder Forum is consulted on the development of immigration and asylum policy.

The Home Office maintains regular engagement with a wide range of stakeholders on asylum and immigration matters. Their input is valued; however, external advice is considered advisory and does not determine policy.Ministers are responsible for setting Home Office policy.

How many meetings she has had with a) National Asylum Stakeholder Forum and b) the Strategic Engagement Group in the last 12 months.

The National Asylum Stakeholder Forum and the Asylum Strategic Engagement Group both meet four times a year.The Home Secretary has not attended these meetings in the past 12 months. Home Office officials attend on her behalf.

How many times sentencing courts have departed from sentencing guidelines on the basis of the interests of justice in each of the last three years.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

Whether departures from sentencing guidelines on the grounds of the interests of justice are recorded in sentencing data.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.