Written questions by McMurdock.

What assessment she has made of the annual cost to the logistics industry of the proposed pay-per-mile electric vehicle charging scheme.

As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty. The taxation of motoring is a critical source of funding for public services and investment in infrastructure. All UK-registered electric and plug-in hybrid cars will pay eVED. Other vehicle types such as vans, buses, coaches, motorcycles and HGVs will be out of scope of the tax upon its introduction. This is because the transition to electric for these vehicle types is less advanced than for cars at this stage.

Whether he has made an estimate of the savings for individual motorists from the Fuel Finder scheme.

Fuel price trends are monitored nationally and published in the Department’s weekly statistics on GOV.UK. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) oversee market transparency and compliance and publish quarterly and yearly reports on GOV.UK. Fuel Finder will increase fuel price transparency for drivers to make more informed choices of where to buy petrol and diesel and will incentivise competition between fuel retailers to lower their prices to attract customers. Once launched, our analysis suggests that households who own a car could save an average of around £40 a year.

Whether he plans to assess regional disparities in petrol prices.

Fuel price trends are monitored nationally and published in the Department’s weekly statistics on GOV.UK. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) oversee market transparency and compliance and publish quarterly and yearly reports on GOV.UK. Fuel Finder will increase fuel price transparency for drivers to make more informed choices of where to buy petrol and diesel and will incentivise competition between fuel retailers to lower their prices to attract customers. Once launched, our analysis suggests that households who own a car could save an average of around £40 a year.

Food and Rural Affairs, which public body will oversee mandatory licensing for domestic rescue and rehoming organisations.

Defra will launch a consultation on licensing domestic rescue and rehoming organisations, including on how such a scheme should be administered, in due course.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Health and Safety Executive's correspondence entitled Potential risks from transfer slabs in buildings, published on 19 December 2025, when he expects the independent research commissioned by the Building Safety Regulator to be completed and published.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is working with industry experts and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to better understand the extent of the risk, and how the risk can be identified and managed proportionately in existing buildings.BSR is currently working with sector partners to establish what further guidance is needed to help building owners manage this risk. We will be providing further advice to building owners on this.BSR commissioned independent research in late 2024 relating to transfer slabs. This research is ongoing, and we will publish the outcomes of this research in due course. We will provide further updates via regular BSR bulletins and BSR campaign websites.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers transitioning away from pig farrowing crates.

Ending the use of farrowing crates is a key priority for this government, as set out in the recently published Animal Welfare Strategy. The Department is therefore committed to working closely with the industry to explore how to transition away from the use of farrowing crates to alternative systems: either flexible farrowing where the sow is confined for the crucial few days around farrowing, or free farrowing where there is no confinement during farrowing or lactation and consult on the transition.

Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to launch the consultation on banning the use of electric shock collars.

The Government is concerned about the possible welfare implications of the use of electric shock collars.As set out in the Animal Welfare Strategy, we will consult on whether to ban the use of electric shock collars later in this Parliament.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Housing Sec pledges to 'go further than ever before' to hit 1.5 million homes, published on 16 December 2025, whether his reforms will support council house construction in (a) Thurrock and (b) Basildon.

The government is taking action to support all local authorities, including those in Thurrock and Basildon, to increase their levels of council housing construction.

Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to end puppy farming.

The Government is committed to ending puppy farming and the low welfare breeding of dogs. As part of the Animal Welfare Strategy, the Government has committed to launch a consultation on dog breeding reform.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's oral statement of 18 December 2025 on Local Government Reorganisation, whether his Department has conducted analysis on the potential for increased housebuilding in Greater Essex.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 includes a new Standard Method for assessing housing needs that is aligned to our Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million new safe and decent homes in England by the end of this Parliament The standard method is used by local authorities to inform the preparation of their local plans. Once local housing need has been assessed, authorities should then make an assessment of the number of new homes that can be provided in their area. This should be justified by evidence on land availability, constraints on development, such as National Landscapes and areas at risk of flooding, and any other relevant matters. The approach taken is then be tested by the Planning Inspector during the examination of the Local Plan. We expect local authorities to assess and plan how to meet their local housing needs over the plan period by maximising brownfield land, working with neighbouring authorities, and, where necessary, reviewing Green Belt.The

What steps her Department is taking to protect UK citizens and critical infrastructure from hybrid threats from Russia.

The Russian State poses an acute and direct threat to the UK and our allies. This includes their ongoing campaign of hybrid activity in Europe in response to our continuing diplomatic support of Ukraine.The UK takes the threat from the Russian State extremely seriously and has responded to and called out Russian aggression wherever it occurs. Since 2018, this includes the expulsion of 24 Russian intelligence officers; the sanctioning of over 2,900 individuals, entities and ships; creating several new sanctions regimes; and the targeting of Russian illicit finance.The government has strengthened the UK's protective security to address vulnerabilities that expose our people and infrastructure to physical and security risks. We are working alongside the National Protective Security Authority to keep citizens safe through developing protective security advice for government and industry.Under the National Security Act 2023, the UK is an even harder target for states who seek to conduct hostile acts against the UK, steal our information for commercial advantage, or covertly interfere in our society. This will ensure our law enforcement agencies can make best use of new tools to counter sabotage and other state threats offences against our CNI.Until the Russian Government stops its destabilising activity, we will actively deter and defend against the full spectrum of threats emanating from Russia.We will continue working in partnership with our allies to bring our full capabilities to bear against those who seek to threaten our values, harm our citizens, and undermine our collective security.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce private estate management arrangements on new housing developments.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to make it mandatory for local authorities to adopt certain shared facilities on new housing estates.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, when he plans to introduce standardised information requirements for estate management charges.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to make resident‑controlled management the default model for new freehold estates.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to strengthen dispute resolution mechanisms for homeowners challenging estate management charges.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, what criteria he will use to determine when substitute managers may be appointed in cases of serious failure by estate management companies.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department will publish the new assessment of the financial impact of estate management charges on homeowners, and when this assessment is expected to be completed.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Housing Sec pledges to 'go further than ever before' to hit 1.5 million homes, published on 16 December 2025, if he will set out the conflicting policies that his Department will over-ride.

The reference in question relates to the proposed transitional arrangements for implementing changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, on which the government is currently consulting. Details of the proposed transitional arrangements are set out in Annex A of the draft text on which we are consulting. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.

What assessment she has made of the energy efficiency of electric heavy goods vehicles.

The Zero Emission HGV Infrastructure Demonstrator programme will report on the impacts of weather, terrain, driver behaviour, and payload on efficiency and range of electric HGVs. Over 150 vehicles are now operational in UK fleets with a further 150 due to enter service by March 2026. A trial of 20 electric HGVs in public sector fleets ran between April 2022 and September 2023 and information including total miles travelled, energy consumption, and vehicle range were published and are available online at http://bett.cenex.co.uk.