Written questions by Wild.

How many (a) strategic (b) outline and (c) final business cases were submitted to his department in each of the last three years.

From 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024, a period of three years, the Department had 13 strategic outline cases, 100 outline business cases, and 116 full business cases submitted for review. For 2022, this was five strategic outline cases, 46 outline business cases, and 37 full business cases submitted for review. For 2023, this was four strategic outline cases, 31 outline business cases, and 40 full business cases submitted for review. Finally, for 2024, this was four strategic outline cases, 23 outline business cases, and 39 full business cases submitted for review.

How many Bloomberg subscriptions her Department has.

HM Treasury has 3 subscriptions to Bloomberg News.

How many (a) strategic (b) outline and (c) final business cases were submitted to her Department in each of the last three years.

The Treasury Approvals Process requires departments and their arm's length bodies to submit business cases to HM Treasury for scrutiny when spending meets specific criteria. These criteria are detailed in Treasury Approvals Process guidance. The Treasury typically receives hundreds of different business cases for approval each year.

With reference to her Oral Statement of 4 November 2024 on Higher Education Reform, Official Report, column 46, what progress she has made on the leak inquiry; and if she will make a statement.

The investigation remains ongoing and all reasonable lines of inquiry will be pursued.

What estimate he has made of the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks for elective care in (a) England, (b) Norfolk and Waveney ICB area and (c) Queen Elizabeth King's Lynn Hospital Trust; and what his target is for eliminating waits of over a year.

Across England, at the end of November 2024, over 221,000 patient pathways involved waits of more than 52 weeks for elective treatment, which is down by over 80,000 since June 2024. At the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, at the end of November 2024, over 6,800 patient pathways involved waits of more than 52 weeks for elective treatment, down by over 3,600 since June 2024. At the Queen Elizabeth King's Lynn Hospital Trust, at the end of November 2024, 585 patient pathways involved waits of more than 52 weeks for elective treatment, down from 609 in June 2024. We have committed to achieving the NHS Constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. The Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, sets out how we will achieve this and the interim targets we will meet in doing so. Whilst our focus is on achieving the RTT constitutional standard, it is unacceptable that patients are waiting over a year for care. Tackling the longest waits will be a key part of achieving our commitment and we will continue to review and treat the patients who have waited the longest, as well as monitoring progress on the 18-week standard.

What progress his Department has made in reducing waiting times for (a) speech and language therapy services and (b) neurodevelopmental services.

The Department and NHS England are committed to reducing long waits and improving timely access to community health services. This includes improving access to Speech and Language Therapy through the Early Language and Support for Every Child (ELSEC) pathfinder project within the Department for Education’s existing £70 million Change Programme in partnership with NHS England. The ELSEC programme provides training and support to education settings to increase their ability to support speech, language, and communication development.It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.In respect of ADHD, we are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has launched into challenges in ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, including timely access to services and support.

With reference to National Audit Office's report entitled, public service pensions, published on 19 March 2021, whether her Department plans to publish updated statistics on the balancing payments made to pensions schemes.

Figures showing the net Exchequer balancing payments for unfunded Public Service Pension Schemes (PSPS), along with details on contribution income and scheme expenditure, are regularly published as part of the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO). The latest publication is part of the October 2024 EFO, in the table labelled “October 2024 Economic and fiscal outlook – detailed forecast tables: expenditure”: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/

Whether members of the National Wealth Fund Taskforce are remunerated.

The NWF Taskforce was established by the Chancellor before the 2024 general election to fulfil an independent advisory role on the design of the National Wealth Fund. Members have not been remunerated for their roles on the NWF Taskforce.

How much tax revenue the Digital Services Tax has raised since 2020.

The requested information is available in the statistics table published at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-ukThe information can be found in column S of Table 2. For ease, the relevant data has been pasted below: Tax yearTax receipts, £m2021/223802022/235672023/24678

With reference to the press notice entitled New Great British Energy partnership launched to turbocharge energy independence, published on 25 July 2024, if her Department will publish the partnership agreement between GB Energy and The Crown Estate.

The partnership between The Crown Estate and Great British Energy is subject to the passing of The Great British Energy Bill. Once that Bill passes through its legislative stages, partnership will be subject to an agreement with Great British Energy. Although the partnership agreement itself will not be published, given it will be commercially sensitive, The Crown Estate have committed to publish information relating to the partnership as part of its existing annual report. This will include a report on the activities of the Commissioners under that partnership and any effects or benefits resulting from the activities of the Commissioners under that partnership.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the rules on the taxation of double cab pickup trucks on (a) consumers and (b) rural communities.

Double Cab Pick Up vehicles (DCPUs) are currently treated as goods vehicles for tax purposes, rather than cars, meaning they benefit from more generous tax treatment. A Court of Appeal judgement in 2020 determined that they must be treated as cars for capital allowances and Benefit in Kind treatment under the existing legislation. The government will apply this judgement, as legislating to reclassify DCPUs as goods vehicles would be a significant tax break costing hundreds of millions per year for these generally higher CO2-emitting vehicles. The transitional arrangements mean that this will not affect the capital allowances treatment of any business that already owns a DCPU, or that purchases one before April 2025; and businesses that purchase a DCPU after this date will still be able to deduct the cost from their taxable profits at 18% or 6% per year. Under the transitional arrangements for Benefit-in-Kind, anyone who has accessed a DCPU as a company car before April 2025 will not be impacted until the sooner of disposal of the vehicle, April 2029 or when their lease expires. In addition, there are alternatives to DCPUs (such as Single Cab Pick Ups) that still benefit from the generous treatment as goods vehicles.

What steps she is taking to help improve (a) public and (b) private sector productivity.

The government’s growth mission is dedicated to boosting productivity growth nationwide. After fourteen years of weak productivity growth, we are reforming the economy to increase productivity in both the public and private sectors. Public sector productivity rates in June 2024 were 8.5% below pre-pandemic levels — this is not sustainable. We have taken decisive action in the Autumn Budget to address this issue. Government departments are now required to meet a 2% target for productivity, efficiency, and savings as part of Phase 1 of the Spending Review, covering 2025-26. For the NHS, our Autumn Budget included over £2 billion of investment in technology to improve productivity and patient access, alongside over £1 billion to tackle the maintenance backlog. We have introduced significant to improve private sector productivity. As part of the Get Britain Working package, the government is integrating health, employment, and skills services in eight trailblazer areas to help out of work individuals to rejoin the workforce. The government will invest £40 million to transform the Apprenticeship Levy into a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy to deliver new foundation apprenticeships and shorter apprenticeships. Skills England will provide a comprehensive national overview of skills gaps and strategies to address them.The government is also protecting record levels of R&D investment, committing over £20.4bn for R&D in 2025/26 to turn cutting-edge innovation into real-world productivity gains.

What steps his Department is taking to encourage foreign direct investment.

Investment is at the heart of the government’s growth mission, increasing the number of good, well-skilled jobs and improving productivity across the country. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK. DBT officials work on a daily basis with businesses of all sizes to ensure a close partnership between government and business, and to showcase the multitude of investment opportunities the UK has to offer. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper (published 14 October) sets out a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in UK. The government also hosted an international investment summit in October 2024 where nearly 38,000 jobs across the country were announced alongside a record-breaking £63 billion of investment.

How many businesses have been supported by the British Business Bank since 2014.

The British Business Bank’s recently published Impact Report shows that in 2023 alone the Bank funded 23,100 businesses. Data on the number of businesses supported by the Bank since its inception in 2014 is intended to be published in 2025.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increases in (a) vehicle excise duty and (b) the HGV road user levy on the logistics industry.

As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, from 1 April 2025, Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rates for Heavy Goods Vehicles and the Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) levy will be uprated by Retail Price Index for 2025-26. This means rates will remain unchanged in real terms for vehicle keepers. The tax information and impact note published alongside the Budget when these changes were announced sets out the expected impact on businesses which own or sell HGVs, which is estimated to be “negligible”. The note also sets out expected economic, equalities and other impacts of the changes, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vehicle-excise-duty-rates-for-heavy-goods-vehicles-and-heavy-goods-vehicles-road-user-levy-from-1-april-2025 Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect.

What steps he is taking to increase private investment as a proportion of GDP.

Investment is at the heart of the government’s growth mission, increasing the number of good, well-skilled jobs and improving productivity across the country. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK. DBT officials work on a daily basis with businesses of all sizes to ensure a close partnership between government and business, and to showcase the multitude of investment opportunities the UK has to offer. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper (published 14 October) sets out a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in UK. The government also hosted an international investment summit in October 2024 where nearly 38,000 jobs across the country were announced alongside a record-breaking £63 billion of investment.

How much funding has been released to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn Trust under the New Hospitals Programme.

Up to the end of 2023/24, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust has received £3.2 million in funding to support the development of the business case for their New Hospital Programme scheme.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of (a) the forecast spend on NHS dentistry by Norfolk and Waveney ICB and (b) its allocated budget for the financial year 2024-5.

The National Health Service in England invests £3 billion on dentistry every year. The responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. The NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB has committed to investing £6.7 million in dental services for 2024/25.

How many additional emergency NHS dental appointments have been provided in the Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board area since 4 July 2024.

Data on the number of urgent care courses of treatment is published annually. The latest data, for 2023/24 is available at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department is taking steps to promote the use of timber framing in construction.

The Government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes in this Parliament. Greater adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including timber frame, will be crucial to achieving this. We will set out further details as part of the Long-Term Housing Strategy.