Written questions by Hayes.

Communities and Local Government, if he will provide a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his department since 2020.

We define ‘training programmes’ as a broad term covering both individual courses (e.g. Advising and Briefing) and a collection of interventions under one scheme ‘banner’, (e.g. Beyond Boundaries). The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) provides training programmes for civil servants through a combination of cross‑government, departmental and locally procured learning alongside apprenticeships and structured development schemes. Since 2020, Departmental capability-building activity has included learning accessed through Civil Service Learning and the Government Campus, which bring together core, functional and profession‑specific training across government. During this time, the Department has offered learning programmes covering topics including core skills, leadership and management, and specialist and domain-specific skills. The Department does not hold a single centrally maintained list of all individual training courses undertaken, as learning is delivered by a range of teams. This includes a central Capabilities team, teams delivering profession-specific learning, and teams sharing domain-specific knowledge and best practice.

Communities and Local Government, whether their Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have rolled out Microsoft Copilot across the Department to enhance efficiency and support the work of all staff, including policy professionals. The rollout was accompanied by training and guidance which states that all work produced by AI must be checked with an appropriate level of rigour to ensure trustworthiness, reliability, and to avoid bias. Copilot is used by staff across the department including legislation and policy teams. The department is clear that document authors are fully accountable for policy judgement and conclusions and compliance with departmental, legal, and information governance, irrespective of whether or not AI has been used to assist with drafting.

Communities and Local Government, how many households were living in temporary accommodation in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in each year since 2020.

The government collects data on the number of people in temporary accommodation as a quarterly snapshot. To compare the number of the number of people in temporary accommodation in South Holland and Deepings and Lincolnshire year-on-year, you can compare the latest data from 30 September 2025 here with the same day in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Communities and Local Government, how many new shared ownership homes were built in Lincolnshire in each of the last ten years.

The number of shared ownership new build completions, as well as new delivery through acquisitions, is available in the Affordable Housing Supply open data found on gov.uk here. The data is available by financial year only.

Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has spent on special severance payments in each of the last three years.

The total value of severance payments is set out in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which are available for the last three years.

Communities and Local Government, how many households in Lincolnshire were successful in applications from the Disabled Facilities Grant in each of the last three years.

The total Disabled Facilities Grant allocation to Local Housing Authorities in Lincolnshire for the last three years is shown below. Disabled Facilities Grant Allocation 2023-20242024-20252025-2026Lincolnshire£7,585,253£8,656,686£9,265,453 This information is publicly available on the website of Foundations, the National Body for Disabled Facilities Grants and Home Improvement Agencies here: Disabled Facilities Grant Annual Allocations. It is for local authorities to decide how to spend their allocation and deliver adaptations to eligible disabled and older people. Government does not hold data on how many households have received Disabled Facilities Grant funding. This Government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why we boosted Disabled Facilities Grant funding to £711 million for each of 2024-25 and 2025-26, with a further £50 million in year top up this year, bringing total funding for 2025-26 to £761 million.

Communities and Local Government, whether any civil servants hired by his Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.

Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition. Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes Recruitment Principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.

Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of rough sleepers are not British nationals.

The government recently published the annual rough sleeping snapshot count for autumn 2025 and the latest management information providing data from September – December 2025. Both of these publications include data on the nationality of people sleeping rough and can be accessed through gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, how many staff in his Department are reliant on a visa for employment.

Currently MHCLG have 6 employees who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK and 39 employees who require a visa.

Communities and Local Government, how many properties registered with HM Land Registry are owned by the People's Republic of China.

HM Land Registry records show that The People’s Republic of China is the registered proprietor of 58 registered titles in England and Wales. Two further titles are registered in the name of The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, and four titles are registered in the name of The National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China. Although HM Land Registry does not have a formal duty to report new acquisitions of UK land registered in the name of foreign states, this information is held by HM Land Registry and can be accessed where required by government and others subject to the general law relating to data protection and freedom of information.

Communities and Local Government, whether HM Land Registry has a duty to report if property in the UK is purchased by other nation states.

HM Land Registry records show that The People’s Republic of China is the registered proprietor of 58 registered titles in England and Wales. Two further titles are registered in the name of The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, and four titles are registered in the name of The National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China. Although HM Land Registry does not have a formal duty to report new acquisitions of UK land registered in the name of foreign states, this information is held by HM Land Registry and can be accessed where required by government and others subject to the general law relating to data protection and freedom of information.

Communities and Local Government, how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department have been employed for the purpose of making social media content in each of the past three years.

Due to the difficulty of disaggregating the number of staff who are employed to produce social media content from staff who are employed to work on broader digital communications, it is not possible to report exact figures in response to this question.

Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.

The Department engages temporary workers and consultants where there is a business requirement that means it will be more beneficial to do so in order to provide the necessary expertise or a short-term resourcing solution where permanent capability is not required.As of 30 November 2025, (a) 143 civil servants in the Department were employed on temporary contracts - approximately 4% of the Department’s full-time equivalent (FTE) workforce.Information on the number of off-payroll engagements, including (b) consultants engaged by the Department, is published as part of the Department’s Workforce Management Information, which is available here.

Communities and Local Government, how many residential buildings have registered with the Building Safety Fund in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

No buildings in South Holland and the Deepings constituency registered with the Building Safety Fund. Between 1 and 5 buildings in Lincolnshire registered and have since been transferred to the Cladding Safety Scheme to streamline delivery. To note the department does not hold complete addresses for buildings that did not proceed to a full application.

Communities and Local Government, how much HM Land Registry has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.

HM Land Registry (HMLR) has spent £52,336 on translation and interpretation services, including sign-language interpretation, in the previous 5 years as below. The significant majority of the expenditure relates to translating HMLR official documents into Welsh under the statutory requirements set out in the Welsh Language Act 1993. 2020-21 14,7182021-22 10,3572022-23 8,9172023-24 6,9552024-25 11,389Grand Total 52,336

Communities and Local Government, if he will list the titles of all the events organised by Civil Service networks in his Department since 2017.

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost to the Department.

Communities and Local Government, how many (a) single sex and (b) gender neutral bathroom facilities his Department provides in its main Whitehall building.

MHCLG’S main Whitehall building, in (Fry) 2 Marsham Street has 60 single sex toilets with 3 cubicles in each, and 0 urinals. We do not have non-gendered universal toilets (individual self-contained lockable toilet rooms which contain a toilet, washbasin and hand-drying facilities). However, we do have 10 accessible toilets for our wheelchair users.(Fry) 2 Marsham Street does not have any gender-neutral toilets (i.e. toilets where users, of any gender, share a single space containing toilet cubicles, urinal facilities and shared hand washing facilities).

Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the number of fire service call outs in response to fires involving solar panels in England for each of the last five years.

MHCLG collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England through the Incident Recording System (IRS), which includes the cause of fire and source of ignition. These statistics are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-statistics.However, the IRS does not record whether an incident involved solar panels. As a result, the Department does not hold data on the number of fire service call outs specifically involving solar panels for the last five years.Additional information is available here: Number of fires in England with “solar panel” or “photovoltaic panel” mentioned in the additional information free text - GOV.UK. This dataset is based on free-text searches for “solar panel” and “photovoltaic panel” in IRS records, by calendar year. As these results are not systematically categorised, accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Mentions of solar panels may not be closely linked to the fire, as the phrase “solar panel” may have been included in the free-text as part of a wider context, and some FRSs provide no free-text data. The dataset was last analysed and published in 2023, covering the calendar year to December 2022.

Communities and Local Government, what (a) training and (b) resources her Department has provided to fire and rescue services to respond to fires at large photovoltaic solar developments.

It is the responsibility of fire and rescue authorities to ensure firefighters receive the training they need to safely respond to incidents, and to do so in light of their individual areas’ risk profiles and Community Risk Management Plans. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders across the sector to ensure fire and rescue services have the resources they need to protect communities. Standalone fire and rescue authorities will see an increase in core spending power of up to £69.1 million in 2025-26: including the National Insurance Contribution Grant, this is an increase of 3.6% in cash terms compared to 2024-25. Decisions on how their resources are best deployed to meet their core functions and mitigate risks in their local areas are a matter for each fire and rescue authority.

Communities and Local Government, what proportion of social housing was occupied by people born overseas in each of the last five years.

Housing is a devolved matter, with each of the four nations of the UK developing their own policies and data collections to monitor the impact of them. The English Housing Survey published by my Department, which can be found on gov.uk here, shows that households living in social housing in England with a non-UK national lead tenant comprised: 10.6% of all households living in social housing in England in 2023/2410.0% of all households living in social housing in England in 2022/238.4% of all households living in social housing in England in 2021/227.0% of all households living in social housing in England in 2020/218.4% of all households living in social housing in England in 2019/20. It is important to note that such households can contain UK nationals as well as non-UK national lead tenants.