Written questions by Reynolds.

How many cases in the last three years involved child maintenance payments being incorrectly refunded to the paying parent due to clerical error; and what steps the Department is taking to reduce such errors.

This information is not readily available and providing it would incur disproportionate cost.The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) works to ensure cases are kept up to date and payments are processed accurately, with controls in place to minimise incorrect refunds. The introduction of the View Parent Finances screen further improves clarity and compliance by giving caseworkers a clearer, simplified view of complex financial information.

What steps the Child Maintenance Service takes to (a) verify and (b) obtain up‑to‑date addresses for paying parents in cases where enforcement action cannot proceed due to the absence of a confirmed address.

The Government is committed to ensuring parents meet their financial obligations to their children. Where a paying parent fails to take responsibility for paying their child maintenance and cannot be traced, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will take immediate action and do everything within its powers to trace the paying parent. In addition to information provided by parents, CMS undertakes a series of trace checks to verify the paying parent’s address. These checks draw on several approved information sources, including; cross government databases, real time information from HM Revenue & Customs, credit reference agencies, employers and Local Authorities.The CMS have a range of strong enforcement powers that can be used against those parents who consistently refuse to meet or evade their obligations to provide financial support to their children. We are committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families to ensure compliance.The statistical information requested in not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

In the past year what has the average time been for the Child Maintenance Service to obtain a verified address for a paying parent once a caseworker identifies that one is missing; and what processes are in place to minimise delays where child maintenance arrears are accruing.

The Government is committed to ensuring parents meet their financial obligations to their children. Where a paying parent fails to take responsibility for paying their child maintenance and cannot be traced, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will take immediate action and do everything within its powers to trace the paying parent. In addition to information provided by parents, CMS undertakes a series of trace checks to verify the paying parent’s address. These checks draw on several approved information sources, including; cross government databases, real time information from HM Revenue & Customs, credit reference agencies, employers and Local Authorities.The CMS have a range of strong enforcement powers that can be used against those parents who consistently refuse to meet or evade their obligations to provide financial support to their children. We are committed to using these powers fairly and in the best interests of children and separated families to ensure compliance.The statistical information requested in not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Food and Rural Affairs, what timeline and industry roadmap he has established for ending male chick culling.

The Government has set out in the recently published Animal Welfare Strategy that it will encourage the egg industry to move away from the practice of killing day-old chicks. The Government will discuss with them a roadmap to reach the objective of ending male chick culling.

What level of recurrent funding has been identified by NHS England to fund the recommendations of new treatments considered by NHS England’s next Clinical Priorities Advisory Group Prioritisation meeting in Spring 2026.

NHS England is not able to provide the level of recurrent funding identified at this point to support the next Clinical Priorities Advisory Group prioritisation meeting. This would risk disclosing commercially confidential information.

If NHS England Specialised Commissioning will consider a second prioritisation meeting this year of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group to reduce the 20 treatments currently being considered, in addition to the meeting in Spring 2026.

NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) prioritisation meetings are held annually and are aligned to NHS England's annual financial planning cycle.The next prioritisation meeting is planned for spring 2026, where policies that are ready and require investment decisions will be considered. It is expected that up to 20 such policies will be considered at that meeting. CPAG also meets monthly to consider clinical policies and service specifications that are categorised as cost saving or cost neutral, enabling progress to be made outside of the annual prioritisation round.There are currently no plans to hold an additional prioritisation meeting this year beyond the meeting scheduled for spring 2026.

What plans his Department has to review the internal complaints process of the Child Maintenance Service.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS), as part of the Department for Work and Pensions, follows the Department’s standard complaints procedure. The CMS regularly reviews complaint data, including insights from the Independent Case Examiner, to identify key themes and trends, which they use to drive improvements to the complaint handling process. Furthermore, lessons learned are regularly presented to operational teams, supporting them to deliver effective interventions at the initial stage of the complaint and thereby improve the overall customer experience. The CMS remains focussed on taking pro-active steps to improve the customer experience, developing its customer service strategy to focus on improving current and future service throughout the customer journey.

When his Department last reviewed the Child Maintenance Service’s policy framework for modern shared‑care arrangements; and whether the Service plans to reform its policies on cases where both parents actively share day‑to‑day parenting responsibilities.

The Government recognises that shared care arrangements can play an important role in supporting children to maintain relationships with both parents after separation. In the child maintenance system, shared care is reflected in the maintenance calculation. Where a child stays overnight with the paying parent for at least one night a week on average, the amount of maintenance due is reduced to reflect the care provided. If the Child Maintenance Service is satisfied that both parents have equal day-to-day care for the child, in addition to sharing overnight care, there is no requirement for either parent to pay child maintenance.

What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that National Highways' contractors adhere to reporting requirements when closing sections of the Strategic Road Network; and what data National Highways holds on contractor compliance with those requirements in the last 12 months.

National Highways requires its contractors to inform National Highways’ Regional Operations Centres before closing any part of the SRN to allow appropriate signs, signals, and customer communications to be put in place.In the financial year 24/25, over 90% of the overnight closures planned by early afternoon went ahead as expected. National Highways’ traffic monitoring systems allows them to verify the status of road closures in real time.

What steps National Highways is taking to ensure the provision of timely and accurate physical diversion signage during planned and unplanned road closures.

National Highways follows the standards GG903 and GG907 outlined in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) for diversion routes for unplanned events and planned works and activities. These standards require NH to coordinate with customers and local traffic authorities and to conduct Customer Audits and annual engagements. National Highways monitor diversion routes for unplanned events through the National Highways operational reporting team.

Whether National Highways is required to ensure that all planned and emergency road closures are integrated into live satellite navigation systems.

There are no requirements for National Highways to ensure that all planned and emergency road closures are integrated into live satellite navigation.However, National Highways publishes information detailing all its planned and emergency work closures. Where available these details are published in advance.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) implications for his Department's policies and (b) investment in UK digital infrastructure of recent survey evidence on barriers to competition in the UK cloud market.

There are currently no plans to undertake such an assessment. The Competition and Markets Authority’s cloud services market investigation examined the state of competition in the market. The Government remains committed to supporting investment in high‑quality, secure and resilient digital infrastructure across the UK.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the resilience of UK critical digital services in relation to the level of concentration in the cloud infrastructure market.

In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns which may impact the resilience of UK’s digital infrastructure. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers. The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the impact of delays to competition solutions in the cloud services market on market concentration; and what consideration she has given to the implications for growth and innovation in the technology sector.

In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers. The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone

Innovation and Technology, what discussions her Department has had with the Competition and Markets Authority on the proposed timetable for the next stages of its cloud market investigation; and what assessment she has made of the implications of that timetable for competition enforcement in digital infrastructure markets.

In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers. The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. Neither the Secretary of State nor Ministers have discussed future SMS prioritisation decisions with the CMA. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of financial support available to off-grid households in England reliant on heating oil; and whether park home residents in England are included within the scope of any such support.

The Government recognises that families and businesses across the country will see the recent global events and once again be concerned about the impact on their energy bills. The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely over coming days and weeks. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Chancellor has announced £53m for low income families, who heat their homes with oil to help tackle surging prices. This funding will be available to the Northern Ireland Executive, Wales, and Scotland. This funding is allocated as part of the Crisis Resilience fund, and will be distributed by local authorities. Local Authorities have responsibility for distributing funds to households. Households using heating oil also benefit from wider cost‑of‑living support, including electricity bill reductions announced in the Autumn Budget, and the Warm Home Discount, which provides eligible households with £150 off energy bills until 2030/31. The Government continues to keep the needs of all energy consumers under review, including park home residents, who benefit from Maxiumum Resale Price protections where the site owner’s name is on the energy contract. More information on this can be found here: Alternative homes energy guidance | Ofgem

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of levels of competition in the UK cloud infrastructure market; and what implications that assessment has for investment in UK cloud and AI infrastructure.

The Government prioritised the commencement of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) new powers in digital markets last year to boost competition and fairness in the digital tech sector. Although the CMA operates independently of Government, the Government gave a clear steer for the CMA to use these new powers collaboratively and proportionately.In March, the CMA announced a package of actions to strengthen competition in business software and cloud services. This includes a Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft’s business software under the UK’s digital markets regime, alongside voluntary actions from Amazon and Microsoft that will improve interoperability, reduce data egress fees and make switching easier in cloud services.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of legal aid to cohabiting partners seeking to resolve property disputes upon separation.

As set out in our manifesto, the Government is committed to strengthening the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples. Cohabitation reform is a matter of utmost importance, and we will be consulting this Spring on how best to deliver this commitment. The consultation will consider how best to strengthen the rights of cohabitating couples and the circumstances in which protections may apply, while firmly upholding marriage as one of our most important institutions.The Government also recognises the challenge posed by the mistaken belief in the myth of “common law marriage”. To improve public awareness of the legal distinction between marriage and cohabitation, we updated GOV.UK guidance last year to set out the legal position clearly. In addition, from September 2026, the updated Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance will also state that schools should teach that “common-law marriage” is a myth by the end of secondary school, helping to tackle persistent misconceptions and improve public understanding of the law.Legal aid is currently available to a person in a cohabiting couple for some private family proceedings, such as child arrangement orders and transfers of tenancies, where they are a victim of domestic abuse or are at risk of abuse. Funding is subject to providing evidence of domestic abuse and passing the means and merits tests. Where an issue falls outside the scope of legal aid, for example, cohabiting partners seeking to resolve property disputes upon separation, individuals can apply for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF). ECF will be granted if, without legal aid, there is a risk that the person’s human rights may be breached. ECF applications are determined by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis. This Government keeps legal aid policy under review.

When he plans to open the consultation on cohabitation rights reform; and whether that consultation will include proposals covering cohabiting couples who separate without having had children together.

As set out in our manifesto, the Government is committed to strengthening the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples. Cohabitation reform is a matter of utmost importance, and we will be consulting this Spring on how best to deliver this commitment. The consultation will consider how best to strengthen the rights of cohabitating couples and the circumstances in which protections may apply, while firmly upholding marriage as one of our most important institutions.The Government also recognises the challenge posed by the mistaken belief in the myth of “common law marriage”. To improve public awareness of the legal distinction between marriage and cohabitation, we updated GOV.UK guidance last year to set out the legal position clearly. In addition, from September 2026, the updated Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance will also state that schools should teach that “common-law marriage” is a myth by the end of secondary school, helping to tackle persistent misconceptions and improve public understanding of the law.Legal aid is currently available to a person in a cohabiting couple for some private family proceedings, such as child arrangement orders and transfers of tenancies, where they are a victim of domestic abuse or are at risk of abuse. Funding is subject to providing evidence of domestic abuse and passing the means and merits tests. Where an issue falls outside the scope of legal aid, for example, cohabiting partners seeking to resolve property disputes upon separation, individuals can apply for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF). ECF will be granted if, without legal aid, there is a risk that the person’s human rights may be breached. ECF applications are determined by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis. This Government keeps legal aid policy under review.

What steps his Department is taking to raise public awareness of the legal distinctions between marriage and cohabitation in England and Wales ahead of the consultation on cohabitation rights reform.

As set out in our manifesto, the Government is committed to strengthening the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples. Cohabitation reform is a matter of utmost importance, and we will be consulting this Spring on how best to deliver this commitment. The consultation will consider how best to strengthen the rights of cohabitating couples and the circumstances in which protections may apply, while firmly upholding marriage as one of our most important institutions.The Government also recognises the challenge posed by the mistaken belief in the myth of “common law marriage”. To improve public awareness of the legal distinction between marriage and cohabitation, we updated GOV.UK guidance last year to set out the legal position clearly. In addition, from September 2026, the updated Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance will also state that schools should teach that “common-law marriage” is a myth by the end of secondary school, helping to tackle persistent misconceptions and improve public understanding of the law.Legal aid is currently available to a person in a cohabiting couple for some private family proceedings, such as child arrangement orders and transfers of tenancies, where they are a victim of domestic abuse or are at risk of abuse. Funding is subject to providing evidence of domestic abuse and passing the means and merits tests. Where an issue falls outside the scope of legal aid, for example, cohabiting partners seeking to resolve property disputes upon separation, individuals can apply for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF). ECF will be granted if, without legal aid, there is a risk that the person’s human rights may be breached. ECF applications are determined by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis. This Government keeps legal aid policy under review.