Every parliamentary written question tabled by Kevin Hollinrake this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 2,221–2,240 of 2,926 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, which Minister in her Department will be responsible for fire services.
As with all departmental business, the Secretary of State maintains overall responsibility for the work of the department, and I will support the Secretary of State on fire services.
Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent by Homes England on diversity, equality and inclusion (a) training and (b) programmes since 5 July 2024.
In line with the Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance - GOV.UK which came into effect in May 2024 Homes England has not commissioned any formal diversity, equality and inclusion training activity or training programmes.The Agency have recently invested £400 to attend the Whitehall & Industry Group (WIG) Diversity & Inclusion conference with a focus on ‘benchmarking and collaborating across all sectors to create inclusive and high-performance workplaces’. Learning from this event will be shared to maximise value and a return on investment.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 26612 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, for what reason the decision was taken to amend spend publication thresholds.
MHCLG has reviewed its publication of spend data and has brought this in line with Cabinet Office requirements.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2025 to Question 23872 on Councillors: Data protection, for what reason her Department’s plans to deliver the policy on councillor’s home addresses is best achieved by a full Act of Parliament.
Primary legislation is needed to amend the Localism Act 2011 which contains provisions that require councillors to disclose their home address and authorities to disclose them on the public register of interests.
Communities and Local Government, what the cost to the public purse was of her recent visit to Ethiopia; and by which Department it was paid for.
Details of international Ministerial visits are published on a quarterly basis.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 26476 to Community Development: Radicalism, whether (a) Standard 1 and (b) Standard 3 of the Government’s principles of engagement, published on 14 March 2024, remain her policy.
The engagement principles have not been further updated since July 2024. The existing principles remain valid.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 26476 to Community Development: Radicalism, whether (a) individuals and (b) groups that condone criminal activity are able to submit responses to public consultations.
The government does not actively and knowingly consult with any individual or group that condones criminal activity.
Pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2025 to Question 26206 on Candidates: Gender, whether she plans to consult political parties before the commencement of section 106; what (a) data and (b) protected characteristics will be required to be reported; and what elected positions will require reporting.
The Government is committed to commencing the Equality Act 2010’s provision requiring registered political parties to publish anonymised data relating to the diversity of their candidate selections. We are currently exploring when and how to commence the provision under section 106. We will provide an update in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2025, to Question 23647, on Planning Permission: Air Pollution, for what reason the interim guidance was approved without an (a) public sector equality duty assessment and (b) environmental principles assessment.
The environmental principles were considered throughout the development of the interim guidance, and the policy has due regard to the aims of the public sector equality duty. The Answer of 20 January 2025, pursuant to Question 23647 was interpreted as a request for the publication of a formal assessment of how the environmental principles were applied and publication of an equality impact assessment. Publication of these assessments is not required.
If she will publish the presentations by the Valuation Office Agency to the International Association of Assessing Officers Annual Conference 2023 between 28 and 30 August 2023.
As outlined in the response to PQ UIN 15200, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will publish further information on the model and its use in supporting the Welsh Government’s Council Tax reform ambitions on GOV.UK before April 2025.The information that will be published will be more up to date and cover similar content to the International Association of Assessing Officers presentations from 2023, so there is no intention to publish these.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2025 to Question 26551 on Business Premises: Change of Use, how many additional dwellings were provided from the prior approval applications from October 2022 to September 2024.
The office to residential permitted development right (Class O) was subsumed into the commercial, business and service uses to residential permitted development right (Class MA) in August 2022.The Department publishes an annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’, which is the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply.It includes estimates of new dwellings delivered from change of use through permitted development rights in England in each financial year, up to 2023-24, and can be found in Live Table 120 on gov.uk here.The government continues to keep permitted development rights under review.
Pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2025 to Question 24511 on Property Valuation, if she will publish (a) guidance and (b) correspondence from the Centre for Appraisal Research and Technology to the Valuation Office Agency on the use of the Gaussian Markov Random Fields approach in the automated valuation model.
As outlined in the response to PQ UIN 15200, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will publish further information on the model and its use in supporting the Welsh Government’s Council Tax reform ambitions on GOV.UK before April 2025.The information that will be published will be more up to date and cover similar content to the International Association of Assessing Officers presentations from 2023, so there is no intention to publish these.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, for what reason Policy Development Grants will be linked to candidacy from 2025-26; and which political parties responded to the Electoral Commission’s consultation.
The Commission recently consulted Westminster political parties on its proposals to amend the Policy Development Grants Scheme, following eligibility changes after the 2024 UK parliamentary general election.Parties with at least two sitting members in the House of Commons who have taken the oath of allegiance, are eligible to receive a share of the total available £2m grant. All nine parties are eligible for the grant responded consultation. These were: the Conservative and Unionist Party, Demcratic Unionist Party, Green Party of England and Wales, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK, Scottish National Party, and Social Democratic and Labour Party.The Commission recommended that the second £1m of the £2m total available grant should continue to be divided into pots for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, based on the proportion of the UK electorate living in each nation. Following consultation and the testing of different thresholds, the Commission also recommended that each nation's pot should then be split equally between the eligible parties that stood candidates in at least 50% of the constituencies in the relevent nation at the most recent UK parliamentary general election. It recommended no change to the existing method of allocating the first £1m of the available grant.The Commission's reasoning was that a 50% threshold would give greater assurance that eligible parties have demonstrated a sufficient connection and commitment to the relevent nation's electorate and a presence within that part of the UK.The Commission wrote to the parties in November to let them know the outcome of the consultation.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the Electoral Commission's timetable is for the publication of the spending returns for the 2024 General Election by (a) major and (b) minor political parties.
On 13 February, the Commission published the 2024 general election spending returns from political parties and campaigners that spent less the £250,000. The data can be viewed on the Commission's website.The Commission will publish data relating to parties and campaigners that spent over £250,000 in the coming months.This is an important part of its work to provide transparency for voters over the money spent and received at the election.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answers of 23 January 2025, to Questions 25270 and 25269, on Candidates: Expenditure, whether the Electoral Committee has had discussions with (a) the Cabinet Office and (b) the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the issue of (i) notional invoices and (ii) declarations of value of notional spending.
The Commission is not currently discussing notional spending laws with either the Cabinet Office of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.In recent years, the Commission has discussed notional spending with the Cabinet Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the UK Government introduced changes to the notional expenditure regime in the Elections Act 2022.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2025 to Question 24503 on Political Parties: Finance, whether the Electoral Commission has issued guidance on the permissibility of donations from UK subsidiaries acting as agents for overseas parent companies.
Under electoral law, while most UK companies are permissible donors, if a UK company acted as an agent for a donation by a foreign company, this donation would be impermissible. If a person or organisation makes a donation on behalf of another without disclosing this, they would be committing an offence.The Commission has published guidance on permissable sources and on donations made on behalf of another person or organisation. This states that recipients must take all reasonable steps to identify the true donor and ensure that they are a permissable source.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what plans the Electoral Commission has to provide a substantive response to the Freedom of Information Act request, reference FOI 137-24, submitted in September 2024.
The Commission responded to the request on 27 February 2025.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what information the Electoral Commission holds on official photographic identification for voting held by 16 and 17 year olds.
The Commission does not hold information on photo ID ownership among 16- and 17-year-olds in England. If Parliament changes the franchise to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, the Commission would expect to carry out further research to understand current levels and types of ID ownership in this group, to inform its work to support newly enfranchised voters to understand the ID requirement.The Commission's estimates of photo ID ownership are based on public opinion surveys, based on samples of adults aged 18+. Its latest research following the UK general election found that 95% of 18-24-year-olds have an accepted form of ID for voting. The Commission has called on the UK government to review the list of accepted forms of ID to identify any additional IDs that could be included to improve accessibility for voters, particularly focusing on forms of ID that would support people who are least likely to have documents on the current list.
How many dwellings were on the Valuation Office Agency’s valuation list in (a) England and (b) Wales in (i) 2009-10 and (ii) the most recent financial year for which figures are available.
Information regarding the total number of properties (dwellings) on the Council Tax lists in England and Wales are published each year in the Council Tax Stock of Properties publication - www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-tax-stock-of-properties-2024. Latest information is as of 31 March 2024. Table CTSOP1.0 in the summary tables includes all properties in the England (1993) and Wales (1993 and 2005) Council Tax Valuation Lists, as at 1 April 1993 and 31 March for each year between 1994 and 2024. The summary tables are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/668545157541f54efe51b926/CTSOP_summary_tables.xlsx
What information the Valuation Office Agency holds on the number of dwellings that have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three and (d) four or more bedrooms in each local authority in London.
Information regarding the total number of properties on the Council Tax lists in England and Wales are published each year in the Council Tax Stock of Properties publication - www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-tax-stock-of-properties-2024. Latest information is as of 31 March 2024. Table CTSOP3.0 includes all properties in the England (1993) and Wales (2005) Council Tax Valuation Lists by property type and administrative area. The number of bedrooms for each property type are shown by clicking on the plus sign above each column. The summary tables are available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/668545157541f54efe51b926/CTSOP_summary_tables.xlsx