Written questions by Murphy.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of a quoted portfolio in the British Business Bank.

The British Business Bank does have some quoted holdings, largely as a result of post-investment corporate activity. The focus of the Bank is on strengthening private markets. Any expansion of the Bank’s mandate into public markets would need a comprehensive analysis of options and is unlikely to be undertaken in isolation from other measures to incentivise increased investment into those markets by institutional investors.

What steps she is taking to increase liquidity for small and mid-sized companies.

This Government believes that small businesses are vital to the UK’s high streets and communities, and essential to the success of the government’s growth mission. To support small businesses, the Government announced generous tax reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 including, most notably, more than doubling the employment allowance to £10,500; commitments in the Corporate Tax Roadmap to maintain the Small Profits Rate and marginal relief at their current rates and thresholds; and freezing the small businesses multiplier for 2025/26. At the Spending Review, we have increased the financial capacity of the British Business Bank to £25.6bn, which will enable a two-thirds increase in support for SMEs across the UK. This investment is expected to crowd in tens of billions of pounds of private capital and will support innovative businesses to start, scale and stay in the UK. We are also continuing to take measures to tackle late payments, which severely impact the cash flow of small businesses. This year we will be laying requirements for large companies to include information about their payment performance in their Annual Reports and launched the Fair Payment Code. We will also soon be launching a consultation on additional legislative measures to address late payments and long payment terms.

What steps her Department is taking to increase public and investor confidence in small and mid-sized quoted companies listed in the UK.

We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to boost the competitiveness of UK markets, including for small and mid-sized quoted companies. This includes overhauling the Listing Rules, reforming the Prospectus regime to provide more flexibility to firms and founders raising capital and reducing reporting requirements for the smallest companies. The government also maintains generous tax reliefs for small and mid-sized quoted companies including the Growth Market Exemption which provides relief from Stamp Taxes on Shares for companies on Recognised Growth Markets. To create a stable regulatory environment, and complementing these reforms, the government is also establishing a 10-year strategy for financial services, which will be published at Mansion House on 15 July 2025.

What steps she is taking to recognise the economic contributions of small and mid-sized quoted companies.

We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to boost the competitiveness of UK markets, including for small and mid-sized quoted companies. This includes overhauling the Listing Rules, reforming the Prospectus regime to provide more flexibility to firms and founders raising capital and reducing reporting requirements for the smallest companies. The government also maintains generous tax reliefs for small and mid-sized quoted companies including the Growth Market Exemption which provides relief from Stamp Taxes on Shares for companies on Recognised Growth Markets. To create a stable regulatory environment, and complementing these reforms, the government is also establishing a 10-year strategy for financial services, which will be published at Mansion House on 15 July 2025.

What steps she is taking to implement regulation that increases risk appetite among investors.

We have already delivered an ambitious set of reforms to boost the competitiveness of UK markets, including for small and mid-sized quoted companies. This includes overhauling the Listing Rules, reforming the Prospectus regime to provide more flexibility to firms and founders raising capital and reducing reporting requirements for the smallest companies. The government also maintains generous tax reliefs for small and mid-sized quoted companies including the Growth Market Exemption which provides relief from Stamp Taxes on Shares for companies on Recognised Growth Markets. To create a stable regulatory environment, and complementing these reforms, the government is also establishing a 10-year strategy for financial services, which will be published at Mansion House on 15 July 2025.

What steps she is taking to incentivise investment in small and mid-sized companies.

This Government believes that small businesses are vital to the UK’s high streets and communities, and essential to the success of the government’s growth mission. To support small businesses, the Government announced generous tax reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 including, most notably, more than doubling the employment allowance to £10,500; commitments in the Corporate Tax Roadmap to maintain the Small Profits Rate and marginal relief at their current rates and thresholds; and freezing the small businesses multiplier for 2025/26. At the Spending Review, we have increased the financial capacity of the British Business Bank to £25.6bn, which will enable a two-thirds increase in support for SMEs across the UK. This investment is expected to crowd in tens of billions of pounds of private capital and will support innovative businesses to start, scale and stay in the UK. We are also continuing to take measures to tackle late payments, which severely impact the cash flow of small businesses. This year we will be laying requirements for large companies to include information about their payment performance in their Annual Reports and launched the Fair Payment Code. We will also soon be launching a consultation on additional legislative measures to address late payments and long payment terms.

What assessment she has made of the potential (a) implications for her policies of the (i) financial and (ii) housing pressures experienced by kinship carers and (b) impact of those pressures on the sustainability of Special Guardianship placements.

The government recognises the significant financial, and wider, pressures faced by kinship carers and their impact on the sustainability of special guardianship placements.That is why the government announced £40 million investment in a Kinship Allowance Pilot, which will test the impact of providing an allowance to kinship carers. The Expression of Interest for this pilot launched on 17 June 2025 and more information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-to-become-a-kinship-allowance-pilot-provider. The programme is expected to begin in autumn 2025 and will support approximately 5,000 kinship children.Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are enshrining the first definition of kinship care in law and mandating local authorities to publish their kinship local offer, increasing their accountability for ensuring all kinship families are getting the information they need about the support available to them.The department also funds the charity ‘Kinship’ to provide over 140 peer support groups and a free training package for kinship carers across England.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of the potential role of heat batteries in homes that are unsuitable for a heat pump.

Though heat batteries can utilise time-of-use tariffs, do not require outside space and can be cheaper to install, they are less efficient than heat pumps. If heat batteries do not have sufficient storage capacity, they could draw electricity at peak times, adding burden on the electricity network and increasing energy bills. The Department is building our evidence on heat batteries through studies like the Homes for Net Zero Trial. The Government is analysing responses to the consultation on the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which gathered views on supporting alternative electric heating technologies, such as heat batteries.

With reference to the consultation entitled Boiler Upgrade Scheme and certification requirements for clean heat schemes, published on 30 April 2025, whether her Department plans to update the list of Energy Saving Materials to include heat batteries for space heating.

This Government is committed to improving the quality and sustainability of our housing stock. This will be vital to making the UK more energy resilient and meeting our 2050 Net Zero commitment. Between 30 April and 11 June 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) consulted on changes to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and proposals to mandate the Microgeneration Certification Scheme as the sole certification scheme for all DESNZ clean heat schemes. DESNZ will respond to the consultation in due course. Installations of qualifying energy-saving materials (ESMs) in residential accommodation and buildings used solely for a charitable purpose benefit from a temporary VAT zero rate until March 2027, after which they will revert to the reduced rate of VAT at five per cent. This support – worth over £1 billion – will aid households and charities in improving the energy efficiency of their buildings.

What steps she is taking to help improve coordination between public services and local authorities in cases involving safeguarding concerns for children under Special Guardianship Orders.

The multi-agency statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ outlines how sharing of information between organisations and agencies within a multi-agency system is essential to improve outcomes for children and their families, including those with Special Guardianship Orders.As part of the roll-out of the Families First Partnership Programme, the department is ensuring stronger multi-agency approaches to child protection and safeguarding for all children, including those under Special Guardianship Orders. This includes legislating for new multi-agency child protection teams and a strengthened role for education in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.£555 million will be available for 2026/27 and 2027/28 to local authorities to roll out these reforms across the country. This in addition to the £500 million made available for 2025/26, which will also continue for each year of the spending review period.‘Working together to safeguard children’ was updated in 2023 to place additional focus on strengthening multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection.

What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of local authority compliance with the requirement to provide support plans to kinship carers under Special Guardianship Orders.

There is a general duty on local authorities to arrange for the provision of special guardianship support services in their local areas.Children who were previously looked after by a local authority, and their special guardians, have an automatic right to an assessment for special guardianship support services from the local authority that last looked after the child. Other special guardians may request an assessment, but it is at the discretion of the local authority whether to carry one out.Ofsted has a crucial role to play in upholding children’s social care standards, including the support services provided by local authorities to families and children who have special guardianship orders in place. They provide independent, up to date evaluations on the quality of support, safeguarding, and leadership, making sure children are safe and supported.In May 2025, the Law Commission began a project to consider the scope for reform to simplify and streamline the orders underpinning kinship care placements and how to better support the consideration of kinship care as an option for children who cannot remain with their parents. It will consider the adequacy and consistency of the legal orders underpinning kinship care placements, including whether the current legislation meets the needs of children and kinship carers.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to support water, sanitation and hygiene programmes through Overseas Development Assistance.

Our portfolio includes the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Systems for Health programme, which supports governments in eight countries to strengthen the systems needed to provide climate-resilient and inclusive WASH services. To help governments and others use data to inform decision-making we support the international monitoring mechanism which tracks WASH progress against global targets. We also continue to support progress through our political and diplomatic levers, including engagement with the G7, G20 and UN processes.Following the Spending Review, internal allocations will be determined over the summer which will outline Official Development Assistance allocations from 2026/27 to 2028/29.

What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) performance and (b) level of accountability of NHS Property Services.

NHS Property Services is a company with all of the share capital owned by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As a limited company regulated by the Companies Act, it is governed by a board consisting of a majority of non-executive directors, in line with best practise in corporate governance, and this includes a Shareholder Director appointed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Where the company needs to seek formal shareholder consent under the Articles of Association and its scheme of delegation, appropriate departmental approvals are sought. NHS Property Services publishes an annual statement of accounts, which sets out their performance against corporate key performance indicators agreed with the Department. The latest published set of accounts, setting out performance for the 2023/24 financial year, is available at the following link: https://www.property.nhs.uk/news-insights/news/annual-report-202324/ The 2024/25 accounts will be published in due course, which will confirm that the company has achieved 100% of its corporate key performance indicators for that year. In common with other wholly owned subsidiary companies and Arms Lenth Bodies, the Department holds quarterly accountability and performance reviews with the Chair and Chief Executive of NHS Property Services. As is required for all organisations that are arms-length from Government departments, regular periodic reviews are undertaken to ensure the form, function, and accountability arrangements remain appropriate.

Whether he plans to review the adequacy of his Department’s oversight of NHS Property Services.

NHS Property Services is a company with all of the share capital owned by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As a limited company regulated by the Companies Act, it is governed by a board consisting of a majority of non-executive directors, in line with best practise in corporate governance, and this includes a Shareholder Director appointed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Where the company needs to seek formal shareholder consent under the Articles of Association and its scheme of delegation, appropriate departmental approvals are sought. NHS Property Services publishes an annual statement of accounts, which sets out their performance against corporate key performance indicators agreed with the Department. The latest published set of accounts, setting out performance for the 2023/24 financial year, is available at the following link: https://www.property.nhs.uk/news-insights/news/annual-report-202324/ The 2024/25 accounts will be published in due course, which will confirm that the company has achieved 100% of its corporate key performance indicators for that year. In common with other wholly owned subsidiary companies and Arms Lenth Bodies, the Department holds quarterly accountability and performance reviews with the Chair and Chief Executive of NHS Property Services. As is required for all organisations that are arms-length from Government departments, regular periodic reviews are undertaken to ensure the form, function, and accountability arrangements remain appropriate.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support housing associations with increases in costs for (a) materials, (b) staffing and (c) regulatory compliance.

The government recognises that Registered Providers need support to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply. Between 30 October 2024 and 23 December 2024, the government consulted on a new 5-year social housing rent settlement, to give Registered Providers the certainty they need to invest in new social and affordable housing. Details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme will be set out at the Spending Review. The Government intends to publish a long-term housing strategy later this year.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to review the long-term financial sustainability of housing associations as part of the (a) Spending Review and (b) long-term housing strategy.

The government recognises that Registered Providers need support to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply. Between 30 October 2024 and 23 December 2024, the government consulted on a new 5-year social housing rent settlement, to give Registered Providers the certainty they need to invest in new social and affordable housing. Details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme will be set out at the Spending Review. The Government intends to publish a long-term housing strategy later this year.

What assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in relation to the regulation of donor conception.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is required by law to maintain records and make certain information available upon request to those affected by donor conception.The HFEA was subject to a Public Bodies Review in 2023, where all aspects of the HFEA’s activity and performance was considered. The report was published on 23 November 2023, and is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/human-fertilisation-and-embryology-authority-hfea-review-report/independent-review-of-the-human-fertilisation-and-embryology-authority-hfea-final-report-and-recommendationsThe Department reviews performance through quarterly accountability meetings on a continuing basis, which takes account of the recommendations set out in the report.

Whether his Department plans to amend the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 to reflect developments in reproductive technology.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) published Modernising Fertility Law in November 2023, which made a number of recommendations for legislative change, including around its regulatory powers. Ministers have met with the HFEA Chair and discussed the emerging regulatory challenges.The Government is considering the HFEA’s priorities for changing the law and will decide how to take this forward at the earliest opportunity.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing enforceable limits on the number of children conceived from a single gamete donor.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the United Kingdom’s fertility sector regulator, has advised that donor sperm, eggs, or embryos should not be used to create more than 10 families in the UK.The HFEA expects UK licensed clinics to ensure they do not breach the 10-family limit when using donors in treatment, as clearly specified in the HFEA Code of Practice. This limit only applies within the UK, so donors and recipients should be made aware that other countries might not have the same limits, or have no limits, on the number of children or families one donor can create.

What assessment his Department has made of the consistency of informed consent practices in donor conception.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that it sets out strict requirements in its Licence Conditions and Code of Practice in relation to obtaining informed consent from egg, sperm, and embryo donors and patients undergoing donor conception treatment.The HFEA Code of Practice requires licensed clinics to provide donors and patients with appropriate information and an offer of counselling prior to consent being given. At inspections, the clinic’s procedures for obtaining consent are reviewed to ensure that patients and donors have provided all relevant consents before undergoing any licensed activity. All inspection reports and decisions are published on the HFEA’s website.The Department reviews the HFEA’s performance through quarterly accountability meetings on a continuing basis.