Written questions by Wilkinson.

Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the maintenance cost to councils of ageing water infrastructure.

The department collects data about local authorities’ expenditure and income relating to all services through the General Fund Revenue Outturn data collection. All expenditure data on environmental and regulatory services for 2024-25 are published within the local authority revenue expenditure and financing statistics and can be found in the RO5 tables. This does not include a specific breakdown for maintaining water infrastructure.

What steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of Functional Neurological Disorder.

In October 2025, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidance on rehabilitation for chronic neurological disorders, including acquired brain injury, with the reference code NG252. This guidance includes functional neurological disorder (FND) within its scope.NHS England’s updated Specialised Neurology Service Specification, published in August 2025, includes specific reference to FND. It states that all specialised neurology centres must include access to treatment services for FND. Service specifications are important in clearly defining the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care.There are a number of other national-level initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with neurological conditions, including FND, such as the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and the recently completed Neurology Transformation Programme, which aim to improve care for people by reducing variation and delivering care more equitably across England.Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In doing so, they should use local population and market data to inform commissioning decisions and encourage a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate and high-quality care services in their local area, including for conditions such as FND.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of social care support available to those diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder.

In October 2025, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidance on rehabilitation for chronic neurological disorders, including acquired brain injury, with the reference code NG252. This guidance includes functional neurological disorder (FND) within its scope.NHS England’s updated Specialised Neurology Service Specification, published in August 2025, includes specific reference to FND. It states that all specialised neurology centres must include access to treatment services for FND. Service specifications are important in clearly defining the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care.There are a number of other national-level initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with neurological conditions, including FND, such as the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and the recently completed Neurology Transformation Programme, which aim to improve care for people by reducing variation and delivering care more equitably across England.Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In doing so, they should use local population and market data to inform commissioning decisions and encourage a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate and high-quality care services in their local area, including for conditions such as FND.

Media and Sport, what progress she has made on implementing the recommendations of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in the report entitled Economics of music streaming, Session 2021-22, HC 50; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that non-featured performers and other contributors to recorded music are adequately remunerated for the streaming of their work.

Ensuring that music creators are fairly compensated for their work is crucial to the ongoing success of our world-class music industry, as this is what allows them to invest their time, effort, and money into creating music. Through the Creator Remuneration Working Group, we collaborated on this matter with key industry stakeholders, including major and independent record labels and music creator representatives. In July 2025, we were delighted to welcome the new label-led principles as an output of these discussions. This includes targeted support for legacy artists, songwriters and session musicians, with the commitment from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Musicians’ Union to increase fees for session musicians by 40% for pop and 15% for classical sessions. The UK’s major labels have also launched bespoke packages to deliver benefits for UK creators. To track progress and measure success, the government has worked with industry to implement a robust process to monitor and review the impact of the Principles. The Government will then assess the need for further intervention to ensure this package delivers on its objective to bring about real change.

Whether the payment of (a) PAYE income tax and (b) National Insurance contributions in respect of UK-based employees is considered as evidence that an organisation is operating in the UK.

In relation to the licensing of businesses for the purposes of Sponsoring overseas employers, the evidential options to demonstrate that they have a UK footprint and trading presence are set out in Appendix A of the Sponsor guidance.This can be found at: Sponsor guidance appendix A: supporting documents for sponsor applications - GOV.UK

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the ability of British Overseas Territories to deal with future migratory flows.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 7 January in response to Question 102330, which sets out the action that the Government is taking to support our Overseas Territories in tackling organised immigration crime.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, ​whether her Department has assessed the financial cost to the Cayman Islands of irregular migratory flows.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 7 January in response to Question 102330, which sets out the action that the Government is taking to support our Overseas Territories in tackling organised immigration crime.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of outlawing the use of (a) Bixlozone, (b) Cinmethylin, (c) Isoflucypram and (d) Pydiflumetofen on farmers.

We are aware of concerns about the potential impact of the UK-EU SPS Agreement under negotiation on the availability of certain pesticides, including those containing the four active substances Bixlozone, (b) Cinmethylin, (c) Isoflucypram and (d) Pydiflumetofen which are currently approved in GB but not the EU. Information from stakeholders, alongside expertise in HSE and Defra, is feeding into our analysis. Negotiations, which began at the end of 2025, are still underway.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment has his Department made of the potential impact of local government reorganisation on future recruitment and retention of Trading Standards Officers.

Trading standards is a statutory local authority function, and councils are responsible for ensuring they are able to discharge their duties. During local government reorganisation, the expectation is staff employed by existing local authorities, such as Trading Standards Officers, will transfer to a new unitary council set up for the area.

What assessment has her Department made of the adequacy of the capacity of local government to resource Trading Standards teams to tackle counterfeit goods sales from high street shops.

In the 2025 Autumn Budget, the Government allocated £10 million per year for three years to tackle high street illegality. This funding includes the creation of the High Streets Illegality Taskforce, enhancements to Trading Standards capabilities and support for at least 45 additional law enforcement officers.The Government does not have control over how local authorities plan their enforcement activities or apportion staff/resource to tackling harms. Local authorities are independent of central government and make their own workforce and enforcement decisions based on local need.

Will her department make an updated assessment of the annual cost to the UK economy of serious and organised crime.

The Home Office has an updated assessment of the cost of Serious and Organised Crime. Officials are currently reviewing the findings and considering the appropriate next steps, including options and timing for publication.In the interim, the department continues to draw on a range of evidence, including previous official estimates, which underline the significant harm serious and organised crime causes to the UK economy.The most recent published assessment of the social and economic costs of organised crime to the UK is the estimate presented in the previous Government’s SOC strategy 2023-2028 Serious and organised crime strategy 2023 to 2028 - GOV.UK, which places the cost at approximately £47 billion in 2023/24 prices. This figure is derived from the last underlying assessment conducted for FY 2015 to 2016, which estimated costs at around £37 billion based on Home Office ‘Understanding Organised Crime Estimating the scale and the social and economic costs’, and was subsequently inflated using the November 2023 HMT GDP Deflator. We continue to keep this area under active review, including how best to reflect improvements in evidence and methodology across threat areas.Since the most recent publication, the Home Office has been actively developing and refining cost methodologies across key threats, including contact child sexual abuse (The economic and social cost of contact child sexual abuse), modern slavery (Economic and social costs of modern slavery - GOV.UK), drugs (Dame Carol Black's Independent Drugs Review) and fraud, (Economic and social cost of fraud 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK). These updated methodologies have strengthened the evidence base and improved the accuracy of our cost estimates for individual threats.

What assessment has his department made of the role of flexible office spaces in facilitating the activities and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Department for Business and Trade recognises that flexible office spaces can support small and medium sized enterprises by reducing fixed costs, enabling collaboration and allowing businesses to scale as they grow.While the Department has not made a specific assessment of flexible office spaces, it considers access to a range of workspace options an important part of a strong business environment for SMEs.

Communities and Local Government, whether his Department holds information on the proportion of cases to the building safety regulator that (i) currently and (ii) historically require an extension before being assessed.

Building Safety Regulator officials have provided the below data:66.4% of Live Gateway 2 applications have an extension in place (867 of 1,305)41.7% of closed Gateway 2 applications had an extension (1,374 of 3,286)48.7% of all Gateway 2 applications have/had an extension (2,238 of 4,591)

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the performance of the Housing Regulator in meeting its KPIs on i) Driving improvement, ii) Maintaining confidence, iii) Working with others and iv) building the organisation.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. My Department has not itself assessed the adequacy of the RSH’s performance in meeting its KPIs. The RSH publishes its performance framework and reports annually on key performance indicators through its Corporate Plan and Annual Report and Accounts. My Department monitors the RSH’s performance through regular Accounting Officer meetings.

What assessment her department has made of the potential impact of the Valuation Office Agency's reclassification of flexible office spaces as single properties on (a) the level of business rates and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for valuing non-domestic property for business rates purposes. They are required to maintain accurate rating lists in England impartially and independently of central Government, and must consider developments in relevant caselaw.As a result of case law developments, the VOA have concluded that, rather than each room within a serviced office being assessed separately, most serviced offices will need to be assessed as a single property, unless clear evidence demonstrates a need to have separate assessments. Each serviced office is looked at on a case-by-case basis, and the VOA are addressing properties where they have received legal advice, or where unit of assessment issues are brought to its attention. Reviewing a small number of cases will help clarify the application of legislation on serviced offices. At this time, there is no sector-wide review of serviced office assessments underway. The VOA will continue to monitor legal developments and update its approach as needed.A single rating assessment would mean occupying businesses will face no business rates bill at all. Instead, the serviced office provider will be liable for business rates on the entire assessment. It is for serviced office providers to decide if they will pass the cost on to their tenants, depending on contractual agreements.

Communities and Local Government, whether the building safety regulator is (a) fully staffed and (b) working at full capacity.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) on 27 January 2026 officially moved to become an arm’s length body of MHCLG. BSR increased their regulatory capacity throughout 2025 and now have a headcount across all functions approaching 500, an increase of over 40% since June 2025. BSR will continue to recruit throughout 2026 and has plans in place to drive greater efficiencies whilst ensuring resources are matched to the demand for its regulatory services.

What steps her department plans to take to support small and medium-sized enterprises who no longer qualify for business rates relief due to the VOAs reclassification of flexible office spaces as single properties.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for valuing non-domestic property for business rates purposes. They are required to maintain accurate rating lists in England impartially and independently of central Government, and must consider developments in relevant caselaw.As a result of case law developments, the VOA have concluded that, rather than each room within a serviced office being assessed separately, most serviced offices will need to be assessed as a single property, unless clear evidence demonstrates a need to have separate assessments. Each serviced office is looked at on a case-by-case basis, and the VOA are addressing properties where they have received legal advice, or where unit of assessment issues are brought to its attention. Reviewing a small number of cases will help clarify the application of legislation on serviced offices. At this time, there is no sector-wide review of serviced office assessments underway. The VOA will continue to monitor legal developments and update its approach as needed.A single rating assessment would mean occupying businesses will face no business rates bill at all. Instead, the serviced office provider will be liable for business rates on the entire assessment. It is for serviced office providers to decide if they will pass the cost on to their tenants, depending on contractual agreements.

What progress her Department has made in implementing the Injury on Duty Award Scheme.

I have met with those leading the campaign for a new award and I am working on proposals. Ultimately, any official award is a gift from the Government on behalf of His Majesty The King.

What assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement of bans on e-scooters and e-bikes riding in pedestrian areas.

The police have a suite of powers under the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Police Reform Act 2002 to seize e-scooters and e‑bikes being used illegally or antisocially, including ‑for offences such as riding on the pavement and in pedestrian areas.We are strengthening enforcement through the Crime and Policing Bill, by removing the requirement for police to issue a warning before seizing vehicles used antisocially. We have also consulted on measures to allow police to dispose of seized vehicles, including e-scooters and e-bikes, more quickly, helping to tackle dangerous and anti-social behaviour impacting communities.Enforcement of road traffic law is an operational matter for Chief Officers, who decide how to deploy resources in line with local policing priorities.

What data his Department holds on the (i) number and (ii) adequacy of provision of paediatric post-mortem specialists in (a) Gloucestershire, (b) the South West and (c) England.

The Department does not hold information on the number of paediatric post mortem specialists either across England or in the South West or Gloucestershire regions.NHS England does publish monthly information on the number of staff employed in the National Health Service in England, including information on the grade and specialty of NHS doctors. This includes information on the number of doctors working in the specialty of pathology as well as the sub-specialty of paediatric and perinatal pathology. This is not though the same as those able to provide paediatric post mortems. The relevant information can be found in the file ‘NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables’ in each monthly publication, at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statisticsNHS England established a national programme in late 2022 to address paediatric and perinatal pathologist workforce challenges and has undertaken significant work in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. This has included making additional funding available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post available and changes to the national training course and examination structure. The number of training posts has increased across several recruitment rounds and the perinatal and paediatric training pathway will be at a full complement of 16 training posts from February 2026.