Written questions by Holden.

What discussions she has had with police forces on illegal plates or cloned license plates and serious organised crime; and what steps she is taking with police forces to help tackle the use of illegal or cloned license plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and others to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of illegal plates. The law requires that anyone who supplies number plates for road use in the UK must be registered with the DVLA. It is a legal requirement for suppliers to carry out checks to ensure that number plates are only sold to those who can prove they are entitled to the registration number. Number plate suppliers must also keep records of the plates they have supplied. It is an offence to sell a number plate without carrying out these required checks and can lead to a fine and removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers (RNPS). Officials are considering options to ensure more robust application and audit processes which would enable tighter checks on number plate suppliers. On-road enforcement of number plate offences is a matter for the police. Officials are also in discussions with the British Number Plate Manufacturers’ Association about the issue of non-compliant materials. The DVLA’s enforcement officers work with the police and Trading Standards to carry out educational and compliance visits to registered suppliers. Enforcement officers attend the premises of registered number plate suppliers to check working practices and inspect number plates on the premises. Enforcement officers can inspect records held, take copies and/or seize the records. In addition, DVLA officers carry out intelligence led enforcement activities to tackle a wide range of offences, actively working with our partners to investigate.

With reference to the Budget 2025, published on 28 November 2025, HC 1492, from which financial year she plans to meet her target to fix an additional one million potholes each year.

This Government takes the condition of our country’s local highway network extremely seriously. This is why the Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment into local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding for local authorities to repair and renew their roads and fix potholes to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This new, four-year funding settlement is in addition to the Government's investment of £1.6 billion this year, a £500 million increase compared to last year. These funding increases enable local authorities to fill an additional one million potholes in each year of this Parliament.In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This enables them to better plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance so that roads can be fixed properly and kept in good condition for longer so that fewer potholes form in the first place.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 82988 on Bicycles: Infrastructure, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of floating bus stops on independent access to bus services for blind and partially sighted people.

The Department recognises the concerns raised about floating bus stops, particularly by vision-impaired people, and we are taking steps to address them. Section 31 of the Bus Services Act 2025 requires the Secretary of State to publish statutory guidance for local authorities in England on the provision and design of floating bus stops, within three months of Royal Assent. This must be consulted on with the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee and other relevant organisations before publication. Local authorities will be required to have regard to this guidance. In addition, local authorities have been asked to pause implementation of certain designs of floating bus stop. I wrote to all local traffic authorities on 20 November setting out the terms of this pause. This applies to floating bus stop schemes which are at the design stage, and which include designs which require people to board or alight directly from or into a cycle track.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2025 to Question 92091 on NHS England: Carbon Emissions, what estimate has been made of the cost to the NHS of delivering the net zero targets; and whether those costs have been broken down between capital spending, operational changes and procurement requirements.

These targets are system–led and were set by NHS England, in collaboration with its Net Zero Expert Panel, to support the United Kingdom’s legislative target in a way that is ambitious but achievable. NHS England has been clear that its approach is designed to align with different sectoral pathways, and to be consistent with the UK's overall approach on decarbonisation. No National Health Service specific cost-estimate of achieving Net Zero has been made, and both NHS England and Department are clear that NHS budgets will only be used to support the targets where this can deliver better value for money for the taxpayer and better care for patients.

Pursuant to WPQ 87435 answered on 26 November, if he will publish copies of the modules about close relative marriage and genetic risk for midwives and health visitors and guidance on how to submit data around consanguinity and pregnancy to the Maternity Services Dataset.

NHS England has already published training modules about close relative marriage and genetic risk for midwives and health visitors, as well as guidance on how to submit data around consanguinity and pregnancy to the Maternity Services Dataset. The training modules have been published for health professionals to access and there are no plans to publish them more widely.

What discussions her Department has had with the British Standards Institute on its review of BS AU 145e; and whether she plans to ban raised 3D and 4D number plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the British Standard Institution committee that has recently reviewed the current standard for number plates. The committee has put forward proposed amendments which are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2025 to Question 92061 on Great British Railways, whether her Department has now produced (a) costed rollout plans for the Great British Railways logo and (b) estimated expenditure for the re-livery of trains; and if she will publish the estimated total cost ranges and any associated value-for-money assessments relating to the wider implementation of the Great British Railways brand.

The Secretary of State has asked the incoming CEO of DfT Operator to lead the rollout of the Great British Railways (GBR) branding. Ministers expect the brand rollout to maximise opportunities to grow revenue as well as to ensure value for money in its application. This includes primarily repainting trains when they were due to be repainted by their leasing companies, and changing station signage when it is life expired. With this in mind, Ministers do not expect significant sums to be spent on the repainting of trains as part of the rollout of branding.

What plans she has to amend the penalty regime to (a) make non-compliant number plates offences endorsable with up to six penalty points and (b) increase the fixed penalty fine for such offences from £100 to £1,000.

This Government takes road safety seriously. We are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We are considering a range of policies under the new Road Safety Strategy; the first for ten years. This includes the case for changing the motoring offences.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 to Question 95727 on Driving Instruction: Staff, how many civilian driving tests the 36 defence driving examiners are expected to conduct over the 12-month support period.

The announcement on this measure by the Secretary of State for Transport on 12 November, provided further details regarding the number of tests. Information on this and other measures announced is available on GOV.UK.

What the cost to the public purse was for commissioning or licensing material from Dovetail Games for use in promotional content relating to the Great British Railways branding, including the computer-generated train livery featured in public communications.

The new brand for Great British Railways (GBR) was developed in-house by the Department for Transport with support from a livery design specialist working for a train operator in public ownership, with the only minimal design cost being audience testing. This approach was chosen to ensure good value for money for the taxpayer. As part of unveiling the new branding, the Department collaborated with Dovetail Games to connect with a larger audience. Though details of licencing contracts are commercially confidential, this agreement returns a premium to the department through licencing fees, rather than being a cost to the public purse. No payments have been made, or are due to, Dovetail Games.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 to Question 94308 on Railways: Facilities Agreements, when the updated Framework Document is expected to be published.

The Framework Document is being reviewed and updated following the change of role from the DfT Operator of Last Resort to the Operator of First Choice and the transfer of circa 200 DfT staff to DFTO on 31 March 2026. The Department intends to publish the new Framework Document on gov.uk in 26/27.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 94307 on Railways: Private Sector, what metrics her Department plans to use to measure the potential impact of the Railways Bill on levels of private sector innovation; and whether baseline data has been established for those measures.

As set out in the answer to Question 94307, establishing GBR through the Railways Bill will provide an integrated approach and greater longer-term certainty for rail, giving the private sector the confidence it needs to invest and support innovation throughout the sector. The Railways Bill Impact Assessment provides an assessment of the potential impacts of the rail reform policies within the Railways Bill, including the impacts on Business Environment.

What the annual cost is of providing student loan financing to students who are not UK citizens; and whether she has made an estimate of the potential impact of restricting student loan eligibility to British citizens on costs to her Department.

Higher education student finance is targeted on those persons with a lawful and substantial residential connection to the UK. To qualify, most persons must be ‘settled’ in the UK. There are limited exceptions to this, such as for individuals granted international protection by the Home Office, for example persons with refugee status, who may be eligible for support without meeting the standard residency and settlement criteria.In the 2024/25 academic year, the Student Loans Company (SLC) made payments totalling £3,794 million for Fee and Maintenance Loans (full-time and part-time) to undergraduate students domiciled in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the EU who declared they were non-UK nationals.Previous PQs have reported figures based on nationality as declared when creating a student finance account, rather than the verified status at loan approval. The SLC has robust procedures in place to check eligibility for student finance, including data-sharing with the Home Office and HM Passport Office. Eligibility is dependent on a successful identity check, immigration status and residency history. No funding is approved without complete, verified, and eligible nationality, status and residence history.The department has not made any estimate of costs on the potential impact of restricting student loan eligibility to British citizens.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of removing interest charges from student loans for UK nationals on costs to the public purse.

Education is a devolved matter, and this response outlines the information for England only.The government keeps the student finance system under continuous review to ensure that it delivers good value for both students and taxpayers.Student loans are subject to interest to ensure that those who can afford to do so contribute to the full cost of their degree. To consider both students and taxpayers and ensure the real value of the loans over the repayment term, interest rates are linked to inflation.Interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by student loan borrowers. Regular repayments are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not on interest rates or the amount borrowed. Outstanding debt, including interest built up, is cancelled after the loan term ends (or in case of death or disability) at no detriment to the borrower.A full equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates under Plan 5 was produced and published in February 2022, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2025 to Question 96260 on Railways: Government Assistance, what her Department’s latest estimate is of the level of net Government support to the rail sector per passenger journey in the 2027-28 financial year.

Given the forecast steady decrease in the level of the Department's support for the 14 contracted operators and Network Rail, the level of support in 2027/28 is estimated to be slightly higher than in 2028/29.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of ghost plates pose on (a) national security and (b) the ability of hostile or organised criminal actors to evade detection by ANPR technology; and whether she has commissioned a cross-government review on the potential impact of the use of illegal plates on investigative leads, including those related to violent crime, terrorism, and serious organised criminal activity.

Under the new Road Safety Strategy, published on 7 January by the Department for Transport, the Government has announced firm action to tackle illegal or ‘ghost’ numberplates. This includes consulting on tougher penalties, including penalty points and vehicle seizure, more robust checks on number plate suppliers, and higher industry standards for numberplates. We also intend to commission targeted research to explore the potential use of artificial intelligence to identify illegal plates.In addition, the Government has pledged £2.7m for each of the next three years to support a roads policing innovation programme. As part of this innovation programme, the Department for Transport and Home Office are working in collaboration with National Police Chiefs' Council and others to consider new approaches to tackling the issue of illegal plate usage.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60138 on Road Traffic Control: Finance, whether she is providing central support for congestion improvement measures.

The Department provides a range of funding mechanisms to local authorities to enable them to deliver their objectives. It is for them to determine how best to use this to manage their roads to fulfil their Network Management Duty.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2025 to Question 86754 on Railways: Industrial Disputes and 2 December 2025 to Question 93782 on British Transport Police: Industrial Disputes, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of Section 280 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 when applied to the British Transport Police.

Section 280 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 is applicable to the British Transport Police as it is for a Home Office force. The effect of section 280(1) is to remove police officers from the statutory protections set out in legislation for those who take industrial action. Therefore, if BTP constables were to strike they would have no access to the legal protections provided in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 that other workers have when they strike. The definition of “police service” is set out in section 280(2) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and would include the constables of the British Transport Police.

What estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the rail fare freeze.

I refer the Honourable Member to the response I provided him to question 95968 on 4 December 2025.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the recent ruling on 51Job, Inc. by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, what steps he is taking to ensure that Cayman Islands institutions have the (a) capability and (b) willingness to protect (i) British investors and (ii) pension funds from harmful actions by Chinese actors.

Financial Services regulation is a devolved matter for the Cayman Islands Government. The UK Government works closely with the Cayman Islands authorities to uphold the rule of law and ensure robust legal frameworks. Cayman Islands courts operate independently under a well-established legal system based on English common law, providing avenues for parties to challenge harmful actions. I discussed with Premier Ebanks at the recent Joint Ministerial Council how to work together to promote further trade and investment ties, and welcomed the important steps taken by the Cayman Islands Government to promote greater corporate transparency.The UK Government respects the impartiality of the Cayman Islands Courts. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the highest court of appeal for the Overseas Territories, and its decisions are binding.