Written questions by Collins.

Whether his Department plans to (a) commission and (b) publish research of the potential impact of e-invoicing on (i) digital adoption and (ii) changes in trends in the level of productivity of SMEs.

Yes. HMRC have commissioned research into SMEs perceptions of e-invoicing which we expect to publish later this year. DBT and HMRC also recently ran a joint 12-week consultation to gather views on promoting e-invoicing in the UK. The Government will publish a summary of responses and provide an update on next steps in due course.

What steps his Department plans to take to promote e-invoicing among SMEs.

Many SMEs could benefit from digital tools like e-invoicing. E-invoicing can streamline invoicing processes and lead to increased productivity, improved payment times and easier tax administration. However, we know that SMEs face several barriers to adopting new digital technologies, one of which can be a lack of clear information on benefits and software options. The SME Digital Adoption Taskforce has been considering how to best overcome these and will be publishing their final report in the Summer. DBT and HMRC recently ran a joint 12-week consultation to gather views on promoting e-invoicing in the UK. The Government will publish a summary of responses and provide an update on next steps in due course.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to work with technology companies to co-develop (a) standards and (b) frameworks to help increase levels of trust in AI among (i) the public and (ii) businesses.

The government recognises the importance of trust in AI systems. DSIT is building confidence in and driving adoption of AI by supporting a growing, competitive, and dynamic AI assurance ecosystem. AI assurance can help provide the basis for consumers to trust the products they buy will work as intended and for industry to confidently invest in new products and services.The Department will continue to work with a range of stakeholders, including the public and businesses, as we deliver initiatives to support the AI assurance ecosystem. This includes further developing our AI Management Essentials framework for businesses as well as our roadmap to trusted third-party AI assurance, which will be published this summer.

What steps his Department is taking to improve timely access to innovative treatments for women with ovarian cancer.

The Department is committed to improving cancer care for patients across England, including those with ovarian cancer. The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients across the country, including patients with ovarian cancer, as well as speeding up diagnosis and access to treatment. It will ensure that more patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and to clinical trials. These actions will help bring this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.The Government is supporting Scott Arthur’s Private Members Bill on rare cancers. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials into rare cancers, such as ovarian cancer, to take place in England by ensuring the patient population can be easily contacted by researchers.

Whether her Department plans to help promote reading through (a) digital formats and (b) media platforms commonly used by young people.

​I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 26 June 2025 to Question ​​61425​.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of e-invoicing on (a) payment times and (b) cash flow management for SMEs.

The Government is committed to tackling late payments, which can cause cash flow issues for SMEs. In September 2024 we announced measures including a new Fair Payment Code, legislation requiring large companies to report headline payment performance data in their annual reports, and a public consultation on further measures. Adoption of e-invoicing can also help improve payment times and cash flow management by reducing administrative burdens and data errors and streamlining invoicing processes. DBT and HMRC recently ran a joint 12-week consultation to gather views on promoting e-invoicing in the UK. The Government will publish a summary of responses and provide an update on next steps in due course.

What discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential impact of the use of e-invoicing to support SME digital adoption.

E-invoicing can help SMEs to reduce administrative burdens and data processing errors. Increasing SME adoption of digital tools like e-invoicing can therefore lead to increased productivity, as well as improved payment times and streamlined tax administration.The SME Digital Adoption Taskforce has been developing recommendations for Government and Industry on how best to encourage uptake of digital tools such as e-invoicing. The Taskforce produced an interim report in March 2025. Their final report will be published later this Summer.DBT and HMRC recently ran a joint 12-week consultation to gather views on promoting e-invoicing in the UK. The Government will publish a summary of responses and provide an update on next steps in due course.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of permitted development rights on (a) community engagement with and (b) levels of local oversight for planning; and what steps she is taking to ensure that all developments of a significant scale require local (i) consultation and (ii) scrutiny at the planning stage.

Where permitted development rights consent development which could have local impacts, a prior approval process can allow for consideration of specified planning matters by the local planning authority and the local community. Planning law requires local planning authorities to publicise applications for planning permission and consult any relevant statutory bodies for a minimum of 21 days. The local planning authority must not determine the application until after this period. This is 30 days if the development is subject to Environmental Impact Assessment. The government continues to keep permitted development rights under review.

Whether he plans to include targets on improving survival for (a) ovarian cancer and (b) other rare and less common cancers in the upcoming national cancer plan.

The Department is committed to improving survival outcomes for all cancer types, including ovarian cancer and other rare and less common cancers, by catching it early, and treating it faster and more effectively. As a first step, the National Health Service is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support early diagnosis and faster treatment.NHS England is continuing the roll out of community diagnostic centres to ensure that patients can access the diagnostic tests they need as quickly as possible. The NHS is also improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, including non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway.To ensure patients have access to the best treatment for ovarian cancer, NHS England commissioned an audit on ovarian cancer. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer in an NHS setting as part of their care and treatment, the audits bring together information to look at what is being done well, where it’s being done well, and what needs to be improved. The audit published its report in September 2024 and officials across NHS England and the Department are considering its findings.Further actions on improving the survival of all cancers, including ovarian cancer and other rare and less common cancers, will be outlined in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will be published later this year. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. The goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years, and the ambition will be set out as part of the National Cancer Plan.

Communities and Local Government, if she will publish the funding allocation for planning enforcement for local authorities for the next (a) year and (b) five years; and what steps she is taking (i) to ensure timely enforcement action in cases of alleged breaches and (ii) with local authorities to help improve enforcement capacity.

Local planning authorities do not receive a standalone funding allocation for planning enforcement.Planning enforcement is at the discretion of local planning authorities and it is for them to decide when and how they use the powers available to them depending on the circumstances of any given case.Resourcing planning departments remains a priority for this government.On 25 February 2025, the draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 were agreed. These regulations increase planning fees for householder and other applications, with a view to providing much-needed additional resources for hard-pressed LPAs.The Planning and Infrastructure Bill also includes provisions that will allow LPAs to set planning fees or charges at a level that reflects the individual costs to the LPA to carry out the function for which it is imposed and to ensure that the income from planning fees or charges is applied towards the delivery of the planning function.

What steps his Department is taking to help improve survival outcomes for patients diagnosed with (a) ovarian cancer and (b) other rare and less common cancers.

The Department is committed to improving survival outcomes for all cancer types, including ovarian cancer and other rare and less common cancers, by catching it early, and treating it faster and more effectively. As a first step, the National Health Service is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support early diagnosis and faster treatment.NHS England is continuing the roll out of community diagnostic centres to ensure that patients can access the diagnostic tests they need as quickly as possible. The NHS is also improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, including non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway.To ensure patients have access to the best treatment for ovarian cancer, NHS England commissioned an audit on ovarian cancer. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer in an NHS setting as part of their care and treatment, the audits bring together information to look at what is being done well, where it’s being done well, and what needs to be improved. The audit published its report in September 2024 and officials across NHS England and the Department are considering its findings.Further actions on improving the survival of all cancers, including ovarian cancer and other rare and less common cancers, will be outlined in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will be published later this year. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. The goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years, and the ambition will be set out as part of the National Cancer Plan.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of access to books in low-income households on reading outcomes among children eligible for free school meals.

I refer the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted to the answer of 20 June 2025 to Question ​​59345​.

What plans his Department has to improve access to effective (a) symptom management and (b) pain relief for people with chronic urinary tract infections in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

The Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency is served by the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB). The ICB applies the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines for the treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) to the treatment of chronic UTIs. The ICB has a defined care pathway which ensures that if primary care management is not sufficient, then patients are swiftly referred to specialist care for more intensive support, including further investigations and management of their symptoms and their pain.Appropriate treatment and support for people with chronic UTIs are dependent on receiving an accurate diagnosis. Diagnostic tests for chronic UTIs, such as urinalysis and urine culture, are widely available across all pathology networks in England, including Hertfordshire and West Essex. Ensuring accurate diagnostic testing not only aids more effective identification of infection but can also reduce unnecessary prescribing and overprescribing of broad-spectrum antimicrobials, and directly benefit patients in Harpenden and Berkhamsted, who will get the right treatment sooner.General practitioners can request testing for chronic UTIs via several pathways, including at point-of-care, via community diagnostic centres, or via laboratories. Laboratories across England adhere to stringent quality standards for diagnostic tests, including the UK Accreditation Standard ISO 15189, and implement robust internal and external quality assurance schemes. Together, these measures ensure the accuracy and reliability of diagnostic testing.Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Department is supporting work to understand the research gaps on UTIs that matter most to patients, carers, and clinicians. This is through a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership (PSP), led by Antibiotic Research UK, Bladder Health UK, and The Urology Foundation. This partnership will publish its findings in spring 2026. The aim of the Chronic and Recurrent UTI PSP is to identify the unanswered questions about chronic and recurrent UTIs from patient, carer, and clinical perspectives and then to prioritise those that patients, carers, and clinicians agree are the most important for research to address.NHS England is also supporting research into newer, more accurate point-of-care tests for UTIs, such as via the Toucan study. Further information on the study is available at the following link:https://www.phctrials.ox.ac.uk/recruiting-trials/toucan-platform-for-uti-diagnostic-evaluation

What plans her Department has to promote reading through (a) digital formats and (b) media platforms commonly used by young people.

The department wants children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, and teachers should encourage pupils to develop reading habits by listening to, discussing, and reading a wide range of literature. Departmental officials are working with the sector and other departments to consider how we can encourage reading for pleasure across a variety of formats and support children to develop a lifelong love of reading.The National Literacy Trust's 2025 annual literacy survey shows that more children who enjoyed reading engaged with a variety of formats, both on paper and on screen. It showed that paper remained the most popular format for reading among children and young people in 2025, but some types of content were preferred on screen, such as song lyrics and news articles.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that employers provide disabled people with the support they need to stay in work in (a) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency and (b) the rest of England.

Access to Work aims to support the recruitment and retention of disabled people into employment. It is a personalised discretionary grant that provides support with workplace adjustments beyond an employer’s obligation as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.As part of our Plan for Change, and as set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published in March, we are consulting on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the programme to help more disabled people into work and support employers ensuring value for money for taxpayers. We will review all aspects of the Scheme following the conclusion of the consultation and carefully assess the impact of any proposed changes.In our Get Britain Working White Paper, published November 2024, we committed support for employers to recruit, retain and develop staff. As part of that, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead ‘Keep Britain Working’, an independent review to consider how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy workplaces, and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence. Sir Charlie Mayfield will deliver a final report with recommendations in the autumn.At national level, DWP promotes the Disability Confident Scheme which encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face.We recognise the need to make the scheme more robust, and we will work with employers, disabled people, and disabled people’s organisations to realise its full potential.In addition, DWP's current offer to employers includes a digital information service, (www.support-with-employee-health-and-disability.dwp.gov.uk/), which provides tailored guidance for employers to support employees with health and disability to remain in the workplace. This includes guidance on disclosures and having conversations about health and disabilities, plus guidance on legal obligations, including statutory sick pay and making reasonable adjustments. The St Albans and Hemel Hempstead Jobcentres provide support to constituents in Harpenden and Berkhamstead. Disability Employment Advisers work with employers to ensure they are aware of the support available. An example of this is the work undertaken by Disability Employment Adviser Leaders in collaboration with Hertfordshire County Council, through Inclusive Job fairs raising employer awareness of Disability Confident and Access to Work. If the employer is not already signed up to Disability Confident, we encourage them to do so. Our Jobcentres offer retention support to constituents already in employment when they either become disabled or their health deteriorates to such an extent it impacts on their ability to carry out their role at work. The Jobcentre Teams will support the customer and the employer to get the appropriate support/ adjustments in place to ensure the constituent stays in employment.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support the digitalisation of the property transaction process.

The government is committed to modernising the home buying and selling process. We recently announced local authority pilots involving making key property information available online and the introduction of common data standards so that data can be shared between trusted professionals more easily.

Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to reform the residential conveyancing process to (a) reduce the time taken and (b) increase transparency for (i) buyers and (ii) sellers.

The government is committed to modernising the home buying and selling process. We recently announced local authority pilots involving making key property information available online and the introduction of common data standards so that data can be shared between trusted professionals more easily.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 55944, what steps her Department plans to take to support people with complex and overlapping health conditions who are subject to the current PIP assessment criteria before the reforms proposed in her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work, last updated on 18 June 2025, are implemented.

We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that changes will be made to the eligibility criteria for the daily living component of PIP. Claimants will need to score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity. This change does not alter the Department’s approach to supporting vulnerable claimants or those with complex needs through the assessment process. We are exploring ways to improve the experience of people using the health and disability benefit system. This includes digitalising the transfer of medical information using evidence from other services to reduce the need for functional assessments for those with very severe conditions, and improving communication with claimants who are expected to remind on disability for life. We have also launched a comprehensive review of the PIP assessment process, which I am leading. Through the review, we want to make sure the PIP assessment is fit for the future. We are currently in the first phase of this work, engaging with disabled people, organisations who support them and other experts to shape the scope, timings and approach. This will inform development of the Terms of Reference which will be published as soon as they are drawn up.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to establish a national chemicals regulator to improve the (a) monitoring and (b) management of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination.

Defra and the Scottish and Welsh Governments work closely with regulators and government agencies to prioritise issues for regulatory action in the UK relating to chemicals. We are working across government to help us assess levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) occurring in the environment, their sources and potential risks to inform policy and regulatory approaches. The revised Environmental Improvement Plan, which will be introduced in 2025, will set out the Government’s approach to managing PFAS.

Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to review the current regulatory limits for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has provided guidance on PFAS to water companies since 2007; updated in August 2024, and a consolidated version was published in March 2025. In February 2025, the DWI published a report from the advisory group of drinking water quality recommending revisions to the drinking water regulations. One recommendation was to introduce DWI’s guideline value into legislation. Defra and the DWI will work together to consider this, and other, recommendations and will update our regulations where appropriate.The DWI monitors publications and advice provided by the World Health Organization and the UK’s Committee on Toxicity in relation to PFAS. It will continue to act accordingly to use a risk-based approach to monitor test results for both raw and treated water based on the scientific evidence as it emerges, to safeguard public health from the risks from PFAS in drinking water. Work continues across government to assess levels of PFAS to safeguard current high drinking water quality and to ensure our regulations remain fit for purpose.