Every parliamentary written question tabled by Wendy Morton this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 1,241–1,260 of 1,684 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to strengthen protections for leaseholders in the commonhold tenure.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statements made on 3 March 2025 (HCWS488) and 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).
Whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) fly-tipping and (b) uncollected rubbish on public health.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has not made an assessment of the potential impact of fly-tipping and uncollected rubbish on public health.During specific incidents, for instance with the Birmingham City Council, the UKHSA has provided standard guidance to the local authority on the public health risk associated with household waste. The UKHSA is also part of a multi-agency response Strategic Commissioning Group (SCG), and has contributed to a risk assessment concerning the potential health impacts of uncollected waste. The UKHSA will continue to provide advice and support to Birmingham City Council, as part of this SCG.The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency produce the Statutory guidance for Waste duty of care: code of practice, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-duty-of-care-code-of-practice/waste-duty-of-care-code-of-practiceGuidance for waste planning policy is published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waste
Communities and Local Government, what steps is she taking to support mortgage providers in lending to commonhold tenure holders.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statements made on 3 March 2025 (HCWS488) and 21 November 2024 (HCWS244).
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help protect humanitarian workers from (a) targeted attacks and (b) obstruction of aid in conflict zones.
The UK uses its seats at key multilateral fora such as the United Nations Security Council, its bilateral relationships, and its partnerships with humanitarian actors on the front line to encourage parties to consent to humanitarian relief operations, facilitate unimpeded access, and protect civilians including humanitarian aid workers.We provide direct investment to support the protective measures our partners require to work safely, the freedom to use different approaches such as cash transfers to increase access to aid and reduce risks, and flexible funding to enable our partners to strengthen their risk mitigation strategies when required.In May 2024, the UK co-sponsored UN Security Council resolution 2730. This resolution strongly condemned attacks and all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, threats, and intimidation, against humanitarian personnel and United Nations and associated personnel, their premises and assets.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that independent reviews are conducted after (a) kidnappings, (b) attacks and (c) other serious incidents involving aid workers.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office champions the Aid Worker Security Database which independently tracks incidents involving international and national aid workers including kidnapping, death and injury. The UK promotes the review of incidents causing harm to civilians, including aid workers, through its seats at multilateral fora such as the United Nations Security Council, as well as in partnership with the International Criminal Court and International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission.Bilateral diplomatic engagement also supports independent review of incidents that harm aid workers. For example, the UK has pressed Israel to conclude the Military Advocate General's investigation into the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three British nationals, in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on 1 April 2024. Our priority is to ensure lessons are learned which lead to lasting improvements in aid worker safety.
Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help tackle the potential impact of poor behaviour from managing agents on leaseholders.
The government is committed to ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents. Property agents must belong to a government-approved redress scheme. This legislation is currently enforced by local authorities and by the National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents. The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group chaired by Lord Best to advise them on how best to do it. However, they failed to respond to the recommendations set out in the working group’s 2019 Regulation of Property Agents: working group report which can be found on gov.uk here. Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future. As a result, we are looking again at the 2019 report. As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244), the government has made clear it intends to strengthen regulation of managing agents to drive up the standard of their service. As a minimum, this should include mandatory professional qualifications which set a new basic standard that managing agents will be required to meet. We will consult on this matter this year. We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.
Pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2025 to Question 37161 on Resettlement: Chagossians, how much has been spent in the 2024-25 financial year; and how much has been budgeted for the 2025-26 financial year.
The Home Office is finalising potential claims for costs incurred in 2024/25 and will announce any updates regarding the funding at these costs in 2025/26 in the normal way in due course.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking with international partners to support female humanitarian workers.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is taking steps with international partners to address the specific risks that female humanitarian workers face. We are investing in protective measures that our partners need to safely work, championing International Humanitarian Law, and using UK seats at key multilateral forums to raise awareness and promote accountability.The UK uses its seat at the United Nations (UN) to promote the meaningful participation and protection of women in crisis response and peacebuilding, counter reprisals against women peacebuilders and women's rights defenders and build protection against conflict related sexual violence, within UN Security Council country and thematic resolutions.These efforts contribute towards building a safer and more protective environment for female aid workers to carry out their work and help to facilitate safer access to humanitarian assistance, especially for women and girls.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support humanitarian organisations in providing mental health support for workers who experience trauma in conflict zones.
We recognise the courage and commitment of those who take part in humanitarian operations and take their health and safety, including mental health and psychosocial well-being and safeguarding seriously.The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) funding arrangements require partners to demonstrate sufficient capacity and capability to meet their obligations, including those relating to the physical and mental health of staff. This is tested through the FCDO's due diligence framework, which considers risks relevant to the programme in question.
What recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on business confidence in Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.
Recent surveys from EY, PwC and Lloyds Bank show overall business and investor confidence is rising. The Government has taken significant steps to support rural businesses. We are investing £5 billion in broadband connectivity which will support growth in rural areas across the UK. We confirmed over £650 million of funding for local transport beyond City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements in 2025-26 to ensure that transport connections improve in our towns, villages and rural areas. We have also committed £5 billion for the farming budget over two years – which includes the largest ever amount of funding directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history.
What recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on business confidence in rural communities.
Recent surveys from EY, PwC and Lloyds Bank show overall business and investor confidence is rising. The Government has taken significant steps to support rural businesses. We are investing £5 billion in broadband connectivity which will support growth in rural areas across the UK. We confirmed over £650 million of funding for local transport beyond City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements in 2025-26 to ensure that transport connections improve in our towns, villages and rural areas. We have also committed £5 billion for the farming budget over two years – which includes the largest ever amount of funding directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history.
If she will make an estimate of the number of new police officers there will be in the West Midlands in the 2025-26 financial year.
The Government has committed to restore neighbourhood policing through the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. This includes putting thousands more police personnel on the beat in neighbourhood policing roles up and down the country. Every part of the country needs to benefit from this pledge, including West Midlands, who have been allocated £12,210,903 funding in 2025/26 to bolster their neighbourhood policing teams. £200 million of funding has been allocated to forces in England and Wales in 2025/26 to deliver the first steps of the increase towards 13,000 neighbourhood officers by the end of this Parliament. Our approach to delivery in 2025/26, which will be year 1 of a 4-year programme, is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible, and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands. The Home Office will review and confirm delivery plans with forces, but the precise workforce mix is a local decision.
What assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a statutory cap on levels of migration.
This Government recognises and values the contribution that legal migration makes to the UK.But under the previous Government, between 2019 and 2024, net migration almost quadrupled, heavily driven by a big increase in overseas recruitment.A properly controlled and managed immigration system, alongside strong border security, is one of the foundations in the Government’s Plan for Change.The work to restore order to our immigration system is already underway, and we will be setting out our approach to immigration in the upcoming Immigration White Paper which will be published in due course.
If she will make an estimate of the number of farmers which will be affected by upcoming changes to (a) Agriculture Property Relief and (b) Business Property Relief.
I refer the Honourable Member to the PQ referenced UIN 29306 published on 5th February 2025 at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-02-05/29306
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37169 on Neighbourhood Boards, what steps her Department plans to take to allow (a) public scrutiny and (b) questions from communities.
Undertaking meaningful engagement with the local community is a central pillar of the Plan for Neighbourhoods. Building trust and empowering the local community requires consistency, dedication and time, and evidence that people’s priorities have been acted upon. Together the Neighbourhood Board and local authority should ensure that residents, businesses, and grassroots organisations are actively involved in programme design and decision-making to ensure delivery reflects the priorities of local people and helps build capacity within the community. In line with the principles of public life and to ensure the local community can hold the board to account, the board’s operations must be transparent. The board should publish membership and governance arrangements (including minutes of meetings and decision logs) on the lead council’s website. Boards should establish their own practices in line with the Nolan Principles and Managing Public Money principles.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure UK food security.
Food security is national security. We need a resilient and healthy food system, that works with nature and supports British farmers, fishers and food producers. That is why this Government will introduce a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen Britain's food security. The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. We produce 62% of all the food we need, and 75% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply. Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. The UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade, and recent developments.
What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the upcoming increase to employers National Insurance contributions on hospices.
We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, enabling the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.The employer National Insurance contribution rise will be implemented in April 2025, and planning guidance published on 30 January 2025 sets out the funding available to integrated care boards, and the overall approach to funding providers in the next financial year. It takes into account a variety of pay and non-pay factors and pressures on providers of secondary healthcare, including charitable hospices. Further information on the planning guidance is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance/ We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are pleased to confirm that the Government has released the first £25 million tranche of that funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be available from April 2025.We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26.
What steps she is taking to reduce the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
This Government inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of people stuck in limbo without any prospect of having their claims processed. At their peak use under the previous government, in the autumn of 2023, more than 400 asylum hotels were being leased by the Home Office, at a cost of almost £9 million a day.Inevitably, due to the size of the backlog we inherited, the Government has been forced to continue with the use of hotels for the time being. This is not a permanent solution, and the small increase in the number in use at the end of last year was a temporary but necessary step to manage pressures in the system, which is now in the process of being reversed.It remains our absolute commitment to end the use of hotels over time, as part of our reduction in overall asylum accommodation costs.
What steps she is taking to deport people who enter the UK by small boat.
Since coming into office in July 2024, the Government has ensured the removal of 24,000 failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and other migration offenders with no right to be in the UK, the highest nine-month total since 2017.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs in the debate on Israeli-Palestinian Peace: International Fund on 11 March 2025, Official Report, column 368WH, when the inaugural meeting of the international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace will take place in London; and who will be present.
The Foreign Secretary is committed to convening a meeting to support civil society in the region. On 11 March, I answered a Westminster Hall Debate on this topic, where I emphasised the UK's commitment to supporting peace efforts in the Middle East and to help find a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. We want to make sure that the meeting will have the desired effect of building trust across communities, and that the timing is sensitive to the circumstances in the region.I have also met with representatives of the Alliance for Middle East Peace to discuss their proposal for an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Foreign Secretary and I welcome the opportunity to discuss further with civil society organisations their work and the prospects for peacebuilding. Since day one, the Government has prioritised working to end this conflict and secure the safe release of hostages, in co-ordination with international partners. We will continue to use every diplomatic lever to bring about a ceasefire deal as the first step towards long-term peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, and the wider region.