Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letters of 7 May 2026 and 10 June 2025 from the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when she plans to respond to the letter of 2 June 2026 from the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The department apologises for the delay in responding to the Hon. Member on this occasion. A full response was sent on 10 July.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Interim Chief Executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service plans to respond to the letters of 29th April 2026 and 10th June 2026 in relation to a constituent.
Answered by Rachel Blake
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is an independent, non-government body, and is best placed to respond to this question. The FOS will reach out to the Honourable Member to address this.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Minister of State for Rail plans to respond to the letters of (a) 23 April and (b) 3 June from the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A response was sent on 01 July 2026.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many advance notifications of redundancy were received by the Insolvency Service's Redundancy Payments Service in each financial year from 2019-20 to 2025-26 by (a) 20 to 50 proposed redundancies, (b) 51 to 100 proposed redundancies, (c) 101 to 250 proposed redundancies and (d) more than 250 proposed redundancies.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Please see ‘advanced notifications of redundancy’ received by the Redundancy Payments Service for the requested Period.
Financial Year / Advance Notice of Redundancy | 20-50 | 51-100 | 101-250 | 250+ |
2019-2020 | 2,174 | 777 | 420 | 153 |
2020-2021 | 6,989 | 2,127 | 866 | 358 |
2021-2022 | 1,740 | 581 | 235 | 96 |
2022-2023 | 2,170 | 689 | 316 | 90 |
2023-2024 | 2,631 | 923 | 441 | 132 |
2024-2025 | 2,839 | 897 | 372 | 113 |
2025-2026 | 2,919 | 992 | 494 | 159 |
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to negotiate a free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Mercosur.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Mercosur countries are important partners for the UK. We are committed to strengthening our bilateral trading relationships to remove barriers to trade and help grow UK exports, which is why I visited Brazil soon after I took up post in 2025, where I signed agreements on customs, regulatory reform and export credit; and Argentina where I had meetings to further UK interests on whisky, financial services and air services. In addition, Uruguay has started its accession process to the CPTPP and Argentina has recently applied to join.
Any decision to seek to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur will be communicated to the House in line with my department’s standard approach.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to negotiate a free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the UAE.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The UK concluded a Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on 20 May, which will strengthen trade and investment ties with all six member states.
The UK’s focus is working with the UAE and GCC towards signature and entry into force of the FTA, so that businesses can realise its benefits.
In addition, the UAE is seeking membership of the CPTPP, which the UK supports.
The UAE is the UK’s largest trading partner in the GCC, with total trade in goods and services worth £25 billion in 2025. The UK values this relationship and will continue to deepen cooperation in trade and investment.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many properties have been purchased by the Local Authority Housing Fund in (a) the Chichester District, (b) the Horsham District, (c) the Arun District and (d) aggregate for the West Sussex Tier 1 authority area.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2022, there have been several rounds of properties purchased through the Local Authority Housing Fund. Round 1 (delivered between 2022- 24), Round 2 (delivered between 2023-25) and Round 3 (delivered between 2024-26).
Chichester has delivered 18 homes in Round 1 , 3 homes in Round 2 and 6 homes in Round 3. Horsham have delivered 3 homes in Round 1, 8 homes in Round 2, and 9 homes in Round 3. Arun has delivered 11 homes in Round 2 and 3 homes in Round 3. Across West Sussex, 33 homes were delivered in Round 1, 26 homes were delivered in Round 2, and 63 in Round 3. Overall, 125 homes have been delivered in West Sussex to date through the Local Authority Housing Fund to provide better quality accommodation for local homeless families, as well as safe and suitable resettlement accommodation for vulnerable families fleeing conflict in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many premises in Arundel and South Downs constituency were included in the original Project Gigabit contract awarded to CityFibre for East and West Sussex; and how many premises are now out of scope for a fibre connection following changes to the programme.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Approximately 6,490 premises in the Arundel and South Downs constituency were included in the initial scope of the Project Gigabit contract for East and West Sussex, which is being delivered by CityFibre.
Building Digital UK (BDUK) and CityFibre have since agreed not to progress with the later stages of the contract which are not yet in delivery. This is due to commercial coverage extending further than suppliers had previously indicated, meaning fewer premises now require public subsidy and therefore, the contract was redesigned to minimise overlap with commercial plans and ensure best use of public money.
Following this decision, approximately 5,890 premises in Arundel and South Downs have been descoped from the contract. Of the descoped premises, approximately 850 already have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection and around 890 are currently included in future commercial delivery plans.
As with other areas, BDUK is working to put in place alternative coverage solutions as soon as possible for the remaining premises which still require support. A market engagement consultation for suppliers was published on 1 June to confirm supplier interest in relation to the premises that still need coverage in the affected areas.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he plans to respond to the letters of 10 April and 12 May 2026 from the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Department of Business and Trade aims to respond to correspondence in 15 working days, but in some instances it can take longer. The Department has conducted a search of its records and has not identified the correspondence referred to, and will respond as soon as possible if it is received.