Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of de-proscribing Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham on the UK's foreign policy objectives in Syria.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to my statement on gov.uk marking the one-year anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime and the written ministerial statement to both Houses on 22 October, which can be found respectively at the following links: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/minister-falconer-article-on-syria-anniversary-december-2025 and https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-10-22/hcws977
These set out, respectively, the UK's support for the efforts of the new Syrian government to build a more stable, inclusive and representative country and the decision that the Government came to on de-proscription.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support local authorities to repair roads in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
At the Autumn Budget, the Government committed over £2 billion annually by 2029/30 for local authorities to repair and renew their roads and fix potholes. For the first time, we have confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, enabling local authorities to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.
This is in addition to the Government's investment of £1.6 billion this year, a £500 million increase compared to last year.
The local highway authority for the Romford constituency is the London Borough of Havering. The table below sets out the highways maintenance funding that Havering is eligible to receive from 2025/26 to 2029/30.
Local authority | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 |
London Borough of Havering | £1,082,000 | £3,060,000 | £3,289,000 | £3,520,000 | £4,033,000 |
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she has taken to (a) repair and (b) improve the condition of road networks in (i) England and (ii) Romford constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
At the Autumn Budget, the Government committed over £2 billion annually by 2029/30 for local authorities to repair and renew their roads and fix potholes. For the first time, we have confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, enabling local authorities to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.
This is in addition to the Government's investment of £1.6 billion this year, a £500 million increase compared to last year.
The local highway authority for the Romford constituency is the London Borough of Havering. The table below sets out the highways maintenance funding that Havering is eligible to receive from 2025/26 to 2029/30.
Local authority | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 |
London Borough of Havering | £1,082,000 | £3,060,000 | £3,289,000 | £3,520,000 | £4,033,000 |
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she has considered the potential merits of widening the eligibility criteria for the Blue Badge scheme.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government fully recognises the importance of ensuring that the Blue Badge scheme supports those who have their mobility impacted by substantial and enduring disabilities and other health conditions. The Department for Transport works closely with local authorities and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that the Blue Badge scheme remains fair, effective, and focused on those who need it most.
The Department previously consulted on extending the Blue Badge eligibility criteria in 2019 to allow people with non-visible (hidden) disabilities to be eligible for a Blue Badge. The current eligibility criteria are focused on the impact on an applicant’s mobility, rather than based on specific disabilities or conditions, and can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she has considered the merits of making it mandatory for DBS checks to be (a) single use and (b) job specific.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not place requirements on how DBS checks are used. It is for individual sectors to decide what, if anything, they want to mandate for their sectors
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of giving local authorities the power to introduce a temporary Blue Badge scheme.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Currently, local authorities, in their capacity as the traffic authority for their area, are already free to consider setting up locally determined temporary parking concessions that could assist the recovery of residents who have recently undergone major surgery or suffered serious illness. LAs already have powers under Part IV of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to mark out bays for specific purposes, issue local parking permits, and use Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) to reserve spaces for specific purposes. This can be a voluntary local scheme, and the cost and nature of the concession would be for the local authority to decide.
Whilst the primary focus of the Blue Badge on-street parking scheme is to help people who have an enduring and substantial disability that affects their mobility park closer to their destinations, goods, and services, the Department routinely monitors the scheme to see how it may be improved, to ensure that it continues to serve those who need it most.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients received NHS electroshock therapy in every year since 2010 in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In line with National Institute for Clinical Excellence’s guidelines, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used in current United Kingdom clinical practice as a treatment option for individuals with depressive illness, catatonia and mania, and is occasionally used to treat schizophrenia. The following table shows the number of patients who received National Health Service ECT in England every year since 2016:
Financial year | Number of patients receiving ECT in England |
2016/2017 | 346 |
2017/2018 | 441 |
2018/2019 | 326 |
2019/2020 | 572 |
2020/2021 | 464 |
2021/2022 | 571 |
2022/2023 | 609 |
2023/2024 | 717 |
2024/2025 | 955 |
Source: NHS England.
Notes:
Data is not available prior to 2016. This data is not available at a constituency level, and, although the data is collected at local authority level, NHS England has advised that there were no reported electroshock therapy contacts for patients in the Havering Local Authority during this period.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support neurodivergent individuals in the workplace.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have in place a range of measures to support employees with a disability or long-term health condition, including neurodivergent individuals, in the workplace.
Our digital information service for employers, Support with Employee Health and Disability provides tailored guidance to employers to support employees to remain in work, including guidance on health disclosures and having conversations about health, legal obligations, including statutory sick pay, and making reasonable adjustments.
We continue to oversee 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. This includes resources around employing people with hidden disabilities including autism and other neurodivergent conditions.
DWP also operates Access to Work, which provides grant funding to support Workplace Adjustments that go beyond an employer's duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. The grant provides personalised support and workplace assessments, travel to work, support workers, and specialist aids and equipment. In March 2025, we published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course.
Furthermore, in the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), government committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. Early this year DWP launched an Expert Academic Panel on Neurodiversity to advise government on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The Panel considered why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. We have received the Panel’s report and are considering its findings alongside the Keep Britain Working Review, which has now entered its Vanguard Phase testing new employer-led approaches to improving support for individuals to stay in work.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department has taken to support the defence industry in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
On 8 September 2025 we published the Defence Industrial Strategy, which includes a range of initiatives that cut red tape, speed up development to delivery, and ensure our defence investment benefits local communities. This includes a Northern Ireland Defence Growth Deal, which will harness Northern Ireland’s defence sub-sector strengths while also ensuring that the foundations are in place to support that defence spending.
We are committed to working with partners across Northern Ireland to ensure that we have a thriving defence sector that supports jobs, skills and growth.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help reduce housefires in social housing in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department continues to run its national Fire Kills campaign to raise awareness of key fire safety messages and behaviours to help keep people safe in their homes. The latest advertising campaign launched on 17 November and reminds people to ensure they have a sufficient number of working smoke alarms in their home. The Department works in close partnership with the National Fire Chiefs Council to support local community fire safety activity undertaken by local fire and rescue services, often targeted at those most vulnerable to fire.
Under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Regulations 2015, all private and social landlords must ensure at least one smoke alarm is equipped on each storey of their homes where there is a room used as living accommodation.
Awaab’s Law was introduced in October 2025 and means that landlords must take action to investigate emergency hazards, including fire hazards, and make them safe within 24 hours (excluding work to fix cladding). The landlord must also take action on significant damp and mould in fixed timelines. In 2026 the requirements will expand to apply to a wider range of hazards, including significant fire hazards.
The Department has also consulted on reviewing the Decent Homes Standard that social landlords must meet, including a proposal to add fire alarm systems to the list of building components that must be kept in good repair. The response to the consultation will be published in due course.