Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answers of 27 May 2026 to Questions 2585 and 2586, on what date will a National Listing system recognising precision bred seeds be available.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

On 9 March, this Government published the legislation expected to be in scope of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement currently being negotiated with the EU. This includes legislation relating to plant varieties and seeds.

As negotiations are ongoing, the Government remain committed to the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 and supporting new innovative technologies. The EU have accepted there are a number of areas where we need to retain our own rules, the details of which are subject to negotiations. As such, the implementation of the proposed Precision Bred Plant Variety List for England is also subject to the outcomes of ongoing negotiations.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of Universal Credit while in paid employment are employed (a) in the retail sector and (b) by supermarkets.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Getting Britain Working: Labour Market Insights Publication contains an estimate of the proportion of people on Universal Credit who work in Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/get-britain-working-labour-market-insights-october-2025.

The figures broken down by people employed by supermarkets are not readily available and to provide this would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the human rights situation in Hong Kong.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

On 26 March, the Foreign Secretary published the Government’s latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong, which repeated our concerns about the continued erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, in breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Ministers and officials continue to raise these concerns on a regular basis directly with the Chinese Government, most recently when the Foreign Secretary visited China earlier this month. She also raised the case of Jimmy Lai with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, urging his release on humanitarian grounds.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the annual cost of paying legacy benefits such as working tax credits and earlier iterations of Universal Credit to people in paid employment.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Precursors to Universal Credit (UC) such as Working Tax Credits (WTC) have now migrated to UC, therefore legacy payments are no longer applicable. As a result, all associated costs are captured within UC payments.

For other working age benefits where claimants will not migrate to UC, data availability is more limited. There are currently no standard published outputs covering costs for claimants in employment within these benefits.

Housing Benefit (HB) statistics include information on the number of claimants by employment status, which is available via Stat‑Xplore. However, the associated expenditure for these specific cases is not published.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the annual cost of paying Universal Credit to people in paid employment.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department publishes figures for expenditure on Universal Credit (UC) Expenditure here:

Benefit expenditure and caseload tables - GOV.UK

Universal Credit entitlement is calculated on a household basis. The requested breakdown of UC expenditure to people in paid employment is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to her Department was of allowing incorporated landlords to deduct mortgage interest from rental properties when calculating taxable profits in the last year.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Estimates of the cost of allowing incorporated landlords to deduct mortgage interest from rental properties are not readily available since landlords subject to Corporation tax are not required to report separately their residential finance costs.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to her Department was of the Replacement of Domestic Items Relief for landlords in the last financial year.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Estimates of the Exchequer cost of the Replacement of Domestic Items Relief for landlords are not readily available.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to her Department was of tax relief for landlords of residential properties in the last financial year.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Unincorporated landlords receive basic rate relief through a tax reduction. The estimated cost of basic rate tax relief on finance costs for landlords of residential properties reporting in Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA) in 2023/24 (the latest available year) is £1.4 billion.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people reported a gross property income of greater than £1,000 to HMRC in the last financial year.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Estimates of the number of people reporting a gross property income of greater than £1,000 to HMRC for the latest available financial year are shown in the table below.

(1) The figures include unincorporated landlords reporting total property rental income greater than £1,000, before any expenses and allowances deductions, via Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA).