Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on introducing legislated protections for freeholders against uncapped service charges.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 4 July 2025 (HCWS780) and the answer given to Question UIN 103549 on 14 January 2026.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle kidney disease nationwide and (b) help raise awareness of kidney disease in Bromsgrove and the Villages.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is delivering a comprehensive programme to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of people with kidney disease through the renal services transformation toolkit published in 2023. Eight commissioned regional renal clinical networks are implementing the toolkit in collaboration with providers.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) in the Midlands, including those covering Bromsgrove, are working to improve pathway flows for renal services. Integrated commissioning will make it easier to deliver upstream interventions in primary care around diagnosis and early treatment of kidney disease, that can potentially prevent or delay the need for dialysis and transplants. In addition, renal care is a core component within the Midlands Clinical Strategy for Acute Specialised Services.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the backlog of grid connection; and what steps he is taking to help reduce connection times for businesses.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Government has worked closely with the National Energy System Operator and network companies on their programme of connections reforms which have already reduced the queue for generation and storage connections by over half.

Government is also developing further reforms to the grid connection process for demand, to manage the backlog of speculative data centre applications and enable prioritisation of available capacity for strategically important demand projects.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to issue guidance to planning authorities on the capacity of the grid for battery projects.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan outlines an ambition for 23 – 27 GW of grid-scale batteries in Great Britain by 2030 and indicates what proportion of this capacity is required in which part of the country for 2030. It also does the same for 2035.

It is a matter for planning authorities whether to grant permission to proposed battery developments in line with existing planning guidance. Government does not plan to issue additional guidance on this matter.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Palantir on the award of a contract by his Department in December 2025.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

As the Secretary of State has publicly said, Peter Mandelson had no influence or involvement in the Defence Enterprise Agreement with Palantir.