Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June to Question 4321 on Palantir: Software, whether the National Cyber Security Centre expert guidance on the awarding of software contracts to Palantir included (a) any objections on the basis of increased risk or (b) mitigations to reduce risk.

Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government takes national security extremely seriously. It is long-standing policy that the Government does not disclose the specifics of its security arrangements, including in relation to individual suppliers or the detail of security advice provided in individual procurement processes.

Under the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities must undertake due diligence and may exclude suppliers on national security grounds where the relevant legal tests are met.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Brighton Main Line: Strategic position and evidence base summary, published April 2026, if she will instruct Network Rail to develop network enhancement proposals for the Brighton mainline immediately to align upgrades with network renewals during control period 8 from 2029-2034.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Rail Minister was recently briefed on the opportunity to enhance planned renewals on the Brighton Main Line during Control Period 8. The opportunity will be carefully considered alongside other national investment proposals.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with (a) MHRA and (b) NICE on OPTUNE treatment for brain cancer patients.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has had no recent discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) or the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on the topic of OPTUNE, or Tumour Treating Fields.

NICE’s guideline on brain tumours published in 2018 recommends that Tumour Treating Fields should not be offered for the management of newly diagnosed glioblastoma or recurrent high-grade glioma, based on an assessment of the evidence available at the time.

Decisions on whether guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by NICE’s Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE’s prioritisation board considered Tumour Treating Fields for glioblastoma in July 2024 where they agreed the topic should not be prioritised but reconsidered when relevant key trials have completed.

At the meeting on 15 September 2025, the topic was reconsidered. The prioritisation board noted that some trials are ongoing, including a key trial that is likely to publish this year, and consequently agreed that the topic should still not be prioritised at this time, but revisited once those trials have published.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on what date a decision will be made on a devolution settlement for Hertfordshire.

Answered by Nesil Caliskan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Following the call for expressions of interest for new Foundation Strategic Authorities on 12 February 2026, the Government is considering the proposals received. The Government will set out next steps soon and will continue to work closely with local leaders, including in Hertfordshire.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2026 to Question 1246 on Department for Education: Workplace Pensions, if she will give civil servants the right to rescind applications to retire in circumstances where they have done so to receive an accurate retirement quote.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Civil servants in the department may request to withdraw a retirement application, and such requests are always considered on a case-by-case basis. The retirement process is intended for those who are actively planning to retire, rather than for the purpose of obtaining illustrative benefit estimates.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with (a) Vistry Group plc, (b) Aviva Investors and (c) FirstPort Residential Property Management on the progress of fire safety remediation work for Serra House, Charrington Place in St Albans.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has not discussed Serra House with Vistry Group plc, Aviva Investors or FirstPort Residential Property Management. MHCLG officials meet regularly with Vistry Group plc to discuss the progress that Vistry Group plc is making to fulfil its obligations under the Developer Remediation Contract to identify, assess and remediate life-critical fire safety defects in relevant buildings, including Serra House.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 June to Question 3411 on Social Work: Training, if he will make an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of not including Step Up to Social Work bursary payments for the purposes of assessing Universal Credit claims.

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

No estimate has been made. Students are unable to claim Universal Credit if they are studying full-time, unless they meet specific exceptions. Universal Credit is designed not to duplicate financial support for fees and living costs provided through the student finance system.

If an eligible student makes a claim to Universal Credit, any loan or grant which provides for the student's basic maintenance is taken into account as income. The first £110 of a student loan or grant paid to meet living costs is disregarded in every monthly Assessment Period in which student income is taken into account in order to help students with any added costs of books, equipment and travel which may be incurred whilst studying or training.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on what date the mandatory national registration scheme for short term lets in England will be introduced.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Parliament legislated for a national registration scheme for short-term lets in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. The government remains committed to implementing this registration scheme.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there will be measures to increase the recruitment and retention of clinicians to support medical research in the ten year workforce plan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 10-Year Health Plan committed to embedding research into everyday National Health Service care and increasing the skills and time for research within the workforce. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the NHS workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. We will not pre-empt the publication of the plan. Details will be set out when it is published.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of delays in access to Full Blood Count testing on the timely diagnosis of leukaemia.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises that timely access to diagnostic tests is an important part of early and faster cancer diagnosis, including for blood cancers. The National Cancer Plan sets out the Government’s commitment to improve earlier diagnosis and faster treatment for cancer patients, including those with leukaemia.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, Suspected cancer: recognition and referral, supports the identification of children, young people and adults with symptoms that could be caused by cancer. The guideline recommends that people with specific symptoms should be offered a very urgent full blood count to assess for leukaemia.

To support earlier diagnosis of blood cancers, the National Health Service is also implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

NHS England continues to work to improve timely access to diagnostic services, including pathology and blood testing, as part of wider efforts to increase diagnostic capacity and reduce waiting times across the system.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many projects being delivered through the infrastructure pipeline relate to national defence; and what proportion of all infrastructure pipeline projects they represent.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The current Infrastructure Pipeline, updated on 9 March 2026, includes one aggregated line on defence infrastructure spending. Once the Defence Investment Plan is published, project level detail we be available and included.

The Infrastructure Pipeline line represents the total 10 year capital and resource committed Infrastructure Plan expenditure at SR25 excluding Aquatrine and Utilities spend. This is reported as £3.51 billion of planned expenditure. It is important to note that the Infrastructure Pipeline includes physical infrastructure and construction only, and therefore is not representative of all capital spending by the Ministry of Defence.

The July 2025 publication of the Pipeline included 71 projects and 5 programmes in the defence sector. At the time of the July publication, this represented £20.4 billion of expenditure.

Following the publication of the Defence Investment Plan, we expect to reflect all Defence projects meeting our inclusion thresholds in future iterations of the Pipeline

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an impact assessment of estimating factors such as risk, returns and readiness for delivery of any defence-related projects being delivered through the infrastructure pipeline.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The dynamic Infrastructure Pipeline dashboard provides broad sector insight on projected demand, costs and timing and is not designed to assess project risk, returns or readiness. Furthermore, the Infrastructure Pipeline covers physical infrastructure and construction projects only, and therefore is not representative of all capital spending by the Ministry of Defence. The latest March 2026 Pipeline does not include any project level entries for defence as the Defence Investment Plan had not been finalised. NISTA’s Annual Report on the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) includes a project delivery confidence assessment.

Defence projects on the Government Major Projects Portfolio are covered by the standard GMPP assurance process. This includes reviews at key stages, which consider risk, deliverability and readiness to proceed, and inform delivery confidence assessments. Any issues identified are then addressed through the normal assurance process.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what date she plans to lay regulations to introduce the Biodiversity Net Gain exemption for small scale self-build and custom build developments.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As announced on 15 April 2026 in the Government’s response to the consultation on Improving Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for minor, medium and brownfield development, Defra will bring forward secondary legislation before summer recess 2026 with the intention of changes coming into force at the end of July / early August 2026 (subject to parliamentary scheduling). These regulations will:

• introduce a new 0.2-hectare area-based exemption so that developments under this size threshold will not be subject to BNG.
• remove the current self and custom build exemption.
• exempt temporary planning permissions granted for a maximum of five years from BNG requirements.
• amend the biodiversity gain hierarchy for minor development.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to review the reasonable adjustments required during court trials for (a) defendants (b) witnesses and (c) victims who are neurodivergent.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) has a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure all our users are treated fairly and that we do not discriminate against people with protected characteristics.

HMCTS will provide reasonable adjustments for court and tribunal users with disabilities. Court and tribunal users are encouraged to get in touch with HMCTS to discuss any particular adjustments they may need. HMCTS staff will sensitively ask those needing reasonable adjustments what support they require in order to be able to provide reasonable adjustments and will aim to list cases at suitable venues when there are access needs.

The Equal Treatment Bench Book, published by Judicial College (https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-judiciary/diversity/equal-treatment-bench-book/) contains guidance on fair treatment, equality issues and general information on disability issues and religion for judges.

Free court transcripts

Improving access to elected office for disabled candidates

NARPO Love or Money Campaign

Parliament Education and Engagement Outreach Service

Touring artists mobility arrangements

Mutual recognition of professional qualifications

Reducing trade and mobility barriers between the UK and EU

Israel death penalty

VAT for UK hospitality