Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she plans to respond to the consultation entitled Improving disabled people’s access to let residential premises: reasonable adjustments to common parts, a new duty, which closed on 18 August 2022.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This Government will provide a response to this consultation in due course.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
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 ensure families are not penalised under the 5 day legal requirement to register a death when facing delays caused by (a) lack of appointments and (b) administrative bottlenecks.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has policy and operational responsibility for the death certification process in England and Wales, which includes the medical examiner function which scrutinises all non-coronial deaths. Medical examiners and their officers are expected to complete their work without unreasonable delay and for straightforward cases this should normally be completed within 24 hours.
A death is required to be registered within five days of the medical examiner, or coroner, completing their scrutiny and submitting the required cause of death paperwork to the local register office. The General Register Office is part of the HM Passport Office and oversees the policy and legislative framework for death registration in England and Wales. The Department is unaware of any general delays across registration services in England and Wales in registering deaths.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring newly elected councillors to undergo Disclosure and Barring Service checks after taking office.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We keep local government member criminal record check policy under review.
All local government members are eligible for Basic criminal records checks provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service. Members in unitary and upper tier authorities who are being considered for appointment to any committee involved in decisions on the provisions of children’s services or services for vulnerable adults are additionally eligible for Enhanced criminal record checks.
Criminal record checks can help local authorities assess members’ suitability for specific roles. It is for each individual local authority to adopt their own member criminal record check procedures where they think it necessary.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provisions in the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill for leaseholders of houses on mixed estates containing flats and houses.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Owners of existing leasehold houses will benefit from a number of the provisions of our draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill including the abolition of forfeiture for leasehold; regulation of estate rentcharges; and the capping of ground rents at £250 a year, changing to a peppercorn cap after 40 years.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 27 January 2026 (HCWS1278) and to the draft Impact Assessment for the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill which can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential risks posed by vehicles parking facing oncoming traffic.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Rule 248 of the Highway Code states that drivers must not park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space. The Department has made no such assessment and does not plan to extend this requirement to daylight hours as there is no corresponding advantage during daylight hours when parked vehicles can be seen more easily whether or not they are parked against the traffic flow. Moreover, this would increase the number of awkward and often dangerous manoeuvres, such as U-turns, which might be required to find a legal parking place.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she plans to respond to the consultation entitled Improving disabled people’s access to let residential premises: reasonable adjustments to common parts, a new duty, which closed on 18 August 2022.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average processing time is for a support for mortgage interest claim; and what proportion of claims have been approved over the last two years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In answer to your first question, we do not record processing times for Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) Loans. This is because the start date of the process is not consistently defined or easily identifiable. There is flexibility built into the timings of the process to meet the needs of the customer. As SMI is a loan, those offered the loan can choose to accept or decline at any time and payments can be backdated to the day someone first became eligible.
On your second question, all eligible benefit recipients are offered a loan when they become eligible for SMI and they can choose to accept or decline. We publish the number of households receiving SMI on a bi-annual basis here.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the remit is of the external remediation team at the Building Safety Regulator; and how it is engaging with stakeholders on applications.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The External Remediation team assess building control applications for proposed remediation works to the external envelope of a building, such as cladding, renders, and balconies. Individual team members liaise with the applicant throughout the application lifecycle, updating them on key milestones and offering wider support through regular educational webinars. An Account Manager function was established in March 2026 responsible for proactively identifying and engaging with key stakeholders to support improvements in the quality of applications.
A new Remediation Enforcement Unit (REU) became operational in March 2026. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has identified 650 registered higher-risk buildings that have either combustible Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) or high-pressure laminate as part of their external wall system. The principal accountable persons of buildings with combustible ACM have been directed to apply for a building assessment certificate and are already being assessed via that route.
During April, the REU will contact the remaining buildings to ask for a relevant fire risk assessment and plan, and check that the removal (of cladding) proposal is appropriate to the materials and layout.
The REU is also investigating 83 buildings referred to the BSR by the Cladding Safety Scheme (run by Homes England) with unconfirmed combustible materials. The REU has ruled out 20 of these buildings as not having combustible materials, with the remainder being contacted to provide the necessary fire risk assessments and plans.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress the remediation enforcement unit within the Building Safety Regulator has made on its objectives.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The External Remediation team assess building control applications for proposed remediation works to the external envelope of a building, such as cladding, renders, and balconies. Individual team members liaise with the applicant throughout the application lifecycle, updating them on key milestones and offering wider support through regular educational webinars. An Account Manager function was established in March 2026 responsible for proactively identifying and engaging with key stakeholders to support improvements in the quality of applications.
A new Remediation Enforcement Unit (REU) became operational in March 2026. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has identified 650 registered higher-risk buildings that have either combustible Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) or high-pressure laminate as part of their external wall system. The principal accountable persons of buildings with combustible ACM have been directed to apply for a building assessment certificate and are already being assessed via that route.
During April, the REU will contact the remaining buildings to ask for a relevant fire risk assessment and plan, and check that the removal (of cladding) proposal is appropriate to the materials and layout.
The REU is also investigating 83 buildings referred to the BSR by the Cladding Safety Scheme (run by Homes England) with unconfirmed combustible materials. The REU has ruled out 20 of these buildings as not having combustible materials, with the remainder being contacted to provide the necessary fire risk assessments and plans.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish details of the new batching model being trialled by the Building Safety Regulator to reduce the length of time taken to assess building control applications, including the number of applications being considered.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) publishes monthly data on Building Control Approval applications, including progress on the batching pilot launched in September 2025. Latest data, published in February 2026, showed average approval times for new cases of 18 weeks, representing an almost threefold improvement in processing times when compared to May-July 2025. More complex cases managed through Account Managers are taking around 25 weeks on average for approval.
The BSR has also addressed the backlog of legacy Gateway 2 applications through a substantial expansion of operational capacity and the integration of specialist expertise. These measures have strengthened decision-making, sped up the processing of both new‑build and remediation cases, and supported more efficient partnership working with industry.
In parallel, enhanced guidance, developed jointly with the Construction Leadership Council, is supporting applicants to submit clearer, higher‑quality applications that demonstrate compliance, helping to further reduce determination times.
There are currently four live Gateway 2 applications within the Stockport constituency (SK1–SK5): two remediation cases and two Category A applications.