Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure that companies have access to bank accounts.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government recognises the vital role businesses play in fuelling economic growth, and it is important they can access the banking services they need. The decisions about what products are offered to individual businesses remain commercial decisions for banks and building societies.

The UK benefits from a very competitive environment for banking services, so there are a wide range of options available to businesses in need of a new bank account.

I would encourage businesses seeking a bank account to explore the Business Current Account finder tool developed by UK Finance, which was designed to help businesses compare the full range of bank accounts available and find products that best suit their needs. Businesses may also find it helpful to explore UK Finance’s online guidance on applying for a bank account to understand what is required by banks and why. My officials continue to engage with industry to understand any emerging issues regarding access to bank accounts.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Government response to paragraph 62 of the Third Report of Session 2022-23 by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee on Digital exclusion, HL 219, published on 20 October 2023, what progress the dedicated cross-Whitehall ministerial group has made.

Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government established a cross-Whitehall ministerial group in response to a recommendation from the House of Lords Communication and Digital Committee’s report on ‘Digital Exclusion’, published in June 2023. The ministerial group aims to drive progress and accountability on digital inclusion priorities across Government.

The first ministerial group meeting took place in September 2023, chaired by the then Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, Paul Scully. Ministers attended from the Cabinet Office, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, and His Majesty's Treasury.

The group agreed to undertake a departmental mapping exercise to drive and increase coherence across departmental work. It has also discussed specific priority issues, including the viability of each department joining device donation scheme, options to increase the accessibility of parking payments and accessibility of online government services. The group will receive an update on these issues at its next meeting later this month.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the Green Heat Network Fund for supporting shared ground loop installations.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Shared ground loop installations which satisfy the eligibility criteria for the Green Heat Network Fund can apply to the scheme for support. To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate that their networks can deliver a minimum of 2GWh per year of heat. Typically, shared ground loops serve a smaller number of homes than other heat networks and will often fall below this requirement unless they are aggregated into larger, combined projects. However, small-scale shared ground loop installations can receive support from other schemes, such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will remove the Boiler Upgrade Scheme's exclusion of larger shared ground loop systems.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Shared Ground Loops are an effective solution for reducing the costs associated with installing Ground Source Heat Pumps, and are currently eligible for support under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

To support their installation, the Government has announced it will increase the capacity limit under the scheme from 45kW to 300kW, increasing the number of properties able to transition to low carbon heat at the same time and reduce costs.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of shared ground loops in decarbonising heat.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government already recognises the merits of shared ground loops in decarbonising heating. To support their installation, the Government has announced that it will increase the capacity limit for shared ground loops under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme from 45kW to 300kW. Additionally, we have supported the installation of shared ground loops under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 6.48ff of the report by the Office for Tax Simplification entitled Property income review: simplifying income tax for residential landlords, published on 25 October 2022, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a brightline test to provide tax reliefs where property letting activities subject to income tax would qualify as a trade.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The suggestion by the Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) for a brightline test would create an arbitrary dividing line, and potential preferential tax treatment for those able to afford to buy more properties, as opposed to considering whether an activity constitutes trading or property letting on its merits. The OTS suggestions also had the effect that more activities would be considered trades. As a result the Government decided not to take that suggestion forward, but does keep all aspects of tax policy under review.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with the accountancy services sector on the enforcement of Managed Service Company legislation against chartered providers of accountancy services.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC officials have and continue to discuss the Managed Service Company rules with professional accountancy organisations, workers’ representative bodies and other tax professionals. HMRC officials in collaboration with stakeholders are exploring how HMRC’s guidance could be enhanced to enable taxpayers to understand whether certain services are Managed Service Company schemes.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average time is for her Department to approve mergers between pre-schools and primary schools; what steps her Department is taking to (a) reduce that time and (b) help ensure (i) safeguarding during transition and (ii) continuity of funding for childcare; and how many mergers between pre-schools and primary schools her Department has approved in the last 12 months.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Local authorities are responsible for making decisions on statutory proposals to alter the age range of maintained schools, including by the addition of a nursery.

Academies wishing to alter their age range must submit an application for a significant change to the department. In the last 12 months, the department received over 100 significant change applications to change the age range at an academy. The current data collection does not break this down further to enable the department to provide information on the number of schools that have requested to change their age range to add provision for nursery age children. The department does not collect data on the average length of time taken to reach a decision as applications can differ in their complexity.

The department has published revised guidance which will come into effect from the end of April 2024. The guidance sets out an updated application process that will allow low risk changes to progress to a decision more quickly following the necessary checks, which will streamline the application process. When implemented, the department will also be introducing a new data collection system to track application information in more detail.

With regards to safeguarding, schools must continue to have regard to the statutory guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64f0a68ea78c5f000dc6f3b2/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2023.pdf. All early years settings must follow the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework throughout any transition period.

Local authorities remain responsible for the continuation of funding, as they are required to ensure sufficiency of childcare places in their areas. Early years entitlements funding for children in nursery classes up to reception age would continue until those children moved into reception.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage (a) schools, (b) prisons and (c) hospitals to serve British-caught fish.

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

The Government has consulted on changes to the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF), including increasing the sourcing of local and sustainable food. The consultation sought views on sourcing, where possible, a diverse range of seasonally available seafood species from locally caught or produced sources. As the Government response to the consultation has not yet been published, it is too soon to pre-empt any specific findings.

We have also now appointed an independent advisor to support the Government’s ongoing work to improve food procurement in the public sector and make the system more accessible to small- and medium-sized businesses and, subject to domestic and international legal obligations, explore the benefits of and steps to getting more local-caught fish into schools, prisons and hospitals.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will extend the right to enfranchisement under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill to leases which are in form agricultural but in essence residential.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

We are not currently proposing to do so but I would be happy to meet my Hon Friend to discuss his concern in more detail, should that be helpful.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the role of shared ground loops in decarbonising heat for properties without the space for individual heat pumps.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Heat pumps connected to shared ground loops have a role to play in decarbonising heat, particularly in properties, like blocks of flats, that might otherwise be less well suited to individual heat pumps. To support their installation, the Government has announced that it will increase the capacity limit for shared ground loops under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme from 45kW to 300kW. Additionally, we have supported the installation of shared ground loops under schemes like the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times for autism spectrum disorder assessments for children.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on autism, when commissioning services. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with these NICE guidelines.

In 2023 NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for all age autism diagnostic assessment services. This guidance will help the National Health Service improve all age autism assessment services and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service.

We have invested in improving autism assessment services over recent years, including £2.5 million in 2022/23 to support local areas with improvements in autism assessment pathways. For 2023/2024, £4.2 million of funding is available across England to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

NHS England publishes quarterly data on how many people are waiting for an autism assessment and for how long. While these are experimental statistics, the data does provide useful information nationally and locally, to support local areas in improving their performance and reducing assessment waiting times.

Each ICB in England is expected to have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, supporting the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of people with a learning disability and autism, including in relation to appropriate autism assessment pathways. NHS England has published guidance on these roles.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children are waiting for (a) an assessment and (b) a diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The latest autism assessment waiting times data drawn from the Mental Health Services Dataset was published on 14 March 2024. This data showed that the number of people aged zero to 17 years old with an open referral for suspected autism was 102,024 in December 2023. The data also showed that, in December 2023, 6.3% of patients, or 5,443 patients, aged zero to 17 years old received a first contact appointment within 13 weeks.

Data on children and young people in this dataset is expected to be an underestimate. Caution should be used when interpreting these statistics since they are experimental rather than official statistics. The majority of children assessed for autism in the United Kingdom are seen in child development services, which are out of the scope of this dataset. This means the published figures will underestimate the volume of referrals or diagnoses and the associated impact on health services. NHS England continue to conduct exploratory analysis into the Community Services Dataset, with a view to include autism waiting times data from this dataset. This should improve the coverage of this data.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to support clean heat installations in Wave 3 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) is a 10-year, £3.8bn 2019 manifesto commitment. To date, total committed grant funding for SHDF and the associated demonstrator is over £1bn. The £6bn energy efficiency support package announced in December 2023 allocated £1.25bn towards the SHDF between 2025 and 2028. This funding will provide long-term certainty, support supply chain growth, and ensure we can scale up our delivery over time. SHDF Wave 3 is still being designed but it will continue to provide incentives and funding for the installation of low carbon heating technologies in social housing.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating a portion of the savings in direct schools grants from home education to local authorities to provide exam centres.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department allocates school funding to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant, on the basis of pupil numbers in the preceding autumn census. That some children are home educated does not, therefore, lead to unallocated funding. The department does not have current plans to fund exam centres for children who are home educated, but all funding is kept under careful review. Local authorities do have some flexibility to support children and young people who are home educated.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of (a) compliance with fire regulations by providers of small paying guest accommodation and (b) the numbers of fire assessors to ensure that compliance.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) is the main piece of fire safety legislation that applies to all non-domestic premises in England and Wales. The FSO places a legal duty on Responsible Persons (RPs) to undertake a fire risk assessment and put in place a suitable set of fire safety precautions to ensure the safety of those who use the premises.

Fire and Rescue Authorities are the main enforcement body for the FSO. Each FRA is required to deliver an independent annual risk-based inspection programme to check the compliance of premises in their area.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of provisions in the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill on the work of animal rescue charities.

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

The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill introduced by Selaine Saxby MP on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill completed second reading in the House of Commons on 15 March 2024.

In August 2021 we launched a consultation on the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. It was a wide-ranging consultation with excellent engagement with key stakeholders including animal rescue charities. We are carefully reviewing the feedback from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and the consultation response will be published soon.

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Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,

Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,

Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,

Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,

Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,

Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,

Found: Thomas Ben Lake To move the following Clause— “Implementation of section 81 of the Police,