Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the response of 20 April 2026 to question 126112, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Service Pupil Premium in meeting the additional needs of pupils who are the children of service personnel.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to WPQ 125951 submitted on the 30th March, what the new cost per minute of call is under the rates agreed for the period between 1 April 2025 to 31 May 2027.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Justice on protecting maternity safety campaigners from Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that coronial complaints procedures are independent and transparent; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of measures in place to prevent conflicts of interest within that process.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Coroners are independent judges, but operational responsibility for coroner services lies with the lead local authorities which fund and administer of each of the 74 coroner areas in England and Wales. Whist the framework of accountability in the coronial jurisdiction is therefore complex, it is nevertheless robust and transparent.
Complaints about the standard of service provided in the context of a coroner’s investigation should be raised in the first instance with the coroner’s office and/or with the funding local authority. If the complainant remains dissatisfied, the matter can be reported to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (https://www.lgo.org.uk/make-a-complaint), which aims to provide a remedy to complaints through impartial and fair investigation.
The Ombudsman cannot investigate a coroner’s decisions as an independent judge. However, these can be challenged through the judicial review process or, in some circumstances, by applying to the Attorney General for leave to apply to the High Court for a fresh inquest.
Complaints about the personal conduct of coroners should be made to the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (https://www.complaints.judicialconduct.gov.uk/).
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his department has made of the adequacy of Capita’s progress towards meeting the June 2026 deadline for clearing the Civil Service Pension Scheme backlog; and whether his Department has contingency plans.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in receiving their pension quotes are unacceptable. I want to reassure you that this Government has taken firm action to help put things right as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. For priority cases, we have deployed additional resources and improved communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve.
Existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been enhanced and strengthened to deliver improved performance and higher penalties for failure, including financial penalties. These have already been applied in respect to Capita's performance with recent issues and delays in administering the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Capita prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. The same position was reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March.
Capita has made lump sum payments to 9,873 members, the majority of whom have retired but are not yet receiving their pension, and are on track to bring these members into regular pension payments by the end of April.
To provide immediate financial support to those who may need it, including those who have been dismissed with compensation, arrangements are in place for interest-free bridging loans typically up to £5,000 or £10,000 in exceptional cases to most recent retirees facing payment delays. This is alongside interim lump sum payments being made to provide immediate funds to retiring members. The pension scheme continues to make monthly pension payments to approximately 730,000 existing pensioner members on time.
The Cabinet Office has mandated Capita that they must restore service levels by the end of June 2026. We are using every commercial lever at our disposal, including withholding payments for deliverables that have not been met. We also reserve the right to take further formal action to ensure the service returns to the required standards.
The latest position of the Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan Update is available at this weblink: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-pension-recovery-plan-updates
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Department's Research and analysis paper entitled Removing the two-child limit on Universal Credit, whether the calculation that the removal of the two-child limit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty has taken in to account how many of those households will now be impacted by the benefit cap.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ Policy Simulation Model (PSM) was used to model the impact of the removal of the two-child limit on Universal Credit. The PSM uses household characteristics, caseload forecasts and benefit rules to estimate policy impacts for each year, currently up to and including FYE 2031.
It is estimated that there will be 450,000 fewer children in relative poverty after housing costs in the final year of parliament (FYE 2030) as a result of the removal of the two-child limit within Universal Credit, compared to baseline projections. This estimate takes full account of the benefit cap, which is modelled in both the baseline and policy projections.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of ADI part 2 and ADI part 3 tests in Oxfordshire.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is aware that demand for approved driving instructor (ADI) part 2 and part 3 tests is high in some areas across the country and recognises the time constraints this may place on trainee driving instructors.
As ADI examiners are deployed across multiple test centres, understanding when and where candidates wish to take tests helps DVSA deploy examiner resource appropriately. Consequently, DVSA does not publish waiting times for ADI tests. DVSA has recruited, and continues to recruit, additional ADI examiners and has increased its capacity to train new examiners.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her planned timetable is for publishing her Department's full response to the Biodiversity Net Gain consultation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 15 April 2026 we published the Government response to the summer 2025 consultations: BNG for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) and Improving BNG implementation for minor, medium and brownfield development.
On the same date we launched a new consultation on an additional targeted exemption for residential brownfield development, which closes on 10 June 2026.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000, what recent assessment she has made of the future viability of (a) parent funded school transport schemes and (b) spare seat schemes.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR) set minimum accessibility requirements for buses and coaches, designed to carry over twenty-two passengers and used on local or scheduled services. They support millions of disabled people, including young people and children, to make the journeys important in their lives.
PSVAR have applied to certain home-to-school (HTS) services for 25 years. In response to widespread non-compliance in the sector, including HTS services where spare capacity is sold, the government issued exemptions to enable these essential services to continue operating whilst operators procured compliant coaches. The current Medium-Term Exemptions (MTE) for HTS and rail replacement coach services expire on 31st July.
In 2023 the previous Government began a review of PSVAR, including inviting feedback from local authority commissioners, providers and users of transport services, through a Call for Evidence, with a view to understanding the extent to which the Regulations remained appropriate and continued to serve disabled passengers. We continue to work with partners to understand the best way forward and we will announce our proposed next steps on PSVAR, including a decision on the future of the MTE scheme and its implications for HTS services, soon.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Hon Member for Chester North and Neston in the eight sitting of the Representation of the People Bill Committee, 16 April 2026, col 359, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of drafting and publishing a report assessing a range of options to support postal voting for overseas electors.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has not made a specific estimate of the cost of drafting and publishing such a report. As set out during the Representation of the People Bill Committee, the Government considers that the issues raised have already been extensively examined.
In the 2025 policy paper, Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections, the Government set out a package of measures intended to improve the resilience and responsiveness of the postal voting system overall. These measures include moving the postal vote application, and candidate nomination deadlines earlier in the electoral timetable. This will provide more time for the production, distribution and return of postal vote packs. These changes will benefit all administrators and voters, including those living overseas.