Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
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 potential merits of capping the cost of care homes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and to commission a range of high-quality, sustainable care support services to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services.
Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that private care homes can charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.
The Government is supporting local authorities by making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26. This includes over £1 billion for the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF), with one of the three target areas local authorities can spend their allocations on being to improve fee rates to providers.
In a letter I sent out to Council Leaders in January 2025, I set out the expectation that in 2025/26, when commissioning services, local authorities should ensure fee levels for care and support services take account of the actual costs of care in their area, including inflationary and all other pressures, such as the rise in National Living Wage and the changes to employers National Insurance Contributions.
As part of our monitoring of the MSIF grant conditions and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department including data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest being available at the following link:
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to consult on new fiscal incentives to support younger people into home ownership.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has no plans to consult on new fiscal incentives to support younger people into home ownership.
The affordability challenges facing prospective first-time buyers mean that too many people are now locked out of home ownership.
In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, the government will be launching a new mortgage guarantee scheme in July 2025. Further details can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement of 11 June (HCWS694).
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC applies import duties to mastectomy bras.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK’s tariff schedule, known as the UK Global Tariff (UKGT), adheres to global classification standards. Those classify mastectomy bras under a commodity code that covers a range of other textiles.
We continue to monitor the UKGT to ensure our Most Favoured Nation tariff schedule functions as effectively as possible, supports domestic priorities, and provides a stable operating environment for businesses.
Businesses are welcome to request the partial or full liberalisation of the import duty applied to the products under this commodity code, including mastectomy bras, either through the online feedback form or the next business suspensions window.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if her Department will make an assessment of trends in the relationship between home ownership levels among under-45s and historic tax support for mortgage holders.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has no plans to consult on new fiscal incentives to support younger people into home ownership.
The affordability challenges facing prospective first-time buyers mean that too many people are now locked out of home ownership.
In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, the government will be launching a new mortgage guarantee scheme in July 2025. Further details can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement of 11 June (HCWS694).
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a progress report on the (a) delivery of specialist school places and (b) other outcomes by all local authorities that entered into safety valve agreements.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.
The department provides local authorities with annual High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) to support them to meet this duty.
Local authorities with Safety Valve agreements have previously received additional high needs capital funding where they were able to demonstrate that investment in local infrastructure would result in the availability of more appropriate provision and subsequent revenue savings.
This additional capital funding was paid to local authorities as a top-up to their HNPCA funding, and local authorities are responsible for prioritising this funding to create places and address local issues. The department continues to work with local authorities with Safety Valve agreements to deliver their plans.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Tax-Free Childcare scheme in reducing childcare costs for working families.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) has been designed with the specific policy aim of supporting parents to return to paid work or work more. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the Government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child up to age 11 and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they are 16.
TFC covers a wide range of parents who may not be covered by other offers, and take-up has steadily increased since its introduction in 2017. During the 2024 to 2025 financial year, the government provided top-ups to approximately 826,000 families for 1,085,000 children, an increase of almost 100,000 families from the previous year.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Safety Valve Agreement signed with Surrey County Council in 2021, whether her Department has disbursed the full funding allocated to support the delivery of three new SEND schools in Surrey.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Funding for free school projects is provided at different stages of project development, in line with key delivery milestones.
The department provides capital funding for the acquisition of sites, land and construction. For centrally delivered free school projects, a contractor is appointed from the department’s framework and construction costs are paid directly by the department.
The department recognises the financial pressures on local authorities in providing suitable specialist places and will continue to support Surrey Council to implement its Safety Valve agreement.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of historical mortgage tax relief schemes in supporting access to home ownership.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government must ensure the tax system supports strong public finances whilst targeting support where it is most needed. Mortgage interest relief, which was a historical feature of the UK tax system that was abolished in 2000, benefitted lower income individuals less when compared to higher income groups or not at all. It also provides little support to tenants who rent as there is no guarantee that these relieved costs are passed on.
The Government is supporting home ownership through other means. This includes launching a permanent, UK-wide mortgage guarantee scheme to ensure the consistent availability of mortgages for buyers with small deposits.
We know that increasing housing supply is the long-term answer to making home ownership more accessible. The Government has already introduced ambitious reforms to the planning system, judged by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to boost housebuilding to its highest level in 40 years. Through Phase 2 of the Spending Review, the Government is going further to deliver on its Plan for Change commitment of building 1.5 million homes this parliament, including by catalysing additional private investment to further boost housebuilding by confirming £4.8bn in financial transactions from 2026/27 to 2029/30.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential use of disused school buildings to increase SEND specialist school capacity in (a) Surrey and (b) Hampshire.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.
The department provides local authorities with capital funding to support them to meet this duty and has published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.
Of this £740 million, Surrey has been allocated £16.1 million. Hampshire has been allocated £22.8 million.
This funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs. This includes utilising spare capacity in mainstream schools where appropriate.
When considering options for the reutilisation of space, local factors should be carefully weighed up, along with considerations of quality, diversity, and accessibility of local provision and the forecast demand for places, to determine the most appropriate approach in each area.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment she has made of whether funding allocated to upper-tier authorities adequately reflects (a) inflationary pressures in social care, (b) the increasing cost of regulatory compliance and (c) the additional costs expected from recent immigration and employment policy changes.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to transforming adult social care and making tangible improvements in the short-term. The Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion available for adult social care in 2028-29 compared to 2025-26. This includes an increase to the NHS’s minimum contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund, in line with DHSC's Spending Review settlement.
The Department works closely with local government and other government departments to understand specific demand and cost pressures facing local government on an ongoing basis. This involves looking at a range of cost and demand data, as well as regular engagement with local authorities.