Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has here department made of the adequacy of safeguards governing the release of motorists’ personal data by the DVLA to private parking companies; and what steps she is taking to ensure that data belonging to motorists who have not committed an offence is not shared inappropriately and deleted within a timely manner.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The law allows the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to release vehicle keeper details in certain limited circumstances, subject to appropriate safeguards. Organisations receiving this data must comply with their obligations under data protection law.
Where a private parking management company makes electronic requests for vehicle keeper data, the data is provided subject to strict contractual terms. Data may only be used the purposes set out in the contract and must be deleted once no longer needed.
All private parking companies are audited to help ensure that the information is requested and used appropriately. The safeguards in place to protect personal data are kept under review to ensure they continue to provide appropriate protection.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the compliance costs incurred by businesses to meet Making Tax Digital requirements to date for which the latest data is available.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC’s published assessment of the potential impact of MTD for Income Tax on taxpayers joining from April 2026 is available at:
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much public money has been spent to date on the development and roll-out of Making Tax Digital; and what the projected total cost is for completing the programme.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Originally announced at Budget 2015, Making Tax Digital (MTD) supports UK businesses to transact digitally. It encourages timely and accurate record keeping, reducing the part of the tax gap caused by taxpayer error and failure to take reasonable care.
The most recent Accounting Officer’s Assessment was published on 4 June 2025 and estimated a public sector lifecycle cost of £1.4 billion for the MTD programme. This assessment also estimated an overall lifecycle monetised benefit of £6.2 billion. These are considerable benefits, providing vital funding for public services, which are expected to continue beyond the 5-year window assessed in the business case.
MTD will also generate significant non-monetisable benefits, including through modernising HMRC’s critical national IT infrastructure for the VAT and ITSA regimes.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on support for the life sciences sector.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Life Sciences Sector Plan, published in July 2025, launched a ten year programme to cement the UK’s position as a global life sciences leader. The Secretary of State is in regular contact with Cabinet colleagues, and we have strengthened the Office for Life Sciences as a trilateral unit across DSIT, DHSC and DBT, bringing together health, industrial strategy and innovation, and appointed an Executive Chair, Steve Bates, to provide leadership and accountability.
This collaborative approach is delivering, with the UK securing multibillion pound private investment, building new research infrastructure, scaling manufacturing, streamlining regulation, strengthening clinical trials and driving medical breakthroughs.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if his Department will consider the potential merits of including electricity-intensive food and drink manufacturers, such as distillers, in the scope of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recently closed a consultation on eligibility for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) where businesses were invited to share their views on the proposed methodology and an indicative list of eligible sectors. Decisions on eligibility will now be taken to ensure the scheme is properly geared towards boosting growth in the economy; through attracting investment in Industrial Strategy frontier manufacturing sectors and foundational manufacturing industries that supply key inputs to the Industrial Strategy frontier sectors.
The Industrial Strategy frontier and foundational sectors were selected following the Government’s consultation of the Modern Industrial Strategy in the autumn of 2024.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on guidance to schools on children who are questioning their gender.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Department engaged with the EHRC as a part of wider stakeholder engagement to inform our policy on gender questioning children. Guidance has now been published for consultation within Keeping children safe in education. Our guidance to schools and colleges is pragmatic and balanced, with the wellbeing of children at its heart, and is clear that no child should be able to access toilets, changing rooms, or boarding or residential accommodation for the opposite sex.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department taking to support off-grid households to report (a) significant cost increases and (b) cancelled orders of domestic oil.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is closely monitoring heating oil supply and price in light of the instability in the Middle East. We are engaging daily with industry to understand the drivers of recent price movements and order cancelations. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to heating oil distributors today to remind them of their commitments under the UKIFDA Code of Practice, including the need for fair, transparent and justifiable pricing. Ministers have also spoken with the Competition and Markets Authority, who are aware of the issue and are considering the options available to them should concerns arise around unfair practices or anti-competitive behaviour.
Off‑grid households continue to benefit from broader Government support, including energy bill reductions announced in the Autumn Budget and the Warm Home Discount, which provides eligible households with £150 off their energy bills until 2030/31.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill on the intelligence services.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Bill will apply to all public authorities, including the intelligence services. At Second Reading of the Bill, the Prime Minister was clear that the duty of candour would need to apply in a particular way to the intelligence services to get the right balance. We are clear that nothing should undermine our national security.
We are continuing to work closely with families, stakeholders and the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee to bring forward amendments that achieve this balance. We will update the House in due course.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is HM Revenue and Customs' average time for processing income tax rebate claims.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC recognise that repayments are important for customers. They prioritise them and work hard to ensure they are processed as quickly and securely as possible.
HMRC balance the provision of prompt payments to eligible customers with effective revenue protection from fraudsters.
They continue to invest in automation and to review their internal processes to ensure repayments are issued as quickly as possible.
HMRC also understands the importance of keeping the customer, and where appropriate the customer’s representative informed of progress, and are exploring ways of doing that more effectively.
In the meantime, HMRC’s online ‘Where’s My Reply’ tool can help customers understand when they can expect to receive a response.
HMRC does not produce one overall average processing time across all Income Tax repayment routes, because timings differ depending on the repayment type and checks required.
HMRC does not hold a single consolidated measure of outstanding Income Tax repayment claims across all channels, and producing a comprehensive breakdown by the age bands requested would require manual collation from multiple systems. Gathering this data would exceed the cost threshold for answering parliamentary questions.
The majority of Income tax repayment claims are for PAYE and Self Assessment (SA) customers. There are several triggers for PAYE and SA repayments, but for those which involve the customer submitting a claim, these are treated as priority post. HMRC have an agreed and published service standard to clear 80% of priority post within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s correspondence performance has improved from 68.2% in April 2025 to 87.8% in November 2025. They publish regular updates on their performance at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of HM Revenue and Customs' processes for ensuring income tax rebate claims are processed on time; and what steps she has taken to reduce the backlog of unprocessed income tax rebate claims.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC recognise that repayments are important for customers. They prioritise them and work hard to ensure they are processed as quickly and securely as possible.
HMRC balance the provision of prompt payments to eligible customers with effective revenue protection from fraudsters.
They continue to invest in automation and to review their internal processes to ensure repayments are issued as quickly as possible.
HMRC also understands the importance of keeping the customer, and where appropriate the customer’s representative informed of progress, and are exploring ways of doing that more effectively.
In the meantime, HMRC’s online ‘Where’s My Reply’ tool can help customers understand when they can expect to receive a response.
HMRC does not produce one overall average processing time across all Income Tax repayment routes, because timings differ depending on the repayment type and checks required.
HMRC does not hold a single consolidated measure of outstanding Income Tax repayment claims across all channels, and producing a comprehensive breakdown by the age bands requested would require manual collation from multiple systems. Gathering this data would exceed the cost threshold for answering parliamentary questions.
The majority of Income tax repayment claims are for PAYE and Self Assessment (SA) customers. There are several triggers for PAYE and SA repayments, but for those which involve the customer submitting a claim, these are treated as priority post. HMRC have an agreed and published service standard to clear 80% of priority post within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s correspondence performance has improved from 68.2% in April 2025 to 87.8% in November 2025. They publish regular updates on their performance at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates