Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has taken place on the post covid trends in levels of concessionary bus travel among pensioners and disabled people; and its impact on health, loneliness and social isolation.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport’s concessionary travel statistics show that there were 624 million older and disabled concessionary bus journeys in England in the year ending March 2025, an increase of 4% compared with the year ending March 2024. While this is still below pre-COVID levels, concessionary bus journeys have been increasing year-on-year since the pandemic.
The Government recognises the importance of local bus services in keeping communities connected, including for concessionary bus passengers. The Government is taking action to help improve local bus services across the country. We have introduced the Bus Services Act 2025 to put the power over local bus services back into the hands of local leaders. The Act also includes measures to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of bus networks.
In addition, the Government has confirmed over £1 billion for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. Greater Manchester Combined Authority have been allocated £66.4 million of this funding. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services can be used in whichever way they wish to deliver better services for passengers, this could include expanding services and improving reliability, which are currently significant obstacles for too many people.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the impact of social media algorithms on levels of extremism in the UK.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Home Office invests resources in understanding extremism and radicalisation, including work with international partners and external academics. Through this we look closely at the impact of social media algorithms on levels of extremism in the UK, but it is difficult to prove empirically or universally. The Online Safety Act requires online platforms to consider, as part of their illegal content and child safety risk assessments, how their algorithms impact exposure to illegal content and content harmful to children.
The Government is closely monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of the OSA and remains committed to strengthening our laws if it does not deliver the necessary protections to ensure a safer online environment.
The Home Office is committed to countering extremism in all its forms where it divides communities and inflames tensions. Regardless of the worldview it draws from, if an ideology is causing harm by radicalising others into hatred, violence and extremism we will take action to prevent this and to safeguard susceptible individuals.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital wards are not in active use in England; and what the patient capacity is of those wards.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data for the occupancy and utilisation rates of clinical rooms in the NHS Estate for the latest period, which was 2023/24, published in December 2024, is available at the following link:
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the cost to taxpayers of additional household, bulky, and garden waste collection charges levied by local authorities in England from 2015 to date.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities have had the option to charge households for a garden waste and bulky waste collections since 1992, as per the Controlled Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2012.
From 31 March 2026, local authorities are required to provide a garden waste collection service, which meets the new requirements set out in amended section 45A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, to households where it is requested. As per the Controlled Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2012, they can continue to charge for garden waste services if they choose. Householders will be able to make their own decision about whether they wish to use this service or make other arrangements to dispose of their garden waste.
The previous Government consulted in 2021 on proposals to require waste collection authorities to introduce a free minimum garden waste collection service. However, as set out in the government’s response published in October 2023, the economic and environmental case is not strong enough to proceed with this proposal.
We believe that other Government policies, such as the requirement to collect food waste weekly, now offer higher carbon savings per pound spent than this policy. This includes the far higher savings associated with introducing weekly food waste collections
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many FTE civil servants there were across Government in England by region in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Information on the number of FTE civil servants by region is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics. This information can be found at Table 10 of each of the annual publications data tables available at the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics#annual-statistics
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many parliamentary passes were revoked for security reasons in each year since 2015.
Answered by Nick Smith
We are not able to provide the number of parliamentary passes that were revoked for security reasons in each year since 2015. The pass system is a live database with accounts being deleted routinely in line with the data retention schedule, records are therefore not available in the way requested over the period.
The Parliamentary Security Department (PSD) can revoke passes on security grounds. This may be because security clearance has been withdrawn, exclusion from the estate is necessary because of the risk to the wider parliamentary community, or because the passholder has exhibited unacceptable security behaviours. For the period that records are held, which is since 5 July 2024, PSD has fully revoked 10 passes on security grounds.
It is worth noting that PSD’s vetting unit also revokes passes at the request of the pass sponsors without requiring or recording a reason. The most common reason would be because the passholder has left employment requiring access to the estate, but if there were security reasons behind their request this may not be specified.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many events gambling companies held in the Houses of Parliament for each year from 2015 to date.
Answered by Nick Smith
This information is not held in a format that would provide a reliable answer.
The House of Commons does not maintain a category for “gambling companies” or “gambling-related events” within its event management systems. Event bookings are recorded under the name of the sponsoring Member and the organising body. Any link to an industry may not be obvious from the organiser name and events are also arranged on behalf of third parties such as industry groups, representative bodies, charities, or All-Party Parliamentary Groups.
Gambling activity is not permitted at events on the parliamentary estate. Only small charitable raffles, which comply with the House’s internal guidance and the relevant legislation, may take place.
Catering Events data is proactively published and available on the Parliament website: Commons Catering events booking data - UK Parliament.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the tax income from (a) domestic (b) commercial energy customer bills for each year from 2015 to date.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
VAT is chargeable at the reduced rate of 5% on domestic fuel and power. HMRC publishes estimates of the Exchequer cost of tax reliefs, see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs. The estimated cost of non-structural tax reliefs (December 2024) VAT table shows that the cost estimate for the Reduced Rate of VAT on supplies of domestic fuel and power in 2024-25 was £6,500 million. This represents the cost of the 5% Reduced Rate compared to the Standard Rate of 20%, a relief of 15%. The revenue received at the Reduced Rate may be estimated at 5/15ths of the figure of £6,500 million, or £2,200m (rounded). Figures for previous years are shown in the table.
Business consumers of energy may reclaim VAT on their purchases of energy subject to normal VAT deduction rules.
Climate Change Levy (CCL) is chargeable on the supply of electricity, gas and solid fuels for lighting, heating and power by business operating in the industrial, commercial, agricultural and public services sectors, with certain exclusions. Statistics on CCL receipts from 2014 are published here: Environmental Taxes Bulletin - GOV.UK
This Budget reduces the cost of levies on energy bills to save families £150 on average next year. Combined with the measures on freezing rail fares and freezing fuel duty these policies are forecast to directly cut inflation by over 0.4 percentage points next year, pushing down on mortgage rates and up on growth.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the drivers of food and non-alcoholic drink price inflation and what steps are being taken to tackle them.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government monitors food prices closely. As outlined in the UK Food Security Report (December 2024), food price drivers are complex: global commodity prices influence domestic markets through trade and are affected by energy, labour, manufacturing costs, harvest quality, and Sterling exchange rates.
On 19 November, our Secretary of State announced Defra’s collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade to launch a Food Inflation Gateway. This tool will assess the impact of new regulations on food businesses and prices, helping government coordinate and sequence policies to reduce costs, unlock investment, and apply downward pressure on prices.
Alongside this, the Department’s Food Strategy aims to ensure access to affordable, nutritious food and strengthen resilience against short-term supply shocks and long-term risks, reducing the likelihood of future price spikes and supporting fair, stable prices for households.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has been made of trends in the number of battery fires for electric personal mobility vehicles such as e-bikes and scooters for each year since 2020.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available on gov.uk here. This does not yet include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved batteries for electric mobility vehicles, such as electric bikes or electric scooters.
Our new Fire and Rescue Data Analysis Platform (FaRDAP) is being rolled out and work is ongoing to update the data it will collect covering both the questions and answer categories to capture lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, e-scooters and e-bikes, and more.
In addition, OPSS publishes data using information available from Fire and Rescue Services on fires involving e-bikes and e-scooters. Updated data now including figures for 2017-2024 was published in June this year on gov.uk here.
MHCLG is working closely with FRS and officials from other Government Departments to build an evidence base, share intelligence and develop mitigations to tackle the fire risks linked to lithium-ion batteries and PLEVs.