Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department monitors the amount of food waste generated by its offices each month.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
Since October 2021, the management of HM Treasury's buildings has been the responsibility of the Government Property Agency (GPA). As a result, HM Treasury does not monitor the amount of food waste generated by its offices on a monthly basis, though does receive waste management information from the GPA each quarter quarterly basis.
Information on waste arising from HM Treasury's operations is published annually in the Department's Sustainability Report within the Annual Report and Accounts.
Annual Report and Accounts of HM Treasury 2025
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much his Department spent on activities relating to Pride Month 2026.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Pride occurs at different times throughout the year in various locations around the world. Across our global diplomatic network, missions collaborate with local partners to challenge discriminatory laws and policies that enable violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people, including - where appropriate - by using key moments such as Pride to raise awareness.
There is no central recording of expenditure since this activity is undertaken at the discretion of Heads of Mission, using budgets allocated to their Post. Engagement around Pride is often carried out in conjunction with international partners, including the Equal Rights Coalition and informal cross-mission 'Diplomats for Equality' groups.
As with many other employers, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is committed to supporting, valuing, and recognising the diversity of its staff regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. The FCDO's centrally recorded expenditure relating to London Pride 2026 was £490. Colleagues took part in the parade in their own time.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department holds records on how many (1) people or (2) organisations have been issued warnings about breaching hosepipe bans in the past ten years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not collect or hold information on individuals or organisations that may have breached these restrictions. Responsibility for monitoring compliance and taking any enforcement action rests with the relevant water company.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of overpayments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme have been recovered since 2020.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The final estimate of the error and fraud rate across the lifecycle of the three HMRC Covid-19 support schemes; Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and Eat Out to Help Out is between 3.3 per cent and 7.4 per cent, corresponding to a value between £3.3 billion and £7.3 billion, with a most likely estimate of £5.0 billion.
HMRC’s compliance effort on the COVID-19 schemes has prevented the payment of or recovered the overpayment of over £1.7 billion worth of grants, which is made up of £430 million prevented from being paid out and £1.3 billion recovered from overpayments.
Of the overall £1.3 billion recovered from overpayments, up to the end of March 2026 £928.94 million relates to CJRS recoveries.
Additional details on the methodology and approach to error and fraud within the schemes has been published previously and can be found here:
Error and fraud in the COVID-19 schemes: methodology and approach (an update for 2023) - GOV.UK
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent on activities relating to Pride Month 2026.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has not incurred any expenditure on activities related to Pride Month 2026.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support fire and rescue workers in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We’re investing nearly £100 million in the biggest upgrade of national resilience capabilities in nearly twenty years, part of which includes more specialist equipment and wildfire training for firefighters that can deploy nationally to support in wildfires across the country, including in Lincolnshire.
We also work closely with fire and rescue services to ensure they can prepare for and manage local risks. Decisions on how fire and rescue authorities use their resources and equipment to meet those risks are a matter for each fire and rescue authority.
Lincolnshire FRS is primarily funded by the Central Government and council tax precept via its parent authority, Lincolnshire County Council. In 2026/27 Lincolnshire County Council will have a core spending power of £813 million, an increase of 8.57% compared to 2025/26. Lincolnshire County Council is responsible for managing the allocation and use of these funds.
Fire and rescue workers play a vital role in keeping communities safe, and this government is committed to ensuring that fire and rescue services have a skilled, supported, and resilient workforce. We are taking forward reforms with partners to deliver on these objectives, including exploring changes to the role of the fire and rescue authority and service to support workforce development and aid productivity, and publishing a Concordat on Health and Wellbeing for firefighters in England and pursue improved health monitoring and research.
Fire and rescue authorities are the employers of fire and rescue service staff and are responsible for local workforce matters, including workforce wellbeing and employment arrangements.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure the Probation Service has adequate capacity to effectively manage the number of offenders being released on license from October 2026.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government recognises the pressures facing the Probation Service and is extremely grateful for the commitment and hard work of staff across probation in rising to the current challenges. We are committed to ensuring the Probation Service has the capacity it needs to manage offenders safely in the community, including those released on licence from October 2026.
We are investing up to £700 million in probation and community services by the final year of the spending review period to support the expansion of tagging, accommodation provision and increasing capacity. We have committed to onboarding at least 1,300 more trainee probation officers in 2026/27. This builds on the success of previous years’ campaigns with 1,057 trainees onboarded in 2024/25, and 1,389 in 2025/26.
The Sentencing Act 2026 introduced reforms designed to simplify the system and reduce pressure on the Probation Service. This includes enabling the early termination of eligible community order and suspended sentence supervision where individuals have successfully completed their sentence plan and all court-ordered requirements. The Act also removed the legislative requirement for Post-Sentence Supervision, reducing complexity and enabling resources to be focused more effectively. Additionally, we announced a new operational approach earlier this year to ensure resources are directed towards those offenders who pose the greatest risk of harm and those most likely to reoffend.
The Our Future Probation Service programme was created to address workload pressures and to balance the demand coming into the service with resources to meet that demand. Through a combination of service redesign, process simplification, policy reform and new technology, we are addressing the administrative burden on practitioners, streamlining services and targeting resources where they have the biggest impact. In doing this, we will enable practitioners to strengthen public protection, support long-term reductions in reoffending and give victims greater confidence and reassurance.
One example where new digital tools are already having a significant positive impact on practitioners’ administrative burden is Justice Transcribe. This is an AI-enabled service which converts meeting audio into accurate summaries in minutes, significantly reducing the time spent producing notes and records, enabling practitioners to focus more of their time on direct supervision and risk management.
These changes are intended to ensure the Probation Service is equipped to manage demand effectively while continuing to protect the public.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many new prisons have been granted planning permission since July 2024.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As set out in the December 2024 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, we are committed to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places and aim to do so by 2031; we have already delivered c.3,300 of these since taking office. Our prison build programme includes 6,500 new places through four new prisons, as well as new houseblocks at existing sites, which are already under construction, rapid deployment cells and refurbishments creating further additional cells.
The new prison next to the existing HMP Garth was granted outline planning permission on 3 December 2024. In addition, the new prison near the existing HMP Grendon received full planning permission on 31 October 2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether his Department monitors the amount of food waste generated by its offices each month.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Department receives quarterly waste data from the Government Property Agency, including information on waste sent for anaerobic digestion. Not all office locations have the infrastructure to separately measure food waste, and the Department does not routinely receive monthly food waste data for all offices. Where food waste data is available, it is reported through the Department's Greening Government Commitments return.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much her Department spent on activities relating to Pride Month 2026.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department spend for activities relating to Pride Month 2026 is zero pounds.