Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the role of desalination plants in mitigating the consequences of drought.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Climate change, population growth and economic development mean we must act now to secure resilient long-term water supplies, while protecting and improving the environment.

The Government is taking a diverse and coordinated approach, combining demand reduction, environmental protection and new infrastructure, including the potential role that desalination could play in future water supply systems.

Alongside desalination plants, wider plans include new reservoirs, water recycling and water transfer schemes.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, will she take steps to ensure energy companies provide automatic refunds to customers in a timely manner.

Answered by Polly Billington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government, through its review of Ofgem and its consultation on faster and fairer redress for consumers, has set out reforms to strengthen the regulator as a consumer champion, including stronger powers to enforce consumer law directly and help ensure customers receive what they are owed.

The Government expects energy suppliers to refund customers promptly where money is owed. Ofgem already requires automatic compensation in specific cases, including late final bills and late credit balance refunds.

The Government will continue supporting Ofgem’s review of Guaranteed Standards of Performance (GSOP) payments including proposals for inflation-linked compensation and repeat payments for prolonged serious failures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will consider the merits of making one-to-one mentoring a statutory right for children in care & care leavers.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department recognises the value of mentoring in helping young people build supportive relationships, confidence, self-belief and the skills needed for education, employment and later life.

Mentoring for children in care and care leavers is supported through departmental initiatives such as the Family Finding, Befriending and Mentoring programme, which helps young people develop relationships and build key skills.

Looked-after children attract pupil premium plus funding. This funding supports evidence-based interventions to improve educational attainment and wider educational outcomes, including one-to-one tutoring, enrichment activities and mentoring.

Under the Children Act 1989, looked-after children are entitled to an independent visitor, who provides friendship, support and opportunities to develop skills and trusted relationships.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has also announced £10 million for creative mentoring for care-experienced young people, providing one-to-one support from creative practitioners.

The department continues to keep the role of mentoring, including any legislative implications, under review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the frequency of cases where incomes are being incorrectly inflated in child maintenance payment calculations.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

For most cases, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) uses income information provided directly by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and benefit data held by the Department to calculate child maintenance liabilities, helping to ensure assessments are based on verified income information. Where a parent believes that the income used in a calculation does not accurately reflect the paying parent's financial circumstances, they may request a review of the calculation and, in certain circumstances, apply for a variation. Cases involving suspected misrepresentation or inaccurate income information may be referred to the Financial Investigation Unit, which has powers to investigate and obtain information from financial institutions where appropriate.

The CMS is delivering a Modernisation Programme to improve customer access, efficiency and transparency. This includes integrated online application services, the My Child Maintenance Case (MCMC) service, which provides customers with online access to case information and payment schedules, and Customer Connect, which enables secure online communication between parents and caseworkers. Telephone and assisted digital support remain available for customers who need additional assistance.

The programme has also introduced improved digital communications and enhanced data sharing to support faster and more accurate maintenance calculations as well as predictive analytics to help identify cases at risk of non-compliance.

The Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with HMRC and maintains a range of controls and assurance processes to support the accuracy of child maintenance calculations.

CMS conducts accuracy checks on a sample of maintenance calculations it makes. Although it gathers data on incorrect calculations through these checks and customer driven reviews, the CMS does not compile data in a reportable format on cases where a child maintenance calculation was subsequently found to have been set too high because of an incorrect income.

To extract this data would require significant manual intervention, as each case would need to be individually reviewed to determine whether an error had occurred due to incorrect income, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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 her Department made of long-term water supply resilience in a.) Stevenage and b.) the East of England.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Water companies published their statutory Water Resources Management Plans between late 2024 and early 2025. These plans assess future water supply and demand over a 25-year period. Defra, the Environment Agency and Ofwat reviewed the plans for Stevenage (served by Affinity Water) and the East of England (served by Anglian Water, Cambridge Water, and Essex & Suffolk Water). Water companies are also required to provide annual updates, setting out any significant changes to forecasts, assumptions, or proposed actions since publication of their plans.

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 she made of the financial pressures on councils caused by the levels of and interest on the debt they owe to the Treasury.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Under the current system, local authorities are responsible for their own borrowing and investment decisions and must ensure that all borrowing is prudent, affordable and sustainable within their overall budgets.

The government is making good on long overdue promises to fundamentally update the way we fund local authorities. We are delivering fairer funding, targeting money where it is needed most through the first multi-year Settlement in a decade.

The final 2026-27 Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26. By the end of the multi-year Settlement (2028-29), the government will have provided a 15.5% increase in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England, worth over £11.4 billion, compared to 2025-26.

The majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the level of costs of insurance for newly qualified and young drivers whose cars are equipped with black boxes.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department has not made a specific assessment on the impact of the cost of insurance for young drivers on the number of uninsured driving convictions.

The Department has not made a specific estimate on the cost of insurance for young drivers with these devices fitted to their cars. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market. Some insurers have introduced telematics or in-car black boxes to allow better risk-based pricing of insurance, especially for new or young drivers. It can help reduce insurance premiums if drivers show good driving behaviour.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the impact of the cost of insurance for young drivers on the number of uninsured driving convictions.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department has not made a specific assessment on the impact of the cost of insurance for young drivers on the number of uninsured driving convictions.

The Department has not made a specific estimate on the cost of insurance for young drivers with these devices fitted to their cars. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market. Some insurers have introduced telematics or in-car black boxes to allow better risk-based pricing of insurance, especially for new or young drivers. It can help reduce insurance premiums if drivers show good driving behaviour.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to increase the recycling of grey water.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government recognises the benefits of greywater reuse in homes and is taking steps to support its use for domestic purposes. We have committed to reforming how greywater is used in homes through the Clean Water Bill, including an assessment of water savings, cost benefit analysis and management of systems.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 10 September 2026 to Question 27029 on Motor Insurance: Young People, whether she has considered the potential merits of capping insurance costs for young drivers and young drivers with black boxes installed in their vehicles.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

My department has not made an assessment on the potential merits of capping insurance costs for young drivers, neither have we considered capping insurance costs for young drivers with black boxes installed in their vehicles.

I refer my Honourable Friend to my answer to his previous question on this matter (PQ 27029). As set out there, the setting of motor insurance premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to introduce a Right to Be Forgotten Model to ensure that people with historic cancer diagnoses do not have to declare these when applying for travel insurance.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that consumers can access suitable travel insurance products. Insurers make commercial decisions about the terms on which they offer cover following an assessment of the relevant risks, including, where appropriate, a customer's medical history. The Government does not generally intervene in these commercial underwriting decisions.

However, the Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules. The FCA also requires travel insurers to signpost consumers with pre-existing medical conditions to specialist providers where they are declined cover, offered cover with an exclusion, or charged a significantly higher premium.

The Government does not currently have any plans to introduce a “Right To Be Forgotten” model at this time.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of restrictions on the sale of electric scooters.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)

The department has not made an assessment of restricting the sale of electric scooters. Currently, E-scooters may be sold lawfully so long as their intended use is permitted, for example where they are to be used on private land with a landowner’s permission. However, retailers must provide consumers with material information about products, including making clear the restrictions on where privately owned e-scooters may legally be used. Omitting material information when selling a product may be a breach of consumer protection legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of delays in fitting electronic tags on released offenders; and if he will consider the potential merits of immediate tagging upon release.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Electronic Monitoring field and monitoring provider has consistently met equipment installation visit requirements since January 2026. August and September performance remain subject to usual operational assurance checks. Tagging prisoners before they leave prison has been successfully trialled in six prisons and is being rolled out nationally starting later this year.