Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with the National Leasehold Campaign.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG Ministers and officials engage regularly with a range of stakeholders in respect of leasehold and commonhold reform, including the National Leasehold Campaign.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to publish the draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill before the end of the 2024-26 parliamentary session.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer given to Question UIN 102833 on 12 January 2026.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Plotland sites will be included within the draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Members to the answer given to Question UIN 102833 on 12 January 2026.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer on 8 December 2025 to Question 96643, whether she has any plans to require pensioners who received the state pension as their only income and consequently inherit part of (a) the basic state pension, (b) the additional state pension and (c) the new state pension following the death of their spouse or civil partner to pay income tax.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As set out in my reply to Question 96643, the Chancellor has said that those whose only income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments will not have to pay income tax over this Parliament. At the Budget, the Government announced that it will achieve this by easing the administrative burden for pensioners so that they do not have to pay small amounts of tax via Simple Assessment from 2027/28. The Government will set out more detail in due course.Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer on 8 December 2025 to Question 96643, whether she has any plans to require pensioners who receive both the basic state pension and the additional state pension as their only income to pay income tax.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As set out in my reply to Question 96643, the Chancellor has said that those whose only income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments will not have to pay income tax over this Parliament. At the Budget, the Government announced that it will achieve this by easing the administrative burden for pensioners so that they do not have to pay small amounts of tax via Simple Assessment from 2027/28. The Government will set out more detail in due course.Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with his USA counterpart under the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future on mutual recognition of UK and US cryptoasset firms, aligned disclosure standards, and ensuring that decentralised protocols are not regulated as financial infrastructure.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future was established by HM Treasury and the US Treasury on 22 September.
Its purpose is to bring the world’s leading financial centres together to develop concrete policy options and recommendations on further financial market innovation, with a particular focus on digital assets and capital markets. Innovation in these industries will be central to the government’s mission for economic growth.
Further details can be found here: Boosting collaboration between UK and US financial systems to drive innovation and growth in global markets - GOV.UK
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to use the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future to deepen engagement with United States’ regulators following the finalisation of the GENIUS Act, to support regulatory alignment on cross border stablecoins.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future was established by HM Treasury and the US Treasury on 22 September.
Its purpose is to bring the world’s leading financial centres together to develop concrete policy options and recommendations on further financial market innovation, with a particular focus on digital assets and capital markets. Innovation in these industries will be central to the government’s mission for economic growth.
Further details can be found here: Boosting collaboration between UK and US financial systems to drive innovation and growth in global markets - GOV.UK
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future is being used to develop a joint UK-US approach to tokenisation, including cross-border access to tokenised securities and aligned rules for capital, disclosure and decentralised wallets.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future was established by HM Treasury and the US Treasury on 22 September.
Its purpose is to bring the world’s leading financial centres together to develop concrete policy options and recommendations on further financial market innovation, with a particular focus on digital assets and capital markets. Innovation in these industries will be central to the government’s mission for economic growth.
Further details can be found here: Boosting collaboration between UK and US financial systems to drive innovation and growth in global markets - GOV.UK
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2025 to Question 61158, whether she plans to publish the statutory instrument on open banking in the first quarter of 2026.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The National Payments Vision, published in November, set out the government’s ambitious plans for the next phase of Open Banking, building on the UK’s leadership in this area. This includes steps towards delivering seamless, Open Banking enabled, account-to-account payments.
The government intends to use powers in the ‘Data (Use and Access) Act’ to put in place a long-term regulatory framework for Open Banking and is working at pace to deliver this.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Oral Statement on 11 November 2025 entitled Pensions, if he will publish the research findings from the Department's 2007 evaluation on the effectiveness of automatic pension forecast letters.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Report no.447 “Evaluation of Automatic State Pension Forecasts” is publicly available and can be accessed at:
As confirmed in the Written Statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 11 November, a copy of DWP Research Report no.447 “Evaluation of Automatic State Pension Forecasts” has also been deposited in the Libraries of the House.