Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to introduce measures to help tackle (a) profit shifting and (b) other corporation tax avoidance methods used by multinational corporations.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK is tackling profit shifting and multinational tax avoidance through measures including Corporate Interest Restriction, Country by Country Reporting, and the Global Minimum Tax. The most recent Finance Bill, introduced by this Government, put legislation in place to ensure the Global Minimum Tax operates effectively.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to (a) continue to fund the Music and Dance Scheme and (b) ensure that all Centres for Advanced Training continue to operate.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department will inform Music and Dance Scheme providers about funding for the 2025/26 academic year following the conclusion of the spending review in the spring.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will have discussions with the Nursing and Midwifery Council on the potential merits of reducing or removing the annual registration fee for nurses.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. The UK's model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government. All registered health and social care professions in the UK pay an annual registration fee to their regulatory body. Being funded by registrant fees enables the NMC to maintain its independence, allowing it to take action if it identifies risks to patient safety or the public’s confidence in the profession.
The Government expects the NMC to run its operations efficiently and keep registration fees as low as possible in order to limit the financial impact on registrants. The Government has no current plans to discuss with the NMC the potential merits of reducing or removing the annual registration fee for nurses.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing Council Housing tenants to sell their property to buyers other than their Local Authority if they are still within the 10 year purchase period.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Former council tenants who have purchased their home under the Right to Buy scheme but wish to resell or dispose of it within a 10 year period, must first offer the property for sale at the full market value to either the former landlord or to another social landlord in the area. This is known as the right of first refusal. The market value must be agreed between the parties or, if they are unable to agree, will be determined by the District Valuer. If an offer has not been accepted within 8 weeks, the tenant is free to sell the property to anyone on the open market. The government has no plans to change existing policy on the right of first refusal.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support families with children suffering from Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Commissioning pathways for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) are locally determined by integrated care boards. All eating disorder teams should work collaboratively with other children and young people’s community teams to address co-occurring conditions as needed.
NHS England recognises the importance of patient-centre care, tailored to meet the needs of children and young people with varied presentations, including ARFID, and the children and young people’s eating disorder guidance is currently being updated to reflect this. The intention is for the updated guidance to increase the focus on early identification of and intervention in eating disorders including ARFID and to highlight the importance of a truly integrated approach which takes account of the needs of the patient, their family and/or carers.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to make it an offence for non-electric vehicles to park in an electric vehicle charging space.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Parking enforcement on local highways is a local authority matter. Local authorities can use traffic regulation orders to designate and enforce electric vehicle (EV) only bays. For private land, enforcement falls to the landowner.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is taking steps to reduce private car ownership and improve the connectivity of public transport.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government recognises the importance of improving public transport to ensure that people have greater choice around how they travel and has recently confirmed its commitment to phasing out new cars that rely solely on internal combustion engines from 2030.
The Government have set out an ambitious programme of reform to help improve bus services and grow usage across the country. The Bus Services (No.2) Bill, introduced on 17 December, puts power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them. In the Autumn Budget, the Government also confirmed investment of over £1 billion to support and improve bus services and keep bus fares affordable.
The Government have also set out plans to create a unified and simplified railway that places train operations under public ownership and control, putting passengers first and rebuilding trust. The Railways Bill, which will be introduced later this session, will enable the biggest overhaul of the rail sector in a generation. Alongside this, the Prime Minister has announced more funding to deliver the largest rail investment in the North in decades.
As part of our commitment to local transport, we have uplifted City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement funding in 2025-26 by £200m, helping to improve the local transport in our largest city regions and drive growth and productivity across the country. This brings local transport spending for Metro Mayors in 2025-26 to £1.3bn. Also at the Autumn Budget, we allocated over £650m funding for local transport outside of our city regions to improve connectivity and support local growth in our smaller cities, towns, villages and rural areas in England outside London.
The Integrated National Transport Strategy will be published later this year and will focus on how transport should be designed, built, and operated to better serve the people who use it, connecting people to housing, jobs and public services.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that independent community pharmacies have adequate funding to sustain their (a) businesses and (b) services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that pharmacies are an integral part of the fabric of our communities. They provide an easily accessible ‘front door’ to the National Health Service, staffed by highly trained and skilled healthcare professionals.
We have now concluded the consultation on funding for 2024/25 and 2025/26, and have agreed with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) to increase the community pharmacy contractual framework to £3.073 billion. CPE represents all pharmacy contractors in England, including independent community pharmacies. This deal represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the NHS, at over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a first step in delivering stability for the future and a commitment to rebuilding the sector.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of implementing stronger regulation for e-bikes, including full registration and insurance requirements.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has no intention of requiring cyclists, including those who ride Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles, to be registered or to have insurance. This would require a national registration scheme for all cycles which would be complex and expensive to design and administer. It would also be likely to lead to a reduction in the number of people cycling, which would have negative health and environmental consequences. The Government believes that insurance for cycling should remain a matter of personal choice. Cyclists who are not insured are liable for the consequences of their actions should these result in injury or damages to others.
Those who ride e-mopeds, or forms of e-cycle that do not comply in full with the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations 1983, are already required to have insurance and licence plates. Enforcement of these rules is a matter for the police, who have the power to seize illegal e-cycles and to fine individuals who fail to stop when instructed to do so.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the timelines for grant disbursement to ensure that AI startups have the cash flow they need to grow.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to building an AI sector that can scale and win globally The AI Action Plan sets out how we will support the growth ambitions of businesses across the AI sector.
Innovate UK awards the majority of DSIT’s business-facing R&D grants. Between 2022 and 2025 Innovate UK have achieved a 37.6% improvement on the time taken between grant competition close and grant offer letter approval. The point from which funding competitions close to applicants being notified of a funding decision has reduced from more than 62 days, to around 46 days on average, with Innovate UK continuing to explore how it can deliver further improvements.