Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of whether the receipts and expenditure method used to determine the rateable value of renewable energy generation assets, including hydroelectric schemes, supports the Government's clean power mission.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
At the Budget 2025, the Valuation Office announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.
The Valuation Office's statutory role is to determine a Rateable Value (a rental value) of every non-domestic property in England and Wales. In assessing the value, the Valuation Office will take into account all the inherent qualities of the property and the existing legislation at the valuation date. The Valuation Office adopts a range of professionally recognised valuation methods to do this, including Receipts & Expenditure and market rental evidence.
The Government makes use of a range of levers to deliver on our ambitious plan to decarbonise our electricity system and support energy infrastructure. This includes the Contracts for Difference scheme, which some hydroelectric schemes are eligible for, where the Government delivered the most successful renewables auction in history last year by contracting a record-breaking 8.4 gigawatts of offshore wind. The Government is committed to working with the private sector to radically increase investment in the clean energy sector to accelerate deployment of onshore wind, solar power, and offshore wind.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Loan Charge cases remain open with HMRC for the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
As of March 2025, HM Revenue and Customs estimates that approximately 32,000 individuals and 5,000 employers have liabilities that have not been paid in full and are therefore considered to be in scope of the review. Some taxpayers will have more than one liability.
The Government commissioned an independent review of the loan charge to bring the matter to a close for those who have not settled and paid their loan charge liabilities. The Government accepted all but one of the independent review’s recommendations and in some cases is going further. Around a third of people will have their liabilities written off entirely. Most will see reductions in their liabilities of at least 50%.
The legislation for the Loan Charge Settlement Scheme came into force on the 05 August 2026, HMRC is now writing to customers inviting them to settle under the new settlement scheme.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria will be used to select areas for the Community Power Pilots.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan
We will publish more information on Community Power Pilots, including the places we will be working with and the criteria that will be used, in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what measures will be used to assess the effectiveness of the Community Right to Buy Fund in sustaining community assets at risk of closure; and whether the Department will publish regular data on the number and location of assets acquired through the Fund.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan
The newly announced Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund, backed by £61 million, will help communities buy and run the buildings and spaces they value most, including pubs, shops, community centres, sports facilities and cultural venues.
The Fund will be a targeted and strategic offer, designed to support the new Community Right to Buy and focusing on communities in the most deprived areas. The funding is part of the £301m earmarked to support our high streets and community spaces, and builds on our wider package of investment in communities including the £5.8 billion Pride in Place Programme.
The details of this Fund, including timelines, eligibility criteria and monitoring and evaluation will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how the Community Right to Buy Fund will interact with the wider Pride in Place programme and associated high street funding streams.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan
The newly announced Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund, backed by £61 million, will help communities buy and run the buildings and spaces they value most, including pubs, shops, community centres, sports facilities and cultural venues.
The Fund will be a targeted and strategic offer, designed to support the new Community Right to Buy and focusing on communities in the most deprived areas. The funding is part of the £301m earmarked to support our high streets and community spaces, and builds on our wider package of investment in communities including the £5.8 billion Pride in Place Programme.
The details of this Fund, including timelines, eligibility criteria and monitoring and evaluation will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria will be used to identify areas with historically low levels of investment for the purposes of allocating Community Right to Buy Fund support.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan
The newly announced Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund, backed by £61 million, will help communities buy and run the buildings and spaces they value most, including pubs, shops, community centres, sports facilities and cultural venues.
The Fund will be a targeted and strategic offer, designed to support the new Community Right to Buy and focusing on communities in the most deprived areas. The funding is part of the £301m earmarked to support our high streets and community spaces, and builds on our wider package of investment in communities including the £5.8 billion Pride in Place Programme.
The details of this Fund, including timelines, eligibility criteria and monitoring and evaluation will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the Community Right to Buy Fund will open for applications; and what the timetable is for allocating the £61 million announced on 16 June 2026.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan
The newly announced Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund, backed by £61 million, will help communities buy and run the buildings and spaces they value most, including pubs, shops, community centres, sports facilities and cultural venues.
The Fund will be a targeted and strategic offer, designed to support the new Community Right to Buy and focusing on communities in the most deprived areas. The funding is part of the £301m earmarked to support our high streets and community spaces, and builds on our wider package of investment in communities including the £5.8 billion Pride in Place Programme.
The details of this Fund, including timelines, eligibility criteria and monitoring and evaluation will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress her Department has made towards launching the proposed consultation on the licensing of animal rescue and sanctuary organisations; and what the expected timeframe is for that consultation.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government committed in the Animal Welfare Strategy to launch a consultation on the potential licensing of domestic rescue and rehoming organisations. This will seek views from all those with an interest in this important sector. This Government is already engaging with stakeholders to inform future rescue and rehoming policy and the consultation will follow in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency expects Barrow driving test centre to reach its full staffing capacity; and when that centre was last operating at full capacity.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Following the recent qualification of a new driving examiner (DE), there are now three full time equivalent DEs conducting tests at Barrow-in- Furness driving test centre (DTC).
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is satisfied that the current number of DEs at Barrow-in-Furness DTC is sufficient to service demand. A full-time DE can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.
There are currently no further plans to recruit additional DEs at this centre. However, DVSA continually reviews its recruitment needs to ensure the agency maintains the right level of resource to meet customer demand.
The average waiting time (based on the national average waiting time metric of when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available) for Barrow-In-Furness, in May 2026, was 12 weeks. The national average was 21.8 weeks
As of 15 June 2026, there are 522 car practical driving tests booked and 389 available at Barrow-In-Furness.
Asked by: Michelle Scrogham (Labour - Barrow and Furness)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to establish national accountability for improving brain cancer outcomes, including the development of a time sensitive clinical trials pipeline; and whether he plans to introduce ring fenced funding to support delivery in that area.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The National Cancer Plan, published on the 4 February 2026, sets out several commitments and ambitions, to be delivered within the next 10 years. The role of the reformed National Cancer Board will be to support and monitor the delivery of the commitments and ambitions and provide regular updates to ministers.
To hold us accountable across these commitments, and to drive forward progress for rare cancer patients, we will appoint a National Clinical Lead for Rare Cancers, who will bring accountability, to oversee performance against the rare cancers commitments in the plan, including for brain cancer. They will sit on the reformed National Cancer Board and will play an important advisory role in supporting and monitoring delivery of the commitments set out in the National Cancer Plan. This role is separate to the National Specialty Lead for Rare Cancers appointed under the Rare Cancers Act 2026, which will be based in the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Research Delivery Network and will support research delivery for rare cancers.
The Department invests over £1.8 billion each year on research through the NIHR. Cancer is a major area of NIHR spending at £141.6 million in 2024/25, reflecting its high priority.
We are committed to furthering our investment in brain cancer research and have already taken steps to stimulate scientific progress and build scientific capacity to do research on brain cancer. For example, in December 2025 an initial NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium award of £13.7 million was confirmed. In January 2026, the NIHR announced further investment of a minimum of £11.7 million in the Consortium through the funding of work packages. This brings the Consortium funding to over £25 million over its lifespan.
It is not the usual process of the NIHR to ringfence funds for research into specific conditions. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including brain cancer. Our approach to funding research is through open and fair competition and peer review to ensure that the highest-quality proposals, most likely to deliver real impact for patients, are funded without imposing financial targets or limits.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with brain cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials, and innovative, lifesaving treatments through the NIHR.
As set out in the Life Sciences Sector Plan and reinforced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, the Department is committed to cutting the current time it takes to get a clinical trial set up, to under 150 days, with the aim of increasing access to patients and making the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical trials. The Life Sciences Sector Plan and the 10-Year Health Plan for England are available at the following two links respectively:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-sciences-sector-plan
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future
Data published in April 2026 shows that the median average set-up time for commercial interventional trials in the first six months of 2025/26 was 122 days, down from 169 days in the same period last year.