Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many applications have waited longer than the 12-week timeframe that the Building Safety Regulator says it will take to complete its process in the last 12 months.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has reported that 930 Gateway 2 applications decided in the last 12 months (between 24 October 2024 and 23 October 2025) took longer than 12 weeks to reach a decision.

The BSR is already making operational and policy changes to speed up decision making, particularly on building control approval, including through the introduction of an Innovation Unit and batching process. Early signs are positive with all applications in the Innovation Unit so far on track to exceed or meet the 12-week SLA target.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the Building Safety Regulator works within its intended timeframes to process applications.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

We recognise there have been operational challenges within the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), which is why we announced a series of reforms to strengthen it in June. Improvements to ensure applications are processed within the intended timeframes are already underway. These include:

• An Innovation Unit which assembles multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) in house to accelerate the processing of new build applications. The Innovation Unit is already demonstrating progress, with the majority of applications currently meeting or exceeding the 12-week service level agreement (SLA).
• A new ‘batching’ process for allowing applications from the same developer or organisation to be grouped. This consolidates the multi-disciplinary teams used to review applications into one organisation, significantly reducing processing delays while retaining BSR as the regulatory lead;

• Freeing up Class 3 Registered Building Inspectors to focus on new builds and remediation by enabling Class 2 Registered Building Inspectors to take on reviews of less complex building work;

• Improved communication with applicants, recruiting 100 additional staff, and greater use of staged and approvals with requirements to allow construction to begin safely.

The BSR previously committed to improving operations by December, with faster processing of new build applications and decisions on most of the existing new-build caseload. To increase transparency and accountability, the BSR published performance data on 16 October and will continue to do so on a monthly basis to track progress against this commitment.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department will announce the pilot areas for Respect Orders.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

In February, we introduced new Respect Orders through our Crime and Policing Bill. The Bill recently completed Second Reading in the House of Lords, with Committee Stage expected to begin in November.

Respect Orders will be tough behavioural orders aimed at tackling the most persistent adult anti-social behaviour offenders. Further details on next steps for the Respect Order will be provided in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help raise awareness of the reintroduction of maintenance grants.

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

This government is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to attend higher education (HE). We must, therefore, reform the HE system to better support disadvantaged students. That is why we announced, on 29 September 2025, that we will introduce new targeted means-tested maintenance grants for students from low-income households studying courses aligned with our missions and the Industrial Strategy, funded by a levy on income from international student fees.

We reiterated this commitment in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper on the 20 October 2025, which sets out our ambition for a world leading and financially sustainable HE sector that delivers value for students, widens participation, drives local and national growth and supplies the skills our labour market needs.

We will set out further details on targeted maintenance grants at the Autumn Budget.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to publish new guidance on the Crisis and Resilience Fund.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We plan to publish guidance for the Crisis and Resilience Fund in January 2026. Provisional allocations will be published as part of the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, ahead of the scheme going live in April 2026.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to require short-term holiday lets to (a) provide a fire extinguisher and (b) meet the same minimum fire safety standards as other rental accommodation.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Article 13 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requiresthose responsible for fire safety in their premises to, where necessary, ensure it is equipped with appropriate fire-fighting equipment.

We published guidance for short term lets in April 2023 titled A Guide to making your small paying-guest-accommodation safe from fire which expands on this requirement and states the following:

In the event of a fire, evacuating the premises is the safest thing to do and guests should not be expected to use firefighting equipment. If you have staff on the premises, or if they regularly visit the premises, firefighting equipment should be provided, and staff should be trained on how to use the equipment. You should make sure that the instructions on how to use any firefighting equipment are clear, that there is a warning that evacuation is preferable, and that staff should not put themselves at risk or tackle anything other than a very small fire. In self-catering accommodation, although guests are not expected to use fire-fighting equipment, you may wish to provide a small fire extinguisher and/or fire blanket in the kitchen area.

We also published an update in 2024, which provides more detail on application of the Fire Safety Order to short term lets and expected fire safety standards in such premises.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure representatives of the People’s Republic of China employed in the (a) UK embassy, (b) consulate and (c) Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London do not engage in (i) supranational suppression and (ii) intimidation tactics against Hong Kongers now living in the UK.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The safety and security of Hong Kongers in the UK is of the upmost importance. The UK will always stand up for the rights of the people of Hong Kong.

We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and take protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously. Any attempt by any foreign state, including China, to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK will not be tolerated.

Wherever we identify such threats, we will use any and all measures, including through our world-class intelligence services, to mitigate the risk to individuals.

The UK’s response to tackling state-directed threats is world leading. The National Security Act 2023 ensures that the appropriate tools and system-wide safeguards are in place to robustly counter state threats.

Guidance can be found on GOV.UK providing those who believe themselves to be at-risk of TNR with practical advice for their safety both physically and online.