Paul Holmes

Copies of the Commission’s responses referenced in the Minister’s answer to Question 124679 have been placed in the Library.

Payments linked to party conferences are considered sponsorship, where one of the purposes of the payment could reasonably be seen to be to help with the costs of the conference. Sponsorship is a type of political donation with permissibility and reporting requirements. Electoral law makes no distinction between commercial and non-commercial sponsorship.

The Commission has prepared updated guidance on sponsorship. It has recently shared the draft update with the Westminster Parliamentary Parties’ Panel for comment, ahead of publishing the guidance in due course.

As part of its work to support the regulated community, the Commission met the Labour Housing Group in May 2026 to discuss its status as a members’ association and its political finance obligations.

The Electoral Commission takes electoral fraud seriously. It works to tackle electoral fraud and ensure safeguards are in place across the electoral community. This includes providing advice and guidance to electoral administrators, parties, campaigners and the police in elections, and running a public awareness campaign on electoral fraud ahead of every election. The Commission publishes yearly data from police services on allegations of electoral fraud, and runs research into public opinion on electoral fraud, to inform its response. The Commission does not have a direct role in investigating allegations of electoral fraud, so beyond the data above, has not made such an assessment.

A person must be resident at the address at which they want to be registered. Residence has a particular meaning in electoral law and is not equivalent to residence for other purposes such as income or council tax purposes. Normally, a person is resident at an address for electoral purposes if it is their permanent home address.

When making a determination on someone’s residence, Electoral Registration Officers will need to consider the circumstances of the applicant, including the purpose they are present at a particular address.

The Commission’s guidance for Electoral Registration Officers sets out eligibility requirements. The Commission provides this guidance for EROs in England, Scotland and Wales.

It is a long-standing convention that the fact that the Law Officers have advised or have not advised and the content of their advice must not be disclosed outside Government without their authority. This is known as the Law Officers’ Convention, is provided for in paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May, and applies to your question.

The UK government’s prompt payment policy aims to support UK economic growth and suppliers, including small and medium sized enterprises.

The Procurement Act 2023 mandates 30 day payment terms into all public contracts. Where the Affordable Homes Programme is covered by the Act, these terms are included automatically if not explicitly stated. Additionally, public sector buyers must ensure that this payment term is passed down their supply chain.

The Government has now launched a public consultation on the digital ID where we want to hear as wide a range of views as possible.

The scope of the digital ID system is still in development and we are inviting the public to have their say in the consultation as we develop a useful, inclusive and trusted system.

Through this consultation we are asking the public what age they think is appropriate to have digital ID.

The Prime Minister can allocate official residences gifted to the Government to support Ministers in their official duties. This has been the case under decades of successive governments.

An update on any new allocations will be provided in due course.

The Prime Minister raised a range of domestic and foreign issues in his meeting with President Xi at the G20 on 18 November. A read-out of this meeting is available on the GOV.UK website.

Ministerial meetings with external organisations will be published in the usual way on gov.uk as part of the government’s transparency agenda.

Government recently consulted on increasing minimum energy efficiency standards in the domestic private rented sector, including proposals for rented homes to achieve Energy Performance Certificate C or equivalent by 2030. We have engaged with landlord and tenant groups in developing this policy and set out several proposals to help landlords reach the new standard. Our proposed changes should not require landlords to increase rents. Instead, they will help tenants cut their energy bills by delivering more energy efficient homes.

The consultation has now closed and we are analysing responses and reviewing evidence on the potential impact of these proposals. A government response will be published in due course.

The government is not neutral about where things are made. We want to see jobs created and supply chains developed here in the UK.

As part of the growth and clean energy superpower missions, the Government is committed to growing the UK’s supply chains and supporting good jobs throughout the country. The Clean Industry Bonus aims to drive investment into sustainable supply chains, particularly in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities. In addition, the Government has set out a package of support for offshore wind supply chains worth up to £1 billion, including £300 million from Great British Energy to provide upfront public investment, £400 million from The Crown Estate, to support new infrastructure, including ports, manufacturing, and research and testing facilities, and £300 million being developed by the offshore wind industry, to deliver new investments into supply chains such as advanced turbines technologies and foundations.

The Government is committed to implementing all remaining provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022 as soon as possible. These measures will help deliver the benefits of advanced digital connectivity.

Most provisions have been implemented. Those remaining are complex and technical. We must ensure they are implemented carefully, to create certainty and avoid post-implementation delays. The Department has policy and legal resources dedicated to deliver these. A technical consultation on draft regulations to implement sections 61 to 64, including transitional provisions, is open until 2 July.

The Government is committed to implementing all remaining provisions of the Product Security and Telecommunications Act 2022 as soon as possible. These measures will help deliver the benefits of advanced digital connectivity.

Most provisions have been implemented. Those remaining are complex and technical. We must ensure they are implemented carefully, to create certainty and avoid post-implementation delays. The Department has policy and legal resources dedicated to deliver these. A technical consultation on draft regulations to implement sections 61 to 64, including transitional provisions, is open until 2 July.

Legal cases relating to telecommunications installations can commence in either the County Court or the Lands Tribunal. The Department does not have comprehensive data, but is aware of an increase in applications to the courts relating to telecommunications infrastructure installation since 2017. Applications can cover a range of different situations. We do not know how many relate specifically to 5G masts. Most applications do not proceed to a full hearing, but are resolved consensually.

Sections 58,59 and 61 – 64 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 have some limited retrospective effects. Other provisions are not considered retrospective.

The distinguished jumping spider (Attulus distinguendus) is found on the northern section of Swanscombe Peninsula, Kent, which is one of only two locations in the UK where it can be found, the other being Thurrock Marshes. Its prevalence is extremely low, and it is a critically endangered species due to habitat loss.

The government has no plans to amend regulations to allow for the conversion of military Air Traffic Controller licences to civil Air Traffic Controller licences.

The government currently has no plans to amend regulations to allow for the recognition of non-UK Air Traffic Controller licences.

The Department recognises that the recent increase in the volume of MP enquiries, alongside a rise in the complexity of cases requiring more detailed investigation, has contributed to delays in meeting our standard response timescales.

To address this, the Department has taken a number of steps to improve the timeliness and efficiency of responses to MP enquiries:

• Additional resource has been deployed to our complaints and correspondence teams, with ongoing monitoring of the impact on response times.
• The Universal Credit MP hotline service has been streamlined through the introduction of a single national contact number, improving accessibility and consistency.
• Guidance on the W4MP website has been updated to ensure MP offices have clear visibility of the appropriate contact numbers for each benefit product line.
• Recruitment is underway for additional Universal Credit complaint handlers to support efforts to reduce the volume of outstanding enquiries and improve response times.

The Department has not engaged with their Australian counterparts on negotiating a new reciprocal social security agreement.

Ministers at the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as other departments, are engaging through the interministerial group supporting the cross-Government homelessness strategy, A National Plan to End Homelessness, including discussions to mitigate the health risks faced by children in temporary accommodation. The plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-national-plan-to-end-homelessness

The Department is considering the recommendations set out in the recently published Child Mortality in Temporary Accommodation Report, and taking forward actions, some of which are already in policy development, such as introducing a clinical code for children in temporary accommodation, ensuring these families are proactively contacted by health services and ending the practice of discharging newborn babies into bed and breakfasts or other unsuitable shared accommodation. The report is available at the following link:

https://sharedhealthfoundation.org.uk/publications/child-mortality-in-temporary-accommodation-report/

The Department does not hold formal data on child mortality in temporary accommodation.

We will publish an interim update on the Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care shortly. The final MSF will be published this autumn.

The MSF will provide a clinically-led, evidence-based framework to support sustained improvement in patient and carer outcomes, including reducing both inequality and unwarranted variation. Areas of action will be identified for those commissioning and delivering services, with associated performance and outcome metrics to support system accountability. The MSF will seek to embed palliative care and end-of-life care within a strategic commissioning model that is centred on population need.

We have been engaging with a range of stakeholders, from approximately 70 organisations, to inform the MSF’s development, including the Ambitions Partnership. We are also undertaking engagement with integrated care systems through National Health Service regional teams. We have also been working closely with teams leading on the other MSFs, to ensure that they align with each other.

Following the publication of the interim update, Department and NHS England officials will continue to engage closely with stakeholders on the development of the final MSF.

There is no current requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to publish either the evidence base, modelling assumptions, or workforce capacity assessments used to determine commissioned elective activity levels against projected population demand.

National Health Service funding for local services, including elective activity, is allocated to ICBs using NHS England’s Fair Share model and the NHS resource allocation formula.

Medium Term Planning Framework has set clear expectations for improvements in access, levels of performance, and financial discipline. In 2026/27, every NHS trust must deliver a minimum 7% improvement in 18-week performance or be at a minimum of 65%, whichever is greater, to deliver national performance target of 70%. In line with this expectation, NHS England has engaged with systems on the development, assurance, and sign-off of ICB and NHS trust plans to ensure delivery of this ambition alongside the others set out in the planning framework.

Commissioners must comply with duties placed on them under the Equality Act 2010 regarding the public sector equality duty and the duty to reduce health inequalities, and to secure public involvement and consultation in the planning, development, and decisions about commissioning arrangements.

NHS England has published guidance to support commissioning decisions and the impact on service users forms a key part of the assurance process. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/planning-assuring-and-delivering-service-change-for-patients/

The Government will consider long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks (MSFs), including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future MSFs will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.

NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore innovation and policy prioritisation in respiratory health, including the cross‑Government alignment that may be required.