Baroness Maclean of Redditch

Determining the cumulative administrative costs of regulation that businesses face, has not been done for 15 years. That’s why we are undertaking a baselining exercise to understand the administrative costs of regulation to all businesses, including SMEs. We have considered different analytical options and looked to identify the most proportionate methodology to calculate the baseline for costs.

We are working across government to identify savings to deliver this ambitious target and we will set out our more detail in due course.

We are working across government and with regulators to meet our ambitious target to reduce the administrative burden of regulation to business by 25%. As a down payment on this work, we announced reforms as part of the Industrial Strategy that will contribute. This included harnessing the potential of new technology to make compliance with money laundering regulations simpler using digital identity verification checks and removing requirements and increasing the permissible size for air source heat pumps. We will continue to work with business and stakeholders to identify further administrative savings. We will set out more detail in due course.

We have committed to reduce bureaucracy for businesses by cutting the administrative costs of regulation for businesses by 25% by the end of this Parliament. We are working with taking a whole of government approach toward achieving this by asking all government departments to work with us to meet this ambitious target.

Every asylum claim admitted to the UK asylum system, including those based on religion or belief, is determined on its individual merits in accordance with our international obligations so that we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin. This is regardless of where or how a person may have entered the UK, or how they might be accommodated while in the UK.

People may become refugees ‘sur place’ due to activities they engage in or beliefs they have come to hold since leaving their country. As with all asylum claims, claims involving sur place activity are carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. This is also the process for further submissions lodged on protection grounds by failed asylum seekers.

We engage with stakeholders, including faith leaders, to ensure asylum claims based on religious persecution, including those based on religious conversion, are well considered, that those in genuine need are supported, and that there are no loopholes to claiming asylum in this country.

Every asylum claim admitted to the UK asylum system, including those based on religion or belief, is determined on its individual merits in accordance with our international obligations so that we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin. This is regardless of where or how a person may have entered the UK, or how they might be accommodated while in the UK.

People may become refugees ‘sur place’ due to activities they engage in or beliefs they have come to hold since leaving their country. As with all asylum claims, claims involving sur place activity are carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. This is also the process for further submissions lodged on protection grounds by failed asylum seekers.

We engage with stakeholders, including faith leaders, to ensure asylum claims based on religious persecution, including those based on religious conversion, are well considered, that those in genuine need are supported, and that there are no loopholes to claiming asylum in this country.

Every asylum claim admitted to the UK asylum system, including those based on religion or belief, is determined on its individual merits in accordance with our international obligations so that we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin. This is regardless of where or how a person may have entered the UK, or how they might be accommodated while in the UK.

People may become refugees ‘sur place’ due to activities they engage in or beliefs they have come to hold since leaving their country. As with all asylum claims, claims involving sur place activity are carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. This is also the process for further submissions lodged on protection grounds by failed asylum seekers.

We engage with stakeholders, including faith leaders, to ensure asylum claims based on religious persecution, including those based on religious conversion, are well considered, that those in genuine need are supported, and that there are no loopholes to claiming asylum in this country.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release on GOV.UK.

Data on the number of grants where sexual orientation forms part of the claim is published in table SOC_00. The latest data relates to 2023. In 2023, 2,133 claims were granted where sexual orientation formed part of the basis for the asylum claim. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.

Not all these individuals will necessarily have been granted protection on the basis of their sexual orientation. Similarly, other asylum seekers may be granted protection without referencing their sexual orientation in their claims and therefore would not be included in these figures.

Updated published data from 2023 onwards is currently unavailable due to ongoing work as immigration data transitions to a new case working system and it will be included in a future edition of the Immigration System Statistics Release.

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.

We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.

My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.

The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.

We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.

My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.

The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.

We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.

My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.

No new homes in Cambridge are currently blocked due to water scarcity issues. Our work with the Water Scarcity Group has unblocked over 9,000 homes and over 500,000sqm of commercial space, and in December 2024, the Environment Agency lifted its objections to remaining blocked development following improvements to Cambridge Water’s Water Resource Management Plan and progress made by the Water Scarcity Group.

The Government is continuing to progress work to deliver water savings and develop a water credits scheme, to ensure that development between now and 2032 (when new water resources are delivered) can proceed. Further details will be announced in due course.

We want exemplary development to be the norm and not the exception – this is the focus of teams across the Department. MHCLG’s design and placemaking policy team is comprised of 13 civil servants, including five staff who were redeployed from the Office for Place. The team is working across the Department to embed good design within housing and planning policy, and we will be publishing updated national design guidance later this year.

An additional five staff from the Office for Place were redeployed onto housing delivery to support efforts to improve the quality of new development. We can confirm that all staff who were working directly on Office for Place activities were transferred to MHCLG or their home departments. The Office for Place annual report and accounts are available on gov.uk here.