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.

The requested information on asylum claims being accepted based on religious conversion is not 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 Home Office publishes data on initial decisions on asylum claims in table Asy_D02 of the 'Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release' on GOV.UK. The latest data relates to the year ending June 2025. Between July 2020 and June 2025, 165,551 people have been granted protection or other leave at initial decision. There is no breakdown by religion available.

All asylum claims are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the Immigration Rules. This means that religious conversions do not guarantee a grant of refugee status.

All asylum and human rights claims are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations, meaning religious conversions do not guarantee a grant of refugee status.

Home Office policy guidance provides a framework for considering asylum claims and assessing credibility. When assessing claims based on religious persecution, caseworkers are expected to ask appropriate and sensitive questions to explore a claimant’s personal experiences and journey to their new faith and gather evidence of current religious practice.

Our processes are underpinned by a robust quality assurance review process. Decision makers and quality assessors must adhere to the interview and decision marking standards, which are shared with caseworkers to improve understanding when receiving feedback.

We have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to help us to improve our policy guidance, training for asylum decision-makers, and to ensure we approach claims involving religious conversion in the appropriate way.

All asylum and human rights claims are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations, meaning religious conversions do not guarantee a grant of refugee status.

Home Office policy guidance provides a framework for considering asylum claims and assessing credibility. When assessing claims based on religious persecution, caseworkers are expected to ask appropriate and sensitive questions to explore a claimant’s personal experiences and journey to their new faith and gather evidence of current religious practice.

Our processes are underpinned by a robust quality assurance review process. Decision makers and quality assessors must adhere to the interview and decision marking standards, which are shared with caseworkers to improve understanding when receiving feedback.

We have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to help us to improve our policy guidance, training for asylum decision-makers, and to ensure we approach claims involving religious conversion in the appropriate way.

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.

This government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over this Parliament as set out in our Plan for Change. These will be high-quality, well-designed homes, supported by the necessary infrastructure, where people can thrive. In January, the Chancellor confirmed that the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor is a key economic priority for the country and we are working with local authorities across the region to help them do their part in planning for ambitious housing delivery.

Since 4 July 2024, the government has made 24 decisions on major infrastructure projects. 21 decisions were signed in the first year of this Parliament, which is more decisions in a single year than any previous government.

The Taskforce submitted its report to the government this summer, which includes its final recommendations on potential locations for new towns. The government will take a short period to carefully consider the Taskforce's recommendations and publish both the report and its response in due course.