Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to his correspondence of 10 June 2025, if he will ask the Minister for Energy to meet with the hon. Member for the South Cotswolds.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

I have asked my office to contact the hon Member to find an appropriate date.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what conclusions he has come to about the potential risks of foreign investment in our utilities sector.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government takes the security and resilience of UK energy infrastructure extremely seriously with the UK being one of the most reliable and safest energy systems, and one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world. Maintaining a secure energy supply is a key priority for the UK Government.

We have a range of effective measures in place which give the Government powers to balance an open investment environment to facilitate growth with protecting the areas of our economy that are the most sensitive to national security.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent on SEND tribunal appeals in the last 12 months.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department paid His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service £13.471 million in 2024/25 to cover the operational costs of the SEND Tribunal, including administration, estates and salaries, for special educational needs appeals for children and young people aged 5 to 16.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to strengthen (a) national preparedness and (b) resilience for (i) public health and (ii) other national emergencies.

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

The Government published the Resilience Action Plan on 8 July 2025 to set out its resilience strategy. It set out three core objectives to improve the UK’s resilience to the full range of risks we face: (1) continually assess how resilient the UK is in order to target interventions and resources; (2) enable the whole of society to take action to improve their resilience; and (3) strengthen the core public resilience system. These goals inform a series of activities to deliver greater resilience across the whole of society, as set out in the Resilience Action Plan.

The plan includes a commitment to the delivery of the National Exercising Programme (NEP) to improve preparedness for national emergencies. This covers a range of whole-system risks, with the priority areas for testing informed by our assessment of cross-cutting and systemic vulnerabilities and capability gaps. The NEP sets out a timetable of annual Tier 1 exercises requiring a central response, cross-government coordination, and ministerial engagement.

We are delivering the UK Biological Security Strategy to strengthen preparedness for future pandemics, and to mitigate the risks of biological accidents and incidents. In Autumn 2025, ‘Exercise PEGASUS’ tested the United Kingdom’s pandemic preparedness, involving every Government Department, the devolved governments, and included arm’s length bodies, local resilience fora, and the engagement of businesses, academics, and external stakeholders.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has considered introducing an automatic payment option for clean air zone charges nationwide, similar to the system operating in London; and whether she will review the level of penalty charges for late or non-payment to ensure they are proportionate.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Autopay, where a driver could register their vehicle with the service and payment is taken automatically when that vehicle enters a Clean Air Zone, was considered as part of the CAZ digital service user research and design phases. This is not an existing feature of GOV.UK Pay.

Autopay was not taken forward at the time because it would have added significant cost and complexity to the service and would have delayed the point at which the service (and therefore the first CAZs) could go live. Penalty Charges for late payment are a matter for local authorities.

Postal workers and Royal Mail staff

Horton Cemetery

Tenth anniversary of Storm Desmond

Cumulative disruption proposals and the right to protest

25th Anniversary of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000

Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week 2025

Fly-tipping and illegal waste dumping by criminal gangs