Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Treasury has estimated the economic cost of outages on hyperscale cloud providers, and whether such risks are factored into national digital resilience planning.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government monitors systemic risks to UK critical national infrastructure, including resilience measures and contingency planning, including cloud providers.
The Government recognises the importance of robust protections for the services essential to our society and economy. That is why we introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill on 12 November. The Bill will make sure more types of essential and digital services adhere to robust cyber security practices.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what actions she will take to address restrictive software licensing practices by dominant cloud providers, as identified by the CMA, to ensure fair competition in the cloud services market.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting a competitive and innovative digital economy. This is why we prioritised the commencement of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (the CMA) new powers in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and any decisions on which markets it investigates is for their Board.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the systemic risks posed to the UK economy and critical services by reliance on two dominant hyperscale cloud providers, following recent outages on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) continues to monitor systemic risks to UK critical national infrastructure from reliance on cloud providers, including resilience measures and contingency planning following recent service outages. DSIT works closely with each cloud provider during and after any incident to ensure improved resilience and lessons learnt are shared across Government. For example, following earlier global digital resilience incidents, we are working to strengthen our capability to coordinate this kind of incident across Government.
Government recommends that public sector organisations adopt a multi-region approach, in which they make controlled, considered use of regions in a way which is compatible with UK law. This helps improve resilience by removing the reliance on any one region.
DSIT will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which sets out a clear approach for Government and the public sector to manage cyber security and resilience incidents impacting Government services.
Government also recognises the importance of robust protections for the services essential to our society and economy – that is why we introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill on 12 November.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to ensure greater competition, interoperability, and diversity in the UK cloud market, in light of successive large-scale outages from Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In July, the Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA) recommended their board prioritise a future Strategic Market Status investigation into competition in the cloud market. The CMA is independent of Government and any decisions on which markets it investigates is for their Board.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Competition and Markets Authority accelerates the Digital Markets Unit strategic market status designation process for cloud services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA) has completed 3 Strategic Market Status investigations this year. The CMA is independent of the Government and decisions on which markets to investigate is for their Board. The CMA has published guidance on its website on how it will prioritise Strategic Market Status designations.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will confirm that holiday lets will have the same Energy Performance Certificate requirements as (a) Hotels and (b) bed and breakfasts.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Hotels in the UK require an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when they are being sold, leased, or constructed. For short-term holiday lets, an EPC is required if the property is rented for a total of four months or more in a 12-month period.
In December 2024, the government consulted on introducing a requirement for short-term rental properties to have a valid EPC at the point of being let, regardless of who is responsible for the energy costs. A response to this consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
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 issue guidance on the proportion of new build homes that must be fully accessible to (a) people with limited mobility and (b) wheelchair users.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 53184 on 27 May 2025.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect chalk streams.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fixing the systemic issues in the water system is essential to address the multiple pressures facing chalk streams. Chalk streams are embedded in our plan to reform the water industry. The Government has announced an ambitious programme of reforms to clean up our rivers, lakes, and seas for good.
We are tackling one of the biggest impacts on chalk streams by reducing the risk of harmful abstraction by an estimated 126 million litres daily by 2030, through the amendment of water company abstraction licences, protecting vital water flows to these fragile ecosystems.
We are rebuilding the entire water network through one of the largest infrastructure projects in this country’s history with a record £104 billion investment to upgrade crumbling pipes and cut sewage spills, which will help to protect chalk streams.
Our protections through the Water (Special Measures) Act will ensure chalk streams are preserved for future generations.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Child Maintenance Service is taking to support paying parents with intermittent long-term disabilities.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring it delivers a safe service which is sensitive to the needs of all customers that use it.
In line with the Equality Act 2010, DWP staff from all areas of the department have a legal duty to make sure every customer can access our services. This means ensuring they have access to the appropriate channel of communication to suit their needs. The CMS completes Equality Impact Assessments on all changes which covers all protected characteristics.
Through the Service Modernisation Programme, we are ensuring customers have a greater choice of how they communicate with us and access our service. The CMS has made significant improvements to customer communications, through more use of SMS text and email, and a full review of its letters making them easier for customer to understand. The online digital service 'Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance ' through GOV.UK is open to any parent who needs unbiased advice and support to make an arrangement. My Child Maintenance Case (MCMC) offers customers the ability to update their information and request changes, is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Although online communication is the preferred option CMS fully recognise digital is not suitable for all customers. For those customers who have to contact us by telephone steps have been taken to update the service through efficient call routing. We have freed up resources to deliver a more responsive service which allows caseworkers more time to better assist customers who need to reach out to us via telephone. The CMS telephony opening hours are regularly reviewed based on the demand requirements, CMS have extended their telephony service to 6pm on weekdays to meet this demand.
The Customer Experience Strategy equips caseworkers with the tools, skills and support to respond quickly and effectively if we become aware the mental health and wellbeing of any customer is at risk. Caseworkers have received extensive training and follow a well-managed process with clear steps, support tools and procedures to support vulnerable customers. This includes the National District Provision Toolkit and Affordability Hub which provides invaluable information to allow caseworkers to signpost to national and local support organisations for debt help and mental health assistance across the UK.
The maintenance calculation is designed to be affordable for paying parents and is based on their personal income. It uses income information from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to quickly set up new cases and allows us to capture a wide range of income types, including income from property, savings and investments (including dividends) and other miscellaneous income. A flat rate of £7.00 per week protects those paying parents on the lowest incomes, for example, those claiming disability benefits. We also take into account if there is a 25% different than the income figure held, the assessment can be updated to reflect the paying parents most up to date income information.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to ensure parity in the pension contributions made by employers.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Pensions Act 2008 sets out the legal minimum requirements for workplace pension contributions under automatic enrolment (AE). The total minimum level of contributions required is 8% of an eligible employee’s qualifying earnings, of which at least 3% must come from the employer.
Although the Pensions Act 2008 sets these statutory minimums, some employers may choose to pay contributions at a higher rate.
The Government have recently revived the Pensions Commission which will consider the broader questions of adequacy, fairness, and sustainability to guide the long-term future of our pensions system.