Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what are the average cost differences between smart water meter bills and flatline bills.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Customers can be charged for water and sewerage through either the rateable value (unmetered) or via metered volume. Smart meters automatically monitor water usage, enabling water companies and customers to receive more regular data on water consumption. Smart metering offers an opportunity for customers to save money on their bills through identifying water wastage through leaks. Whilst the impacts on bills depend on individual circumstances and customer billing plans, the 2024 Baringa report on smart water metering showed that moving from unmetered charging to a ‘dumb’ meter can reduce water consumption by 12–15% and transitioning directly to smart meters can lead to reductions of up to 17%.

Customers may wish to contact the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) for additional support and advice on getting a smart meter installed and the impacts this could have on their bills. Customers can use the CCW water meter calculator, to assess any potential bill savings they could make if they installed a smart water meter.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an estimate of the average cost difference between smart meter and flatline bills.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Smart meters help households to manage their energy use and reduce bills by enabling suppliers to bill them for their actual, rather than estimated, energy use.

Households with additional low carbon technology can also save on their energy bills by switching to tariffs that are enabled by smart meters with rates designed to incentivise flexible energy use. For example, an EV driver could potentially save £330 annually by smart charging overnight.

Households with heat pumps could also save over £250 annually by shifting to a smart tariff and using their heat pump flexibly to pre-heat their homes during cheaper periods.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are currently on the NHS Talking Therapy waiting list in the UK.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The latest published annual statistics for NHS Talking Therapies services in England for 2024/25 show that the mean average waiting time in days between the date the referral request was received and the date of first appointment, where the referral had a first attended appointment in the year, was 21.5 days.

As of 31 December 2025, there were 118,988 open referrals to NHS Talking Therapies services in England yet to have a first appointment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the average waiting time in 2025 for an NHS Talking Therapy appointment following referral.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The latest published annual statistics for NHS Talking Therapies services in England for 2024/25 show that the mean average waiting time in days between the date the referral request was received and the date of first appointment, where the referral had a first attended appointment in the year, was 21.5 days.

As of 31 December 2025, there were 118,988 open referrals to NHS Talking Therapies services in England yet to have a first appointment.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many residents have been charged interest on late payments to HMRC in each year since 2015.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set the processes by which the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme collects data from individuals.

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

Those registering under FIRS do so through a dedicated IT platform. Comprehensive guidance on the scheme has been published on gov.uk. This includes guidance on what data needs to be registered and what data will appear on the public register.

In addition, the Home Office has published a Privacy Information Notice setting out how data provided under the scheme is handled (https://foreign-influence-registration-scheme.service.gov.uk/Privacy).

This includes how personal information inputted into registrations will be collected and stored securely in accordance with Home Office guidance and data policies.

Airport drop-off charges

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank

New US sanctions on Cuba

Dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands

Naloxone

Found: Rupert Lowe (Independent; Great Yarmouth) Catherine McKinnell (Labour; Newcastle upon Tyne North) Sarah Olney

Found: Catherine McKinnell (Labour, Newcastle upon Tyne North) (added 27 Oct 2025) 14 of 24 (58.3%) Sarah Olney