Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been provided to Telford constituency in each of the last 6 financial years by a) her department b) the Arts Council.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its Arms Length Bodies record Exchequer funded grants data on the Government Grant Information System. The Government Grant Information System does not record grants by constituency or local authority level, however we have conducted a search based on postcodes and have identified the attached list of grants awarded to organisations within Telford since 2020 when central recording commenced. Information on grant giving can also be found at 360Giving (https://www.360giving.org/).
There will be instances where a grant has been given to an organisation with a postcode based outside of Telford but where the grant recipient will have spent some or all the grant within projects that included Telford. This analysis is not included as this information is not recorded on the Government Grant Information System.
Please note, information where a grant has been made to a voluntary sector organisation and that organisation has made onward grants in its own right is not included.
Funding provided by Arts Council England (ACE) to projects and organisations in the Telford constituency over the same period, is set out in the table.
Financial year | Total Funding from ACE |
2025/26 | £1,603,713 |
2024/25 | £1,469,913 |
2023/24 | £891,191 |
2022/23 | £1,431,560 |
2021/22 | £2,417,124 |
2020/21 | £5,404,439 |
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a policy to disregard VAT for the construction of budlings for the public benefit and services by charities.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government maintains a zero rate of VAT for the construction of new buildings that will be used solely for a relevant charitable purpose.
Information on the definition of a relevant charitable purpose for the purpose of the zero rate of VAT can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the contract tender will be published to construct the M54 M6 Link road.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The M54 to M6 Link Road was procured using the Regional Delivery Partnership framework, leading to a detailed design and build contract awarded by National Highways to Skanska Construction UK LTD on 23 October 2025. No future tendering exercises are scheduled on this scheme, given there is a contract in place.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what sums his Department spent on providing (a) hormone replacement therapy for female patients and (b) testosterone replacement therapy for male patients in each of the last three years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) collects data relating to National Health Service dispensing in the community. Prescriptions do not state the purpose for which they are written. There may be instances where medicines are used for other conditions.
The tables below set out Net Ingredient Costs (NIC). This is the basic price of a product excluding VAT. It does not take account of discounts, rebates, dispensing costs, fees and allowances paid to pharmacists and appliance contractors for the service they provide to the National Health Service, or prescription charge income received, where the single charge or prescription prepayment certificate fee is paid, or foregone where prescriptions are dispensed free of charge.
The following table shows the NIC for prescriptions for medicines eligible for the hormone replacement therapy prescription pre-payment certificate where gender is recorded in NHSBSA data as female, that were prescribed by NHS organisations in England and subsequently dispensed in the community, by year, from 2023 to 2025:
Calendar year | NIC (£, million) |
2023 | 207 |
2024 | 257 |
2025 | 289 |
In addition, the following table shows the NIC for prescriptions for testosterone where gender is recorded in NHSBSA data as male, that were prescribed by NHS organisations in England and subsequently dispensed in the community, by year, from 2023 to 2025:
Calendar year | NIC (£, million) |
2023 | 24.5 |
2024 | 27.3 |
2025 | 30.1 |
Source: the British National Formulary (BNF)
Note: Testosterone Replacement Therapy is not a named section within the BNF. Data the table is based on the products included in the BNF chemical substances of methyltestosterone, testosterone, testosterone enantate, testosterone propionate, testosterone undecanoate, and testosterone esters.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels were used for asylum accommodation in Telford and Wrekin Local Authority area on 12 April in each of the last 6 years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is longstanding policy that the Home Office does not publicly comment on individual hotels which may or may not be utilised by the department.
The Home Office does, however, publish statistics on a quarterly basis detailing the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found in at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department will publish the details and allocations of its £550 million investment over the next three years in victim support services as part of the Government's violence against women and girls strategy.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones
This Government is committed to halving Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in a decade. Ensuring victims receive the right and timely support is a key part of this mission. The Ministry of Justice has committed £550 million in funding for victim and witness support services over the next three years, including year-on-year increases. This includes funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund, and national services such as the Witness Service and the Homicide Service.
We do not routinely publish the full Ministry of Justice budget for victim and witness support services. The budgets for individual PCC areas are published on each area’s website. A breakdown of grant funding for the previous financial year is published on an annual basis on the Government Grants Information System. The latest data, released in March 2026, covers the 2024-2025 financial year.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much special grant funding was (a) provided to and (b) applied for by West Mercia Police for 2026-27.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
West Mercia Police will receive up to £1.6m in 2026-27 to support the force with the additional costs of Operation Lincoln. Total additional costs were forecast as up to £2.6m.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money has been recovered from each provider of asylum hotels through the excess profit clause in each contract in each of the last four years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Excess profits of £45.9m have been returned to the Department in relation to the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract’s profit share provisions.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the lack of publicly-funded provision for lip-reading classes for people with hearing loss.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 18 March 2026 to Question UIN 118960.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the a) age, b) ethnic and c) socioeconomic diversity of magistrates.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We continue to make progress in building a magistracy that better reflects the communities it serves. Recent recruitment rounds have shown increasing diversity among applicants and new appointees, supported by targeted outreach and improvements to the recruitment process. In 2024/25, 23% of new appointees came from ethnic minority groups, 41% of new appointees were aged under 50, and around 3% of new appointees were from routine or manual occupations: Diversity of the judiciary: 2025 statistics - GOV.UK.