Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to formally acknowledge the work of COGAT personnel involved in co-ordinating humanitarian access into Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to: (a) the statement I made to the House on the Middle East on 5 January, (b) the joint statement on humanitarian access issued by the Foreign Secretary and nine of her international counterparts on 30 December, (c) the answers that the Foreign Secretary and I gave on these issues at oral questions on 2 December, and (d) the statement that the Foreign Secretary made to the House on Gaza on 18 November. We will continue to update the House on these issues on a similarly regular basis over the weeks and months to come.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress in implementing the international 20-point plan for humanitarian access in Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to: (a) the statement I made to the House on the Middle East on 5 January, (b) the joint statement on humanitarian access issued by the Foreign Secretary and nine of her international counterparts on 30 December, (c) the answers that the Foreign Secretary and I gave on these issues at oral questions on 2 December, and (d) the statement that the Foreign Secretary made to the House on Gaza on 18 November. We will continue to update the House on these issues on a similarly regular basis over the weeks and months to come.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with Israeli authorities on the operational role of COGAT in facilitating humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to: (a) the statement I made to the House on the Middle East on 5 January, (b) the joint statement on humanitarian access issued by the Foreign Secretary and nine of her international counterparts on 30 December, (c) the answers that the Foreign Secretary and I gave on these issues at oral questions on 2 December, and (d) the statement that the Foreign Secretary made to the House on Gaza on 18 November. We will continue to update the House on these issues on a similarly regular basis over the weeks and months to come.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HM Treasury collates data on central government spending on translation and interpretation into foreign languages for those residing in the United Kingdom.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Government spending on translation and interpretation services for British residents exists across many departments. Spending on such services typically falls below the HM Treasury approval and disclosure threshold, as defined by a department’s Delegated Authority Limit. HM Treasury therefore does not collect or receive data at the requested level of granularity.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the National Wealth Fund spent on trade union facility time in the 2024-25 financial year; how many FTE staff were funded by facility time, and if this included paid time for trade union activities.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As set out in the National Wealth Fund’s Annual Report and Accounts for the 2024-25 financial year, no expenditure was incurred.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 48 of the Autumn Budget HC1492, published on 26 November 2025, if she will publish the monetary savings in each year on which the 16% back-office administrative costs figure is based.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
These are published in Table 1.1 of the Spending Review 2025 (page 13).
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the public purse was of feasibility studies conducted by their Department for projects that did not proceed in the last five years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The information requested is not held as we do not track costs in this way.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many hereditaments claimed Retail Hospitality and Leisure rate relief in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26, excluding those at the £110,000 cash cap.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The number of hereditaments receiving the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief as at 31 December 2024 can be found in Table 4 here.
This is based on a snapshot taken by local authorities on or as close to the 31 December 2024. It is not possible from the data collected to exclude properties at the cash cap.
The snapshot as at 31 December 2025 is currently being collected and will be published by the end of March.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the public purse was of feasibility studies conducted by their Department for projects that did not proceed in the last five years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Feasibility studies are a routine part of the Department’s approach to assessing potential transport projects, and the associated costs are managed within individual programme budgets rather than held in a single collated dataset. These studies are conducted across a wide range of programmes, and where work does not lead to a project progressing, the expenditure remains part of normal project development activity. Producing a total figure for feasibility studies undertaken over the past five years for projects that did not proceed would therefore require a disproportionate manual review of programme‑level records.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given in Project Troubler and Project Grayburn to the decision by the US Army to standardise their rifles and light machine guns on a common 6.8-millimetre calibre.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
A review of performance requirements and technical solutions is ongoing as part of the concept phase for Project GRAYBURN and Project TROUBLER. Interoperability, (including calibre) with other in service weapons, NATO and other international partners will be considered as part of this process.