Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential savings to the public purse of reducing the annual expenditure by HM Land Registry on requisitions arising from manual or inconsistent submissions; and what the planned role is of property sector digitalisation in helping to achieve those savings.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
For the year ending 31 March 2025, HM Land Registry (HMLR) estimated it had nearly 450,000 avoidable requisitions costing the conveyancing industry and HMLR up to £19m annually.
HMLR is supporting the conveyancing industry to improve the quality of its applications through a number of measures:
HMLR has been sharing avoidable requisition data with conveyancers for the last six months and since December 2025 HM Land Registry has published avoidable requisition data on gov.uk here. This has resulted in over 29% of law firms reducing their avoidable requisition rate and 20% now have an avoidable requisition rate under 1%.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve levels of mandatory trauma accreditation within professionals working with adopted children.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has funded Adoption England with £8.8 million in the 2025/26 financial year to help develop national approaches for adoption services. This will help ensure the consistency of high quality adoption services across the country. This includes the development of a new framework of support, ‘Becoming a Family’, for the first 12 to 18 months of placement.
Adoption England’s work also involves increasing awareness of trauma informed practice across its workforce and with key partners including schools. We also recently consulted on new standards for social workers, which include recognising and responding to trauma. We will respond to the consultation shortly, and the new standards will underpin a strengthened early career support training offer for newly qualified social workers.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the postponement or delay of the 2025 Basildon Borough Council elections was discussed during the meeting between Baroness Taylor and Basildon Borough Council councillors or officials during her visit to Basildon on Friday 12 December.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As would be expected, topics relating to local government reorganisation were raised with the Minister, including 2026 elections.
We have invited Basildon Borough Council and other councils undergoing local government reorganisation to set out their views on the postponement of their local election and if they consider this could release essential capacity to deliver local government reorganisation. This is a locally led approach. Councils are best placed to judge their local capacity and we will consider representations carefully.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any hotspots in zones other than the five zones identified in the Compliance Assessment Summary 2024 exceeded the nitrogen dioxide annual limit value in calendar 2024.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The localised hotspots identified through Defra’s national modelling and monitoring networks are published annually on UK Air (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/) as part of the national compliance assessment under the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010. Localised hotspots that have been identified by local authority-owned monitoring are published in their respective annual status reports.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of rail journeys used fully digital tickets in December 2025.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The approximate proportion of tickets fulfilled as Digital Tickets for December 2025 are:
| Dec-25 |
Digital | 85% |
Non Digital | 15% |
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of agentic AI systems on high street businesses and retail employment levels.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
AI is transforming the world of work. The UK must act now to ensure this transformation boosts growth, productivity and opportunity—rather than deepening inequality or eroding job quality. The government is not standing still: we’re investing in skills, monitoring impacts, and working with employers and experts to make sure AI benefits everyone—not just a few.
AI can help give local businesses better insights and improve business efficiency. This government has introduced the Small Business Plan to help all businesses with new tools to unlock access to finance, action to address late payments and regulatory costs, improve digital adoption and create easier pathways to business support through the Business Growth Service regardless of their AI capability.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 22 December 202, to Question 99888 titled Railways: Conditions of Employment, (a) what assessment her Department has made of the likely impact of Great British Railways on employment practices across the rail network and (b) whether her Department will make an assessment of potential differences in terms and conditions between outsourced and directly employed rail staff once workforce matters transfer to Great British Railways.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Great British Railways (GBR) aims to integrate track and train operations while modernising working practices to deliver consistent standards across the network. As work to establish GBR continues, matters relating to employee terms and conditions will be considered. The Government’s approach will be driven by what delivers best value for users of the railway, and for taxpayers who contribute to the costs of running it, as well as the interests of the workforce.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 22 December 2025 to question 99889 titled Railways: Anti-social Behaviour and Crimes of Violence, whether her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of statutory powers to intervene in budget-setting decisions made by the British Transport Police Authority.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The British Transport Police Authority (BTPA), the executive non-departmental public body that oversees the British Transport Police Force (BTP), plays a key role in ensuring there is independent and expert oversight of the BTP force. It agrees strategies and objectives, resourcing and budgets, and policy and regulatory requirements. The Department for Transport has powers to set overarching expectations of the Authority and I am satisfied that this oversight, as defined in the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, does not require amendment.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland and Fakenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the level of net Government support to the rail sector per passenger journey in December 2025.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Many rail industry processes, including payments under contracts with train operators, occur once each rail period, rather than by calendar month. Support given to operators is also subject to an adjustment process, as actual values for costs, capital expenditure and revenues can be higher or lower than the initial values upon which support is provided. It is therefore not yet possible to provide a value for December 2025, and it may also not be meaningful, given seasonality.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether any agreements have been entered into under Section 13 of the Railways Act 2005 since the passage of that Act; and whether any such agreements are currently in force.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not have a record of any agreements under Section 13 of the Railways Act 2005 since its passage. Agreements can be made with the Secretary of State or a franchise operator. There are no agreements currently in force through this provision.