Written questions by McMurdock.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that businesses operating in high‑risk sectors are aware of the foreign bribery indicators published by the Serious Fraud Office and Five Eyes partners.

The government takes foreign bribery risks seriously and is committed to helping businesses identify and prevent them. This is why in December 2025, this government published the new UK Anti-Corruption Strategy. The strategy seeks to bring more corrupt actors to justice, prevents them benefitting from their illicit wealth, tackles vulnerabilities to corruption at home and builds resilience overseas. It also commits to helping UK businesses to combat bribery through the Serious Fraud Office’s crime prevention capability and a new online anti bribery resource collection for small and medium-sized enterprises.The Serious Fraud Office, working with its Five Eyes partners, has published indicators to help businesses recognise potential bribery risks. These indicators are available on the Serious Fraud Office website.The Department for Business and Trade supports this work by signposting guidance to high-risk sectors and encouraging businesses to embed these indicators into their compliance and due diligence processes.The government will continue to work with enforcement agencies and international partners to raise awareness and strengthen the UK’s approach to preventing foreign bribery, in line with the OECD Working Group on Bribery recommendations.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Housing Sec pledges to 'go further than ever before' to hit 1.5 million homes, published on 16 December 2025, whether housebuilding targets for Basildon will be impacted.

The government has no plans to amend the Standard Method for assessing housing needs introduced in December 2024.

Pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2025 to Question 99417 on Undocumented Migrants, what steps she is taking to recover individuals who go out of contact with her Department.

The Home Office has a dedicated tracing capability that works in partnership with the police, other government agencies, and commercial companies to help identify information on a person. Where tracing checks are successful, we will consider the most appropriate intervention, including whether to task an enforcement team to conduct a visit or to set up a suitable immigration reporting regime.Tracing is just one of the ways in which contact can be re-established. Individuals are also encountered through routine Immigration Enforcement and police activity. In all cases we will consider the most appropriate action, including arrest and detention and possible removal from the United Kingdom. Many individuals who are out of contact may also re-engage with the department voluntarily or decide to leave the UK.We are committed to improving data quality for illegal migrants to ensure that we restore order and control to our borders. We have already set up teams to review existing areas to streamline processes, improve training and ensure join-up across systems across illegal migration to get the data right first time.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Russian Federation's hybrid activities on domestic security.

The Russian State poses an acute and direct threat to the UK and our allies. This includes their ongoing campaign of hybrid activity in Europe in response to our continuing diplomatic support of Ukraine.The UK takes the threat from the Russian State extremely seriously and has responded to and called out Russian aggression wherever it occurs. Since 2018, this includes the expulsion of 24 Russian intelligence officers; the sanctioning of over 2,900 individuals, entities and ships; creating several new sanctions regimes; and the targeting of Russian illicit finance.The government has strengthened the UK’s protective security to address vulnerabilities that expose our people and infrastructure to physical and security risks. We are working alongside the National Protective Security Authority to keep citizens safe through developing protective security advice for government and industry.Under the National Security Act 2023, the UK is an even harder target for states who seek to conduct hostile acts against the UK, steal our information for commercial advantage, or covertly interfere in our society. This will ensure our law enforcement agencies can make best use of new tools to counter sabotage and other state threats offences against our CNI.Until the Russian Government stops its destabilising activity, we will actively deter and defend against the full spectrum of threats emanating from Russia.We will continue working in partnership with our allies to bring our full capabilities to bear against those who seek to threaten our values, harm our citizens, and undermine our collective security.

Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department will introduce humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish.

Since publication of the Animal Welfare Committee’s updated Opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing a GB-wide joint government-industry working group on farmed trout has been examining the issues raised in the report. This co-design work has made good progress on exploring potential options for more detailed welfare at killing requirements. As set out in the Government’s animal welfare strategy, we will consult on introducing humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish into legislation in due course.

Pursuant of Answer of 22 December 2025 to Question 99417: Undocumented Migrants, what steps she is taking to strengthen sanctions against illegal migrants once they have been relocated and detained.

Where an absconder is located, they may be arrested and detained for the purposes of removal. It is generally in the public interest to pursue the removal of those with no permission to be in the UK.Where detention is not appropriate, a person may be released on immigration bail as an alternative to detention, allowing the Home Office to maintain contact with those who require permission to be in the UK but do not have it whilst a decision is made on their case or pending their removal or deportation.A person who is subject to immigration bail is required to comply with one or more bail conditions. Conditions may include a requirement to report regularly to the Home Office, to reside at a specific location, to be electronically monitored and a restriction on work. The number and type of immigration bail conditions imposed will vary depending on the circumstances of the individual case. A person who has previously absconded is likely to have more stringent bail conditions imposed.Where someone fails to comply with their bail conditions, they may be arrested, detained, have their bail conditions varied to be more stringent, or they can be arrested for the criminal offence, which is punishable by a fine or term of imprisonment.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging educational institutions, including higher education providers, to share campuses to broaden the range of courses available.

The Office for Students (OfS), as regulator of the English higher education (HE) sector, is working with the University of Essex to ensure plans are in place to protect students and maintain learning continuity following the Southend campus closure. There is further work to be done by the OfS and the University to support students less able to move to other campuses. The department is monitoring the situation and is aware of concerns about local students’ access to HE provision. HE providers are responsible for managing their own finances and we expect them to take appropriate and necessary decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability. As we stated in the Post-16 education and skills white paper, we expect to see more consolidation and formal collaboration in the sector. This will help institutions be stronger and more financially sustainable, and provision might expand in areas currently under-served. As HE providers are independent, the government is not involved in workforce matters in the same way that it is in other education sectors. ​While the government understands that HE providers must make difficult business decisions to safeguard their financial sustainability, we encourage providers to work with their staff and with trade unions to develop sustainable models that retain talent and expertise and provide stability for the workforce and the institution. All efficiency measures taken by the sector should provide a better long-term future for staff, students and the country. The government welcomes international students who meet the requirements to study in the UK. Indeed, UK HE providers received an estimated £12.1 billion in tuition fee income from international students in the 2023/24 academic year, which supported the provision of places for domestic students as well as research and development. However, the OfS has identified reliance on international student fee income as a risk to HE providers’ sustainability. It has been clear that some providers may need to change their business models to protect their financial health, as a response to this risk and others.

What proportion of individuals returned to France under the reciprocal agreement are assessed as being at risk of attempting to re-enter the UK.

We are continuously monitoring and evaluating the agreement with France to ensure its effectiveness. There will be a full evaluation at the end of the pilot period.Any individual who re-enters the UK illegally may be detained and, where appropriate, we will seek to expedite removal.The system is working: two individuals who returned to the UK having already been removed were detected, detained, and their cases were expedited for return. We continue to work closely with our French counterparts to ensure that those who are returned under the agreement do not re-enter the UK illegally.

How many times sentencing courts have departed from sentencing guidelines on the basis of the interests of justice in each of the last three years.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

Whether departures from sentencing guidelines on the grounds of the interests of justice are recorded in sentencing data.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

What data she collects on (a) injuries and (b) fatalities linked to road surface defects.

The percentage and number of casualties (by severity) involved in reported road collisions in Great Britain where the “Poor or defective road surface or deposits on road” road safety factor was assigned for the last 10 years can be found in table RAS0701 published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/reported-road-accidents-vehicles-and-casualties-tables-for-great-britain#factors-contributing-to-collisions-and-casualties-ras07

How much has been paid in unitary charges under Private Finance Initiative contracts in each of the last ten financial years.

The Government’s preferred financing model for any type of infrastructure project is the one that offers the best value for money. Proposals are appraised on a case-by-case basis using the Green Book. Public sector contracting authorities directly manage Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts and are responsible for monitoring and managing their respective contracts to ensure value for money. Since 2020, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), formerly Infrastructure and Projects Authority, has provided advice and training directly to contracting authorities to support them in navigating issues relating to PFI projects (operational and expiry-related). PFI payments are made by “unitary charge”, which are not broken down by underlying cost drivers. Therefore, the proportion of payments that are (a) capital repayment, (b) interest and (c) service charges is not readily available, nor is data on costs which have arisen because of inflation and indexing. Data on PFI and PF2 projects can be found at the following weblink: PFI and PF2 projects: 2024 Summary Data - GOV.UK

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of departures from sentencing guidelines on the effectiveness of a) sentencing and b) public confidence in the criminal justice system.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 23 December to PQ 100766

For which offence types departures from sentencing guidelines on the grounds of the interests of justice occur most frequently.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the UK’s previous diplomatic responses to the Russian Federation’s hybrid activities.

I refer the Hon Member to the Foreign Secretary's Locarno Centenary speech on 7 December, and to the evidence I gave to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 6 January, links to both of which can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-foreign-secretarys-locarno-centenary-speechhttps://committees.parliament.uk/event/26037/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with international partners on hybrid threats from Russia.

I refer the Hon Member to the Foreign Secretary's Locarno Centenary speech on 7 December, and to the evidence I gave to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 6 January, links to both of which can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-foreign-secretarys-locarno-centenary-speechhttps://committees.parliament.uk/event/26037/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/

Communities and Local Government, when the requirement for estate managers to produce an annual report containing financial and non‑financial information will come into force.

I refer the hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 18 December 2025 (HCWS1210).

Whether her Department had discussions with the University of Essex prior to its announcement to close its Southend Campus.

The Office for Students (OfS), as regulator of the English higher education (HE) sector, is working with the University of Essex to ensure plans are in place to protect students and maintain learning continuity following the Southend campus closure. There is further work to be done by the OfS and the University to support students less able to move to other campuses. The department is monitoring the situation and is aware of concerns about local students’ access to HE provision. HE providers are responsible for managing their own finances and we expect them to take appropriate and necessary decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability. As we stated in the Post-16 education and skills white paper, we expect to see more consolidation and formal collaboration in the sector. This will help institutions be stronger and more financially sustainable, and provision might expand in areas currently under-served. As HE providers are independent, the government is not involved in workforce matters in the same way that it is in other education sectors. ​While the government understands that HE providers must make difficult business decisions to safeguard their financial sustainability, we encourage providers to work with their staff and with trade unions to develop sustainable models that retain talent and expertise and provide stability for the workforce and the institution. All efficiency measures taken by the sector should provide a better long-term future for staff, students and the country. The government welcomes international students who meet the requirements to study in the UK. Indeed, UK HE providers received an estimated £12.1 billion in tuition fee income from international students in the 2023/24 academic year, which supported the provision of places for domestic students as well as research and development. However, the OfS has identified reliance on international student fee income as a risk to HE providers’ sustainability. It has been clear that some providers may need to change their business models to protect their financial health, as a response to this risk and others.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she had made of the potential impact of the proposed UK-Spain treaty on Gibraltar on British citizens visiting Gibraltar.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 27 June 2025 to Question 60853.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the threat posed by the Russian Federation’s hybrid activities against the United Kingdom.

I refer the Hon Member to the Foreign Secretary's Locarno Centenary speech on 7 December, and to the evidence I gave to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 6 January, links to both of which can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-foreign-secretarys-locarno-centenary-speechhttps://committees.parliament.uk/event/26037/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/