Written questions by Hollinrake.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 6 June 2025 to Question 53912 on Asylum: Housing, whether the Planning Inspectorate has considered any planning appeals relating to such change of use from hotels to asylum accommodation in the last 24 months.

The Planning Inspectorate does not hold the requested information in a readily searchable way, and planning appeals are not routinely categorised by the specific nature of the change of use, such as from hotels to asylum accommodation. As such, it is not possible to confirm whether any appeals relating to this specific change of use have been considered in the last 24 months.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Civil Service 2024/2025 External Expenditure on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, published on 30 May 2025, if he will list the suppliers and the individual amounts of expenditure that related to the £4,853 of expenditure on (a) Black History Month events and (b) Inclusion Allies event.

Expenditure of £4,853 was approved by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 29 October 2024 in line with Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance.A sum of £4,184 was paid to Inclusive Employers Ltd for the training of Inclusion Allies.A sum of £669 was paid to Diversify World Ltd for delivering of a training seminar and support materials.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's publication entitled MHCLG: spending over £25,000, March 2025, published on 28 April 2025, what the specific goods or services commissioned from MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD were entitled (a) Social housing- Traditional broadcast ra and (b) StreetLink Rough sleeping campaign.

The Department engages Manning Gottlieb OMD as the government's mandated media buying agency in line with Crown Commercial Service agreements.The 'Social housing- Traditional broadcast ra' expenditure covered commercial radio advertisements on stations including Capital FM and Kiss. These advertisements were part of our Make Things Right campaign, which encourages social housing tenants experiencing issues with their accommodation to engage effectively with the complaints process. Radio advertising effectively reaches tenants at scale and directs them to our campaign website for comprehensive support on gov.uk here.The 'StreetLink Rough sleeping campaign' expenditure funded print advertisements in the Metro newspaper alongside digital advertising across multiple social media platforms including Meta, Reddit, WeAre8 and LinkedIn. This campaign promoted the StreetLink service and educated the public about essential information needed when reporting people sleeping rough, to improve the quality of referrals through the service.

Communities and Local Government, how much funding she plans to provide to each nation of the UK through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in each year of the Spending Review period.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will not continue beyond the 2025-26 transition year. As announced at the recent Spending Review, the government is introducing a new, targeted approach to support growth, tackle deprivation, and restore pride to communities.UKSPF allocations for local authorities are published on gov.uk here. An annual breakdown of 2022-25 allocations are also published on gov.uk here.The Greater London Authority spent its entire UKSPF allocation of £144,444,970 for the 2022-25 period, and has been allocated £62,981,782 for 2025-26.

What assessment the security services have made of the level of economic espionage by the Chinese Government in the UK.

As a matter of long-standing policy, we do not comment on the detail of security and intelligence matters. However, we continuously assess potential threats to the UK and, where necessary, deploy the full range of tools available to mitigate them.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the transparency data entitled MHCLG: spending over £25,000, April 2025, published on 30 May 2025, if she will publish the research commissioned from the Greater London Authority.

This funding was to cover legal and administrative costs incurred by the Greater London Authority in setting up the Grenfell Assisted Home Ownership Scheme.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2025 to Question 53973 on Defending Democracy Taskforce, if she will publish the conclusions of the review into harassment and intimidation.

The Defending Democracy Taskforce is reviewing its levers for preventing the harassment and intimidation of elected representatives, identifying gaps and vulnerabilities, and developing recommendations to strengthen our response.I will update the House on progress in due course.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the document entitled MHCLG: spending over £25,000, March 2025, published on 28 April 2025, what consultancy services were commissioned from UBDS IT Consulting Limited.

MHCLG’s March 2025 listing of spending over £25,000 include three entries for UBDS. This spend relates to the provision of specific technical services to deliver a range of improvements to the Department’s data tools and technologies. They are augmenting internal teams.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the document entitled MHCLG: spending over £25,000, March 2025, published on 28 April 2025, what consultancy services were commissioned from CFE Research and Consulting Ltd.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government appointed a consortium of organisations, led by CFE Research and including Cordis Bright, Revolving Doors, and the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (SCHARR) at The University of Sheffield, to undertake an independent evaluation of the Changing Futures programme. The spend in March was for research and evaluation activity for this programme evaluation. The Changing Futures programme is an initiative between the UK Government and The National Lottery Community Fund, running from 2021 to 2026. All evaluation publications to date are available at: Evaluation of the Changing Futures programme - GOV.UK.

What (a) internal and (b) external Prevent guidance her Department has drafted on cultural nationalism; and what her Department’s definition is of cultural nationalism.

The current Prevent duty guidance, including reference to cultural nationalism, was last revised under the previous Government on 6 March 2024, and is available at: Prevent duty guidance: Guidance for specified authorities in England and Wales

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 May 2025 to Question 52864 on Admiralty House, on what date the last assessment of market rent of the building was undertaken.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 27 May 2025, Official Report, PQ 52864.

What guidance she has issued to local authorities on Anti-Money Laundering checks in relation to (a) working with and (b) loaning funds to developers.

Guidance for local authorities on investments is available here: Guidance_on_local_government_investments.pdf It is for local authorities to determine their own capital strategies as they are best placed to understand local needs and are accountable to the local electorate. In doing so, local authorities have a duty to comply with the Prudential Framework and must have regard to statutory guidance to ensure plans are prudent, affordable, and sustainable. Property developers are in scope of the Money Laundering Regulations if they act as estate agents (i.e. they sell their properties through a separate legal entity) or provide relevant financial services and products. Guidance on how such firms should comply with the Regulations is published online by Anti-Money Laundering supervisors, including His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Financial Conduct Authority. The HMRC guidance on estate agents can be found here: Estate and letting agency business guidance for money laundering supervision - GOV.UK

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 May 2025 to Question 52864 on Admiralty House, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of repurposing the two unoccupied flats in Admiralty House.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office of 27 May 2025, Official Report, PQ 43478.

Whether she had discussions with the Chinese Government on the proposed Chinese Embassy at the Royal Mint (a) at the 11th round of China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue and (b) on any other occasion.

The Chancellor has engaged with the Chinese Government on a number of occasions, including during her visit to China for the 2025 UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, and has discussed a range of economic and financial issues. The Chancellor published a written ministerial statement about her visit to China on the morning of Monday 13 January (found here) and delivered an oral statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday 14 January (found here).On 10 June, the Planning Inspector responsible for the Planning Inquiry into China’s application to build a new embassy at Royal Mint Court submitted her report to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. A target decision date of 9 September has been set. As this case will come before ministers in MHCLG for determination, it would not be appropriate to comment further.

Communities and Local Government, whether she has had discussions with the Mayor of London on whether funding for green belt reviews will be used to review the use of Metropolitan Open Land.

The government has awarded the Greater London Authority £770,000 to undertake a Green Belt review in conjunction with 11 London boroughs. A further six London boroughs have also each received £70,000 to undertake Green Belt reviews. The precise use of this funding is at the discretion of the recipient authority.Metropolitan Open Land is a local designation used by the Mayor of London in his London Plan. Policy relating to the designation, as well as the current extent of Metropolitan Open Land, is entirely a matter for the Mayor.

With reference to the press notice entitled New steering group to champion disabled people in elected office, published on 9 June 2025, how the members of the working group from political parties were selected; and whether political parties were consulted in the selection process.

It is this government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office. We have been clear that we will champion disabled people’s rights and work closely with them so that disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of decision-making.On 9 June we announced a new Access to Elected Office Steering Group to support the development of a new fund to help with the disability-related expenses of gaining elected office. Drawing on their lived experience and expertise of disability, accessing funding or standing for elected office, members will work with the Minister for Social Security and Disability to ensure the fund is effective in increasing disability representation in future elections.Members for the steering group were chosen based on their experience as disabled candidates, their expertise and advocacy work in disability inclusion, and their lived experience with disability. Political parties were not consulted during this process. Affiliation to political parties was not a criterion for selection of individuals, though efforts were made to ensure cross-party representation.This approach was adopted to maintain focus on the core objective of the steering group - improving access to elected office for disabled people.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2025 to Question 53973 on Defending Democracy Taskforce, if she will publish the assessment on Transnational Repression in the UK.

Owing to the classified nature of the findings, the Transnational Repression Review will not be a publicly available document.My Written Ministerial Statement on 14 May provides an overview of the Review’s key findings and recommendations.

How much (a) her Department and (b) its contractors have spent on the rent or lease of (i) caravan and mobile homes and (ii) park homes for housing asylum seekers since July 2024.

Zero.

How much (a) her Department and (b) its contractors have spent on the capital purchase of mobile and caravan homes for asylum seekers since July 2024.

Zero.

Pursuant to the Answer of 6 June 2025 to Question HL7763 on Asylum: Housing, what the absolute number of individual hotels that housed the 32,345 people is as of 31 March 2025; and what was the equivalent number of hotels used in June 2024.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 31 March to Question 41380.