Every parliamentary written question tabled by Kevin Hollinrake this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 1,401–1,420 of 3,003 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2025 to Question 51394, on Ministers Private Offices, on how many days she has used her office in 70 Whitehall since 4 July 2024.
The Deputy Prime Minister regularly works from 70 Whitehall, information on the precise number of days is not held by the department.
Communities and Local Government, whether she has met with the Night Time Industry Association since 4 July 2024.
Details of external ministerial meetings, including their date, attendees, and purpose, are declared and published on gov.uk on a quarterly basis.
What guidance she has provided to local authorities on grooming gang inquiries.
The Government continues work to deliver meaningful change for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including group-based child sexual exploitation or grooming gangs.The Home Secretary wrote to all local authorities on 12 March 2025 to inform them of our plans, including our investment of £10 million, which will support the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce in working with police forces to re-examine investigations and pursue new lines of inquiry where appropriate to deliver justice for more victims, alongside expanding the Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel so victims can have their cases reviewed even if it happened after 2013. This also includes a new national fund to support independent local inquiries and help strengthen local responses to child sexual exploitation.We are currently awaiting Baroness Louise Casey's report following her national audit into the nature, scale and characteristics of grooming gangs offending, and we will publish more detail and next steps on this work, alongside Baroness Casey's report, in the coming weeks.
Communities and Local Government, with reference to the publication Restoring Control over the Immigration System, published on 12 May 2025, CP1326, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of restricting access to local authority housing for (a) current and (b) former overseas nationals based on their English language proficiency.
The government has no plans to make such an assessment.Eligibility for social housing is tightly controlled. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they are not eligible for an allocation of social housing. Only eligible individuals can join waiting lists and be given a social housing tenancy.Where foreign nationals are eligible, they will have their housing needs considered on the same basis as other eligible applicants in accordance with the local authority’s housing allocation scheme. People who are homeless, in overcrowded housing or who need to move for medical reasons are prioritised.The previous government consulted on changes to social housing allocation tests. This government’s response was published on 2 September and can be found on gov.uk here.
Representing the Church Commissioners, whether (a) the Church of England, (b) its pension funds and (c) its investment funds support (i) boycotts and (ii) divestment of companies selling (A) goods and (B) services (1) from and (2) to (a) Israel and (b) the Occupied Territories.
The National Church Institutions do not have a policy of supporting boycotts or divestments related to Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories.The Church Commissioners’ and the Church of England Pensions Board’s approaches are individually informed by the Ethical Investment Advisory Group, with neither institution implementing an automatic divestment policy for companies connected to Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories.The Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board each implement a Human Rights policy, in line with which they independently screen holdings for corporate human rights risks in their distinct portfolios and run a Controversies Process. This includes reviewing companies that are alleged to cause, contribute to, or are linked to human rights risks and impacts. Each Fund looks at companies on a case-by-case basis and engages with companies that fail their controversy screens, which can lead to exclusions.The Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board each apply this approach across their separate portfolios. In conflict-affected and high-risk areas, each Fund notes the heightened risks of human rights harms and takes this into account when screening their portfolios.
Whether she has had discussions with Filey Town Council on the return of the Filey Town Centre Bus.
The government believes that local authorities, working with bus operators, are best placed to determine and design local bus networks in their area, and the government does not intervene in local decisions regarding individual bus routes or services.
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many Freedom of Information Act requests the Electoral Commission has substantively responded to since 4 July 2024; and what the outcome was of each.
The Commission provided responses to 178 FOI requests between 4 July 2024 and 14 May.A copy of the response to each FOI request submitted to the Commission can be found on its website at www.electoralcommission.org.uk/about-us/freedom-information .
Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether the Electoral Commission has previously released individual RPA candidate spending returns under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Electoral Commission assesses each request under the FOI Act individually. The Act allows certain exemptions to be applied when considering requests, including an exemption for information that is reasonably by other means. Candidate returns are available on request from local authorities for two years for the date of receipt.The Commission takes a range of factors into account when considering disclosure of candidate spending returns. The Commission has previously released a number of redacted individual candidate spending returns under FOI after the two-year period or where the return was not available from the Returning Officer.
Whether the Anti-Islamophobia Working Group provided a training and awareness session in his Department in November 2024.
DESNZ is committed to supporting our colleagues in line with our DESNZ Values and the Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance. The Anti-Islamophobia Working Group provided a one-hour training and awareness session in this Department in November 2024.
Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the recovered appeal decision made by HM Planning Inspectorate with reference 3346061 on her definition of the greybelt.
The decision in question was made 12 May 2025 and the proposals were considered taking into account current planning policy, which includes Green Belt policy and published guidance. Full reasons for the decision are set out in the published decision letter and Inspector’s Report. Having issued this decision, the Secretary of State has no further jurisdiction in the matter, and it would not be appropriate to comment further.
Pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2025, to Question 32583, on Independent Commission into Adult Social Care, what is the annual remuneration of Baroness Casey of Blackstock for her role as Chair of the Commission.
Baroness Louise Casey has been appointed as a Direct Ministerial Appointment, and in line with Cabinet Office guidance, this appointment will be remunerated. The commission will report on its financial expenditure in due course.
Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the time taken to process applications to the Building Safety Regulator.
The MHCLG and the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) both recognise the impact of Gateway delays on the construction pipeline of high-rise projects and are taking action to address the current challenges. The Department are working closely with the BSR to improve processing times and have already taken several actions. As a new function BSR has needed to refine and improve its processes. We have provided funding to the BSR to recruit an extra 30 frontline staff to bolster its capacity. On 14 May, BSR also launched a campaign to directly recruit Registered Building Inspectors (RBIs), with further recruitment planned in June 2025. BSR is carrying out extensive stakeholder engagement to support applicants to better understand and meet the new requirements. BSR also issued new guidance in March 2025 based on the findings of research with organisations submitting building control applications. MHCLG and BSR are also reviewing better ways to access specialist advice on multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) which assess applications to enable faster assessment times. Whilst BSR and MHCLG are exploring all possible opportunities to strengthen the new Gateway process and guidance to industry, it is important to recognise that a significant volume of applications continue to be invalidated or rejected for not meeting the legislative requirements. These are buildings that, had they been constructed, might have placed residents at risk and/or living in housing that did not meet long-standing requirements. It is also important to note that additional information requests for missing details in applications can add between at least 4-6 weeks onto the process. MHCLG are exploring all possible options with the BSR to ensure it is equipped for the high-demand of applications without compromising on quality assurance. In rejecting applications which are not up to standard, the BSR is ensuring the safety of future residents. Ministers continue to monitor the situation closely.
What statistics (a) her Department and (b) His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service collates on court waiting times for private rented sector repossession claims.
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on timeliness for private landlord claims. The latest data for the quarter January to March 2025 was published on 15 May 2025. This data is available in table 6 which can be found:Mortgage_and_Landlord_Possession_Tables_Q1_Jan_to_Mar_2025.ods.The possession type can be filtered to private landlord in the dropdown above the table.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49917 on Aviation, how much was spent by (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants.
Pursuant to the answer of Question 49917 on aviation the following was spent on air travel since 4th July 2024: Domestic Travel:Civil Servants £33,025.78Ministers £1,878.72Other - UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues £4210.29Total £39,114.79 International Travel:Civil Servants £45,662.30Ministers £17,321.87Other - UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues £5,529.14Total £68,513.31
Pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2025 to Question 45682 on Unite: Annual Report, what the auditing issues are that have led to the delays in providing full returns.
The Certification Officer included an explanatory note alongside her publication of Unite the Union's partial annual returns for 2021, 2022, and 2023. The explanatory note records the Certification Officer's understanding that the issues identified during the auditing process are currently under investigation by other authorities. As such, it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment further on those matters.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49917 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Aviation, what the cost was of each individual flight.
I will arrange for this data to be deposited in the House of Commons Library.
Communities and Local Government, what estimate her Department has made of the number of houses currently under construction in each London borough; and what assessment has been made of the potential impact of changes to (a) building regulations and (b) fire regulations on meeting the Government's 1.5 million housebuilding target.
The Department does not centrally collect data on homes currently under construction, but we do publish an annual estimate of new homes built and a quarterly estimate of new build starts and completions which can be found on gov.uk here and here respectively. These releases include data for each London borough. The government assess the impact of any proposed changes to building regulations, fire regulations, and wider building safety policy, including the potential impact on supply where appropriate and proportionate. We publish Impact Assessments at different stages of policy development which consider potential impacts on main affected groups to support public and sectoral engagement.
Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to remove the sanction of imprisonment for non-payment of council tax.
The government will be consulting this year on options to modernise the administration of council tax and will seek views on improving the collection and enforcement processes to create a fairer system for taxpayers and councils
Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Court of Appeal ruling of Mead Realisations Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWCA Civ 32 on the status of (a) planning practice guidance and (b) planning policy.
The government has noted the view of the Court of Appeal in Mead Realisations Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWCA Civ 32 that the Planning Practice Guidance can in principle amend national policy. It remains the case that Planning Practice Guidance will continue to be used in a supporting role to, and consistent with, national policy. The government did not appeal this decision within the applicable time period.
Pursuant to the answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 46900 on Asylum: Housing, if she will provide a national figure.
I refer the Hon Member to the Answer he received on the 30 April 2025 to UIN 46900.