Written questions by Anderson.

Whether she plans to introduce charges for EU visitors to the UK, in the context of the EU’s planned introduction of the EUR 7 visa waiver charge under its Etias system.

Electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) have been introduced to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream and stop those who pose a threat from travelling to the UK. ETAs will be extended to eligible European nationals on 5 March 2025, and will be a requirement for this cohort for travel from 2 April 2025. The price of an ETA is currently £10, although the Government has made clear its intention to increase the fee to £16 by amending the relevant legislation.

What steps her Department is taking to prevent money laundering by foreign nationals.

The Government is committed to tackling illicit finance and economic crime. We have appointed an Anti-Corruption Champion Baroness Hodge to support the government's agenda in tackling corruption at home and overseas.HM Treasury has been working with partners across the public and private sector to update our National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing and to deliver Economic Crime Plan 2, the government’s public-private strategy to combat economic crime and strengthen the UK system. This includes work on HM Treasury-owned actions to reform our Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing supervisory regime, and to improve the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.HM Treasury is responsible for the UK’s money laundering regulations which require that banks and other financial services companies apply enhanced customer due diligence and enhanced ongoing monitoring in any business relationships with a person established in high-risk jurisdictions as determined by the Financial Action Task Force or in relation to any relevant transaction where either of the parties to the transaction is established in a high-risk jurisdiction.HM Treasury is also supporting the development of a new Anti-Corruption Strategy to be published in 2025 which will include measures that address the UK’s vulnerabilities to corruption and money laundering.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help prevent postal vote fraud.

Our postal voting systems contain a range of measures that are designed to protect the security of postal voting, such as the requirement for postal voters to use personal identifiers when applying for and returning their ballot.We are currently carrying out a review of electoral registration and conduct, and if any further changes to postal voting are found to be necessary or appropriate, we will bring forward proposals for them in due course.

If she will extend the 75% business rates relief for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses after 2025.

To deliver our manifesto pledge, we intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, including those on the high street, from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025-26. As such, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and we have frozen the small business multiplier.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of levels of capacity in phlebotomy services on the time taken for leukaemia cases to be diagnosed.

We are taking meaningful steps to improve cancer diagnostic performance for all cancers, including leukaemia. The 2025/26 NHS Planning Guidance sets a stretching target for cancer diagnosis that will see approximately 100,000 more people every year having cancer confirmed or ruled out within 28 days.This will be supported by our commitment to improve diagnostic performance. We are delivering an additional two million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. As of December 2024, community diagnostic centres are now delivering additional tests and checks on 168 sites across the country and have delivered over 12.2 million additional tests since July 2021, including phlebotomy service tests.We have also announced plans for a revised NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in summer 2025 to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.Finally, the National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The plan will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including leukaemia.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with (a) local authority officers and (b) local authority elected representatives on the cancellation of local elections in East Sussex; and if she will publish those discussions.

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with these local authorities on the cancellation of the local elections. Discussions on the applications to the Devolution Priority Programme have been had with all upper tier and unitary councils in the preparation of the programme, and those discussions covered all matters related to the timetable and process by both officials and ministers, as you would expect.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with (a) local authority officers and (b) local authority elected representatives on the cancellation of the local elections in West Sussex, and if she will publish those discussions.

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with these local authorities on the cancellation of the local elections. Discussions on the applications to the Devolution Priority Programme have been had with all upper tier and unitary councils in the preparation of the programme, and those discussions covered all matters related to the timetable and process by both officials and ministers, as you would expect.

What steps his Department is taking to (a) help support community pharmacists in the early detection of leukaemia, (b) expand phlebotomy capacity and (c) increase levels of access to full blood counts.

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service in catching cancer, including blood cancers, as early as possible, to treat these diseases faster and more effectively, and thereby improve outcomes.NHS England does not currently commission any phlebotomy or full blood count services from community pharmacies. Patients can access these services in community diagnostic centres (CDCs), which offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home, and greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing the need for hospital visits and speeding up diagnosis.The Elective Reform Plan commits to transform and expand diagnostic services and speed up waiting times for tests, including for blood tests. We will also expand the number of CDCs operating seven days a week and 12 hours a day, as well as the tests they offer, so that patients have greater access to these more convenient tests. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.

How many reports of benefit fraud were made to her Department in 2024; and how many and what proportion of these resulted in benefits being revoked.

The number of benefit fraud public referrals, received by Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt (CFCD) in the Department, in the calendar year 2024 was 160,079. Data is not held on how many of these resulted in benefit being revoked.Counter Fraud and Compliance has different approaches to tackling fraud, depending on the nature and severity. The team deploys a diverse range of expertise, technology, and intelligence to protect the integrity of the benefits system, correcting benefit where appropriate and bringing the most serious cases to justice. This approach has seen Counter Fraud and Compliance deliver over £1.2 billion savings for 2023-24.

Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy that local authority areas which have had elections postponed in May 2025 will have elections in May 2026.

We have postponed local authority elections from May 2025 to May 2026 only, where it is crucial to do so in order to ensure that we can reorganise local government and deliver devolution as quickly as possible.For those areas which are part of the Devolution Priority Programme, it is the government's intention to deliver a new wave of mayoral elections in May 2026.For any area in which elections are postponed, we will work with areas to move to elections to new ‘shadow’ unitary councils as soon as possible as is the usual arrangement in the process of local government reorganisation.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what his planned timetable is for the transferring of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

A timetable for the transfer of sovereignty will be among details of the proposed treaty, which will be laid before Parliament following signature.

Communities and Local Government, if she will publish the conversations and negotiations which she had in order to determine which elections were to be postponed.

The Secretary of State will not publish these details. I wrote to councils who requested for their local elections to be postponed from May 2025 to May 2026 to inform them of the outcome of the government's decision. The bar for postponement was high and requests were only granted where this supports delivery of both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which groups of Chagossians he has met with; and when he met them.

As Minister for the Overseas Territories, I have met with members of the Chagossian community on 30 September and 3 October, and officials have also been in regular contact with Chagossians on a range of issues. We recognise the importance of the British Indian Ocean Territory / Chagos Archipelago to Chagossians and have worked to ensure the sovereignty agreement reflects their interests.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the total cost is of the financial settlement for the transfer of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Details of the proposed treaty will be set out when it is laid before Parliament.

How many people were (a) arrested and (b) charged for shoplifting offences in 2024.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences, and their investigative outcomes (including those resulting in charged/summons), on a quarterly basis. The latest information, to the year ending September 2024, were on published Thursday 30 January 2025 and can be accessed here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tablesThe Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of arrests made by police in England and Wales, broken down by offence group, on an annual basis. The latest data, covering the period to March 2024, is available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/stop-and-search-arrests-and-mental-health-detentions-march-2024The data is collected by broader offence group, such as ‘Theft offences’.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the length of prison sentences for violent shoplifting offences.

In the last year of the previous government, shoplifting soared to a twenty-year high, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse . We will not stand for this.Everybody has a right to feel safe at their place of work and this Government is committed to tackling retail crime.That’s why we will introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We will also end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to shop theft of goods of £200 and under. This will remove any perception that offenders will escape punishment

What steps her Department is taking to support freedom of speech in (a) schools and (b) universities.

This government is absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom in schools, universities and beyond. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, confirmed to Parliament on 15 January the government’s plans for the future of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which will create a more effective, proportionate, balanced and less burdensome approach to protecting academic freedom and freedom of speech.In addition, schools must promote the fundamental British values, including democracy and individual liberty. Schools have a statutory duty to ensure a balanced presentation of political issues, but older pupils can engage with the political issues provided activity is conducted sensitively and not targeted at others. The promotion of fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs is considered by Ofsted in their inspections.

Communities and Local Government, when she plans to publish a timetable for local government re-organisation.

I wrote to all councils in two-tier areas and to neighbouring small unitaries on 5th February to formally invite unitary proposals from all these councils. These letters will shortly be published on gov.uk and they set out the timelines and next steps for local government re-organisation.

Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with Ashfield District Council about phase one of the local government re-organisation.

There has not been a meeting with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Ashfield District Council about phase one of the local government re-organisation.

What steps she is taking to increase opportunities for STEM apprentices.

This government has committed to widening the apprenticeships offer into a growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners across the country and aligns with the industrial strategy, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries.As a first step, this will include shorter duration and foundation apprenticeships in targeted sectors, helping more people to learn new high-quality skills at work, fuelling innovation in businesses across the country, and providing high-quality entry pathways for young people.Apprenticeships are a great way for individuals to begin, or progress in, a successful career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Employers have developed over 350 apprenticeships in STEM sectors including level 3 Cyber Security Technician, level 4 Software Developer and level 6 Civil Engineer degree to meet their needs.The department continues to promote the benefits that apprenticeships offer, through the Skills for Life campaign.In addition, Skills England will help to ensure that there is a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training and technical qualifications for individuals and employers to access, which are aligned with skills gaps and what employers need. This includes the needs of STEM sectors identified in the industrial strategy, such as advanced manufacturing.