Every parliamentary written question tabled by Lee Dillon this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 181–200 of 640 · this parliament
Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to increase regulation of retirement management companies in relation to their policies governing the resale of managed retirement properties following the death of the occupier.
I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to Questions UIN 95245 on 5 December 2025 and UIN 68820 on 2 September 2025.
Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of removing Sport England as a statutory planning consultee on the future provision of playing fields, pitches and community sports facilities.
I refer the hon. Members to the answers given to Questions UIN 103087 on 13 January 2026, and UIN 112696 on 2 March 2026.
Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the sport and recreation sector on proposals to remove Sport England as a statutory planning consultee.
I refer the hon. Members to the answers given to Questions UIN 103087 on 13 January 2026, and UIN 112696 on 2 March 2026.
Communities and Local Government, how many responses were received to the recent consultation on the reform of statutory consultees, specifically in relation to the proposal to remove Sport England as a statutory consultee.
I refer the hon. Members to the answers given to Questions UIN 103087 on 13 January 2026, and UIN 112696 on 2 March 2026.
What steps he is taking to improve timely access to general practice appointments.
We are committed to improving timely access to general practice appointments. Last year, we delivered 6.8 million more appointments in general practices. Since October 2024, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to support the recruitment of over 2,000 general practitioners (GPs), exceeding our initial target of 1,000. For the 2026/27 GP Contract, we’re investing an additional £485 million into GPs, removing restrictions to allow primary care networks to hire more GPs via ARRS, and introducing a practice-level reimbursement scheme which will be available to practices to hire additional GPs, or fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs which aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction. NHS England published the Medium‑Term Planning Framework in October, setting a new requirement for all urgent appointments to be delivered on the same day, ensuring that patients needing urgent care are prioritised. Building on this, the 2026/27 GP Contract makes it explicit that any requests identified as clinically urgent, as determined by the GPs, must be dealt with on the same day Patient satisfaction is already rising after a decade of decline. Office for National Statistics data from January 2026 shows that 76.8% of patients reported it was “easy” to contact their GP, up from 60.9% in July 2024.
What steps she is taking to support young adults in Newbury constituency with financial difficulties as a result of freezes to the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold.
Plan 2 loans were designed and implemented by previous governments, and we are having to make hard choices to balance taxpayer and borrower interests to ensure that the student finance system remains sustainable.Student loan repayments are linked to income, not to the amount borrowed or interest applied. The repayment threshold will rise in April 2026, to £29,385 which is a higher rate than the average graduate salary three years after graduation. As repayments remain income-contingent if a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same. Repayments are made at a constant rate of 9% above the earnings threshold, and the 9% rate strikes a balance between affordability for graduates and fairness to taxpayers. Even with the freeze, in year one the average borrower on a Plan 2 loan will repay around £8 more than had the freeze not been enforced.Those earning below the earnings threshold do not make repayments. Any outstanding loan including interest built up, is cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants. This is a deliberate government investment in students and the economy.
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of freezes to the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold on recent graduates.
Plan 2 loans were designed and implemented by previous governments, and we are having to make hard choices to balance taxpayer and borrower interests to ensure that the student finance system remains sustainable.Student loan repayments are linked to income, not to the amount borrowed or interest applied. The repayment threshold will rise in April 2026, to £29,385 which is a higher rate than the average graduate salary three years after graduation. As repayments remain income-contingent if a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same. Repayments are made at a constant rate of 9% above the earnings threshold, and the 9% rate strikes a balance between affordability for graduates and fairness to taxpayers. Even with the freeze, in year one the average borrower on a Plan 2 loan will repay around £8 more than had the freeze not been enforced.Those earning below the earnings threshold do not make repayments. Any outstanding loan including interest built up, is cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants. This is a deliberate government investment in students and the economy.
Whether her Department worked with the Home Office in the development of the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
My Department has been closely involved in the development of the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls (Freedom from Violence and Abuse) Strategy, which includes nine commitments to help improve safety for women and girls on the transport network. These commitments focus on prevention, early intervention and response, and align with the Government’s ambition to halve VAWG within a decade.
How her Department plans to promote the National Year of Reading within early years policy and strategy during 2026 and beyond.
I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 16 February 2026 to Question 111973.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to address the decline in populations of British wild birds.
We are committed to delivering our statutory biodiversity targets which will support the recovery and conservation of native wild birds. Nationally, Government actions to restore and create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042, along with projects funded through Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, will support the conservation and recovery of a wide range of bird species. Within the farmland environment, Environment Land Management schemes include actions that provide food, shelter, and nesting habitat for a range of bird species. In addition, to support delivery of our statutory species targets, Defra is developing a detailed Threatened Bird Recovery Plan which aims to improve the coordination, and drive the delivery, of actions to recover our most threatened bird species.
What steps his Department is taking to encourage nature-positive renewable energy development.
Government will ensure that the protection of nature is embedded into the delivery of clean power and we will be driving for nature to not only be protected but restored through clean power infrastructure. In delivering our Clean Power Action Plan, we are considering how to use development to fund nature recovery unlocking a win-win outcome for the economy and for nature. We are working with Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife Trust and one of our Clean Power Commissioners, nature delivery organisations and the sector to consider how we can better support the delivery of infrastructure whilst driving better environmental outcomes.
What assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of data published by NHS England on waiting times for children and young people to begin community eating disorder treatment.
The Government keeps data published by NHS England on waiting times for children and young people’s community eating disorder services under close review.We recognise that demand for services has increased and that performance varies across the country. That is why we are reforming eating disorder services so that children and young people can access timely, effective support when they need it, rather than after their condition has escalated.This shift towards prevention and stronger community-based support underpins the new National Health Service guidance for children and young people’s eating disorder services. The Government is also recruiting 8,500 additional mental health workers across the NHS to increase capacity and reduce unwarranted variation in waiting times.We will continue to work with NHS England and the integrated care boards to improve performance against national access standards and ensure children and young people can access high-quality care regardless of where they live.
Whether his Department plans to engage key stakeholders on the assumptions underpinning workforce modelling in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out action to create a National Health Service workforce able to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. It is important we do this in a robust and joined up way. We are therefore engaging extensively with partners to ensure this plan delivers for staff and patients.A formal call for evidence took place between 25 September and 7 November 2025, which provided stakeholders with the opportunity to contribute directly to the plan’s development. This was part of an ongoing and extensive programme of engagement, including several roundtables and an event hosted last year by ministers, which was attended by nearly one hundred representatives of partner organisations.Insight from this engagement has informed the development of assumptions underpinning the plan’s modelling, which will also be subject to independent scrutiny from external experts.
What progress is being made towards meeting the 18-week referral-to-treatment standard, as set out in the Elective Recovery Plan.
NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance for 2025/26 set a target that, by the end of March 2026, 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks.To achieve this, we expect the size of the total waiting list to reduce and have already made significant progress. As of December 2025, the waiting list had reduced by over 330,000 since the Government came into office. This is despite 31.7 million referrals onto the waiting list. Performance against the referral to treatment standard had improved by 2.7% over the same period, reaching 61.5%.This has been supported by the delivery of 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025 compared to the previous year, more than double the Government’s pledge of two million. This marked a vital first step towards delivering the constitutional standard.
Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the VAT implications of the Places of Worship Grant Scheme on historic churches, particularly those providing warm community spaces.
The Places of Worship Renewal fund will have a budget of £23 million per year, continuing the 2025/26 funding levels of the previous scheme. The new fund will award grants for total project capital works rather than being restricted solely to the VAT element. By shifting the focus to overall project costs, the scheme ensures that in many instances, the financial support granted to preserve these historic community spaces could exceed the amount currently provided under the VAT-only model. While an official estimate of the specific impact of VAT implications on those churches that provide warm community spaces has not been calculated, the design of the new Places of Worship Renewal Fund is intended to offer broader support for historic churches than simply rebating VAT, including those churches serving as vital community hubs.
Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to provide guidance to local authorities on working in partnership with Warm Welcome Spaces located in heritage faith buildings as part of local wellbeing and community support provision.
We recognise the value of religious heritage buildings in local communities and the important role they play in the UK’s national story. Listed places of worship are far more than bricks and mortar; they are at the hearts of our communities, serving as vital hubs for food banks, warm spaces, and social care. The new £92 million Places of Worship Renewal Fund will bring support for these important buildings into line with other heritage assets. Warm Welcome Spaces can support improving social connection and reducing loneliness. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have an active partnership with the Warm Welcome Campaign, aimed at strengthening community connection and supporting customer wellbeing. DWP has promoted Warm Welcome widely across the Jobcentre network so colleagues, including those in Local Authorities, are aware of the offer and can confidently guide customers to local Warm Welcome Spaces.
What plans she has to reduce retail crime in rural areas.
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting retail crime. All communities, including rural communities, will benefit from and are included in these reforms.We are on track to deliver an additional 3,000 neighbourhood officers by March. We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence. Again, these changes are applicable to all types of communities, including those defined as rural.We are equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that are often responsible for driving shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment into OPAL (a specialist policing unit) will supercharge intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.Building from the Winter of Action, we are working with forces and local partners to identify and tackle the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem.We are already seeing a difference. Whilst it is unacceptable that shop theft offences continue to trend upward, this is at a slower rate than we have seen in recent years. The number of charges for shop theft have increased at a greater rate over the same period [up to 111,559 charges or 21%]. This increase in the charge rate from 17.9% to 20.1% shows police are taking these crimes seriously.
What recent assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 in addressing online content that encourages, promotes or provides instructions relating to eating disorders.
The Government recognises the serious harm caused by online content that encourages, promotes or provides instructions relating to eating disorders.The Online Safety Act 2023 makes platforms legally responsible for keeping people, especially children, safe online. All providers must mitigate the risks of illegal harm, including encouraging serious self-harm, on their services. Services likely to be accessed by children must also take steps to mitigate risks to children, including exposure to content relating to eating disorders.Ofcom is responsible for ensuring that services uphold these duties. Its ‘Small But Risky Services Taskforce’ focuses on smaller platforms that host or promote the most acute harms, including self-harm and eating disorder content. These services are identified not by their size, but by the disproportionate level of harm they may present to UK users. The Taskforce has already engaged extensively with high-risk services associated with eating disorders and has assessed over 20 services relating to this harm, with over half identified as high-risk for eating disorder content.The Department continues to work across Government to ensure that online safety measures support wider public health objectives and protect children and young people from harmful content.
What steps he is taking to establish a national delivery model for NHS-commissioned clinical services for pupils in schools.
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. The National Health Service is responsible for meeting the health needs of children and young people diagnosed with an illness or medical condition, including long term conditions.On 5 February 2026, NHS England published ‘Standardising community health services – core component descriptions’ to support integrated care boards’ strategic commissioning of Community Health Services. This guidance sets out the core components and responsibilities of a special school nursing service and community children's nursing service, including the roles of these services in supporting children with medical conditions to access education settings. The document is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/standardising-community-health-services-core-component-descriptions/
What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times in Impact Panel decisions under the LGBT+ Veterans Financial Recognition Scheme.
Defence is committed to ensuring that applications to the LGBT Veterans Financial Recognition Scheme are considered fairly and processed as quickly as possible. We recognise the importance of timely decisions, and are prioritising applications for those aged over 80, those with serious health conditions and those experiencing serious financial hardship. We have already taken steps reduce waiting times, by increasing the number of dedicated staff supporting the Scheme and doubling the number of Independent Panel sittings to two per week, to expedite the processing of applications. Steps are being taken to increase the capacity of the Independent Panel, including the recruitment of an additional Chair and additional Panel Members, to allow it to sit up to three times per week. Defence will keep capacity under review and consider further adjustments if necessary.