Every parliamentary written question tabled by Lewis Cocking this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 21–40 of 248 · this parliament
Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support Sport England.
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, has access to and benefits from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.That is why we provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s length body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million of National Lottery and exchequer funding.
Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help support the provision of multi-use pitches.
The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding into grassroots sport across England, including providing support for England Hockey. We are also investing £98 million into new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities across the UK through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2025/26. Projects funded through the programme include new artificial multi-sport grass pitches, changing pavilions and floodlights. At least 40% of funded projects have a multi-sport offer, allowing more people to participate in a wider variety of sports. £85 million will be invested through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities across the UK in 2026/27, with £68.35 million to be invested in England. An additional £15 million will be invested into innovative facilities in England, to allow more people to participate in sports they wish to.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she taking to help support councils to seize and crush vehicles involved in fly-tipping.
Defra has conducted a review of council powers to seize and crush vehicles used by suspected fly-tippers, and we are working to identify how we could help councils make better use of this tool. Defra is exploring options and intend to bring forward best practice guidance shortly.
If she will make an estimate of the potential impact of roadworks on the economy.
The Department is unable to provide a current estimate of the overall impact of roadworks on the economy. This is because road and street works are carried out by a wide range of organisations, for different purposes, and the Department does not collect the data that would be required to produce a reliable national estimate.Road and street works are essential to maintaining and upgrading utility services and the road network, and they play a vital role in supporting economic growth by enabling continued investment in critical infrastructure. Where street and road works do result in disruption, we recognise the wider impacts this can have on the economy. We remain committed to minimising these effects wherever possible. This includes strengthening penalties to improve compliance, enhancing coordination through the use of digital tools, and supporting local highway authorities to adopt lane rental schemes, which encourage works promoters to plan and deliver works more efficiently, thereby reducing delays and congestion.
With reference to Written Statement HCWS1232 on 12 January 2025, what steps she is taking to minimise disruption to road users as a result of additional highways maintenance.
The Government has provided a record investment of £7.3 billion for local highways maintenance over the next four years. Investing into improving the condition of local roads is crucial to reduce disruption to motorists, for whom potholes can pose a safety risk or lead to damage to vehicles. Local highway authorities themselves are responsible for maintaining their network and for the delivery of maintenance works. By providing them with long-term funding certainty, the Department enables them to move away from reactive repairs towards planned and preventative maintenance approaches. These keep roads in good condition for longer, prevent potholes from forming, and reduce the need for unplanned emergency repairs which can often lead to the greatest disruption. In addition, the Department has introduced an incentive element to its highways maintenance funding. To gain access to their full funding allocation, local highway authorities will have to publish highways maintenance transparency reports and set out how they comply with best practice, including in relation to minimising disruption to road users. This is also considered by the Department’s recently published rating system for local highway authorities. The ratings will be updated annually to provide an incentive to local highway authorities to adopt best practice, and to enable the Department to identify where they need to improve and to support them. Further guidance on minimising disruption from maintenance works is also available in the Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure.
Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure local planning authorities enforce Construction Environmental Management Plans.
Construction environmental management plans are usually required by conditions imposed on the grant of planning permission. Local planning authorities already have a wide range of powers to deal with breaches of planning condition. It is for authorities themselves to decide when and how they use those powers.
When he plans to answer Question 99357, tabled on 11 December 2025.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 29 January 2026 to Question 99357.
What steps he is taking to regulate pub-owning companies and breweries with fewer than 500 tied tenants.
The Government currently has no plans to consider regulating pub owning companies with less than 500 tied tenants, or to regulate breweries. Pub owning businesses that don’t meet the qualifying threshold for the Pubs Code can, however, join a voluntary scheme administered by the Pub Governing Body. This scheme, also known as the Voluntary Pubs Code, provides signatories with a dispute resolution service and fair methods of determining rent by an independent expert.
When he plans to publish a response to the Statutory review of Pubs Code and Pubs Code Adjudicator 2022 to 2025.
The third statutory review covering the period 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2025 is in progress and the government’s report will be published as soon as practicable. My officials are currently analysing the evidence collected from last year’s call for evidence and from other publicly available sources. Stakeholder responses to the call for evidence have greatly assisted my officials in identifying emerging themes and are further informing the review’s content. I am grateful for the helpful input provided by stakeholders and will continue to engage with them in taking forward the conclusions to the review.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 to Question 97317 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether he expects the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and the re-organisation of local government structures to have any impact on Department spending.
The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics by reducing unnecessary layers of governance and bureaucracy. Both the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners, alongside local government reorganisation is intended to deliver savings for the taxpayer over time, with efficiencies reinvested in frontline services. Exact savings from local government reorganisation will vary depending on the area and the final decisions on which proposals, if any, are implemented.
What discussions he has had with the MHRA on the potential impact of regulatory reform on the time taken to develop glioblastoma treatments.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department and regulates medicine, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion in the United Kingdom, with responsibility for ensuring medicines meet appropriate standards of safety, quality, and efficacy.The impact of the new regulatory reform on the development of glioblastoma is that the new regulations will introduce notifiable trials, including initial and modification trials, which will be approved within 21 days without further assessment if they meet the inclusion criteria. Therefore, these submissions will be approved with a short turnaround time. This approach will free up assessors’ time to provide more support for trials that require closer scrutiny. The trials in glioblastoma are part of the oncology area, which represents almost 30% of all submissions received by the MHRA.
Innovation and Technology, what funding the Government has allocated to support new or expanded manufacturing facilities for advanced glioblastoma treatments.
This Government has made funds available to support UK manufacture of medicines and medical technology products, including up to £520 million to the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund and £50 million to the pilot Life Sciences Transformational R&D Investment fund. These funds are open to applicants looking to establish, expand or improve UK based manufacturing of treatments for glioblastoma and other cancers, as well as a wider range of capabilities that improve UK health resilience.
What recent discussions he has had with industry on the expansion of manufacturing sites for glioblastoma treatment development.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 22 December 2025 by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to Question 99356.
With reference to the Autumn Budget 2025, published on 26 November, HC 1492, on what evidential basis she estimated the saving arising from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and re-organising local government structures.
The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics. The figures were calculated based on estimated savings from the potential reduction in local councillors through local government reorganisation and from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners. These estimates are built from a range of sources including Local Government Boundary Commission data; salaries; office costs; election costs; sampling of councillor expenditure data from current authorities.
If she will make an estimate of the potential impact of traffic congestion on the economy.
The Department for Transport publishes transport analysis guidance to help assess the economic cost of congestion associated with different policy interventions. It also regularly publishes statistics on speeds, delay and reliability on different types of roads. However, it does not routinely assess the economic cost of congestion on the road network as a whole.
What her Department's policy is on supporting schools with falling pupil numbers.
Local authorities hold the statutory place planning function, ensuring there are sufficient schools in their area to meet the needs of pupils. It is for local authorities, in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners, to balance the supply and demand of school places.The department recognises the pressures caused by demographic changes in some areas. The lagged funding system, where schools are funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census, helps to give schools more certainty over funding levels, and is particularly important in giving schools with falling rolls time to re-organise their staffing and costs.Where falling pupil numbers results in spare space becoming available, primary schools have been able to apply for capital funding to create or expand school-based nurseries. We have just announced at least £3 billion for high needs capital between 2026/27 and 2029/30, on top of the £740 million this year, to create special educational needs units and resourced provision, including where there is spare space, and to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of the school environment.
Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 90424 on New Towns, in which sections of the New Towns Taskforce: Report to government and the Initial government response - September 2025 are references made to consultations with neighbouring local authorities before new towns are built.
The independent New Towns Taskforce final report and the government’s initial response to it stress the importance of community engagement and working with local partners in delivering the New Towns programme. The government will publish draft proposals and a final Strategic Environmental Assessment for consultation early next year, before confirming the locations that will be progressed as new towns later in the Spring. At that point, we will publish a full response to the New Towns Taskforce’s report including details of what relevant consultations will take place in respect of each new town location.
Communities and Local Government, what his Department's policy is on local authorities who do not wish to engage in local government reorganisation.
On 5 February 2025, the Government invited two-tier authorities and their neighbouring small unitary councils to develop proposals for unitary local government. All areas have engaged with their invitation although not all councils have submitted proposals. I am grateful for the vast amount of work undertaken by councils to develop proposals, which have now been received from every area invited, and expect local leaders to continue working collaboratively and proactively with each other as we go through the next stages of this process. It was for councils to decide whether to submit a proposal in response to the invitation by the deadline that was specified. Whether they submitted a proposal or not, they will be a named consultee in the Government’s statutory consultations. This Government is determined to streamline local government by replacing the current two-tier council system with new single-tier unitary councils. Empowered local government, based on unitary councils and strategic authorities, is the foundation for growth across the country – the government’s number one mission.
Pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 88403 on Social Security Benefits: Foreign Nationals and with reference to the Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 12 June 2025, published on 15 July 2025, what progress his Department has made on producing Immigration and Nationality statistics for (a) Universal Credit and b) other benefits.
Since first publishing the Universal Credit statistics by immigration status and nationality group on 15 July 2025, the Department has published regular updates, with the latest, published on 11 November 2025, covering statistics to October 2025. The Department checks immigration status when assessing eligibility for benefits, but this information is not collated centrally across all benefit lines and hence is not readily available.
What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of palliative care services in Broxbourne constituency.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England, due to be published in Spring 2026. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. St Clare Hospice, which cares for patients from the Broxbourne constituency, is receiving £579,780 from this funding.We are also providing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients. Haven House Children’s Hospice and Noah’s Ark Children's Hospice near Broxbourne will both benefit from this funding.