Written questions by Mullane.

What steps he is taking to reduce electricity costs.

Over this Parliament the government will be working relentlessly to translate the much cheaper wholesale costs of clean power into lower bills for consumers. This will be core to every decision we make.

What steps he is taking to incentivise the uptake of heat pumps.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) provides grants to property owners to enable them to transition away from fossil fuel to low carbon heating. The grant available under the scheme for air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps is £7,500. Support is also available to low-income households and social housing tenants under the Energy Company Obligation, Warm Homes: Local Grant, and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund to install low-carbon heating measures, including heat pumps. This is in addition to the 0% rate of VAT on the installation of heat pumps, which will last until March 2027.

Whether her Department plans to include policies on autism in the youth employment strategy delivery plan.

The Department recognises that young people with autism can face significant barriers to seeking and remaining in employment. As outlined in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we have ambitious plans to better support our young people to lead fulfilling lives and careers. The Get Britain Working White Paper sets out our approach to supporting young people into employment, including the introduction of a new Youth Guarantee for all 18–21-year-olds in England. As part of this, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Education are working with the eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities who have commenced delivery of the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers. These Trailblazers are testing how new local leadership, accountability structures and provision can be integrated into a cohesive education, training and employment support for young people. Several areas are specifically designing support for young people with health conditions and disabilities, including autism. DWP also provides tailored employment support for 16–24-year-olds on Universal Credit through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes access to work coaches, Youth Hubs, and Disability Employment Advisors, who can offer personalised support to neurodivergent young people. The Government wants to support all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. We are looking to build on the findings of the Buckland Review of Autism Employment and have launched the Neurodiversity Academic Panel – an independent group of experts, many with lived experience—to advise on boosting awareness and inclusion across all age groups. The Government is committed to consulting with stakeholders, including young people with health conditions and those who are neurodivergent.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent the decommissioning of supported housing schemes.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 51474 on 19 May 2025.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the NHS 10-Year Plan reflects the specific (a) workforce, (b) training and (c) capacity needs of children's palliative care services.

As part of the work to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, we have been carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative care and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and stakeholders.The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and children’s palliative care and end of life care services, will have a big role to play in that shift.A central part of our forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce, including how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the National Health Service needs to care for patients, including those with palliative care and end of life care needs, across our communities.We will also publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it, including for those with palliative care and end of life care needs.

Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to include provisions for youths in the upcoming homelessness strategy.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 20895 on 19 December 2024.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she has taken with Homes England to encourage SMEs to build affordable homes.

The government has set Homes England a strategic objective that funding for the Affordable Homes Programme for 2021-26 should support use of small and medium-sized enterprise contractors. When Homes England assess a bid to the programme for funding, they will look at how the proposed development meets this strategic objective. Homes England will also include this objective in any grant agreement for the programme.

Communities and Local Government, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing emergency funding for temporary accommodation in London.

This government has increased funding for homelessness services in 2025/26 by £233 million to nearly £1 billion. This includes more than £277 million for London, an increase of more than £78 million from 2024/25.Councils can draw from the wider local government finance settlement to help meet homelessness and temporary accommodation costs. The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025/26 makes available a total Core Spending Power of up to £10.14 billion for London Boroughs excluding the GLA, representing an increase of 6.6%.

If her Department will remove the 2011 cap on Local Housing Allowance payable for temporary accommodation through the Housing Benefit Subsidy system.

DWP pays local authorities a Housing Benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation cases. There are restrictions on the amount paid, including a subsidy cap which is £500 per week in certain areas of London or £375 elsewhere. We recognise the financial pressures which local authorities are experiencing. MHCLG are increasing funding for homelessness services this year by an extra £233 million compared to last year (2024/25). We continue to keep the rates used for Housing Benefit subsidy under review and are working closely with MHCLG and the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to explore the impacts of subsidy rates on local authorities. Any future decisions on subsidy rates will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing and the current challenging financial environment at the appropriate fiscal event.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for the fire and rescue service as part of the upcoming spending review.

Overall, fire and rescue authorities have received around £2.87 billion in 2024/25. The Local Government Funding Settlement was published on 3 February and sets out funding allocations for all Local Authorities including Fire and Rescue. In 2025/26, standalone Fire and Rescue Authorities will see an increase in core spending power of £65.5m in 2025/26. These allocations, which include the National Insurance Contribution Grant, represent a 3.6% increase in core spending power. The government has committed to performing a Zero-Based Review of all expenditure, conducting line-by-line scrutiny of spending. This is the first time in over a decade and a half that government departments have been asked to take such an approach, with what’s called a “zero-based review” last undertaken 17 years ago. The Spending Review will draw on this to ensure funding is aligned with the government’s priorities and the Plan for Change.

If her Department will take steps to allow colleges to carry out their own end point assessments for apprenticeships.

In February 2025 the department announced improvements to apprenticeship assessment and published a new set of assessment principles. This will make assessment simpler for employers, providers and apprentices and remove unnecessary duplication.End-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) will be able to delegate assessment to the apprenticeship training provider, including colleges, where appropriate, in line with the revised assessment plan. EPAOs will continue to shape the assessment and ensure the validity of outcomes.These changes will make the system more efficient and improve the experience for employers and apprentices, while retaining rigour and quality, and ensuring consistency in outcomes. This will ensure employers can be confident that apprentices have met the standards employers require.Existing assessment plans will be rewritten on a standard-by-standard basis to reflect these changes. The department is working closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to develop and implement these revisions from April 2025. Further detail, including which assessment plans will be revised and by when, will be outlined in due course.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a VAT relief scheme for Further Education institutions.

Education services supplied by an “eligible body” are exempt from VAT. For VAT purposes, an “eligible body” broadly refers to most regulated, publicly funded, or not-for-profit education providers. This means no VAT is charged on supplies of education made by further education colleges, nor are further education colleges able to recover the VAT they have incurred on their expenditure. The Government is not currently planning to introduce a VAT refund scheme for further education institutions.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of re-evaluating the existing capital funding scheme for Further Education.

Ensuring schools and colleges have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life. The government is investing £6.7 billion of capital funding for education in the 2025/26 financial year, a 19% real-terms increase from the 2024/25 financial year, including £950 million in skills. The department currently provides capital funding for further education (FE) through a wide range of programmes.In the Spring Statement 2025, £625 million of funding was announced to support construction skills training. The funding includes capital investment through the establishment of Technical Excellence Colleges and the creation of an employer match funding pot worth £80 million.On 1 April 2025, the department provided £302 million in new funding to FE colleges to support them to maintain, improve and ensure suitability of their estates. The new FE college condition allocation will help address the maintenance backlog and ensure a great environment for learning. Every FE college group will receive a share of this funding and will have the discretion to decide how funding is spent towards condition priorities for their estate.The department keeps all FE capital funding programmes under continuous review and any future capital investment will be subject to the spending review, which is due to conclude in summer 2025.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing (a) fiscal measures and (b) tax incentives to promote the uptake of (i) heat battery and (ii) other low carbon technologies in homes.

The Government is committed to improving the quality and sustainability of our housing stock, through improvements such as low carbon heating, insulation, solar panels, and batteries. Installations of qualifying energy-saving materials (ESMs) in residential accommodation and buildings used solely for a charitable purpose benefit from a temporary VAT zero rate until March 2027, after which they will revert to the reduced rate of VAT at five per cent. This support – worth over £1 billion – will aid households and charities in improving the energy efficiency of their buildings and help to reduce carbon emissions.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential contribution of heat battery technology to the Government’s target for decarbonising homes by 2030.

Heat batteries are a promising low-carbon heating technology because they utilise time-of-use tariffs and do not require outside space. However, they are less efficient than heat pumps and therefore use more energy to meet the same heating demand. Although they can be charged at off-peak times, if not sized or used correctly, heat batteries could add to peak demand on the electricity network and increase bills for property owners. The Department is exploring, through studies like the Homes for Net Zero Trial, the role heat batteries could play in the future.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential contribution of heat batteries to balancing grid demand during peak energy usage periods.

Heat batteries are a promising low-carbon heating technology because they utilise time-of-use tariffs and do not require outside space. However, they are less efficient than heat pumps and therefore use more energy to meet the same heating demand. Although they can be charged at off-peak times, if not sized or used correctly, heat batteries could add to peak demand on the electricity network and increase bills for property owners. The Department is exploring, through studies like the Homes for Net Zero Trial, the role heat batteries could play in the future.

If she will postpone changes to the taxation of double-cab pick-up trucks for 12 months.

Following a judgement by the Court of Appeal, Double Cab Pick Ups must be treated as cars, rather than goods vehicles, for certain tax purposes, based on their primary suitability.The government has no plans to legislate to postpone the change and treat DCPUs as goods vehicles, as this would depart from the broader principles underpinning the Court of Appeal’s judgement, and be a significant tax break worth hundreds of millions per year.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of service life on non-UK nationality families of serving personnel.

This Government recognises and values the vital support which all Service families provide to our Armed Forces, which enables them to serve our country both in the UK and overseas in order to maintain national security. We are therefore committed through the Armed Forces Covenant to continuously work to improve the lives of the Armed Forces community in conjunction with other Government Departments, and work is currently underway to fully extend the legal duty further. For our non-UK families, much of that work focusses on their UK immigration status, and the Ministry of Defence works very closely with the Home Office to ensure that those who serve or have served in the Regular Armed Forces and their families are not disadvantaged by Service life. This includes special Immigration Rules Appendix HM Armed Forces which offer a number of advantages for families such as being exempt from paying the Immigration Health Surcharge to access NHS services; being granted visas for entry to the UK valid for up to 60 months compared to 30 months on other family routes; being able to count time outside the UK on accompanied overseas assignments towards future Settlement or naturalisation applications; and children born in the UK or qualifying territories to Serving personnel are British by birth. Support and information is also available to families on a range of issues including relocation, accommodation, education and NHS facilities through the Single Services, the HIVE Information Centres, the new Families Hub and the Families Federations.

If she make it her policy to introduce a new interest-free loan scheme for taxi drivers purchasing new taxis matched to the retail price of the LEVC TXE.

As of October 2024, 60% of actively licensed London taxis were zero emission capable (ZEC). The Plug in Taxi Grant (PiTG) has been crucial in supporting taxi drivers to make this transition to ZEC vehicles and decarbonise our roads. On 25 February 2025, the Government announced that the PITG will be extended into the 2025/26 financial year with a reduced rate of £4,000 per eligible vehicle. The Government does not currently intend to introduce an interest-free loan scheme for taxi drivers.

If she will extend the VAT exemption afforded to adapted motor vehicles for people with disabilities to London’s Black Cabs.

The Government is committed to ensuring support is there for the most vulnerable people in our society. Certain products designed solely for use by a disabled person can qualify for a zero rate of VAT. VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax, forecast to raise £171 billion in 2024/25. Exceptions to the standard rate have always been limited and balanced against affordability considerations. Another key consideration when assessing a new VAT relief is whether the cost saving is likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices. Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates and so in some cases, reliefs do not represent good value for money.