Written questions by Patel.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the 21 day scrutiny period for his proposed Treaty with Mauritius over the future sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

This issue was the subject of correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Chair of the International Agreements Committee, which was published on the Committee's website: committees.parliament.uk/publications/46222/documents/231382/default/

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of reports of China's involvement in support of Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Any support for Putin's brutal and illegal war against Ukraine is deplorable. We are extremely concerned by these reports. There is a growing body of evidence that Chinese companies are enabling Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.The Foreign Secretary has directly urged China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a number of occasions, to take concrete measures to prevent Chinese companies from supporting Russia's military-industrial complex. We continue to call on China to stop providing diplomatic and material support to Russia's war effort.On 24 February, we sanctioned an additional 10 Chinese entities, taking the total number of Chinese entities designated by the UK over supply to Russia to 31. Given the continued flow of components from China to Russia, this Government is now also minded to refuse licences for controlled goods on the Common High Priority list exported for stock to China. Guidance for UK exporters has been updated to this effect.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Home Secretary on the potential merits of placing China in the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.

No decision has been made in relation to specifying China on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. As the Security Minister confirmed in Parliament on 1 April, countries are considered separately, and decisions are made based on a robust evidence base. It would not be appropriate to speculate on which countries may or may not be specified in the future, but any changes will be announced in Parliament in the usual way.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 23 April 2025 entitled Further reforms to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime, HCWS594, which projects were used to calculate the difference in the average processing time of applications in this Parliament compared to the last Parliament; and what (a) projects in the pipeline were and (b) methodology was used to calculate the estimated reduction in expenditure.

Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) applications once accepted by the Planning Inspectorate are being processed on average 50 days quicker in this Parliament than in the last. This was calculated using the average time taken by projects processed in the parliamentary term July 2019 to July 2024 compared to projects in this parliament between July 2024 to February 2025. Information on applications for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, and their decisions, can be found on the Planning Inspectorate’s website here. This page includes information on projects already determined, projects due for decision and projects at an earlier stage in the application process. In Written Ministerial Statement of 23 April 2025, the government announced that it will amend the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to remove the statutory requirement to consult as part of the pre-application stage for NSIP applications, bringing requirements in line with all other planning regimes. We estimate that these changes could result in a cost saving of £1bn across the pipeline. This estimate is based on analysis from the National Infrastructure Commission which identified that delays can cost a project around £1.5m per month of delay. Together with evidence from key stakeholders in the NSIP process which shows that these changes could save projects 12 months, we estimate a saving of £18m per project. If you apply £18m in savings to the number of expected projects that would benefit from these changes within this Parliament, it will give a total saving of over £1bn.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution by the then Minister for Development on 26 February 2025, Official Report, column 873, who the 28 international judges and arbitrators are; and in (a) what context and (b) which institutions those opinions were given.

As well as the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion in 2019, an Arbitral Tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 2015 and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in 2021 have considered the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago. None have expressed support for a United Kingdom claim to sovereignty.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether research studies on the establishment of the British Indian Ocean Territory marine protected area for the period 2010 to 2024 will be published this year.

The British Indian Ocean Territory Administration currently has responsibility for the management and monitoring of its marine protected area, including the release of research studies sponsored by them.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Prime Minister discussed the (a) UK's future ODA plans and (b) reparatory justice for (i) Barbados and (ii) the Caribbean when he met the Prime Minister of Barbados on 4 April 2025.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the readout of the meeting on gov.uk.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which legislation will require changes due to the proposed treaty with Mauritius; whether the Office of Parliamentary Counsel has drafted the necessary legislation; and when he plans to publish the relevant Bill.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the response given to her previous Parliamentary Questions 39402, 39403 and 41824 on the details of the treaty.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which representatives of the Mauritian government his Department has had discussions with on the proposed treaty since July 2024.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the response given to her previous Parliamentary Question 36637, which remains the same.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations he has received from his Mauritian counterpart on the proposed treaty since 31 January 2025.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the response given to her previous Parliamentary Question 36637, which remains the same.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answers of 20 December 2024 and 13 March 2025 to Questions 18362 and 32977 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Cost Effectiveness, what plans his Department has to make efficiency savings in the (a) 2025-26, (b) 2026-27, (c) 2027-28 and (d) 2028-29 financial years, broken down by (i) savings programme, (ii) savings targets for each programme, (iii) productivity improvements identified, (iv) IT programmes and digital innovation programmes identified and (v) workforce changes.

As agreed with HM Treasury in Phase 1 of Spending Review 2025, The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will make savings of 2 per cent of total Resource budgets in Financial Year 2025-26 (£26 million). The FCDO plans to achieve this through: the completion of multi-year IT programmes saving £24 million including Osprey and Echo 2, sustainability innovations at global Posts saving £1 million, and productivity improvements in Arm's Length Bodies saving £1 million. There are no workforce changes anticipated from the planned savings and efficiencies in Financial Year 2025-26.As part of Phase 2 of the Spending Review, all departments are expected to meet savings and efficiencies of more than 5% of their 2025-26 budgets by the end of the period (2028-29). Detail of these proposals will be confirmed once the Spending Review concludes.

How many Time To Pay Agreements with (a) individuals and (b) businesses there were in each year since 2020; how many of those agreements have been (i) terminated and (ii) renegotiated since July 2024; and how many complaints about those agreements from (A) individuals and (B) businesses HMRC has received since July 2024.

HMRC publishes data on the number of customers in Time to Pay (TTP) arrangements as part of its quarterly performance updates, which can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates Over 90% of TTP arrangements are completed successfully. There is a variety of reasons why a TTP arrangement might end before the agreed period; for example, a customer may fail to make their payments on time, the customer may pay the debt in full, or they may ask HMRC to “renegotiate” the TTP to include new liabilities becoming due or to reflect a change in circumstances. HMRC’s systems do not hold data on how many TTPs have specifically been “terminated” or “renegotiated”. “Renegotiated” TTPs are included in the overall published TTP figures. Extracting the relevant information to confirm how many complaints HMRC has received about “terminated” or “renegotiated” TTPs since July 2024, broken down by individuals and businesses, would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold for Written Parliamentary Questions.

Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the amount of land outside of currently designated settlement boundaries in Essex in respective local plans which will be required to meet her housing targets, by each local planning authority.

The National Planning Policy Framework expects local planning authorities to plan to meet their identified needs and have a clear understanding of the land available in their area. This includes identifying suitable locations for sustainable development.In doing so, local authorities should promote effective use of land, making as much use as possible of previously developed land and land within settlements.Local authorities may also consider land outside of existing settlement boundaries where this can meet identified needs in a sustainable way, or by supporting applications for Rural Exception Sites.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has received representations on delays or challenges in securing the return of British children from Poland under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

This Government takes International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) extremely seriously. Affected parents have reported issues to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office regarding the enforcement of Polish court orders requiring the return of abducted children to the UK. I met the Rt. Honourable Member's constituent in January to discuss his daughter's abduction and the devastating toll IPCA takes on those affected. This Government will continue to raise the issue at every appropriate opportunity with the Polish authorities, including at ministerial level.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an estimate of (a) the size of his Department's workforce and (b) the cost of his Department's workforce in the (i) 2025-26, (ii) 2026-27, (iii) 2027-28, (iv) 2028-29 and (v) 2029-30 financial years.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has a workforce budget of £1.02 billion for Financial Year 2025-26, which currently supports a workforce of 17,300, inclusive of 5900 UK based staff in the UK, 2,200 UK based staff overseas and 9,200 non-civil servant country-based staff employed in-country.The FCDO is working through our Spending Review settlement with HM Treasury, which will enable detailed workforce projections for the Spending Review period to be made. Overall, our expectation is that the size of the workforce will reduce in the coming years, but spending decisions will need to be balanced against investment in technology, estate, and capability to ensure the FCDO can continue to deliver the government's priorities.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much (a) funding is available for voluntary exit schemes in (i) his Department and (ii) non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department and (b) his Department has forecast will be spent expenditure on voluntary exits in each financial year until 2029-30; and what estimate he has made of the number of voluntary exits from his Department in each financial year until 2029-30.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office agreed a voluntary exit scheme settlement for Financial Year 2025/2026 with His Majesty's Treasury of £35 million. The current scheme does not include any non-departmental bodies. Exits must be completed by the end of the financial year and will total around 500 exits. This is an estimated figure as applicants may withdraw from the scheme. There are no plans for a further scheme at this time. Voluntary exit schemes are a helpful and commonly used process by most large organisations, and future schemes will vary in scale and scope to meet business need. All future plans will be subject to the outcome of Phase 2 of the Spending Review.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Polish counterpart on improving cooperation in (a) cross-border family law cases and (b) cases involving parental child abduction; and what recent steps he has taken to improve the effectiveness of Hague Convention mechanisms in cases involving the abduction of children from the UK to (i) EU countries and (ii) Poland.

This Government takes International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) extremely seriously. As a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention, the UK remains committed to the effective enforcement of court orders requiring a child's return to their place of habitual residence. On 19 December 2024, the Foreign Secretary raised the issue of IPCA in Poland with Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. On 28 February, I raised the issue with my Polish counterpart, Minister Marek Prawda, and with the Polish Ambassador to the UK on 29 April 2025. HMG officials also raise issues directly with Polish authorities. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Ministry of Justice, and other key UK authorities hosted a Polish delegation in April to enhance cooperation and improve outcomes in cross-border family cases.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether any marine areas will be covered within the lease of the base on Diego Garcia.

Under the agreement the UK will continue to have full control over, and unrestricted access to, Diego Garcia, including the waters and airspace. This will ensure the long term secure and effective operation of the base well into the next century.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what formal response he has received from the US on the proposed treaty with Mauritius.

We have received confirmation from the White House that the United States supports the UK proceeding with the deal. This follows a rigorous U.S. interagency process. We welcome the U.S. endorsement of the deal, as well as the President's recognition of the strength of the deal.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made a formal request to the US to support the costs of the proposed lease for the military base at Diego Garcia.

The treaty will be between the UK and Mauritius. The base is an essential part of the UK-US defence relationship, and the US contributes a great deal to the operating cost of the base.  Once the treaty is signed it will be put before both Houses for scrutiny before ratification in the usual way. This will include costs.