Written questions by Morton.

In reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of planned fuel duty increases on households in rural and car-dependent areas; and what modelling the Treasury has undertaken on the additional commuting costs faced by motorists in those areas during a period of rising global fuel prices.

The Chancellor considers a wide range of impacts when taking decisions on tax policy. At Budget 2025, the Government announced that the 5p cut in fuel duty would be extended until the end of August 2026, with rates then gradually returning to March 2022 levels by March 2027. The planned increase in line with inflation for 2026/27 will also not take place, with RPI uprating resuming from 2027/28 onwards.Since Autumn Budget 2024, the Government's decisions to freeze fuel duty will save the average motorist over £90 – or 8-11 pence per litre.The Government has published Tax Impact and Information Notes (TIINs) assessing the impacts of the 2026/27 fuel duty rates, which can be found at GOV.UK:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuel-duty-rates-for-2026-to-2027/fuel-duty-rates-2026-to-2027The Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme provides a 5p reduction to motorists buying fuel in certain areas. The areas included in the scheme demonstrate certain characteristics such as: pump prices much higher than the UK average; remoteness leading to high fuel transport costs from refinery to filling station, and; relatively low sales meaning that retailers cannot benefit from bulk discounts.As the Chancellor has set out, a rapid de-escalation in the Middle East remains the best way to keep prices affordable at the pump. As with all taxes, the Government keeps fuel duty under review.

With reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2026, what estimate she has made of the additional annual cost to the average UK motorist as a result of the planned staged increases in fuel duty between September 2026 and March 2027; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those increases on household finances.

The Chancellor considers a wide range of impacts when taking decisions on tax policy. At Budget 2025, the Government announced that the 5p cut in fuel duty would be extended until the end of August 2026, with rates then gradually returning to March 2022 levels by March 2027. The planned increase in line with inflation for 2026/27 will also not take place, with RPI uprating resuming from 2027/28 onwards.Since Autumn Budget 2024, the Government's decisions to freeze fuel duty will save the average motorist over £90 – or 8-11 pence per litre.The Government has published Tax Impact and Information Notes (TIINs) assessing the impacts of the 2026/27 fuel duty rates, which can be found at GOV.UK:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuel-duty-rates-for-2026-to-2027/fuel-duty-rates-2026-to-2027The Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme provides a 5p reduction to motorists buying fuel in certain areas. The areas included in the scheme demonstrate certain characteristics such as: pump prices much higher than the UK average; remoteness leading to high fuel transport costs from refinery to filling station, and; relatively low sales meaning that retailers cannot benefit from bulk discounts.As the Chancellor has set out, a rapid de-escalation in the Middle East remains the best way to keep prices affordable at the pump. As with all taxes, the Government keeps fuel duty under review.

What assessment she has made of the potential combined impact of the proposed increase in fuel duty and the recent rise in global oil prices on the price of petrol and diesel in the next 12 months.

The Chancellor considers a wide range of impacts when taking decisions on tax policy. At Budget 2025, the Government announced that the 5p cut in fuel duty would be extended until the end of August 2026, with rates then gradually returning to March 2022 levels by March 2027. The planned increase in line with inflation for 2026/27 will also not take place, with RPI uprating resuming from 2027/28 onwards.Since Autumn Budget 2024, the Government's decisions to freeze fuel duty will save the average motorist over £90 – or 8-11 pence per litre.The Government has published Tax Impact and Information Notes (TIINs) assessing the impacts of the 2026/27 fuel duty rates, which can be found at GOV.UK:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fuel-duty-rates-for-2026-to-2027/fuel-duty-rates-2026-to-2027The Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme provides a 5p reduction to motorists buying fuel in certain areas. The areas included in the scheme demonstrate certain characteristics such as: pump prices much higher than the UK average; remoteness leading to high fuel transport costs from refinery to filling station, and; relatively low sales meaning that retailers cannot benefit from bulk discounts.As the Chancellor has set out, a rapid de-escalation in the Middle East remains the best way to keep prices affordable at the pump. As with all taxes, the Government keeps fuel duty under review.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that major regional transport infrastructure projects are delivered on schedule and within budget; what oversight mechanisms exist for monitoring project delivery; and what lessons have been learned from delays to major urban transport schemes.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that delivery of large infrastructure projects is underpinned by prudent spending, taxpayer value for money, and efficiency. Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) and Mayoral Combined Authorities are primarily responsible for delivering major regional transport infrastructure projects using devolved funding. The Department maintains oversight through established governance and assurance processes, including reporting on progress, risks, costs and delivery performance. For the largest and most complex projects the Department retains investment decision-making and works closely with the LTAs to bring projects forward and monitor progress. The Department also provides funding to support LTA capacity and capability to develop and deliver schemes. In addition, the department continues to apply lessons from previous major urban transport schemes, including strengthening project governance, improving risk management, and ensuring clearer sequencing and accountability throughout delivery - to inform both current schemes and the design of future programmes. The Department also published the James Stewart Review (June 2025), which identified lessons from delivery challenges, including delays to complex schemes. All recommendations have been accepted and are being implemented across the Department’s portfolio to improve consistency and delivery performance. The Department for Transport is using key findings to strengthen oversight of major transport infrastructure delivery, with a focus on improving cost estimation, scheduling, governance, assurance, and commercial delivery.

With reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2026, what fiscal headroom the Government is forecast to have against its fiscal rules in each year of the forecast period; what sensitivity analysis has been undertaken by the Office for Budget Responsibility regarding changes in growth, interest rates or inflation; and what assessment she has made of the level of risks to the Government’s ability to meet its fiscal targets.

In line with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)'s mandate, the OBR did not provide a formal assessment of performance against the fiscal rules at the Spring forecast on 3 March. The fiscal rules will be formally assessed alongside the Budget. As the Chancellor said in her speech to the House, the forecast shows headroom against the stability rule has increased since the Budget from £21.7bn at the Budget to £23.6bn in 2029-30, which is the target year, meaning greater resilience against shocks and stability in the economy. Headroom against the investment rule is also higher at £27.1bn in 2029-30. As an independent body, the OBR has full discretion over its forecast methodology and the judgements underpinning its forecasts. As is standard, the March 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlooks included sensitivity analysis around key economic variables and highlighted upside and downside risks to its central forecast

What assessment her Department has made of the comparative costs, reliability and operational performance of hydrogen fuel-cell buses compared with battery-electric buses; what analysis has been undertaken of hydrogen fuel supply risks and infrastructure costs; and what role the Government expects each technology to play in the future decarbonisation of bus fleets.

Buses are procured directly by bus operators or local transport authorities (LTAs) who would make an assessment on the type of zero emission bus (ZEB) to purchase and deploy. The Government’s approach to ZEB competitions has been technology neutral. LTAs have been able to apply for funding for both battery electric buses and hydrogen fuel cell buses.However, in ZEBRA 2, LTAs and bus operators demonstrated a clear preference for battery electric buses, which they have calculated are significantly more cost-effective than hydrogen at this time.

Media and Sport, with reference to the Parliamentary Education Centre currently located in Victoria Tower Gardens, what discussions her Department has had with (a) the Restoration and Renewal Client Board and (b) Parliamentary authorities on the future of the site beyond 2030; whether any options to extend or vary the existing licence have been formally considered; and what assessment she has made of the future use of the site once the current Education Centre is vacated.

DCMS has not had discussions with the Restoration and Renewal Client board on the Parliamentary Education Centre.Terms have been agreed for a new lease for the Parliamentary Education Centre until the end of 2030.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the UK-EU treaty on Gibraltar on the supply of British food and drink to Gibraltar.

I refer the Hon Member to the statement I made to the House on 26 February, and related statements in the Gibraltar Parliament. The final text of the treaty will be brought before the House for scrutiny in the usual way in due course.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of (a) changes to the national bus fare cap on bus use levels and (b) fare levels on discretionary off-peak bus travel.

The Department for Transport is currently undertaking an evaluation of the £3 single bus fare cap and its impacts, with the full report expected to be published later this year.

What level of financial support she provides to local transport authorities for commercial bus networks during the transition to franchised bus systems; whether operators must meet performance requirements to receive such funding; and whether she has made an assessment of the sustainability of any such funding.

The Government has confirmed investment of over £3 billion from 2026/27 for the rest of the spending review period to support local leaders and bus operators across the country to improve bus services for millions of passengers. This funding includes a £3 million Bus Franchising Support Fund in 2026/27 for Mayoral Strategic Authorities in the process of developing and implementing bus franchising schemes which is designed to aid transition. We have also allocated further funding of approximately £10 million per year until 2029 to a franchising support package for local authorities that are actively seeking to transition to a franchised network. In addition, we are providing multi-year allocations for local authorities under the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) totalling nearly £700 million per year, ending the short-term approach to bus funding and giving councils the certainty they need to plan ahead. This funding can be used to support bus services, including by those local authorities who are transitioning to franchised networks. The Government also makes available over £240 million per year for bus operators through the longstanding Bus Services Operators Grant (BSOG) to continue running and protect existing services. Responsibility for payment of the BSOG is devolved to any LTA transitioning to franchising, and a share of the national BSOG budget will be transferred to the authority. On operator performance, we expect operators to provide the service they have advertised. Where operators are consistently not providing this, the Traffic Commissioner can take action, including fines or suspending the operating licence.

With reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2026, what the forecast level of public sector net debt as a proportion of GDP will be in each year of the forecast period; what the reasons are for the projected increase in debt; and what steps she is taking to reduce public debt.

This data is available at Table A.9: Fiscal aggregates in the March 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The government’s fiscal plan brings down borrowing and debt, keeps the public finances on a sustainable path and supports the Bank of England to bring down inflation.

With reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2026, how much additional revenue would be raised from a one-penny increase in fuel duty per litre; and how much additional revenue will be raised from planned increases in fuel duty in each financial year from 2026-27.

The Government is taking action to ensure that fuel at the pump remains affordable. At Budget 2025, the Government extended the 5p-per-litre cut for a further five months, until the end of August this year. The Government has also cancelled the increase in line with inflation for 2026/27; instead, rates will only gradually return to early 2022 levels by March 2027. The government has set out the expected impacts, including Exchequer impacts, from fuel duty and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document. This document can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf HMRC publishes a ready reckoner which estimates the direct impact on HMRC tax revenues of simple changes to tax rates. For fuel duty specifically, the most recent publication estimates a 1% (approximately 0.6p) increase in fuel duty would result in £240m additional revenue in 26/27. This ready reckoner can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/direct-effects-of-illustrative-tax-changes

What new oversight measures she plans to introduce in relation to home schooling as referenced in the Statement of 9 March 2026; whether local authorities will be granted additional statutory powers to register or inspect home-educated children; what safeguards she will put in place to ensure that families who home educate are not subject to disproportionate regulation; and what assessment she has made of the potential resource implications for local authorities.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will require local authorities to maintain registers of children who are not in school, including home-educated children, and require parents of eligible children to give information for these registers. This will support authorities to identify children who are not receiving a safe, suitable education so they can take action.The Bill also requires some parents to seek permission from the local authority before children can be withdrawn for home education, such as children who are subject to section 47 enquiries, are on a child protection plan (or were previously in the last five years), or who attend a special school. This additional check will ensure these children receive a suitable education that is in their best interests.When carrying out their duties, local authorities must act reasonably and we will provide additional training and statutory guidance to support with this. We will also conduct a New Burdens Assessment to establish the amount of additional funding required by local authorities to fulfil their duties. Evidence for this assessment will be gathered through a public consultation ahead of implementation of the measures.

With reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2026, what estimate she has made of the forecast increase in welfare spending over the forecast period; what the projected level of welfare expenditure will be in each financial year to 2030-31; what proportion of that spending is forecast to be allocated to working-age benefits, disability benefits and pensioner benefits; and whether she is taking steps to control projected growth in welfare spending.

Forecasts for welfare spending are the responsibility of the Office for Budget Responsibility.

What amount of zero-emission bus funding awarded by her Department since 2021 has had to be returned to the Department for Transport; which local transport authorities have returned funding; what reasons were given in each case; and what assessment she has made of potential implications of those cases for assessments of the effectiveness of the design and oversight of the Government’s zero-emission bus funding programmes.

There have been four local transport authorities (LTAs) that have returned Zero Emission Buses Regional Areas (ZEBRA) funding due to a decrease in project scoping or because the project can no longer be delivered as approved. The LTAs that returned funding are as follows: Blackpool - returned money on 27 November 2023.Nottingham - returned money on 28 September 2023 due to a reduction in scope on the project.Warrington - returned money on 12 October 2023 due to a reduction in scope on the project.West Midlands - returned money in two separate repayments. This was due to the articulated buses switching from hydrogen fuel to electric (on 4 October 2023) and their intended double deck hydrogen buses being replaced by electric version (on 19 March 2025). The project is now delivering more zero emission buses for the reduced cost. The Department considers these cases evidence that the ZEBRA change control and monitoring framework is functioning as intended. Requirements for returns are triggered where delivery no longer aligns with approved business cases, ensuring value for money and maintaining subsidy control compliance. In addition, ongoing evaluation of ZEBRA ensures lessons learned on deliverability are shared to improve future ZEB deployment across LTAs.All returned funding has been reinvested into alternate ZEB projects, including increasing the scope of established ZEBRA projects where appropriate.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Local Government Finance Statement made on 23 February 2026, when he plans to publish the consultation on strengthening safeguards over local government borrowing; whether statutory limits on debt-to-revenue ratios are under consideration; what assessment he has made of the potential impact of such restrictions on housing and regeneration delivery; and whether modelling of the effect on future capital investment will be published.

Local authorities are responsible for their own borrowing and investment decisions, within a statutory framework intended to ensure borrowing is prudent, affordable and sustainable.The government recognises the importance of local investment, including for housing and growth. Under the previous government, however, weaknesses in the system allowed a minority of authorities to take on excessive debt for high-risk investment that have not represented value for money. In some cases, this has led to serious failures requiring government intervention and significant cost to taxpayers.The government is therefore bringing into effect the capital risk powers added to the Local Government Act 2003 in 2023. The aim is to safeguard the system to support essential investment while giving government the tools to address instances of excessive borrowing and investment risk before failure occurs.The government will work with the sector in developing use of the powers to ensure they are effective and to avoid unintended consequences. We will consult later this year.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of e-scooter trial schemes on urban transport usage; what analysis she has undertaken of safety performance and usage trends; and what plans she has for the future regulation of shared micromobility schemes.

The first national evaluation of the e-scooter rental trials was published on the Department’s website in 2022. The evaluation captured evidence on the impact of schemes, including on usage and safety.A second national evaluation started in 2025 and is expected to report in 2027. This evaluation aims to gather updated evidence on usage, what journeys e-scooters are replacing, integration with public transport, and their safety both on the road and for other road users, compared to other modes.In July 2025, the Government introduced the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. The Bill includes measures empowering local leaders to license shared cycle schemes. This legislation may also extend to shared e-scooter and other shared micromobility schemes in future.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of long-term road closures on small businesses located near major road and bridge repair works; what guidance exists for highway authorities on mitigating disruption to local businesses; whether compensation schemes are available for affected businesses; and what steps she is taking to ensure improved communication with businesses during extended infrastructure works.

The Department has not made a formal national assessment of the impact of long-term road or bridge closures on small businesses. These impacts vary significantly depending on the scale of works, local travel patterns, and the mitigation measures put in place by the local highway authority. However, we expect highway authorities to plan and coordinate works in line with their duties under the Traffic Management Act 2004 and the Co‑ordination Code of practice including ensuring works are properly coordinated and communicating clearly with affected residents and businesses.There is no general entitlement to compensation for loss of trade arising from properly executed road or street works. This position has been maintained by successive governments. Limited statutory compensation exists only for gas and water companies under sector specific legislation; there are no equivalent duties for electricity or telecoms. Any discretionary support is a matter for local authorities or utilities.We continue to encourage authorities and works promoters to maintain clear, proactive engagement with local businesses during extended works, supported by recent regulatory steps to improve coordination and reduce avoidable disruption.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Local Government Finance Statement made on 23 February 2026, what changes have been made to the assessment of relative need within the Settlement; whether independent validation has been undertaken to test the updated needs formula; what weightings have been applied to deprivation, rurality, population growth and service demand; and if he will publish any technical modelling and equality impact assessment.

The recent Local Government Finance Settlement is our most significant step yet to make English local government more sustainable. For the first time since 2013-14, the government is updating the relative needs formulas that form a key part of how local authorities' funding allocations are calculated, using more up-to-date data. This includes using the recently published 2025 Indices of Multiple Deprivation, an official Statistic produced by MHCLG. Each relative needs formula has been constructed using consistent principles, applying statistical techniques to weight variables according to their influence on service demand. An overview of the weightings applied to the formulas within the assessment of relative need can be found within the Fair Funding Share Calculator on gov.uk here. For further detail on the weightings and technical modelling underpinning the relative needs assessment, please refer to the relevant technical annex published on gov.uk here. The methodology proposed by the government was subject to a technical peer review by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which can be found here. An assessment of the equalities impacts of our proposals was published as part of the government’s response to the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, which can be found on gov.uk here Overall, the government assessed that the changes delivered through the Settlement would have positive equalities impacts.

How she plans to expand the remit of the visa taskforce referenced in the Statement of 9 March 2026; what additional resources she will allocate to this work; how individuals identified as extremist risks will be assessed within visa processes; and how this policy will interact with existing Home Office counter-extremism and border security frameworks.

As set out in the recently published "Protecting What Matters" document, overseas speakers of extremist concern will be identified and referred to specialist teams to take swift immigration action, including cancelling or refusing their visas or ETAs, should they attempt to travel to the UK.To deliver this work, the Disruptions team, which horizon scans for extremist influence and events, will be expanded with additional operational and analytical resource. This builds on strong enforcement action by the team over the past two years, where the highest harm extremists from across the political spectrum were targeted and stopped from coming to the UK.The Home Office already has sophisticated mechanisms in place to seek out and prevent extremist individuals from entering the UK. This work operates in conjunction with existing border security and immigration frameworks.Each case will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. If an individual is deemed to be "non-conducive to the public good", then immigration officials may take action including refusal or cancelling entry clearance or permission to stay in the UK.