I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 14 July in response to Question 16121.

We are driving action across Government to deliver our landmark commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. That includes the national roll-out of our life-changing domestic abuse protection orders across England and Wales, setting up pilots in schools to tackle harmful behaviours and delivering a flagship GP referral programme in England to better support victims.

We have had to put the early release scheme in place to ensure that our criminal justice system is able to function and help all victims, regardless of the type of crime. I regularly meet with all the organisations mentioned in that letter to discuss what protections we can best put in place. He will know that we have increased funding to support victim support services, and there will be a presumption on tagging on release. We are introducing world-first restriction zones to ensure that victims no longer have to constantly look over their shoulder, wondering where their perpetrator is. We are also working on timely communication to ensure that we keep victims and survivors informed, and they can feed in directly to licensing conditions. I will happily discuss this matter with him further if he wishes.

Tackling affordability is this government’s number one priority. Bringing down energy bills for good can only be achieved by ending our reliance on international fossil fuel markets.

Non-commodity costs pay for essential network infrastructure, system operations and generation investment to support the clean energy transition. We are committed to ensuring that the framework for recovering these costs is fair, proportionate, and supports a well-functioning and competitive market. We continue to work closely with the independent regulator, Ofgem, on these issues.

Goods valued at £135 or less imported into the UK are predominantly imported through a simplified customs declaration. Before 2023, it was not mandatory to provide the total value of goods as part of the simplified customs declaration. However, since collecting this information, it is estimated that £5.8bn worth of goods under £135 are declared annually.

Following consultation, at Tax Update Day 2026, the Government announced that implementation of new customs arrangements for goods valued at £135 or less would be accelerated from March 2029 to October 2028. A new system for duty collection will need to be built to handle the significant volume of low value goods and avoid disruption at the border. Businesses involved in the sale and movement of these goods will also need time to prepare for the changes. The Government is making every effort to introduce changes to the low value import regime as quickly as reasonably possible while avoiding disruption, which is a core design principle of the reform.

Modifications are nearing completion, and a full testing regime is underway that will support the safety validation process. A start date for the services will be announced as soon as it is possible to do so.

I was in Blackpool last week discussing the issue with representatives of the sector and I visited the hon. Gentleman’s constituency a few years ago, so I know how important tourism is to coastal communities up and down the country. Introducing a levy will be up to local areas, and it will make sense for those areas to invest the funds generated in improving the local tourism offer, as many have already committed to doing.

I have had discussions with ministerial colleagues across Government and spoken to mayors and a range of tourism representatives. The Government are committed to giving powers to local areas to enact an overnight levy, and we will work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and HM Treasury on developing the policy.

The department is keen to ensure that the causes of service cancellations are understood and that plans are in place at Department for Transport Operator (DFTO) train operating companies to address these and improve performance. The department regularly engages DFTO to monitor the effectiveness of measures being implemented.

To help improve reliability, the department developed a seven-point traincrew framework, which includes ensuring operators have high-quality workforce plans based on realistic traincrew establishments, tackling causes of traincrew unavailability, including sickness absence, as well as taking a collaborative approach with staff representatives and the wider workforce to build a more resilient railway. The responsibility for managing this, as well as tracking and tackling the causes of cancellations, sits with DFTO and will sit with Great British Railways in the future.

The Department does not hold a centrally collated dataset showing how many passenger services operated by each train operating company were affected by defective passenger doors in each month since July 2024. Information on rolling stock defects, including door-related faults, data are recorded and managed by Network Rail and train operators.

The Department does not hold data on the number of services cancelled because of rolling stock failures. The Department does hold information on short formations. However, the data is recorded differently across operators and is not sufficiently comparable to enable a robust assessment of which operator had the highest proportion of services operated with fewer carriages than planned. The Department expects train operators to provide appropriate capacity to meet anticipated passenger demand, including through the effective deployment and maintenance of rolling stock.

The 12 Network Rail-managed stations included in the current phase of Project Reach are Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, London Euston, London King’s Cross, London Liverpool Street, London Paddington, London Waterloo and Manchester Piccadilly.

The locations of the 57 tunnels included in the programme are located on the East Coast, West Coast, Great Western, Thameslink, Kent, North West and Wales.

The full list of tunnels is as follows –

The Department expects train operators to provide appropriate capacity to meet anticipated passenger demand, including through the effective deployment and maintenance of rolling stock. While the Department does not hold data on rolling stock availability, or the number of services cancelled because of rolling stock failure, it does hold information on short formations. However, this data is recorded differently across operators, and is not sufficiently comparable to enable a robust assessment of which operator had the highest proportion of services operated with fewer carriages than planned.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Parliamentary Question of 7th July is attached.

We are working with our Master Development Partner Lendlease on a Masterplan and outline planning application to deliver high-quality mixed-use development around the new HS2 Station and renewed Network Rail station. Lendlease is aiming to submit a planning application in 2027.

The table below shows how much each arm’s length body (ALB) sponsored by the Department for Transport has spent on (a) in-house external affairs or public affairs functions and (b) external public affairs or lobbying consultants since 4 July 2024. The figures relate to engagement with political stakeholders unless it has not been possible to disaggregate from wider spend. In relation to part (b) of the question, DfT ALBs have not spent money on lobbying consultants.

We are working at pace with our Master Development Partner, Lendlease, on a Masterplan for Euston, with an emphasis on growth and delivering much needed housing. The number of homes and affordable homes is subject to the development of the Masterplan.

The Department has recently consulted on possible reforms to strengthen enforcement against drink and drug driving, including temporary licence suspension-type measures for suspected offenders before a case is concluded. The consultation has now closed and responses are being analysed.

Existing legislation already provides for courts to impose disqualification in appropriate cases, including as part of sentence. It also provides for interim disqualification in specified circumstances after conviction where an offence involving obligatory or discretionary disqualification has not yet been finally dealt with. Sentencing and disqualification decisions in individual cases are matters for the independent courts.

For drug-driving offences, the current evidential framework relies on blood analysis for specified-limit offences. The Department has also consulted on possible future changes to drink and drug-driving enforcement and has supported exploratory work on roadside evidential drug-testing capability, including the Mobile Evidential Drug Testing Instrument (MEDTI) Demonstrator. Any change to evidential testing arrangements would require further scientific, legal and operational consideration.

The Department has recently consulted on possible reforms to strengthen enforcement against drink and drug driving, including temporary licence suspension-type measures for suspected offenders before a case is concluded. The consultation has now closed and responses are being analysed.

Existing legislation already provides for courts to impose disqualification in appropriate cases, including as part of sentence. It also provides for interim disqualification in specified circumstances after conviction where an offence involving obligatory or discretionary disqualification has not yet been finally dealt with. Sentencing and disqualification decisions in individual cases are matters for the independent courts.

For drug-driving offences, the current evidential framework relies on blood analysis for specified-limit offences. The Department has also consulted on possible future changes to drink and drug-driving enforcement and has supported exploratory work on roadside evidential drug-testing capability, including the Mobile Evidential Drug Testing Instrument (MEDTI) Demonstrator. Any change to evidential testing arrangements would require further scientific, legal and operational consideration.