Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has undertaken an assessment of the environmental impacts associated with poor animal health.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has made several assessments of the environmental impacts associated with animal health, including the impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. Improved animal health is recognised as important in reducing agricultural greenhouse gas mitigations in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan (2025).
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help improve the profitability of UK farm produce.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming Roadmap and the full Government response to the Farming Profitability Review will be published later this year, which will set out the wider plan to boost profitability and long-term viability.
The Government is currently already taking forward a series of measures. A new Farming and Food Partnership Board will bring together farmers, processors, retailers, and the wider supply chain to strengthen collaboration across the sector. The Government is investing £30 million in a Farmer Collaboration Fund to support peer-to-peer networks so farmers can share knowledge and learn from each other.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive will be also reformed to make it simpler and fairer, with two application windows this year. The June window will support smaller farms and those without agreements, and the September window will be open to all farms. The Farming in Protected Landscapes programme will be extended for three additional years, supported by £30 million of funding next year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in the prison population are deemed to have a learning difficulty.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data we hold is for public sector prisons in England only (education in Wales is a devolved responsibility) and is limited to prisoners who have undertaken an assessment of educational standard prior to enrolment on an education course, rather than the population as a whole. It can be found via the following link:
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in England and Wales are on remand awaiting trial.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the untried remand population in custody in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication. This data can be found in Population Table 1_Q_2 of OMSQ: Offender management statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking help improve addiction and mental health treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that people with co-occurring substance use and mental health needs do not receive the integrated, person-centred care they require and deserve. The Department and NHS England have recently published the Co-occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Delivery framework, which is available at the following link:
This framework commits the Department and NHS England to delivering several national actions to improve delivery of integrated, person-centred care across drug and alcohol treatment and mental health services. The framework also includes recommended actions on how the health system can also work together to improve outcomes for those with co-occurring needs.
We also know that gambling can have a wide-ranging negative effect on health and inequalities and is associated with poor mental health and in severe cases suicide, as well as the knock-on impacts from gambling related debt. In April 2025, the statutory gambling levy came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm across Great Britain. In its first year, the levy has raised nearly £120 million, with 50% allocated to gambling harms treatment activity across Great Britain.
Lastly, rates of smoking continue to fall in the general population, although inequality remains, with higher rates of smoking in other groups such as people with a mental health condition or people in routine and manual work. Stop Smoking Services are effective in reaching high-prevalence groups. By targeting support in populations with greater need, we want to secure a smoke-free generation together, where no one is left behind.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to improve food supply security across the UK.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food supply chain built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.
Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.