Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the statutory responsibilities of schools for children with allergies are (a) monitored and (b) assessed.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
Governing bodies must ensure that the arrangements they put in place are sufficient to meet their statutory responsibilities and that policies, plans, procedures and systems are properly and effectively implemented. This includes the duty under Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions and the duties under the Equality Act 2010. The effectiveness of a school is assessed through inspection by Ofsted.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the recommendations of the Third Report of Session 2023–24 of the Work and Pensions Committee, Defined benefit pension schemes, published on 26 March 2024, HC 144, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to amend schedule 7 of the Pensions Act 2004 to enable members of the Pension Protection Fund to receive indexation in respect of pensionable service prior to 5 April 1997.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are committed to considering and reflecting on what we have heard regarding the issue of Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme rules on the indexation of pre-1997 pension accruals. We understand it is an important issue for those affected.
The Pension Protection Fund’s assets and liabilities sit on the Government’s balance sheet, and any changes will have an impact on public finances. Any changes to the Financial Assistance Scheme will also impact the Exchequer and so requires careful consideration. The Government therefore needs to take its time to reflect on these complex matters which require a balanced approach for thoses receiving compensation, levy payers and taxpayers.
We will continue to work closely with the Pension Protection Fund as we explore this important issue further.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports of attacks on communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt; and what steps his Department is taking to help tackle violence against religious communities in the region.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is closely monitoring recent reports of violence in Nigeria's Middle Belt. Intercommunal violence has a devastating effect on communities. The root causes are complex and frequently relate to competition over resources, historical grievances, and criminality. We are supporting Nigeria to tackle the root causes of intercommunal conflict through our Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG) programme and continue to engage in local and national peace-building efforts. The UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership (SDP) is building capacity in Nigeria's security forces to tackle violence against all civilian communities, including religious communities.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to replace the higher level stewardship provision to commoners in the New Forest.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
We want to provide these Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders with some certainty and continuity until they can move into the new ELM offer and to provide support so they can continue delivering environmental outcomes on their land. We will provide more information on timelines for rolling out the new CSHT and the reformed SFI offer in due course.
Farmers with an HLS agreement that expired in 2024 were offered a two-year extension to their agreement. This will allow farmers to continue delivering land management practices in HLS agreements without interruption to the funding they receive.
Defra also announced that on the 24 February 2025, that agreement holders under the Environmental Stewardship Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) will see an increase to their payment rates in the near future.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information the Environment Agency has received from the Oceanographic School at Southampton University on hightide levels at Lymington harbour.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has used a range of information from the Channel Coastal Observatory (CCO) based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, the majority of this information is freely available from the CCO website (https://coastalmonitoring.org/southeast/).
The information received includes water levels, tide gauge, wind and wave data, as well as land and sea-bed profiles and aerial photography.
The information from two historic storm events has also been received which provides details about the most powerful waves experienced in the area. Past events do not necessarily represent the upper limits of what may occur in the future. Therefore, the EA has also received further analysis from the CCO that adjusts historic events to show what storms of greater severity may be like in the future.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) review and (b) update the Ministers mandate for the New Forest.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Minister’s Mandate, first introduced in 1971, is mainly concerned with the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the Crown lands of the New Forest. The Protected Landscapes Duty requires relevant authorities such as Forestry England to seek to further the statutory purposes of Protected Landscapes including the New Forest. Forestry England is also subject to a range of regulations, assurance schemes, procedures and other guidance to steer its activity in the New Forest, including the New Forest Acts 1877, 1949, 1964, and 1970, Ancient Monuments & Archaeological Areas Act 1979, Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, Environment Act 1995, and Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. Forestry England continues to manage the Crown lands of the New Forest to achieve a proper balance between people, nature and a working commercial forest. For this reason, there is no plan to review the Minister’s Mandate at this time.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what new arrangements HM Coastguard is planning for evacuating emergency medical cases from Hurst Castle and Hurst Spit.
Answered by Mike Kane
HM Coastguard is not implementing new arrangements for the evacuation of emergency medical cases from Hurst Castle and Hurst Spit. In the event of a medical emergency HM Coastguard would work with our ambulance service colleagues and the site owners to assess the situation and task appropriate assets to respond, such as lifeboats, search and rescue helicopters and Coastguard Rescue Teams in line with the response to any other island or remote location around the UK coast.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing sanctions on people associated with the detention of Alaa Abd El-Fattah in Egypt.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to securing Mr El-Fattah's release and we continue to raise his case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government. The Prime Minister raised the case in a letter to President Sisi on 4 May. The National Security Adviser also raised Mr-El Fattah's case with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on 27 April and the Foreign Secretary raised with him on 9 April.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of spending on health and disability benefits by the end of the decade.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Incapacity and disability benefits spending is forecast to increase by £15.5 billion to £90.7 billion by 2029/30.
This includes a rise in spending on working-age benefits from £10.3 billion to £65.4 billion.
Without the 2025 Spring Statement measures, working-age benefits spending would be £4.5 billion higher by 2029/30.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to restore online access to enable disabled drivers to confirm their duty-exempt status when renewing their vehicle licence.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A DWP service which enables disabled drivers to confirm their vehicle excise duty exemption when renewing their vehicle licence was upgraded on 12th March. An error with date formats affected disabled drivers with a September Date of Birth. They had to follow an alternative process to apply for exemption through the Post Office. As soon as the problem was identified, DWP Digital took steps to resolve it.
The service was restored on Tuesday 22nd April at 11:09am. All disabled drivers, including those with a September date of birth, can now complete the check for duty exemption online. DWP Digital is taking steps to ensure this does not happen again with future service updates.