Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure (a) the timely availability of pollution data, (b) that water companies are held to account for sewage discharges and (c) that improvements to storm overflow infrastructure are prioritised.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

We are putting water companies under special measures through our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act. The Act has introduced new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bring criminal charges against law breakers and made it mandatory for water companies to publish plans to reduce pollution incidents.

The Act is also introducing independent monitoring of every sewerage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill. This will match the pre-existing duty for storm overflows and will meet the Government commitment to ensure monitoring of every outlet.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect supermarket delivery drivers from (a) threats, (b) abuse and (c) violence.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government recognises the dedicated work delivery drivers do, especially when their efforts support the most vulnerable in our society. We are determined to protect them from any form of assault, whether verbal or physical, as part of our wider work to combat retail crime.

We are strengthening neighbourhood policing to better protect our communities and target offenders. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, the Government has allocated £200 million to forces for 2025-26 to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing. The Home Office is also providing £66.3millon funding in 2025-26 to forces in England and Wales to deliver high visibility patrols in the areas worst affected by knife crime, serious violence and anti-social behaviour.

Where assaults against delivery drivers do occur, they can be prosecuted as an offence (Common Assault) under the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The Offences against the Person Act 1861, also covers assaults, alongside more serious violence, including actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 created a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing cases of assault against public facing workers. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public, including delivering goods to customers. This aggravating factor ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for an offence and sends a clear message that violence and abuse towards any worker, including supermarket delivery drivers, will not be tolerated.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of promoting a culture of reading for pleasure in the home on the development of children (a) in early years and (b) of school age.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed to strengthening the home learning environment to support literacy and school readiness as part of the Plan for Change. In 2025/26, we are investing £10.7 million through Family Hubs in home learning environment services to help parents create language-rich, nurturing settings that support early communication and confidence. In the recent Spending Review, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme as part of the Spending Review 2025.

Our Little Moments Together campaign provides free resources and advice to encourage parents to chat, play and read with their children, simple actions that make a lasting difference. Promoting a culture of reading for pleasure at home supports children’s language development, emotional wellbeing and cognitive growth, particularly in the early years. These benefits extend into later childhood, contributing to improved educational outcomes and a lifelong engagement with learning.

For school-age children, we continue to encourage parental engagement in reading and learning at home, recognising that strong early foundations are key to long term educational success.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish plans to strengthen the home learning environment to support literacy (a) in the early years and (b) for school age children.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed to strengthening the home learning environment to support literacy and school readiness as part of the Plan for Change. In 2025/26, we are investing £10.7 million through Family Hubs in home learning environment services to help parents create language-rich, nurturing settings that support early communication and confidence. In the recent Spending Review, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme as part of the Spending Review 2025.

Our Little Moments Together campaign provides free resources and advice to encourage parents to chat, play and read with their children, simple actions that make a lasting difference. Promoting a culture of reading for pleasure at home supports children’s language development, emotional wellbeing and cognitive growth, particularly in the early years. These benefits extend into later childhood, contributing to improved educational outcomes and a lifelong engagement with learning.

For school-age children, we continue to encourage parental engagement in reading and learning at home, recognising that strong early foundations are key to long term educational success.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has had discussions with the Indian Government on reducing tariffs on English wine.

Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The UK Government seeks the best possible outcome for UK businesses in all aspects of negotiations and ongoing market access engagement with other governments, based on industry engagement and economic analysis.

Under the UK-India FTA we agreed a review mechanism, allowing us to revisit areas of interest in future, which could include liberalisation on English Wine.

The Department for Business and Trade also offers extensive export support for English wine producers through business.gov.uk. At the start of July there was a Meet-The-Market roadshow hosted across England with direct access to department trade officers from key growth markets.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she mas made of the number of women born in the 1950s who have died since the publication entitled Government response to PHSO’s Investigation into Women’s State Pension age, published on 17 December 2024.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Department has made no assessment.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to remove the two-child benefit cap as part of the Tackling Child Poverty strategy.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy which we will publish in the autumn. We are considering all available levers to give every child the best start in life as part of our strategy.

In the meantime, we are pressing ahead with action.

As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through the Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1bn a year including Barnett impact, investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to enter into alternative dispute resolution following confirmation of the Judicial Review into the reasons the Government decided not to pay compensation to women born in the 1950s impacted by her Department's maladministration of State Pension age changes.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government has apologised for the maladministration and committed to learning the lessons from the investigation. The decision not to set up a compensation scheme is now subject to live litigation and the High Court has granted permission for a full hearing.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether English and Welsh wine was discussed during trade deal discussions with (a) India and (b) the US.

Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The UK Government seeks the best possible outcome for UK businesses in all aspects of negotiations and ongoing market access engagement with other governments, based on industry engagement and economic analysis.

Under the UK-India FTA, we agreed a review mechanism, allowing us to revisit areas of interest in future, which could include liberalisation on English Wine.

Negotiations with the US on the Economic Prosperity Deal are ongoing.

The Department for Business and Trade also offers extensive export support for English wine producers through business.gov.uk. At the start of July there was a Meet-The-Market roadshow hosted across England with direct access to department trade officers from key growth markets.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help support the long-term financial security of farmers, in the context of changes made to the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We have allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. We are investing more than £2.7 billion a year in farming and nature recovery, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history to put healthy, nutritious food on our tables. We are working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding. Further details about the reformed SFI offer will be announced in summer 2025.

That is only part of our commitment to farmers.

We have also protected farmers in trade deals and provided a five-year extension to the Seasonal Worker route, giving farms certainty to grow their businesses.

We have appointed former NFU president Minette Batters to recommend new reforms to boost farmers’ profits.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage farmers to ensure that (a) rivers, (b) streams and (c) lakes are protected from pollution.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are taking action to address agricultural pollution and support farm businesses. We are, as a priority, working with farmers and environmental groups to improve farm pollution regulations to ensure they are simple and effective. We are also doubling funding for Environment Agency farm inspections to work with farmers to raise standards and have issued amended Statutory Guidance on the Farming Rules for Water to set clearer expectations on enforcing the rules. We continue to invest in our farmers through Environmental Land Management schemes.

Royal Academy summer exhibition

Fairtrade tea campaign

UK Government recognition of the state of Palestine

Found: Wilson Steve Darling Daisy Cooper John Milne Charlotte Cane Zöe Franklin Caroline Voaden James MacCleary

Found: Wilson Steve Darling Daisy Cooper John Milne Charlotte Cane Zöe Franklin Caroline Voaden James MacCleary