Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 plans to take to tackle (a) wildlife crime, (b) hare coursing and (c) badger baiting.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Wildlife crime is unacceptable. Defra is providing £424,000 for the National Wildlife Crime (NWCU) in 2025-2026. The NWCU helps prevent and detect wildlife crime by obtaining and disseminating intelligence, undertaking analysis which highlights local or national threats and assisting law enforcers with investigations.
This government recognises the importance of tackling rural crimes such as hare coursing. A package of measures introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 broadened the circumstances in which police can investigate and bring charges for hare coursing-related activity. This legislation, as well as improved police tactics, intelligence and information sharing and the use of community protection notices and criminal behaviour orders appears to be having an impact on reducing hare coursing offences.
Badger persecution is one of the seven UK wildlife crime priorities. A police-led Badger Persecution Priority Delivery Group works to tackle horrific criminal offences like badger baiting. Anyone found guilty of these activities should be subject to the full force of the law. The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 provide protection against certain methods of killing, injuring, or taking of badgers, or interference with their setts.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will (a) increase the tax-free childcare allowance and (b) allow parents to use that allowance in place of funded hours.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The £2,000 Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) top-up, which can be claimed per year and per child up to age 11 (and £4,000 per disabled child, up to age 16), was set at this level because the Government believes it strikes the right balance between helping parents with their childcare costs and managing the public finances in a responsible way.
From September 2025, childcare entitlements for eligible working parents of children aged from nine months will increase from 15 hours to 30 hours, helping hundreds of thousands of families with the cost of childcare and supporting parents to work. This year alone, we expect to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements – which is an additional £2 billion (over 30% increase) compared to 2024. Please note that parents can claim both TFC and DfE childcare entitlements so long as they are eligible.
The government keeps all aspects of childcare policy under review.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has issued recent guidance to housing associations on the level of contribution they should make to estate service management fees.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department has not issued recent guidance around the level of contribution Housing Associations make to estate management fees.
Housing Associations may be responsible for managing communal areas on estates that they own, and the extent to which they can pass on the costs of such maintenance to leaseholders and tenants will depend on the terms of the lease and tenancy agreements.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 includes measures designed to drive up the transparency of service charges to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable.
The government is committed to acting quickly to implement the provisions of the Act. Further detail can be found in the written ministerial statement published on Thursday 21 November (HCWS244).
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to limit phone line rental charges for analogue landlines; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of phone-only line rental charges following the transition to Voice over Internet Protocol landlines.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department does not have plans to limit phone line rental charges for analogue landlines as this is a matter for industry. However, under Ofcom’s telephony universal service conditions, BT and KCOM (in Hull) are required to offer a voice service to everyone, on request, at an affordable price. The telephony universal service obligation (USO) does not specify the technology that providers should use to meet this obligation, therefore the migration to digital landlines does not change the telephony USO.
It is worth noting that many other telecoms providers offer fixed voice services, however unlike BT and KCOM (in Hull) they do not have an obligation to do so. Ofcom’s telephony universal service conditions can be found at this link:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/telecoms-infrastructure/universal-service-obligation
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent progress has been made on the appointment of a new chair for the Competition and Markets Authority; and when this position is likely to be filled.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Doug Gurr was appointed Interim Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) on 21 January 2025 for a period of up to 18 months. The Secretary of State is grateful for the leadership Doug Gurr has shown in re-focusing the CMA on growth, investment and building business confidence while protecting consumers.
An open competition to appoint a new permanent Chair will be launched in due course.