Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the forthcoming Horticulture Strategy will include measures to increase domestic production and consumption of pulses.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to our horticulture and arable sectors and their role in providing home‑grown produce helping to feed the nation. The Horticulture Sector Plan is an independent sector led plan aiming to identify how the sector can increase productivity, profitability and strengthen the contribution of domestic production to our national food security. The plan is relying on sector expertise to set out a clear vision for growth and a practical pathway to deliver it. Fresh peas and green beans grown as horticultural crops are in scope. While pulses cultivated as arable crops are outside scope, they are a vital part of domestic agricultural production. Lessons learned from current sector plans will help inform future rollout to other sectors.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to improve transparency in sustainability-linked lending by requiring companies and financial institutions to publish the key performance indicators, targets and independent verification used to assess eligibility for sustainability-linked loans.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to maintaining a proportionate sustainable finance framework that supports market integrity and economic growth.
Decisions to provide banking services to individual businesses, including through sustainability-linked lending, are commercial decisions for providers. Firms have strict obligations to ensure the legitimacy of a business and protect against financial crime. The Government is committed to regulating business banking only where there is a clear case for doing so, in order to avoid higher costs for lenders that would ultimately flow through to businesses.
The Government is strengthening its approach to tackling deforestation in UK supply chains and announced in June 2026 that it intends to bring forward new regulations in this area. The Government will then review the regulatory framework for tackling deforestation-linked finance within nine months of those regulations being made.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the (a) staff turnover rate, (b) vacancy rate and (c) average time taken to fill vacancies was for frontline operational and regulatory delivery roles in the Forestry Commission in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission’s staff turnover rate for frontline operational and regulatory delivery roles was 16.08% in 2023-24, 13.77% in 2024-25 and 13.79% in 2025-26. Vacancy rate information for these roles is not held. Information on the average time taken to fill vacancies for these roles is only available for 2025-26 and was 87.5 days (12.5 weeks).
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
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 or the Forestry Commission will submit a pay flexibility business case in relation to Forestry Commission staff under the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance 2026-27 before the 31 October 2026 deadline.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission has no plans to submit a pay flexibility business case under the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance 2026-27 before the 31 October 2026 deadline.
Subject to trade union negotiations, the Forestry Commission intends to implement the standard 3.5% pay award from 1 October 2026.