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 poultry growth strategy will support a transition away from intensive animal agriculture towards prioritising animal welfare, environmental and public health.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Poultry Sector Growth Plan is being developed by industry, with Government acting as a convenor and supporting the process. It is intended to identify how the sector can improve productivity, profitability and resilience while operating within the UK's environmental, planning, animal welfare and regulatory framework. Any proposals emerging from the plan would continue to be subject to existing planning, environmental and regulatory requirements.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to establish a baseline regulatory framework for setting and assessing sustainability performance targets in sustainability-linked lending, replacing the current use of voluntary industry standards.
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 HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that sustainability-linked loans provided by UK banks do not support companies associated with illegal deforestation or environmental harm overseas.
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 of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of staffing levels in NHS mental health inpatient settings.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest published NHS workforce statistics show that the National Health Service mental health workforce stands at 160,734 full-time equivalent staff (June 2026). However, the established national mental health workforce definition does not separately identify staff working in inpatient settings.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of children with a parent in prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In the year ending October 2024, around 219,000 children were estimated to have a parent in prison in England and Wales. For too long, there has been no systematic mechanism to recognise children with a parent in prison, which is why we are testing how children can be recognised safely and connected to focused support.