Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of excluding visitor levy receipts from the calculation of taxable turnover for the purposes of the VAT registration threshold, where accommodation providers collect and remit the levy to the relevant authority.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
VAT is due on any amount equal to a visitor levy that is included in the price charged to the guest for taxable accommodation. A fundamental principle of VAT is that it applies to the total amount paid by a customer for goods or services, including taxes, levies and other charges that form part of that price.
The VAT registration threshold is based on the value of a business's taxable supplies under the UK VAT framework. These principles apply consistently across different sectors and types of charge and help ensure that the VAT system remains coherent and administratively workable.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) extending right-to-repair requirements to (i) smart devices and (ii) a wider range of consumer products and (b) introducing minimum functionality or software-support periods.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has introduced repairability requirements and minimum software-support periods for specified products, such as electronic displays, fridges and dishwashers. Similar requirements for other products will be considered over time.
Repair and reuse are fundamental tenets of a circular economy. We established a Circular Economy Task Force to co-design our approach and will outline our next steps shortly.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to provide additional financial support to farmers who reduce their reliance on chemical pesticides and adopt integrated pest management.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is support for farmers in England to adopt Integrated Pest Management through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The SFI pays farmers and land managers to carry out actions that support the sustainable production of food while protecting and enhancing the environment. The budget for new SFI26 agreements this year was £310m. These agreements will invest a total of £930m in environmentally sustainable farming over the next 3 years.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government intends to provide a full response to the Fuller Inquiry's recommendations.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Statement HCWS295 made by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to the House on 1 September.
We will provide a further update in due course on progress in implementing the recommendations of the Fuller Inquiry Phase 2 report.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the new Universal Credit apprenticeship bursary of up to £4,500 per household per year will be backdated to the start of the 2026/27 academic year.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We aim to introduce this bursary early next year. Further information on how eligible households can apply and how the bursary will be paid will be released in due course.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the Government plans to introduce the new Universal Credit apprenticeship bursary of up to £4,500 per household per year.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We aim to introduce this bursary early next year. Further information on how eligible households can apply and how the bursary will be paid will be released in due course.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she would consider the potential merits of appointing clinical research nurses to work only on brain cancer clinical trials.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that National Health Service organisations have the appropriate workforce to support the delivery of clinical trials, including trials of brain cancer treatments.
Decisions about the composition and deployment of clinical research teams are for individual host organisations, based on their research portfolio, clinical priorities, patient population, and workforce requirements. This may include the appointment of research nurses with specialist expertise in particular disease areas where this is appropriate.
The Government does not currently mandate a particular staffing model but provides support with funding through the National Institute of Health and Care Research to develop the capacity and capability to deliver research, expecting host organisations to ensure that they have the appropriate resources and expertise to deliver the clinical research undertaken at their sites.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that park home residents who purchase electricity through their site owners benefit from the removal of VAT from electricity bills from 1st October 2026.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
To support households with the cost of living, the Government is removing VAT from electricity bills this winter. Around 29 million households across the UK are expected to benefit from this change.
The new zero VAT rate for domestic electricity will replace the existing reduced VAT rate (5%). Anyone currently benefiting from the reduced rate will benefit from the new zero rate.
Some park home residents purchase their electricity from the park home site owner rather than directly from a licensed energy supplier. Where electricity is not individually metered and charged based on actual consumption, the electricity supply may be treated as part of the pitch fee and can therefore be subject to the same VAT treatment as that charge.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of cybersecurity requirements applying to hardware wallets used to store private keys for cryptoassets.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government legislated in February of this year to establish a financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets. This regime requires firms to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where they are undertaking regulated activities in or to the UK. The new regulated activities include safeguarding cryptoassets that are in scope of the regime, and this extends to private keys. Firms authorised by the FCA must meet robust standards, including on risk management, operational resilience, and financial crime controls.
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration has the Government given to the potential merits of rescinding policies preventing early supplementation while breastfeeding.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to giving every child the best start in life by ensuring that all families can access consistent, high-quality and non-judgmental infant feeding support that meets their needs, regardless of how they choose to feed their baby. Informed consent and shared decision-making are established principles of healthcare and reflected in national antenatal and postnatal guidance. The guidance supports women and parents to make informed choices about infant feeding, based on relevant evidence-based information and their individual needs, circumstances, and preferences. National guidance does not prevent early supplementation while breastfeeding. Where supplementary feeds are being considered, healthcare professionals should provide relevant information and support and discuss the woman’s circumstances and preferences, and agree an appropriate feeding plan.
I refer the Hon Member to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on antenatal and postnatal care, which is available at the following two links:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng201/resources/antenatal-care-pdf-66143709695941
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194/resources/postnatal-care-pdf-66142082148037