Asked by: Josh MacAlister (Labour - Whitehaven and Workington)
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 support farmers in the north of England reliant on cross-border stock movements following the extension of the bluetongue virus restricted zone.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given on 4 June 2025 to question UIN 57569. We continue to work closely with industry representatives to ensure that keepers are kept up to date with developments and that issues and concerns are addressed promptly.
In order to minimise the burdens on keepers whilst ensuring controls are proportionate to risk, from 1 July 2025 cattle may move to live from England to Scotland without a pre-movement test if vaccinated with a BTV-3 vaccine that prevents viraemia in that species and 21 days have elapsed since completing the full course of primary vaccination. Defra is working closely with vaccine manufacturers to understand supply availability.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the energy efficiency of older housing stock in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes Plan will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform our ageing building stock into comfortable, low-carbon homes that are fit for the future, including those within the South Holland and the Deepings constituency and Lincolnshire. The Government will partner with combined authorities and local and devolved governments to roll out this plan.
We are investing £13.2 billion to help upgrade millions of homes and cut energy bills for families across the country to tackle to cost of living crisis. Further details on the Warm Homes Plan will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's of 3 June 2025, what options his Department is considering for (a) reform of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme reform and (b) the situation of those (i) injured or (ii) bereaved as a result of Covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the capital budget for flood defences was in each of the last three fiscal years; and what the capital budget for flood defences is for each year of the 2025 Spending Review period.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are investing £2.65 billion over two years in 2024/25 to 2025/26 maintain, repair, and build flood defences. As part of the Government’s Plan for Change, the Spending Review settlement committed a further £4.2 billion total investment over three years (2026/27 to 2028/29) to construct new flood schemes and maintain and repair existing defences across the country. This is £1.4 billion on average each year – a 5% increase on the current average of £1.33 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26. Further details will be published at Main Estimates.
Information on previous years spend is published as part of the Environment Agency Section 18 reports which can be found here Flood and coastal erosion risk management annual report - GOV.UK.
We are consulting on proposals for reforming flood defence funding, protecting all communities including rural, coastal, and poorer areas.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of trends in the number of casualties involving mobility scooters.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below shows the number of casualties, split by casualty severity, that resulted from road injury collisions involving at least one mobility scooter in Great Britain, for the most recent ten-year period that data is available for.
It should be noted that these figures include all casualties from collisions involving at least one mobility scooter. The casualties may be the mobility scooter users themselves, other road users, or pedestrians. There may also be other vehicles involved in the collision.
Year | Killed | Seriously Injured | Slightly Injured |
2014 | 9 | 60 | 149 |
2015 | 8 | 60 | 159 |
2016 | 14 | 68 | 185 |
2017 | 5 | 59 | 182 |
2018 | 13 | 74 | 172 |
2019 | 12 | 58 | 192 |
2020 | 2 | 55 | 139 |
2021 | 8 | 84 | 219 |
2022 | 9 | 101 | 239 |
2023 | 17 | 94 | 229 |
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraph 4.62 of HM Treasury's document entitled Spending Review 2025, published on 12 June 2025, what proportion of flood defence spending from 2026-27 to 2028-29 will be allocated to Somerset.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We’re investing £2.65 billion over two years to March 2026 to maintain, repair, and build flood defences. We’re committing a further £4.2 billion over three years from April 2026, an increase of 5% per year, as announced at Spending Review 2025. We’re consulting on proposals for reforming flood defence funding, protecting all communities including rural, coastal, and poorer areas.
The list of projects to receive government funding will be consented on an annual basis through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) the age of refugee children is accurately assessed at the port of entry and (b) they are not inappropriately placed in adult (i) accommodation and (ii) detention settings.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is Home Office policy that an individual claiming to be a child will only be treated as an adult, if two Home Office members of staff independently determine that the individual's physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests they are significantly over 18 years of age. The lawfulness of this process was endorsed by the Supreme Court in the case of R (on the application of BF (Eritrea)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 38.
Where there remains doubt about the individual’s age, they will be transferred to a local authority for further consideration of their age, usually in the form of a holistic social worker assessment of age, referred to as a ‘Merton’ age assessment.
We continue to work with local authorities and our asylum accommodation providers to ensure appropriate processes for individuals claiming to be children. For example, we have already improved information sharing with local authorities so that we are more routinely sharing reports for initial decisions on age, when required, as well as reviewing the initial decisions on age training rolled out to Home Office staff at the Western Jet Foil in Kent. We are also exploring new methods of scientific and technological age assessment, including Facial Age Estimation.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of using degree classification as an eligibility criterion for teacher training bursaries in shortage subjects.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are designed to incentivise more applications to ITT courses from high-achieving graduates. As such, for postgraduate bursaries, we take account of the grade of the trainee’s highest academic qualification. These bursaries are only awarded to trainees with at least a 2:2 undergraduate degree classification, unless the trainee possesses a higher academic qualification, such as a doctoral or master’s degree.
Graduates who do not hold a 2:2 degree can apply for student finance in the form of a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan to support their living costs. Additional funding is also available depending on individual circumstances, such as the childcare grant.
Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses are designed to provide candidates for ITT with the minimum knowledge required to train to teach their chosen subject. Completion of a SKE course is not a requirement for all ITT candidates. The ITT provider determines whether it is requirement of the candidate’s offer after assessing their prior subject knowledge. Completion of SKE is not a factor in postgraduate ITT bursary eligibility.
ITT providers determine whether their trainees are eligible for a bursary, using the eligibility criteria set by the department. The department only holds data on trainees who are eligible for bursaries, alongside data on the overall number of trainees by subject and ITT provider. The department does not hold data on why trainees were ineligible for a bursary.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 has taken to strengthen enforcement of border checks to prevent illegal imports of products of animal origin following recent foot and mouth disease outbreaks in (a) Hungary and (b) surrounding countries.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Port health authorities and local authorities are responsible for checks on products of animal origin (POAO) at Border Control Posts (BCPs). Border Force is responsible for conducting checks to detect illegal imports of POAO outside BCPs.
Following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Hungary, we advised BCP officials of the immediate suspension of imports from Hungary and Slovakia of untreated POAO from FMD susceptible animals. We also advised Border Force of the ban on personal imports of POAO from FMD susceptible species, from these two countries.
Following the subsequent outbreak of FMD in Slovakia, we advised BCP officials of the immediate extension of the above restrictions to Austria. We also advised Border Force of the extension of the personal imports ban to Austria and subsequently to the European Economic Area, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Switzerland.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what role the Government plays in the setting of municipal parking fines for (a) off-street and (b) on-street parking in England outside London.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are empowered by law to decide on appropriate parking arrangements, within the legal framework provided by the Traffic Management Act 2004 (TMA).
In England (excluding Greater London), penalty charges are set by enforcement authorities under the TMA. They must accord with guidelines set by the Secretary of State for Transport in schedule 3 of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices, Charging Guidelines and General Provisions) (England) Regulations 2022.
Guidelines on Levels of Charges set out in the 2022 Regulations provide two different penalty bands for Local Authorities to choose from, and requires Local Authorities under each band to issue penalties at different rates depending on the seriousness of the contravention. These are: Band 1 (£60 for higher contraventions and £40 for lower contraventions) and Band 2 (£70 for higher contraventions and £50 for lower contraventions).