Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles vehicles in the Government Car Service fleet drove in financial years (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24; and how many vehicles were in the fleet at the end of each of those years.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Please see below in relation to fleet mileage and numbers. Figures for the fleet mileage for the financial year 2023/2024 are not available. This is due to the legacy reporting system used by GCS no longer being supported by the Department for Transports IT suite. Figures for 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 are available as they have had been produced in previous years. The figures for fleet numbers have been collated manually.
| 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/2024 |
Fleet mileage | 793,836.00 | 838,113.00 | Unavailable |
No. of vehicles | 87 | 111 | 122 |
Given the ongoing security context, demand for Ministerial cars has naturally increased. New cars are also purchased before older models are disposed of to ensure operational resilience and we anticipate at least 10 cars will be disposed of in the coming months. Our budget for new cars has remained consistent over recent years and we continue to take into account value for money for the taxpayer, bearing down on costs wherever possible.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with regulators to (a) safeguard the interests of consumers and (b) help ensure the financial stability of the water sector.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The five yearly Price Review process is currently underway for the period 2025-30, in which Ofwat sets an overall cap on the total amount that each water company may recover from their customers. As part of this process, Ofwat balances the interests of consumers with the ability of companies to finance the delivery of their services.
Regarding safeguarding consumer interests, Government is mindful consumers are concerned about their bills. For this reason, Defra expects all water companies to make customers aware of available support, including WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks, and debt management assistance. We are continuing to work with industry to explore options to improve existing social tariff arrangements and welcome the planned household charging trials in 2024-25.
Regarding financial stability, Ofwat assesses and monitors the financial resilience of each company on an individual and ongoing basis and challenges companies where they identify this is needed. As part of this work, Ofwat produces an annual ‘Monitoring Financial Resilience Report’ to provide a publicly available assessment of the financial resilience of each water company. Through this publication, Ofwat aims to promote a focus on efficient investment that secures long-term resilience and delivers long-term value for money for customers and the environment.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to move water companies that do not restrict sewage spills under an operator of last resort.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no operator of last resort for water companies. Ofwat monitors the performance and financial position of all water companies and publishes results on these annually. Ofwat will take action when water company performance is not at the level Government expect, or if their investors need to strengthen their long-term financial resilience.
This Government is holding the water industry to account on a scale never seen before. We have legislated to introduce unlimited penalties on water companies who breach their environmental permits and expand the range of offences to which penalties can be applied. Furthermore, on 20 February, the Government and Environment Agency (EA) announced that they will quadruple the number of water company inspections to crack down on poor performing companies.
We will continue to hold water companies to account and if there are illegal breaches of permits, the regulators will not hesitate to take robust action.
Asked by: Baroness Drake (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they anticipate the Bank of England will publish the results of its second climate biennial exploratory scenarios, the first having been published in May 2022.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government welcomes the results of the Bank’s Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario (CBES), which has been an important milestone in assessing UK system-wide exposures and boosting firms’ capabilities to assess climate-related risk.
Following publication of the CBES results in 2022[1], a Prudential Regulation Authority letter to CEOs[2] set out feedback on how to enhance scenario analysis and further embed supervisory expectations. In recognition that this feedback will take time to embed, the Bank has publicly stated that it will not launch a concurrent exercise in the near-term that further explores climate risks.
The Bank also affirmed in its 2023 report on climate-related risks and the regulatory capital frameworks[3] that it will further develop its capabilities to test the resilience of the financial system to climate risks- including how scenario exercises and stress tests can help the Bank and firms understand the exposure of the financial system to risks and progress work to understand material regime gaps in the capital frameworks. Further, the Bank continues to support the development of climate scenarios as a member of the NGFS’s dedicated “Scenario Design and Analysis” Workstream.
The Bank of England has statutory responsibilities for monetary policy and financial stability, and operational independence from the Government to carry out those objectives.
[1] CBES results
[2] Prudential Regulation Authority letter to CEOs
[3] 2023 report on climate-related risks and the regulatory capital frameworks
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the fall in overall domestic beef production resulting from the proposed changes in agricultural policies and payments.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The British beef sector is highly resilient and plays a significant role in the production of high- quality meat for both the domestic market and for export. It operates in an open market and the value of commodities is established by those in the supply chain. The government continues to work closely with the beef industry and to monitor the impacts of the range of commercial, environmental and market related factors which influence a farmer’s decision to rear beef.
The UK has a high degree of food security, built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 73% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years: historical production figures, including for the commodities you reference, can be found in “Agriculture in the United Kingdom”, a publication of annual statistics about agriculture in the United Kingdom at GOV.UK. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Domestically, the Government has committed to broadly maintain the current level of food we produce. This includes sustainably boosting production in sectors where there are post-Brexit opportunities, including horticulture and seafood, and the Agriculture Act imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to the need to encourage environmentally sustainable food production. Our farming reforms aim to support a highly productive food producing sector by supporting farmers to manage land in a way that improves food production and is more environmentally sustainable, and by paying farmers to produce public goods such as water quality, biodiversity, animal health and welfare and climate change mitigation, alongside food production.
Speaking at the recent National Farmers Union Conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, which provides support for farmers to invest in automation and robotics, as well as solar installations to build on-farm energy security. The Prime Minister also announced a new annual UK-wide Food Security Index, which will capture and present the data needed to monitor levels of food security, and announced plans to hold the Farm to Fork Summit annually.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the fall in overall domestic sugar beet production resulting from the proposed changes in agricultural policies and payments.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For around 2,300 growers in the East of England sugar beet plays a vital role in soil and crop health in the arable farm rotation, allowing a season of “rest” from cereal production. Farmers consider a range of factors, including global market developments in price, their soil type and their long-term agronomic strategy, when deciding which crops they should include in their crop rotation. Domestic disease and pest pressures and the weather will also impact the quality of the crop and resulting sugar production levels.
The UK has a high degree of food security, built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 73% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years: historical production figures, including for the commodities you reference, can be found in “Agriculture in the United Kingdom”, a publication of annual statistics about agriculture in the United Kingdom at GOV.UK. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Domestically, the Government has committed to broadly maintain the current level of food we produce. This includes sustainably boosting production in sectors where there are post-Brexit opportunities, including horticulture and seafood, and the Agriculture Act imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to the need to encourage environmentally sustainable food production. Our farming reforms aim to support a highly productive food producing sector by supporting farmers to manage land in a way that improves food production and is more environmentally sustainable, and by paying farmers to produce public goods such as water quality, biodiversity, animal health and welfare and climate change mitigation, alongside food production.
Speaking at the recent National Farmers Union Conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, which provides support for farmers to invest in automation and robotics, as well as solar installations to build on-farm energy security. The Prime Minister also announced a new annual UK-wide Food Security Index, which will capture and present the data needed to monitor levels of food security, and announced plans to hold the Farm to Fork Summit annually.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to require large music venues and arenas to commit to a ticket levy to help fund grassroots music venues.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector and developing homegrown talent.
That is why we are supporting live music through a range of measures. This includes an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music fund, as set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision in June. This expands and extends ACE’s existing grassroots fund, and takes our total investment in grassroots music through the fund to almost £15 million since 2019. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young and emerging artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other Government support including the Culture Recovery Fund, which provided over £200m of support for live music venues, the £800m Live Events Reinsurance Scheme, alongside the cross-sector grants, loans, and reduction of VAT on tickets to 5%. Further, over £3 million was provided during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.
Music venues are also eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, with a 75% relief up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This relief was extended for a further year during the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. DCMS and DLUHC are also working closely with the sector to revise planning guidelines to ensure that new developments engage with existing music venues before being built.
Industry-led discussions are ongoing regarding increased support for grassroots music venues from larger events and venues, and DCMS actively supports these sector-led initiatives. Whilst we have no current plans to mandate a ticket levy, Ministers and officials continue to engage with industry to understand the challenges and review opportunities to strengthen the financial resilience of the grassroots music sector.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of an emergency fund for grassroots music venues to prevent closures.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector and developing homegrown talent.
That is why we are supporting live music through a range of measures. This includes an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music fund, as set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision in June. This expands and extends ACE’s existing grassroots fund, and takes our total investment in grassroots music through the fund to almost £15 million since 2019. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young and emerging artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other Government support including the Culture Recovery Fund, which provided over £200m of support for live music venues, the £800m Live Events Reinsurance Scheme, alongside the cross-sector grants, loans, and reduction of VAT on tickets to 5%. Further, over £3 million was provided during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.
Music venues are also eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, with a 75% relief up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This relief was extended for a further year during the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. DCMS and DLUHC are also working closely with the sector to revise planning guidelines to ensure that new developments engage with existing music venues before being built.
Industry-led discussions are ongoing regarding increased support for grassroots music venues from larger events and venues, and DCMS actively supports these sector-led initiatives. Whilst we have no current plans to mandate a ticket levy, Ministers and officials continue to engage with industry to understand the challenges and review opportunities to strengthen the financial resilience of the grassroots music sector.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with representatives of the live music industry on introducing a ticket levy on large scale music arenas to support grassroots live music.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector and developing homegrown talent.
That is why we are supporting live music through a range of measures. This includes an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music fund, as set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision in June. This expands and extends ACE’s existing grassroots fund, and takes our total investment in grassroots music through the fund to almost £15 million since 2019. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young and emerging artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other Government support including the Culture Recovery Fund, which provided over £200m of support for live music venues, the £800m Live Events Reinsurance Scheme, alongside the cross-sector grants, loans, and reduction of VAT on tickets to 5%. Further, over £3 million was provided during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.
Music venues are also eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, with a 75% relief up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This relief was extended for a further year during the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. DCMS and DLUHC are also working closely with the sector to revise planning guidelines to ensure that new developments engage with existing music venues before being built.
Industry-led discussions are ongoing regarding increased support for grassroots music venues from larger events and venues, and DCMS actively supports these sector-led initiatives. Ministers and officials continue to engage with industry to understand the challenges and review opportunities to strengthen the financial resilience of the grassroots music sector.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to provide urgent support to grassroots music venues at risk of closure in the context of increased costs.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which play an absolutely crucial role in our world-leading music sector and developing homegrown talent.
That is why we are supporting live music through a range of measures. This includes an additional £5 million to Arts Council England’s (ACE’s) successful Supporting Grassroots Music fund, as set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision in June. This expands and extends ACE’s existing grassroots fund, and takes our total investment in grassroots music through the fund to almost £15 million since 2019. This fund will enable venues to increase support for young and emerging artists, improve equipment and physical infrastructure, and support venues to become more financially resilient and develop new income streams.
This is in addition to other Government support including the Culture Recovery Fund, which provided over £200m of support for live music venues, the £800m Live Events Reinsurance Scheme, alongside the cross-sector grants, loans, and reduction of VAT on tickets to 5%. Further, over £3 million was provided during the pandemic from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund.
Music venues are also eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, with a 75% relief up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This relief was extended for a further year during the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. DCMS and DLUHC are also working closely with the sector to revise planning guidelines to ensure that new developments engage with existing music venues before being built.
Industry-led discussions are ongoing regarding increased support for grassroots music venues from larger events and venues, and DCMS actively supports these sector-led initiatives. Ministers and officials continue to engage with industry to understand the challenges and review opportunities to strengthen the financial resilience of the grassroots music sector.