Adam Dance

I refer the hon Member to the answer given to PQ 64372

The Government is fully committed to the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), and to championing the rights of individuals with mental health issues and learning difficulties who are afforded protection in relation to the protected characteristic of disability, where their condition meets the Act’s definition of disability.

The Act defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on a person’s ability to do normal daily activities.

The Act makes it clear that businesses and public bodies that provide goods and services must not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people, including those who may not have physical disabilities.

The Act places an anticipatory duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve access to premises, buildings and services. The Act is clear that the failure by a service provider to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person could amount to disability discrimination.

Similar strong protections apply in employment, where a reasonable adjustment applies where an employer is recruiting or already employing disabled people. Failure to make adjustments or generally treating disabled applicants or employees less favourably than others would amount to unlawful disability discrimination. Where the law is breached, disabled people may enforce their rights in court or at an employment tribunal.

The administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office. While the scheme does not publicly report overpayments due to administrator errors, in the last ten years overpayments caused solely by ‘administrative errors’, resulted in a total of 381.

The scheme follows the HM Treasury guidance on “Managing Public Money” which requires the scheme, where possible, to recover any money that a member is not entitled to. Recognising that recovery of overpayments may cause distress we work closely with individual members to ensure that payment recovery plans are affordable, take account of hardship and minimise the impact for the member both in terms of finances and wellbeing. This usually includes setting payment plans to recover monies owed over a reasonable period of time.

The administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office. However, the government has a duty to recover overpaid public money to ensure the scheme remains fair and sustainable for all taxpayers.

The Civil Service Pension Scheme pays out 732,000 pensions per month, and processes in excess of 1,000,000 member transactions each month. There have been, on average, 40 cases a year where human or administrative error led to a member being overpaid since 2014. While many overpayments in the scheme occur due to the late notification of a member's death, these specific cases do not relate to processing mistakes. Under current contracts, if the scheme cannot recover these funds from the member, it seeks recovery from the pension administrator.

We recognise that being asked to repay funds can be stressful. To manage the impact on retired civil servants, the scheme administrator works individually with those affected to create manageable recovery plans. These plans focus on the member's specific ability to pay, often spreading repayments over a long period to ensure that no undue financial hardship is caused.

The government is not able to make predictions on total future numbers of businesses starting, closing or contracting. Our plan is to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business, with a culture that supports entrepreneurship in every community and high street.

Our Small Business Plan, launched in July 2025, contains over 200 targeted actions, which will make a real difference to the day-to-day trading operations of small and medium sized businesses and give them the right support to grow and thrive.

From April 2026, we are introducing permanently lower business‑rates multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, worth nearly £900 million a year and benefiting over 750,000 premises. In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the government has introduced £4.3 billion transitional support package, to protect ratepayers from large overnight increases.

We have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning around 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change. The government and Ofgem are taking decisive action to inform and protect non-domestic energy consumers as well as improving access to redress when issues occur. Later this year, we will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy, to help reinvigorate our communities. These measures will provide meaningful, long-term support to rural retailers at the heart of their communities.

The Government is committed to reducing regulatory compliance costs for SMEs and announced in March a commitment to reduce the administrative burden of regulation for all businesses by £5.6 billion by the end of this Parliament.

We are putting in place the policies and services needed to drive growth. This includes tackling late payments, boosting access to finance, and removing red tape to enable small businesses, including those in Yeovil constituency, to grow and thrive. SMEs can also access a wealth of business and export support via business.gov.uk.

The government is committed to tackling the issues that matter to rural communities, including Somerset council. We have launched the Final Local Government Finance Settlement through which the government have updated the way we fund local authorities. By the end of the multi-year Settlement (2028-29), the government will have provided a 15.5% increase in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England, worth over £11.4 billion, compared to 2025-26.

This month this Department have also announced that Leonardo UK within Yeovil constituency has secured a £1 billion contract sustaining thousands of skilled British Jobs and I look forward to seeing how DBT can continue to work closely with rural communities.

The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 require that only safe products, in their normal or reasonably foreseeable use, are placed on the market. There are obligations on Producers and distributors to where reasonable, sample test products to check safety. The Government employs a risk-based approach to product testing, targeting categories with a high potential for danger and do not test period products. During the passage of the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025, the Government committed to consult on period product safety. Officials are currently reviewing the need for any further research and testing in this area to complement the consultation.

Fuel markets are governed by competition and consumer protection law, overseen by the Competition Market Authority (CMA). The Government and the CMA are closely monitoring petrol and diesel prices in light of instability in the Middle East, and the Chancellor and Secretary of State recently met with fuel retailers to set out a clear message: unfair practices will not be tolerated.

We are also engaging regularly with refiners, importers and distributors to ensure any emerging risks are identified and managed promptly. The UK benefits from strong and diverse security of energy supplies, and there are no issues with fuel supply.

The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero closely monitors live fuel stock levels to ensure we have an accurate picture of the supply situation, and current indications show that petrol station forecourts across the UK remain well stocked. We also maintain regular engagement with industry, who confirm that the road fuel supply chain is operating across the UK as normal.

The Government does not measure stock levels at individual forecourts so localised concerns will not always show on our data. However, the government continues to liaise with industry to closely monitor the situation and will act should the situation require it.

The government has published a consultation on alternative heating solutions which seeks to gather evidence on the role that these technologies, including renewable liquid fuels (RLFs) such as hydrotreated vegetable oil, could play in ensuring that every household has a low-carbon option that is right for them. The consultation will run until 10 February and can be found here: Exploring the role of alternative clean heating solutions - GOV.UK.

UK clean energy and related supply chain jobs are projected to rise from around 440,000 in 2023 to around 860,000 by 2030.

In April, we announced plans to train up to 18,000 skilled workers to install heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and work on heat networks through the Heat Training Grant and Warm Homes Skills Programme.

We have established the industry led Construction Skills Mission Board, tasked with developing and delivering a comprehensive industry skills led action plan. Further initiatives to support SMEs in the retrofit supply chain across the country in the Warm Homes Plan which will be published soon.

The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy with less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

The Government wants to provide businesses with better protection from being locked into unfair and expensive energy contracts, and more redress when they have a complaint. Last year, the Government launched a consultation on introducing regulation of Third-Party Intermediaries (TPIs), such as energy brokers. This is aimed at enhancing consumer protections, particularly for non-domestic consumers.

The consultation has now closed, and a Government response will follow in due course once all feedback has been reviewed. The Government recently published a summary of responses to the consultation which set out that we government continues to believe that the current regulations aren’t sufficient and we remain minded to directly regulate this market when parliamentary time allows.

From 19 December 2024 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 50 employees can now access free support to resolve issues with their energy supplier through the Energy Ombudsman. This means that 99% of British businesses can now access this service with outcomes ranging up to £20,000 in financial awards.

The Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill was introduced in November 2025 to increase UK defences against cyber attacks. These reforms will ensure the UK economy is better protected than ever by securing the most important essential and digital services and suppliers which businesses and public services rely on.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology produced an Impact Assessment for the introduction of the Bill that identifies the expected impact the legislation will have on regulated entities. The assessment highlights that cyber security is a critical enabler of economic growth, and it is expected that the improved security resulting from businesses adhering to the regulations will mean the benefits of adherence outweigh the cost of adherence. Further analysis will be undertaken for relevant secondary legislation to support the implementation of the Bill, and the Impact Assessment will be updated upon Royal Assent.

The government's forthcoming Modernising Corporate Reporting consultation will provide an opportunity for users of corporate reporting to comment on the effectiveness of the existing risk reporting framework which includes businesses' cyber risk reporting and the Department for Business and Trade will consider the impact on business growth of any changes to risk reporting following this consultation.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 25th November 2025 to Question UIN 91769 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-11-17/91769

Through Project Gigabit we are rolling out fast, reliable broadband to UK premises not included in suppliers’ commercial plans. These premises are predominantly in rural areas. As of the end of March 2025, over 1.2 million premises had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through government-funded programmes. In addition, more than one million further premises have been included within contracts to provide access to gigabit-capable broadband, with funding of over £2.4 billion through Project Gigabit.

In July, we published a consultation on a draft updated Statement of Strategic Priorities that sets out the Government’s view on the key role of competition to support the fibre roll-out. Competition across the UK is necessary to promote investment as well as foster innovation, and will help ensure low prices and more choice for consumers in the long-term. We are currently reviewing responses to the consultation and will publish our response in due course.

As the independent regulator for telecommunications, Ofcom is responsible for making regulatory decisions in the fixed telecoms sector, including on the Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product.

In July, we published our draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for telecommunications, the management of radio spectrum, and postal services that sets out the Government’s view on infrastructure sharing in the fixed telecoms sector, including asking Ofcom to demonstrate greater transparency in how they calculate and set PIA prices.

The draft Statement also sets out how Ofcom can continue to support the roll-out of broadband across the UK, including in rural areas, by promoting competition.

Landlines are not being phased out. The analogue technology underpinning the landline network, the Public Switched Telephone Network, is being upgraded to digital Voice over Internet Protocol, which is more reliable and resilient. We want to ensure that all customers, including those in Yeovil and Somerset, are migrated safely.

A voluntary charter, agreed in December 2023, committed communications providers to protecting vulnerable consumers during the migration. The Government secured new safeguards from providers in November 2024, as set out in the non-voluntary migrations checklist.

The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 requires all local authorities in England to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. Each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within their available resources.

Library service provision, including the number and location of static libraries, should take account of factors such as the rurality of the area and the availability and cost of public transport links. The statutory library provision in Somerset is delivered from 32 static libraries, as well as a mobile library service and a home library service.

The Government is committed to getting local government back on its feet. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2026-27 will make available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26.

The National Year of Reading is a Department for Education initiative, in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust.

Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling them to thrive. Local Authorities participating in the programme will co-design the services in each hub alongside young people in the community to ensure it meets local needs.

Young Futures Hubs are just one part of delivering support within a much wider youth landscape, and will work closely with core services and wider initiatives spanning youth, education, employment, social care, mental health, youth justice and policing.

Public libraries are central to the success of the National Year of Reading’s campaign to engage people of all ages with reading. The Reading Agency has been appointed to work with sector partners to deliver and support public library engagement. The Summer Reading Challenge in 2026, and World Book Night, the annual celebration of reading for adults on 23 April 2026, will be key moments for libraries during the National Year of Reading 2026. Throughout the year, The Reading Agency will provide public libraries with resources, toolkits, and print and digital materials to support their work.

Somerset libraries launched its participation in the National Year of Reading on 16 January 2026. All 32 statutory static libraries in Somerset, including five in the Yeovil constituency, will participate across the year, through existing initiatives as well as specific National Year of Reading events, activities and promotions.

The Government recognises that sports facilities are important to communities up and down the country, including rural communities. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active.

Grassroots sport, including cricket, is funded through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, who invest over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year. This includes long-term investment to the England and Wales Cricket Board, the National Governing Body for cricket, which receives up to £11.6 million for five years to invest in community cricket initiatives that will benefit everyone, including those in rural areas.

Future funding of sports facilities will be considered as part of the upcoming Spending Review.

The Government recognises that sports clubs and facilities are important to communities up and down the country, including rural communities. High-quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to them and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.

The ongoing responsibility for public leisure facilities lies at Local Authority level. Local Authorities work in partnership with operators who manage leisure services. The Government and Sport England continue to work closely with Local Authorities to monitor pressures in the sector.

The Government has committed to continued funding for grassroots facilities. £100 million will be invested into grassroots sport facilities across the UK through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme. Grassroots sport is also funded through the Government’s Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, who invest over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding each year.

Future funding of sports facilities will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.