Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
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 ban the live sale of decapod crustaceans to the public to be consumed as food to ensure compliance with the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are no plans to ban the live sale of decapod crustaceans to the public to be consumed as food.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on what dates the industry working group established to support development of the local media strategy has met to date, and what the planned timescale is for its next meeting.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of local journalism. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.
Following a roundtable between ministers and local news editors in the Spring to discuss our planned approach to the Strategy, an industry working group was established to consider the issues in more detail and explore areas for collaboration. The group has met so far on six occasions, on the following dates:
5th June 2025
25th June 2025
10th July 2025
24th July 2025
2nd September 2025
16th October 2025
At least one more meeting of the group is intended in 2026 before the Strategy is published.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the Public Notice Portal’s contribution to improving public engagement with statutory notices, and how its archive and consultation functions will be incorporated into the forthcoming local media strategy.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government committed to a review of statutory notices as part of the response to recommendations made by the Licensing policy taskforce in July, including in relation to alcohol licence notices. The review is being taken forward as part of the Local Media Strategy to support local journalism.
We recognise that local press and statutory notices in particular continue to play a central role in keeping communities informed about decisions that affect local services and amenities. In this context, the industry’s Public Notice Portal is a welcome innovation, taking advantage of print publishers’ growing digital audiences and providing a centralised resource for all types of public notice. We welcome the Portal's current expansion to include archive and consultation functions, helping public bodies and commercial entities engage with the public more effectively. DCMS is monitoring the progress of the Portal, and the effect that it has on the audience reach of statutory notices and overall public engagement.
This type of industry innovation and collaboration is integral to securing the sector’s future, and will be taken into account in the statutory notices review, which will more broadly consider the merits of making changes to existing requirements to place statutory notices in print local newspapers, including the impact this has on local transparency and the newspaper industry. The review will also take forward final decisions on the future of alcohol licence notices. More detail including timescales of the review, and the Local Media Strategy more broadly, will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the planned timescales are for the commencement of the statutory notices review.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government committed to a review of statutory notices as part of the response to recommendations made by the Licensing policy taskforce in July, including in relation to alcohol licence notices. The review is being taken forward as part of the Local Media Strategy to support local journalism.
We recognise that local press and statutory notices in particular continue to play a central role in keeping communities informed about decisions that affect local services and amenities. In this context, the industry’s Public Notice Portal is a welcome innovation, taking advantage of print publishers’ growing digital audiences and providing a centralised resource for all types of public notice. We welcome the Portal's current expansion to include archive and consultation functions, helping public bodies and commercial entities engage with the public more effectively. DCMS is monitoring the progress of the Portal, and the effect that it has on the audience reach of statutory notices and overall public engagement.
This type of industry innovation and collaboration is integral to securing the sector’s future, and will be taken into account in the statutory notices review, which will more broadly consider the merits of making changes to existing requirements to place statutory notices in print local newspapers, including the impact this has on local transparency and the newspaper industry. The review will also take forward final decisions on the future of alcohol licence notices. More detail including timescales of the review, and the Local Media Strategy more broadly, will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the levels of Network Rail’s energy costs.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Network Rail is required to consider value for taxpayers’ money in the way that it runs the railway. This includes in relation to energy costs. External factors, including the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, have driven fluctuations in energy prices and have increased Network Rail’s energy costs. To mitigate any further fluctuations and increase its use of renewables, Network Rail has signed a corporate power purchase agreement (CoPPA) starting from 2026, that will see 49.9 megawatts (MW) of clean renewable energy generated, enough to power around 15% of Network Rail’s annual non-traction energy consumption.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Network Rail’s debt will be transferred to Great British Railways.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The detailed design of GBR is underway and the Network Rail debt is being considered as part of this work.