Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the long-term sustainability of grassroots football clubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities, which is why we are investing £85 million into new and upgraded grassroots facilities through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme this financial year. Projects funded through the programme include new and upgraded artificial grass pitches, pitch maintenance equipment and floodlights, supporting football clubs across the country to increase access to sport. Details of future funding allocations as part of our £400 million package of facilities investment through to 2030 will be confirmed in due course.
Our programme delivery partner in England, the Football Foundation, plans their investment pipeline using Local Football Facility Plans (LFFPs), which are developed in partnership with local authorities so as to understand the needs of each community. The LFFP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard can be found here: Central Bedfordshire Executive Summary.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increases in operating costs on the fitness and leisure sector.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
We engage regularly with the fitness and leisure sector on a broad range of issues, including the impact of operating costs.
In 2025 the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in their business rates bills.
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, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that domestic tree production is able to meet demand for trees needed to deliver green infrastructure, improve urban cooling and strengthen climate resilience in towns and cities.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra Trees Programme is investing in domestic nursery capacity to secure the future supply of tree seed and saplings. Funding supports improvements in the quantity, quality, diversity, resilience and biosecurity of supply, including £8.97 million for the Tree Production Innovation Fund to drive innovation in the nursery sector.
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 her Department will establish a tree and plant production group with research institutions to coordinate research, innovation, and increase the uptake of automation technologies.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra Trees Programme is investing in domestic nursery capacity to secure the future supply of tree seed and saplings. Funding supports improvements in the quantity, quality, diversity, resilience and biosecurity of supply, including £8.97 million for the Tree Production Innovation Fund to drive innovation in the nursery sector.
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, whether her Department is taking steps to align government-funded tree planting schemes with nursery production capacity, including allowing greater flexibility in planting timetables according to supply and ensuring grant rates adequately reflect the cost of supplying rare species and provenances.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Estimating supply and demand is complex. Nurseries must anticipate needs several years in advance as it takes between 1 and 4 years (depending on species) to grow a tree ready to plant. Through our relationship with forest nurseries, we are improving visibility and join-up across the sector. These insights will help Government respond quickly to market problems.
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, what steps her Department is taking to assess and address the impacts of climate change on tree seed viability, germination, growth and survival, and to ensure that tree nurseries can maintain a resilient supply of trees.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To meet the Government’s target of increasing tree and woodland cover in England to 16.5% by 2050, Defra is supporting the forestry sector to enable tree nurseries to source, grow and supply greater numbers and species of saplings. This support will also help build resilience across the sector in response to extreme weather, pests and diseases, and market uncertainty.
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 her Department will publish regular data on imports of trees, shrubs, hedging and other woody plants, including quantities, species and maturity, to help identify gaps in domestic supply.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Tree Supply Report is a government analysis of the UK’s tree sapling production each planting season to assess the supply across Great Britain. Through our tree nursery data specialist at the Forestry Commission, we are facilitating the flow of information between Government, the nursery sector, and their customers. The fourth iteration was published April 2026.
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 her Department will commission a feasibility study into the proportion of imported trees and related material that could be produced domestically and use its findings to inform a strategic framework for tree production funding.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra Trees Programme is investing in domestic nursery capacity to secure the future supply of tree seed and saplings. Funding supports improvements in the quantity, quality, diversity, resilience and biosecurity of supply, including £8.97 million for the Tree Production Innovation Fund to drive innovation in the nursery sector.
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, whether her Department is taking steps to develop an action plan for productive and ornamental tree production, including support for British-Grown rootstocks, skills development and grant funding.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra Trees Programme is investing in domestic nursery capacity to secure the future supply of tree seed and saplings. Funding supports improvements in the quantity, quality, diversity, resilience and biosecurity of supply, including £8.97 million for the Tree Production Innovation Fund to drive innovation in the nursery sector.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Mental Health Support Teams are operating in schools and colleges in the area covered by Central East ICB; and how many pupils those teams are able to support.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are 41 Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) operating in NHS Central East Integrated Care Board (ICB). As teams cover different numbers of schools, the proportion of schools and pupils covered provides a helpful measure of rollout. As of March 2026, MHSTs cover 60% of pupils and 51% of schools and colleges in the NHS Central East ICB region, we do not hold data on the number of schools and colleges covered.
MHSTs provide individual and group interventions for mild to moderate mental health needs, support whole-school approaches to mental health, and offer advice to school and college staff. The Government expects full national rollout of MHSTs by the end of 2029.