Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are covered by the transitional protections for eligibility for free school meals; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ending those protections in March 2025 on the children currently protected.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As with all government programmes, including free school meals, we keep our approach under continued review. Support for children to access free school meals, has additionally been considered as part of the Child Poverty Taskforce’s consideration of how to:
1. Support households to increase their income including considering social security reforms that support people into work and alleviate poverty.
2. Help to bring down essential household costs, build savings and tackle problem debt.
3. Alleviate the negative experience of living in poverty, including through supporting families and the role of public services.
No pupil will see any change because of changes to traditional protections until after the summer and the department will communicate further with schools before that time.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will publish a breakdown of how extended producer responsibility fees will be allocated, in the context of transparency in funding for local authority waste management services.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
PackUK will publish annual reports and financial statements, which will provide transparency on the allocation of funds received through the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees. These reports will clarify how the collected fees are distributed and used to support the scheme’s objectives.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a phased introduction of extended producer responsibility fees.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have taken a phased approach to implementing Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR). Reporting obligations for this scheme were introduced in 2024, and fee obligations for large producers introduced on 1 April 2025. From April 2026 PackUK will modulate fees to incentivise use of easily recyclable packaging material.
The pEPR policy has been under development since 2019, with extensive engagement and consultation providing businesses with a clear indication of the scheme’s design and implementation. This policy underwent consultations in 2019, 2021, and a final consultation on reforms to the Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) system in 2022. Additionally, in 2023, the four nations of the UK consulted on the operability of the draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, and further amendments were made to address stakeholder concerns prior to final regulations being introduced.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
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 plans to take to ensure that the opinions of people on (a) low and (b) middle incomes are adequately heard in the development of the food strategy.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A key priority for the food strategy is to improve access to healthy food for everyone, including children and those on low and middle incomes, in order to give all children the best start in life and help adults live longer healthier lives.
We are forming a coalition with the food sector, academics and charities and key thinkers to pool our collective ideas, influence and effort, and ensure that a range of voices are heard as we develop the strategy.
We are developing a programme of stakeholder engagement that will include civil society and consumer group representatives. The Food Strategy Advisory Board, announced on 21 March, includes representatives from civil society organisations such as Anna Taylor from the Food Foundation and Ravi Gurumurthy of NESTA. This collaboration will ensure a systems-wide approach and a comprehensive food strategy.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many families are receiving support from Healthy Start in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Stafford.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
The NHSBSA does not hold data on the number of families receiving Healthy Start. The number of people receiving support from the Healthy Start scheme in March 2025 in Stoke-on-Trent was 2,592, and in Stafford was 566.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of consulting on regulating the property management sector.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous property agents.
Property agents must belong to a government-approved redress scheme. This legislation is currently enforced by local authorities and by the National Trading Standards’ Lettings and Estate Agency Team, who have the power to issue warnings and banning orders to rogue estate and letting agents.
The previous government committed to regulate the property agent sector in 2018 and asked a working group chaired by Lord Best to advise them on how best to do it. However, they failed to respond to the recommendations set out in the working group’s 2019 Regulation of Property Agents: working group report which can be found on gov.uk here.
Managing agents play a key role in the maintenance of multi-occupancy buildings and freehold estates, and their importance will only increase as we transition toward a commonhold future. As a result, we are looking again at the 2019 report.
As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244), the government has made clear it intends to strengthen regulation of managing agents to drive up the standard of their service. As a minimum, this should include mandatory professional qualifications which set a new basic standard that managing agents will be required to meet. We will consult on this matter this year.
We will set out our full position on regulation of estate, letting and managing agents in due course.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on tackling the shortage of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy drugs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is continuing to engage with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to boost production to mitigate the supply issue. Increased volumes of PERT are expected for 2025, and specialist importers have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the gap in the market. In December, the Department issued further management advice to healthcare professionals. This directs clinicians to unlicensed imports when licensed stock is unavailable, and includes actions for integrated care boards to ensure local mitigation plans are implemented. The Department, in collaboration with NHS England, has created a public facing page to include the latest updates on PERT availability and easily accessible prescribing advice.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Water Restoration Fund on river quality in Staffordshire.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. That is why we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Bill, including giving environmental regulators powers to impose penalties on the civil standard of proof, in addition to new automatic penalties. The regulators will also be able to recover costs for a much greater range of enforcement activities.
For Price Review 2024, which runs from 2025 – 2030, Water companies will be delivering record levels of investment: £104 billion over the next five years. This gives the sector the opportunity for transformation, delivering better outcomes for customers and the environment
In October 2024, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, also launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. This is a wide-ranging review to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.
Defra is evaluating how water company fines and penalties can be reinvested in improvements to the water environment. A final decision on this will be made later this year.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to end the difference between the treatment of military and civil compensation payments in means tests for disabled facilities grants.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are giving older and disabled people more independence in their own homes through an immediate in-year uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) of £86 million in 2024/25. This increase will provide approximately 7,800 additional home adaptations. This is on top of the £625 million paid to local authorities in May 2024. The Government also announced an £86 million additional investment in the DFG for the 2025/26 financial year at the Budget, bringing total funding for 2025/26 to £711 million. To ensure the DFG is as effective as possible, we will continue to keep different aspects of the grant, including the means test, under consideration.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of removing VAT from veterinary care.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for public services, and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government took a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability. This stability is critical to boosting investment and growth, and to making people across the UK better off.
One of the key considerations for any potential new VAT relief is whether the cost saving is likely to be passed on to consumers. Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates, meaning that cutting VAT may not be an effective way to reduce prices for consumers.