Andrew Snowden

Since the general election, the Department has begun work on a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade. The Department will share more details in due course.

In the Budget on 30 October, the government confirmed it will invest over £150 million to introduce a new £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London from 1 January until 31 December 2025. Under the plans of the previous administration, the current £2 cap on bus fares had been due to expire on 31 December 2024, and prior to the Budget, there was no further funding available to maintain the cap beyond this point.

The published interim evaluation of the £2 fare cap showed that patronage continued to recover following the COVID 19 pandemic. The final evaluation of the £2 fare cap will be published in due course.

Considering all its impacts, the fare cap is not financially sustainable for taxpayers and bus operators at £2. Capping fares at £3 will keep bus travel affordable while ensuring the cap is fair to taxpayers, helping millions of people access better opportunities, travel for less and protect vital bus routes, in Lancashire and right across England.

Following the closure of the Restoring Your Railway (RYR) programme, the Department is now reviewing its portfolio, including proposals for the South Fylde line.

There is currently no DfT funding allocated to develop this project any further, but we encourage local authorities to lead the development of transport schemes that have a strong business case and clear benefits to their communities.

Approximately £1.5 billion of additional capital funding has been allocated in the budget for 2025/26, to support National Health Service performance across secondary and emergency care, and to begin to deliver against the Government's three strategic shifts, which include moving care from the hospital to the community.

This investment will deliver new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners. This creates new capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures, and over 1.25 million diagnostic tests, as they come online. The investments made at the October Budget also add new beds across the NHS estate.

Collectively, these investments will create more treatment space in emergency departments, reduce waiting times, and help shift more care into the community via the expansion of community based diagnostic capacity. More details will follow at the earliest opportunity.

The NHS is prioritising the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, and is currently delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs), with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics. In August 2024, NHS England published an updated list of 168 CDC sites currently delivering activity. A total of 170 CDCs have been approved and will be delivering activity by March 2025.

In line with this Government's stated commitment to the rule of law, we respect the independence of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The government does not comment on specific financial market movements. Gilt yields are determined by a wide range of international and domestic factors, and it is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets.

The Chancellor has commissioned the Office for Budget Responsibility for an updated economic and fiscal forecast for the 26th of March, which will incorporate the latest data.

The Government recognises the important role charities play in our society and has made it a priority to reset the relationship with civil society by developing a Civil Society Covenant.

To repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the government has taken the difficult decision to increase employer National Insurance.

The Government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of employers with NICs liabilities either gain or see no change next year. Charities will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

More broadly, within the tax system, we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving., with more than £6 billion in charitable reliefs provided to charities, CASCs and their donors in 2023 to 2024.

From 1 April 2025, films with a UK lead writer or director and budgets of under £15 million will be able to claim an enhanced 53% rate of Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC), known as the Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC). Generative artificial intelligence costs are not excluded from the IFTC. Costs that qualify for the IFTC will be the same costs that currently qualify for the normal rate of AVEC. Guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-audio-visual-expenditure-credits-for-corporation-tax.

From 1 April 2025, film and high-end TV companies may claim an enhanced AVEC rate of 39% on their UK visual effects costs. UK visual effects costs will be exempt from the AVEC’s 80% cap on qualifying expenditure. Generative artificial intelligence costs are not excluded from the additional tax relief for visual effects. Further information on the costs that will qualify for the additional tax relief can be found in the Government’s response to its consultation on the design of the policy, and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-additional-tax-relief-for-visual-effects-costs.

HMRC will publish specific guidance on the additional tax relief for visual effects in due course.

At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced that the rate of Employer National Insurance contributions will increase from 13.8% to 15% from 6 April 2025. In order to raise the revenue required to fund public services and restore economic stability, difficult decisions need to be taken on tax, which is why the Government is asking employers to contribute more.

The Chancellor also set out, at the Autumn Budget, the departmental spending allocations for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Departmental allocations for future years will be set out at the next phase of the Spending Review. The responsibility for prioritising these budgets effectively and making assessments on the costs of procurement rests with contracting authorities.

The Government has published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/what-are-the-changes-to-agricultural-property-relief#:~:text=From%206%20April%202026%2C%20the,rather%20than%20the%20standard%2040%25. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief in 2026-27 are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

Individuals can pass up to £325,000 inheritance tax free, and £500,000 if includes a residence to a direct descendant, and £1m when a tax free allowance is passed to a surviving spouse or civil partner.

The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief mean that farmers can access 100% relief for the first £1 million and 50% relief thereafter - meaning an effective tax rate of up to 20% on those assets. These reliefs are in addition to the normal inheritance tax allowances, and mean any couple, whether or not married, could pass on up to £1.5 million each or £3 million tax-free between them.

Individuals will need to consider their own circumstances and may wish to speak to a tax advisor or accountant.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Home Office because drunk and drug driving offences are not among the list of offences for which police forces are currently required to notify the Home Office of data on arrests, charges and outcomes.

If it maintains officer numbers at the required level of 3,586 officers.

Total funding to police forces in 2025-26will be up to £17.4 billion, an increase of up to £987 million compared to the 2024-25 police funding settlement.

This includes a £657.1 million additional Government grant funding to police forces, which includes:

• £230.3 million to support forces with the increase to the changes to employer National Insurance Contributions as set out by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget; and

• £100.0 million to deliver the first steps of this Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Commitment in 2025-26.

In addition to the force’s government grant of up to £284 million, Lancashire Police will receive £12,596,034 to directly support the maintenance of officer numbers in FY2025/26

This Government is committed to bringing forward a Defence Industrial Strategy which ensures the imperatives of national security and a high-growth economy are aligned. The defence sector, including the combat air sector, provides highly skilled jobs across the UK and the Defence Industrial Strategy will consider how we grow and retain the skills needed, working closely with partners across Government, industry and skills bodies to ensure we retain and attract a skilled workforce across the sector.

A resolution to this conflict has been a priority since day one of this Government. An immediate ceasefire is just the first step towards a lasting solution to the crisis. The UK continues to fund our operational presence in Middle East to support regional stability as we push for a long-term political solution that includes the implementation of a two-state solution.

Budget allocations for 2025-26 will be set in the usual way and informed by the findings of the Strategic Defence Review.

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the government’s planning policies for England and how these should be applied. It makes no reference whatsoever to the role of elected councillors.

In the King’s Speech, we set out our intention to use the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill to improve local planning decision making by modernising planning committees.

The government believes that planning committees have an integral role in providing local democratic oversight of planning decisions. However, in exercising that democratic oversight, it is vital that planning committees operate as

effectively as possible, focusing on those applications which require member input and not revisiting the same decisions.

Our recently published planning reform working paper on planning committees, which can be found on gov.uk here, invites views on models for a national scheme of delegation, the creation of smaller targeted planning committees specifically for strategic development, and the introduction of a mandatory requirement for training for planning committee members.

The government expects local planning authorities to explore and exhaust all options to deliver the homes their communities need.

An authority’s ability to meet their housing need through plan-making will be tested at a public examination, which will assess whether there are any justified reasons for not being able to meet a target in full.

There are two tests of whether authorities are meeting housing need: the Housing Delivery Test, which measures authorities’ delivery record over the previous three years, and the ‘five-year housing land supply’ policy, which tests whether authorities have allocated sufficient land to provide a housing pipeline.

Where authorities fail against these tests, ‘the presumption’ in favour of sustainable development kicks in. The government are clear that ‘the presumption’ cannot be a gateway to poor quality housing, and through the revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December we have added new safeguards to ensure this is the case.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December retains strong safeguards in relation to the beauty and character of all parts of the countryside.

The Office for Budget Responsibility October Economic and Fiscal outlook based their forecast on the existing policy environment, and did not take account of the impact of policies that we have announced.

The Plan for Change published on 5 December 2024 set out our commitment to the ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England this parliament.

The revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December includes policies designed to support increased build out rates, including the promotion of mixed tenure development.

Our New Homes Accelerator aims to unblock and accelerate the delivery of large-scale housing developments that have for various reasons become delayed, or which are not progressing as quickly as they could be.

In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, we have committed to introducing a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme and to giving first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes.

We will continue to consider a range of evidence in delivering this, including OBR work, and will set out a full suite of policy measures next year when we publish our long-term housing strategy.

My Department has published Planning Practice Guidance on the topic of lawful development certificates, which can be found on gov.uk here.