Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 introduce fair food labelling to provide clear information on sourcing and production.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. All food sold on the UK market must comply with food labelling rules, which include the requirement for specific information to be presented in a specific way.
Food origin information is mandatory for some, but not all foods. In all cases where origin is provided, it must not be misleading. We continue to review origin labelling using comprehensive evidence to ensure clear and transparent labelling for consumers.
As set out in the Government’s animal welfare strategy, we are committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information on how their food was produced. To support this, we will work with stakeholders to explore how improved animal welfare food labelling could provide greater consumer transparency, support farmers and promote better animal welfare.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that social care professionals working with adoptive families receive trauma-informed training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for South East Cornwall to the answer of 13 January 2026 to Question 102909.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that communication in (a) adoption support and (b) reunification cases is (i) timely and (ii) compliant with statutory guidance.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Regional adoption agencies should clearly set out on their websites what adoption support is available, who provides it, and how families can access it. This should include an overview of universal, targeted and specialist forms of support. During the adoption assessment process, prospective adopters must also receive information, counselling and advice about adoption, including the support services they may be entitled to. In addition, the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund provides nationwide access to funded post‑adoption support, including therapeutic interventions for adopted children and their families.
In early‑permanence placements such as foster‑to‑adopt, reunification may occur if the court decides a child should return to their birth family. In these circumstances, reunification must follow statutory care‑planning duties, ensuring well‑planned transitions and appropriate support for carers and parents. Adoption England’s Reunification Framework provides structured guidance for practitioners to manage these transitions safely and sensitively, ensuring the child’s needs remain central throughout the process.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that the planning system delivers sufficient affordable homes to meet the needs of families currently living in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) makes clear that local authorities should assess the size, type, and tenure of housing needed for different groups, including those who require affordable and social rent homes, and should reflect this in their planning policies and decisions.
Assessments of affordable housing need should estimate the numbers of those who cannot meet their needs in the market, including those in temporary accommodation. Local planning authorities are expected to set out the proportion and type of affordable and social rent housing that new development will be required to provide.
The government is currently consulting on a new NPPF that includes clearer, rules- based policies for plan-making and decision-making. The consultation includes policies to increase the viable provision of more affordable homes.
The consultation can be found on gov.uk here and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 02 December 2025 to Question 94590 on Railways: Season Tickets, what the cost of a standard-class annual rail season ticket from (a) Lostwithiel, (b) Bodmin Parkway, (c) Liskeard and (d) Saltash stations to London Paddington was between 03 March 2024 and 01 March 2025.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The cost of Annual Season tickets to London Paddington from a) was £24,856.00, b) Bodmin Parkway was £24,856.00, c) Liskeard was £24,856.00, and d) Saltash was £24,648.00 between 3 March 2024 and 1 March 2025.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 91862 on the Marine Environment, what is the scope of the Sustainable Ocean Plan; what is the (a) process and (b) timetable for consultation with stakeholders; and whether blue finance will be incorporated.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Sustainable Ocean Plan (SOP) will set out a framework to achieve 100% sustainable use of UK waters, supporting long-term growth in the ocean economy. We are currently in the scoping phase, which includes looking at areas such blue finance. As we develop the plan, we will provide further information on stakeholder consultation.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding for skills and connectivity in Cornwall in the Autumn Budget 2025.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The skills system is central to achieving economic growth and breaking down barriers to opportunity. This government is investing skills including for key sectors such as construction, and for young people. Autumn Budget 2025 included £820 million for the Youth Guarantee, featuring a new Jobs Guarantee for eligible 18- to 21-year-olds, and £725 million for the Growth and Skills Levy to help support apprenticeships for young people and fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible people under-25.
Autumn Budget 2025 also invested £30m in a new Kernow Industrial Growth Fund to allow Cornwall council to support high-potential sectors such as critical minerals. This is in addition to existing support for the Cornish economy.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of differences in teacher qualification requirements by multi-academy trusts and local authority-maintained schools on the consistency of educational standards.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Evidence shows that high quality teaching is the most important in-school factor that improves outcomes for children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is the professional qualification for primary and secondary teachers and underpins high quality teaching by ensuring teachers meet the Teachers’ Standards. It is right that we expect teachers to be professionally qualified and the department is taking steps to ensure consistency in educational standards across all state funded primary and secondary schools. Teachers in local authority-maintained schools and special schools are already required to have QTS.
Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are seeking to extend the requirement to academies, so all pupils, including those with SEND, benefit from well-trained, professionally qualified teachers. This change will ensure that teachers too benefit from the knowledge and training that underpins QTS across both local authority-maintained schools and academies.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of trends in the use of qualified supply teachers by academy trusts.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department values the work that supply teachers do and the important contribution they make to the smooth running of schools. The department has not made any assessments relating to academy trusts alone, but we have considered the school sector as a whole.
The department knows that the use of supply teachers, particularly in the secondary phase, has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and that this is having an impact on school budgets. Details of our work on helping schools to maximise value from their budgets will be announced shortly.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to review the (a) definition of micro-entity and (b) level of support available to mico-entities.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government uplifted the monetary thresholds for determining a company is a micro-entity, for the purposes of audit and accounts by 50% in legislation that came into force in April this year. The Department does not plan to revisit this definition.
As part of "Backing Your Business - our Plan for SMEs", the Government is making thriving micro, small, medium-sized businesses a reality through a package of legislative reforms to: tackle late payments; unblock billions in finance to support investment; remove unnecessary red tape; revitalise High Streets; and deliver support for digital and AI adoption through a new Business Growth Service.