Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2025 to Question 29188 on Agriculture and Business: Inheritance Tax, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing her Department's data collection methods to enable the collection of data on the number of estates containing woodlands impacted in the 2026-27 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC guidance sets out that woodland is only agricultural property, and therefore qualifies for agricultural property relief, if it is occupied with, and that occupation is ancillary to, agricultural land or pasture. It will include woodland shelter belts, game coverts, fox coverts, coppices grown for fencing materials and clumps of amenity trees or spinneys. Woodlands occupied for purposes that are not agricultural, such as amenity woodland or woodland used for the production of commercial timber, are not agricultural property. However, they may be eligible for woodlands relief or business property relief.
Executors must include the value of any timber and woodland owned by the deceased that is not part of a farm in box 69 of the IHT400 form, alongside the value of the deceased’s other interests in any business or partnership (which may or may not be related to woodlands). Some farms may also include coppices, small woods and belts of trees that shelter the land, and the value of these should be included in the value of any farm, farmhouses and farmland owned by the deceased in box 68 of the IHT400 form.
However, as stated in our answer to UIN 29188, while estates include supporting documentation about the type of assets on which they claim agricultural and business property reliefs when submitting their claims, only the value of eligible assets is digitally captured in a format available for further analysis. It is also combined with the value of other assets in the boxes mentioned above, and these may or may not be related to woodlands. As such, any further level of detail is not readily available from historic claims to estimate how many future estates might contain woodland. It would be disproportionately costly for HMRC to manually review historic claims to digitally capture this information.
As detailed in my recent letter to the Chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee, Inheritance Tax is currently operated by HMRC using a predominantly paper-based system. As part of my work to modernise HMRC, we plan to move to a digital system.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2025 to Question 35853 on Govia Thameslink Railway: Fares, if she will make an estimate of the first year in which rail fares will go down under Great British Railways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are committed to the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, delivering a range of improvements, from more reliable services to simpler ticketing. Through public ownership and the transition to Great British Railways, it is also our ambition to deliver a more affordable railway. Post-pandemic, the amount of taxpayer subsidy provided to the railway industry has increased from under a quarter in 2018/19 to over half of total income in 2022/23. A proportionate, annual increase in fares is necessary to support crucial investment and to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the railway.
Our goal is to keep the price of rail travel at a point that works for both passengers and taxpayers, where possible, while ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the railway.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of her Department taking responsibility for (a) zoos and (b) aquariums.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government acknowledges the significant impact that zoos and aquariums have on the Visitor Economy. Iconic and cultural attractions like Chester zoo, which was the third most visited paid attraction in England in 2023, draw in visitors from across the country and beyond, play a significant role in attracting families, supporting local tourism, and contributing to conservation efforts.
While policy responsibility for the welfare and management of animals kept by zoos and aquariums, as well as the conservation work zoos and aquariums are required to undertake, sits with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), we remain engaged on cross-cutting matters where relevant to the UK’s visitor economy. Rather than moving things between departments, we believe it is better to get departments to work together.
This includes ensuring the UK’s diverse visitor offer is promoted effectively through national tourism bodies, including VisitEngland and VisitBritain.
Similarly, aquariums such as the 14 Sea Life Centres across the UK, including prominent sites in Blackpool and Scarborough, attract thousands of visitors to rural and coastal areas each year. The Sea Life Center London alone welcomes around 1 million visitors annually and serves as a key attraction for visitors.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 economic contribution of (a) zoos and (b) aquariums to the tourism sector.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government acknowledges the significant impact that zoos and aquariums have on the Visitor Economy. Iconic and cultural attractions like Chester zoo, which was the third most visited paid attraction in England in 2023, draw in visitors from across the country and beyond, play a significant role in attracting families, supporting local tourism, and contributing to conservation efforts.
While policy responsibility for the welfare and management of animals kept by zoos and aquariums, as well as the conservation work zoos and aquariums are required to undertake, sits with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), we remain engaged on cross-cutting matters where relevant to the UK’s visitor economy. Rather than moving things between departments, we believe it is better to get departments to work together.
This includes ensuring the UK’s diverse visitor offer is promoted effectively through national tourism bodies, including VisitEngland and VisitBritain.
Similarly, aquariums such as the 14 Sea Life Centres across the UK, including prominent sites in Blackpool and Scarborough, attract thousands of visitors to rural and coastal areas each year. The Sea Life Center London alone welcomes around 1 million visitors annually and serves as a key attraction for visitors.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what (a) financial and (b) other support her Department provides to (i) zoos and (ii) aquariums.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government acknowledges the significant impact that zoos and aquariums have on the Visitor Economy. Iconic and cultural attractions like Chester zoo, which was the third most visited paid attraction in England in 2023, draw in visitors from across the country and beyond, play a significant role in attracting families, supporting local tourism, and contributing to conservation efforts.
While policy responsibility for the welfare and management of animals kept by zoos and aquariums, as well as the conservation work zoos and aquariums are required to undertake, sits with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), we remain engaged on cross-cutting matters where relevant to the UK’s visitor economy. Rather than moving things between departments, we believe it is better to get departments to work together.
This includes ensuring the UK’s diverse visitor offer is promoted effectively through national tourism bodies, including VisitEngland and VisitBritain.
Similarly, aquariums such as the 14 Sea Life Centres across the UK, including prominent sites in Blackpool and Scarborough, attract thousands of visitors to rural and coastal areas each year. The Sea Life Center London alone welcomes around 1 million visitors annually and serves as a key attraction for visitors.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the average cost to a school of providing a meal to a child eligible for Universal Infant Free School Meals.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England’s state-funded schools are entitled to universal infant free school meals. The department spends approximately £600 million per year ensuring that around 1.3 million infant pupils receive a nutritious lunchtime meal.
Funding is not ring-fenced, meaning that schools have autonomy over delivery, including entering into contracts with suppliers and allocation of funding within their budgets. The department continues to work closely with the school food industry to monitor sector challenges.
As with all government programmes, including universal infant free school meals, we will keep our approach under continued review.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she will take steps to amend Gift Aid regulations to allow charitable (a) zoos and (b) aquariums to claim on the price of admission.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important work the charity sector does in the UK, which is why we currently provide tax reliefs to charities and their donors worth over £6 billion per year, including over £1.6 billion in Gift Aid.
Gift Aid is intended to be claimed only on freely given donations rather than on payments for goods or services such as admission fees. This is why charitable zoos or aquariums may not claim gift aid on the price of a single admission. However, they can claim gift aid on donations that go beyond the 'goods and services' element of a single admission and are given freely to support the charity's purpose. Such charities may claim Gift Aid on the sale of a ticket where either: the ticket gives the buyer access to view charity property (which by definition includes plants and animals) for a full year; or the buyer pays a freely given 10% Gift Aid ‘premium’ on top of the standard admission price.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of business rates on the rate at which new (a) 5G and (b) 5GSA infrastructure is being rolled out.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Digital infrastructure will play a key role in the Government’s forthcoming 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, which will set out the long-term ambitions for rollout of 5G and Standalone 5G.
Eligible plant and machinery used on 5G are exempt from business rates from 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2035.
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government published a Discussion Paper setting out priority areas for business rates reform and inviting industry to co-design a fairer business rates system. In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Aggregates levy on the marine environment.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Aggregates Levy is an environmental tax which aims to encourage the more efficient extraction and use of all aggregates. There are no current plans to undertake a specific assessment of its impact on the marine environment, but the government keeps all taxes under review.