Cameron Thomas

The UK and Ukraine are strengthening economic ties through our Free Trade and Digital Trade Agreements and the UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership Agreement, signed by the Prime Minister and the President of Ukraine in January. Our commitments demonstrate firm intention to support Ukraine and enable UK businesses to contribute to Ukraine’s reconstruction and modernisation, driving mutual prosperity. Initiatives including the UK-Ukraine Infrastructure Taskforce and UK-Ukraine Techbridge, and regular defence trade missions, are encouraging bilateral trade and investment, strengthening industrial partnerships and improving market access for UK businesses.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology recognises Gloucestershire as a national leader in cyber security. Home to GCHQ and a thriving cyber ecosystem, the region will benefit from the new National Cyber Innovation Centre in Cheltenham, which will drive collaboration and investment. The recently published Digital and Technologies Sector Plan acknowledges the potential of the Golden Valley development. Government continues to work with local partners, including CyNam and the University of Gloucestershire, to advance cyber skills and innovation, supported by the Cyber Growth Action Plan to unlock further regional and national growth.

My officials recently met Mobile UK to discuss a range of issues affecting the mobile industry currently, in their role as the trade association for the UK’s mobile network operators. This included Ofcom’s coverage reporting, and what we can do to work together to address areas of limited or no coverage.

Across Tewkesbury, outdoor 4G coverage from all four operators has increased to 95% up from 87%, since the Shared Rural Network programme begun in March 2020. These improvements were delivered via the industry-led element of the SRN which has now completed. There will not be any further coverage improvements in Tewkesbury from the programme.

Ofcom reports that 4G is available across 95% of the Tewkesbury constituency from all four mobile operators, while 5G (standalone and non-standalone) is available outside 99% of premises in his constituency from at least one operator.

I have raised my concerns about the accuracy of their coverage reporting with Ofcom and I welcome the improvements to their online mobile coverage checker which will go live in the second half of June.

Our ambition is for all populated areas, including North Gloucestershire, to have higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. We continue to work closely with the mobile operators and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment into mobile networks and competition in the market.

Project Gigabit is the government’s programme to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to UK premises, including schools, that are not included in suppliers' commercial plans.

Alongside connecting premises through a series of Project Gigabit contracts across the UK, we are currently delivering a specific project in partnership with the Department for Education which is set to give a further 780 schools access to a fast, reliable broadband connection.

Earlier government-funded programmes have already delivered gigabit-capable connections to over 2,400 schools.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, has access to and benefits from quality sport and physical activity opportunities, and that high-quality, inclusive facilities help ensure everyone has access to sport.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.

We are also supporting more players in getting onto the pitch wherever they live via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, which has invested £123 million UK-wide throughout 2024/25. Projects include funding for artificial grass pitches, floodlights, and maintenance machinery, helping sites to improve availability all year round. Funding from the Programme continues to be invested in England through our delivery partner, the Football Foundation. This funding is structured so that areas that need it most are prioritised, taking both local inactivity rates and deprivation into account.

The Football Foundation plans their investment pipeline based on Local Football Facility Plans (LFFPs). These plans have been developed in partnership with local authorities and are in the process of being refreshed to reflect the current landscape. The existing LFFP for Tewkesbury can be found here.

The Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 committed the Government to continued support for elite and grassroots sport through future investment. Further details will be confirmed in due course.

The Government is dedicated to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport.

We want to break down the barriers that exist and prevent women and girls from being active including but not limited to kit, facilities, time and cost. This Girl Can, which recently celebrated its ten year anniversary, is an inspiring campaign that has promoted women’s sport, challenged prejudice and made clear that sport is for everyone.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Separately, as a government, we are investing £123 million in inclusive grassroots sport facilities that will support more women and girls to take part in the sports that they love.

In the last financial year, 2023-24, Sport England awarded £50,834 to the Tewkesbury constituency.

Sustainability of local journalism is an area of particular concern for this Government, across the country and in Gloucestershire and other rural areas.

We are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, and helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.

We are working across Government and with other stakeholders as the Strategy develops and will announce further details in due course.

Young carers were added to the school census as a specific group for the first time in 2022/23. The department expects the census data to improve over time as the collection becomes better established. We are looking at the ways the data is entered to see if we can make technical changes that will support more accurate reporting without overly burdening schools.

The statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ requires designated safeguarding leads to undergo training to provide them with the knowledge and skills to carry out their role. This includes having a good understanding of, and alertness to, the needs of young carers to identify their needs.

In its inspections of local authority children’s services, Ofsted evaluates whether professionals identify children and young people in need of help and protection, and whether they provide help to families when they need it. Ofsted have recently consulted on a new education inspection framework, and their full response will come in September. The proposals include a specific evaluation of inclusion, ensuring that schools can provide appropriate support for all disadvantaged and vulnerable children, including young carers.

High-quality, careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) is key to helping young people make informed decisions about their future. The department funds person-centred, impartial careers information and advice across all employment sectors, including social care.​

Through The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), we fund Careers Hubs which lead partnerships including secondary schools, colleges, employers and strategic and local authorities to connect young people to local skills and economic needs through a responsive careers education programme. ​The Health Sector Advisory Group, in partnership with CEC, is exploring solutions to address workforce and skills challenges and inspire young people to take up careers in health and social care. Their recent report, Examining the Skills Gap, showcases effective local initiatives that give young people real-world insight into social care careers and can be found here: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/evidence-and-reports/examining-the-skills-gap-inspiring-young-people-to-take-up-careers-in-health-and-social-care/.

The National Careers Service is a free, government-funded careers information and guidance service. Its website gives access to digital tools and resources’ covering over 130 industry areas and 800 job profiles including several social care roles.

The government has introduced measures to raise awareness, boost access, and improve the quality of training available in the healthcare sector, including the ‘Next Generation’ campaign promoting technical education pathways inspiring pupils to pursue careers in sectors like social care.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work.

The Review is being undertaken in close consultation with education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and other stakeholders such as employers, universities and trade unions. The Review has received call for evidence submissions from a variety of employers, colleges and representatives.

The Review has published a well-evidenced, clear interim report, which sets out its interim findings and confirms the key areas for further work. This report sets out that the Review has heard consistently from children and young people and their parents that they want more focus on the applied knowledge and skills that will equip them for later life and work; such as financial education, careers knowledge and politics and governance. The interim report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report.

During its next phase, the Review is considering whether there is sufficient coverage of knowledge and skills that are essential to sufficiently prepare children and young people for future life and to thrive in a fast-changing world.

The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in autumn, at which point the government will respond.

Children’s earliest years are crucial to their health, development and life chances. The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. Practitioners should carefully organise enabling environments and cultures for high-quality play to support children’s learning and development. In the summer term of the academic year in which children turn five, children are assessed against the EYFS Profile, which seeks to measure children’s level of development and support their successful transitions into year 1.

The department has launched an independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum. The Review is addressing the curriculum and assessment system from ages 5 to 19, ensuring that children build on their crucial learning and development in the early years. The interim report expresses an ambition for the curriculum to ensure effective transitions, and progression through each key stage of education. However, covering ages 0-5, the EYFS is outside of the Review’s scope. The wider work of the department will consider these areas.

The government works to support local authorities to ensure that every local area has sufficient places for children that need them. The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities.

The department engages with councils on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, we support them to find solutions as quickly as possible.

The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools.

In March, the department announced that Gloucestershire County Council has been allocated just under £9.2 million to support it to create the mainstream school places needed by September 2028.This funding, £5.6 million of which will be paid in the 2026/27 financial year and with a further £3.6 million paid in 2027/28, is on top of just over £23.1 million we have previously allocated to Gloucestershire County Council to support it in providing new school places needed over the current and next two academic years, up to and including the academic year starting in September 2026.

There are several potential ways in which microplastics which can infiltrate agricultural land and the wider environment. These include fallout from the atmosphere, land connections with surface waters and industrial premises, leaks from septic tanks and landfill sites, and possible leaching from the application of treated sewage sludge to agricultural soils. Once microplastics have entered the soil, many factors will influence their movement, such as soil type, the type of crop and the presence of livestock.

To better understand the transmission of microplastics through the application to the land of sewage sludge containing biosolids, Defra officials are collaborating with industry and independent researchers under the water industry-funded Chemicals Investigation Programme. This work will help inform possible and future measures to mitigate microplastics in the environment. We discuss the progress of this work on a frequent basis.

Attracting bright new talent into land-based careers and having a skilled workforce in place is vital for the future of UK food and farming.

Defra works closely with The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH) which is encouraging young people and new entrants into farming in its capacity as an industry led professional body for the farming industry. This includes leading a cross-industry initiative to address common negative misconceptions about the sector and providing free TIAH membership for students.

Furthermore, the Government has launched Skills England to ensure there is a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training and technical qualifications for individuals and employers to access, which are aligned with skills gaps and what employers need. It will work with its partners to ensure that regional and national skills needs are met.

The levels of pollution in our waters, including nitrates, are unacceptable. We are prioritising cleaning up our waters.

We are reviewing the Environmental Improvement Plan and will create a new, statutory plan for how the department will protect and restore our national environment and meet each of our ambitious targets, including reducing pollution. We nonetheless continue to work with farmers to deliver improvements and drive down agricultural pollution including through regulations, Environmental Land Management schemes and advisory services. As a first key step, we have established a programme to reform the agriculture water regulations to ensure they effectively deliver pollution reductions whilst supporting farm businesses to grow.

Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, but existing agreements will continue. We now have over 37,000 live SFI agreements. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.

We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.

SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. Ensuring fairness in supply chains is key for UK dairy farmers in supporting the sustainability of the sector. The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024 came into force in July last year. These regulations improve fairness and transparency in dairy contracts, requiring clear terms on pricing, termination, and prohibiting unilateral changes.

In addition, the Dairy Export Taskforce, an industry/Government partnership, is focused on boosting export growth in the dairy sector. This included the organisation of a successful Government funded dairy showcase for international buyers in the autumn of 2024.

Working with farmers and landowners is an important part of the Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy Roadmap up to 2026. A priority is to support farmers and land managers adapt their land management practices to be more resilient to the changing climate. The National Farmers Union and the Country Land and Business Association are both represented on the Flood Resilience Taskforce.

The Rural Flood Resilience Partnership unites six organisations including the Environment Agency, to support agricultural businesses and rural communities. The Partnership and its workplan was launched on the 23 September 2024. This details shared actions to look at how farming practices can enhance flood resilience in rural areas, alongside sustainable food production.

In addition, the Government’s ongoing investment in the environment will also support natural flood management measures – including measures that support soil health.

The Department for Transport published a comprehensive three-year evaluation of the effect of 20mph limits, which are 20mph schemes relying only on signage, on 22 November 2018 20mph Research Study Process and Impact Evaluation Report.

Disabled people should be able to travel easily, confidently, and with dignity and the Government understands the importance of accessible taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) in supporting them to live independent lives.

The Department collects and publishes statistics about the number of wheelchair accessible taxis and PHVs in England. As of 1 April 2024, 18.5% of taxis and 6.2% of PHVs licensed in Gloucestershire were wheelchair accessible. During the same period, in areas that are largely rural, 13.5% of taxis and 6.9% of PHVs met the same standard.

The proportion of licensed vehicles that are wheelchair accessible varies considerably across England and in some areas, it can be difficult for wheelchair users to obtain a suitable wheelchair accessible taxi or PHV when they need one. Ultimately, however, the licensing of taxis and PHVs is a matter for licensing authorities, and the Government expects them to anticipate the needs of people in their area proactively, and to ensure that services meet a wide range of passenger needs.

Government best practice guidance to licensing authorities in England, updated in November 2023, recommends that authorities assess the demand for wheelchair accessible vehicles and take steps to ensure that there are sufficient available, as part of a “mixed fleet” of vehicles suitable for a range of passenger needs.

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle. As of February 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 74,334 publicly available charging devices, up 35% on this time last year. There was particularly strong growth in rural areas last year, with chargepoint numbers increasing by 45% in 2024.

The £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund will support the installation of at least 100,000 local chargepoints across the country. LEVI funding allocations factored in the proportion of residents that are in rural areas. This meant local authorities in rural areas were allocated additional funding compared to urban ones.

The Department does not determine the locations at which electric vehicle chargepoints are installed. For those in public areas, local authorities are best placed to understand what charging infrastructure is needed and have a key role in planning and enabling the delivery of chargepoints, with particular focus on supporting those who do not have access to off-street parking. The £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) fund includes capability (resource) funding for local authorities to secure dedicated in-house expertise to plan, procure and deliver local chargepoints.

The Government works closely with the automotive industry to monitor the health of the second-hand electric vehicle (EV) market and improve consumer information about EVs and charging infrastructure.

The battery forms a large part of an EV’s value, providing information about battery health will therefore help consumers make informed decisions about second-hand EVs. The Government has worked with international partners at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe to develop Global Technical Regulation No. 22. This requires EV manufacturers to provide easily accessible, accurate, and comparable information on the battery’s state of health. The Government is currently analysing options for the implementation of this regulation in the UK.