Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of (a) the inequality of access to nature in England and (b) that a fifth of English constituencies have no Right to Roam at all.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and are working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We also recognise that access to nature is currently inequitable across England, with some groups such as those from lower socio-economic backgrounds particularly disadvantaged. This is why we committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space, and to reduce barriers to access. We are already taking forward initiatives to help us deliver this, including new initiatives such as the river walks and national forests manifesto commitments and existing initiatives such as completing the King Charles III England Coast Path and upgrading the Coast to Coast trail across the north of England.
The last Labour Government introduced the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which provides the public a right of access to large parts of the English countryside. The 8% figure of publicly accessible land does not include the thousands of green spaces (e.g. parks) that are available to the public. Most of the nation's forests managed by Forestry England (more than 253,000 hectares) have been dedicated as open access land.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the current level of resources for local trading standards services based within local authorities in Great Britain.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent of central government and are responsible for managing their own services and financial positions.
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The majority of the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities, including for local trading standards services.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's Good character: caseworker guidance, updated on 13 February 2025, how many people she expects to be impacted by this guidance.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer provided on 25 February 2025 to Question UIN 31371.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that local trading standards services have adequate (a) support and (b) expertise to enforce consumer protection laws introduced through the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Department for Business and Trade officials have contributed to training events and provided practical information to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute to disseminate to trading standards officers about the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, including changes to consumer protection law and trading standards' enforcement powers.
Furthermore, the Department provides grants to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, as well as others, who are developing training material on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Funding also supports the maintenance of Business Companion which provides trading standards officers and business with the latest information on the application of consumer law.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of rail infrastructure funding on future trends in the level of regional economic growth.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The growth mission is the central mission of this government. The impact of rail infrastructure investment on regional economic growth is a key consideration that is informing decisions for phase 2 of the Spending Review. The first phase of the Spending Review delivered a £1.1bn cash increase to the transport budget in 2025-26 compared to 2024-25 representing 1.5% real terms growth, delivering record spending.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to her speech at Siemens Healthineers in Oxfordshire on 29 January 2025, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding to improve connectivity in Oxfordshire.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are already making considerable investment in transport infrastructure in Oxfordshire, including support for East West Rail and the acceleration of works on the Marston Vale Line to deliver services between Oxford and Bedford, as well as £10m in 25/26 to provide improvements to local bus services. In addition, Oxfordshire County Council received £33.5m of total highway maintenance allocations for the County for 2025/26.
Future transport spending is subject to Phase 2 of the SR and will be considered in the round through that process.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what definition her Department applies to determine when a road network is operating (a) at and (b) over full capacity.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Transport Business Cases follow the HM Treasury five-case Business Case model. Decisions are informed by the assessment of the scheme in relation to strategic fit, value for money, deliverability, commercial and financial considerations. The Department provides guidance to scheme promoters in DfT’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG).
The relationship between levels of demand and road capacity would be considered as part of the transport modelling and analysis for potential transport investments.
An introduction to this modelling, including the interaction of supply conditions and road demand, is provided in Chapter 3 of the TAG guidance for the Senior Responsible Officer. Further technical detail is provided in Appendix E of TAG unit M3.1, TAG unit M3.1 highway assignment modelling.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of VAT on school fees on military families.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Ministry of Defence recognises the unique circumstances faced by our Service personnel and that frequent mobility can disrupt children’s education. Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) helps by providing the children of Service personnel with a stable education that would not otherwise be available in the state-maintained day school sector, due to their family’s mobility.
Termly rates of CEA are recalculated to account for changes to fees made by schools for the new academic year. This is usually an annual event but as schools changed their fees for January 2025 in response to the Government’s new VAT policy, the CEA rates were recalculated in December 2024. New rates will be calculated ahead of changes in school fees for September 2025.
The single Services will monitor the impact on retention in service for those claiming CEA following the introduction of VAT on independent school fees. The Pay and Allowances Casework and Complaints Cell (PACCC) will monitor the impact on Service personnel changing schools and withdrawing from CEA. Where a Service person does not meet the eligibility criteria as laid out in JSP 752 and has made a personal choice to use a private school for their child’s education, the MOD is not involved.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to seek UK accession to the World Trade Organization Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is keeping the question of UK membership of the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA) under active consideration.
The Government is committed to a free, fair and rules-based international trading system. Re-establishing a fully-functioning WTO dispute settlement system is crucially important. The UK is keen to continue working with other WTO Members to achieve that goal.
Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of sourcing flour for the public sector from certified regenerative farms on achieving Net Zero by 2050.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to harnessing the purchasing power of the procurement food supply chain to set the tone in delivering our wider ambitions on net zero, sustainability, animal welfare, economic growth and nutrition and health. Over the next year, for the first time ever, the government will review food currently bought in the public sector and where it is bought from. This work will be a significant first step to inform any future changes to public sector food procurement policies.