Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on backlogs of court cases.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
I welcome the strong action already taken by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor to bring down the outstanding caseload that this Government inherited, and measures introduced to help ensure victims have swift access to justice.
These actions include extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers to 12 months and funding additional Crown Court sitting days, taking them to the highest levels since financial year 2015/16 .
In the longer term, the Lord Chancellor has commissioned an independent review of the criminal courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, to consider the merits of wider reforms, as well as assessing the efficiency and timeliness of court processes.
These important issues have been discussed as part of our cross-government approach through the Safer Streets Mission Board.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support community energy projects.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises the role community groups play in our efforts to tackle climate change, Great British Energy’s Local Power Plan will also partner with and provide funding and support to community groups, Local Authorities and Mayoral Combined Authorities to develop renewable energy projects and up to 8 GW of cleaner power.
This will build on our existing support for the community energy sector; this includes the £10 million Community Energy Fund, which enables communities across England to access grant funding to develop local renewable energy projects for investment.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve water quality in rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Cleaning up England’s rivers, lakes and seas is a priority for the Government. The Government has taken immediate and substantial action to address the performance of water companies who are not delivering for the environment or their customers.
For example, we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Bill. This includes giving Ofwat the power to ban bonuses for executives when companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability, and enabling severe and automatic fines for wrongdoing. The Bill will also introduce new, statutory reporting requirements for emergency overflows and pollution incidents.
In addition, for Price Review 2024, which runs from 2025 – 2030, water companies will be delivering record levels of investment: £104 billion over the next five years. This gives the sector the opportunity for transformation, delivering better outcomes for customers and the environment
In October 2024, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, also launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. This is a wide-ranging review to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of people who commit hate crime.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Hate crime is truly abhorrent and can have a devastating impact on victims and their communities.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) takes such offending very seriously.
The CPS works closely with the police to build robust cases and secure prosecutions for these offences.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of rural crime.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of rural crime to ensure the safety of those in all communities.
We are introducing tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthening neighbourhood policing, and introducing robust laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors work closely with local police officers and officers from the National Wildlife Crime Unit to tackle all types of rural crime.
The CPS provides legal guidance on Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime, which is available to all its prosecutors, to assist them in dealing with these cases. They also provide specialist training to ensure that its prosecutors have the expert knowledge needed to prosecute these crimes.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to tackle fuel poverty in winter 2024-25.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures to low income and fuel poor households. The Warm Home Discount provides £150 off bills to over 3 million low-income households.
The Government has kickstarted delivery of the Warm Homes Plan, including an initial £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes over the next 3 years. We are also reviewing the 2021 fuel poverty strategy.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers impacted by flooding.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Environmental Land Management schemes provide payments for managing land and water in a way that reduces flood risk. The Sustainable Farming Incentive provides payments for several actions to improve soil health, including herbal leys and multi-species cover crops. Healthy soils have improved resilience to extreme weather and will recover faster from flood events. Sustainable Farming Incentive actions can also be used to slow down the flow of water within catchments, helping to mitigate wider catchment flood risk. We have also recently announced a significant expansion of the flood and drought resilience offer within Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier with new actions to store water, which can be used to protect agricultural land from flooding.
Tree planting along rivers can help slow water flow and temporarily store water as part of natural flood management. The England Woodland Creation Offer provides financial support for tree planting and incentivises woodland creation that reduces flood risk through supplementary payments.
In addition, the floods investment programme delivers a range of schemes, including natural flood management. The Government inherited an outdated funding formula for allocating money to proposed flood defences. Established in 2011, the existing formula slows down the delivery of new flood schemes through a complex application process, and neglects more innovative approaches to flood management such as natural flood management. A consultation will be launched in the coming months which will include a review of the existing formula.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help farmers prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following confirmation of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Germany on the 10 January 2025, the Government took decisive action to protect the UK by suspending the commercial import of susceptible animals from Germany and restricting personal imports of animal products from across the EU.
The UK has contingency plans in place to manage the risk of this disease as set out in the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England. This includes a comprehensive veterinary surveillance system to detect new and emerging disease threats. All exotic disease control and prevention measures are kept under regular review as part of the Government’s work to monitor and manage the risks of exotic disease.
Livestock keepers are reminded of the importance of maintaining strict on-farm biosecurity and reporting of all suspicions of notifiable disease promptly.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the eligibility for Winter Fuel Payment on living standards for pensioners.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Winter Fuel Payments continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged over 80.
The Government also offers an array of support with energy costs for low-income groups in the winter months. This includes direct financial help to low-income pensioners through Pension Credit, the Warm Home Discount, and (in England & Wales) Cold Weather Payments.
The Warm Home Discount scheme provides eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate on their winter energy bill. This winter, we expect over one million pensioners to benefit under the scheme.
The Government and energy industry have also worked together to deliver a £500 million Winter Support Commitment for customers, which will help customers most in need by providing credit on bills, enhanced debt write-off schemes, and increased funding for charity partners to target hard to reach customers.
Low-income pensioners and others struggling with the cost of living should contact their local council to see what further support may be available to them, as they may be able to receive support from Council Tax Reduction, or through energy support programmes (such as the Homes Upgrade Grant and Energy Company Obligation) – or through the Household Support Fund (a scheme providing discretionary support to those most in need towards the cost of essentials, such as food, energy and water).
This support is all underpinned by this Government’s commitment to the Triple Lock which will see a 4.1% increase to the basic State Pension and the new State Pension in April 2025. According to the latest OBR projections, the full yearly rate of the new State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,900 over the course of this parliament whilst the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension is forecast to increase by around £1,500.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support businesses to invest in skills and training.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Employers have a crucial role to play in the skills system, and the department wants all employers to invest in their workforce.
The department’s post-16 education and skills strategy will set out how we will drive up employer investment in the skills needed by their workforce. We want to start a national conversation on the role that employers, government and learners have to play in funding education and training, as part of an approach that clarifies expectations of what the right mix of funding is for the skills system. We will work with employers and others as we develop the strategy.