Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the war in Ukraine on the horticulture sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is not possible to precisely determine the direct impacts of the war in Ukraine on the UK horticulture sector, as they are dependent on a range of interrelated factors.
The war in Ukraine led to rising oil, fuel and energy prices, which created inflationary pressures right across the food chain. Difficulties stemming from the rising input costs and shortages were initially reported by the horticulture sector with farmers experiencing higher energy and fertiliser costs. International energy prices subsequently fell as the global economy adjusted to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This contributed to an easing of input price inflation.
We continue to keep the situation and any impact on our agri-food sectors under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG) which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade, and recent developments.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to publish a horticulture strategy.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s commitment to the horticulture sector and its vital role in strengthening food security by ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of home-grown fresh produce remains steadfast.
We are taking a strategic approach to support for horticulture recognising the specific needs of the sector. This includes developing a Farming Roadmap, which will set out a 25-year vision and blueprint to make our farming and food production more sustainable and profitable.
Alongside this our Food Strategy will deliver clear long-term outcomes that create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system - boosting our food security, improving our health, ensuring economic growth, and delivering environmental sustainability.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the House of Lords Hoticultural Sector Committee Report entitled Sowing the seeds: A blooming English horticultural sector, published on 6 November 2023, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Government funding to the horticultural sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the specific needs of the sector, and Defra ministers and officials meet regularly with growers to discuss a wide range of issues to help us understand how best to support the sector.
Our proposed approach to future funding for horticulture will be considered alongside Defra’s work to simplify and rationalise agricultural grant funding, ensuring that grants deliver the most benefit for food security and nature.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all Integrated Care Systems in England commission Maternal Mental Health Services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise how important it is for women with perinatal mental health problems to get the right care and support they need. Women who need support can access specialist perinatal mental health services, including mother and baby units, specialist perinatal community teams, and newly established Maternal Mental Health Services.
Maternal Mental Health Services have been set up to provide care for women with moderate to severe or complex mental health difficulties arising from birth trauma or loss in the maternity and neonatal context.
As of April 2025, 41 Maternal Mental Health Services are live, with services in every integrated care system area in England due to be operational by end of the first quarter of 2025/26.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a report on the potential impact of outsourcing on collection and delivery of blood products on the NHS and hospices.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. NHSBT’s Logistics Department plays a key role in planning for, collecting, and delivering life saving and life changing donated blood products to hospitals across England. It does not deliver to hospices directly.
Last year over 150,000 deliveries were made to hospitals around England, with over 2,000 of those being emergencies. Of the total blood units supplied, NHSBT’s Logistics Transport delivered approximately 64%, and third parties delivered approximately 27%. Hospitals can collect their own blood unit order, making use of their own internal transport, couriers, or blood bike charity groups, and this equates to approximately 9% of total blood units supplied. Utilising couriers for ad hoc delivery is financially and environmentally advantageous, as NHSBT only pays for the delivery costs rather than the empty return journey of the vehicle, which may then be used for other purposes by the courier.
The current performance of courier delivery is audited through NHSBT’s Governance and compliance, and a key factor for measuring the effective running of the contract is that the courier partner collects blood products for delivery on time. The performance level that NHSBT sets is 98.5% on time collection, and this performance is currently exceeded. There are currently no plans to extend the use of third-party couriers for the delivery of blood products or to publish further information in this area.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of outsourcing on collection and delivery of blood products to hospitals.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. NHSBT’s Logistics Department plays a key role in planning for, collecting, and delivering life saving and life changing donated blood products to hospitals across England. It does not deliver to hospices directly.
Last year over 150,000 deliveries were made to hospitals around England, with over 2,000 of those being emergencies. Of the total blood units supplied, NHSBT’s Logistics Transport delivered approximately 64%, and third parties delivered approximately 27%. Hospitals can collect their own blood unit order, making use of their own internal transport, couriers, or blood bike charity groups, and this equates to approximately 9% of total blood units supplied. Utilising couriers for ad hoc delivery is financially and environmentally advantageous, as NHSBT only pays for the delivery costs rather than the empty return journey of the vehicle, which may then be used for other purposes by the courier.
The current performance of courier delivery is audited through NHSBT’s Governance and compliance, and a key factor for measuring the effective running of the contract is that the courier partner collects blood products for delivery on time. The performance level that NHSBT sets is 98.5% on time collection, and this performance is currently exceeded. There are currently no plans to extend the use of third-party couriers for the delivery of blood products or to publish further information in this area.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children were admitted into NHS care for more than seven days in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England collects data on patient discharge episodes, including for children. Discharge data does not represent the number of individual children with a hospital stay, as a child may have more than one discharge from hospital within the reporting period.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, 67,421 discharge episodes were recorded where the patient was in hospital for more than seven days and was aged between zero and 17 years old when admitted into National Health Service care.
The following table shows a count of finished discharge episodes where the patient was aged between zero and 17 years old, including both total discharges and episodes where the patient was in hospital for more than seven days, each discharge month for 2023/24, for activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector:
Discharge year | Discharge month | Total discharges | Discharges over seven days |
2023 | April | 150,925 | 5,203 |
2023 | May | 167,886 | 5,731 |
2023 | June | 164,206 | 5,489 |
2023 | July | 160,981 | 5,393 |
2023 | August | 153,118 | 5,163 |
2023 | September | 162,577 | 5,203 |
2023 | October | 178,583 | 5,686 |
2023 | November | 186,682 | 6,144 |
2023 | December | 169,807 | 5,997 |
2024 | January | 174,492 | 5,698 |
2024 | February | 170,258 | 5,667 |
2024 | March | 180,789 | 6,047 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England.
Notes:
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish her Department's impact assessments of changes to (a) Agricultural Property Relief and (b) Business Property Relief.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.
The reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, in 2026-27 paying more inheritance tax. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.
The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief. These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27.
The tax base consists of all estates subject to inheritance tax that are projected to claim agricultural property relief or business property relief across the scorecard period. The tax base is estimated using HMRC administrative data, and is grown over the forecast in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for inheritance tax receipts. More detail on the Government’s estimates, including why these projections should be viewed as a maximum, are also available in a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee in November 2024, which is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.
The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The independent OBR certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024 and it does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024 and this is available at https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/. The OBR recently published more detail in January 2025 on the costings at https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/IHT-APR-and-BPR-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will publish the modelling used to set changes to (a) Agricultural Property Relief and (b) Business Property Relief.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.
The reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, in 2026-27 paying more inheritance tax. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.
The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief. These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27.
The tax base consists of all estates subject to inheritance tax that are projected to claim agricultural property relief or business property relief across the scorecard period. The tax base is estimated using HMRC administrative data, and is grown over the forecast in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for inheritance tax receipts. More detail on the Government’s estimates, including why these projections should be viewed as a maximum, are also available in a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee in November 2024, which is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.
The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The independent OBR certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024 and it does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024 and this is available at https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/. The OBR recently published more detail in January 2025 on the costings at https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/IHT-APR-and-BPR-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a response to the report by the National Farmers Union entitled An impact analysis of APR reforms on commercial family farms, published on 25 November 2024.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.
The reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, in 2026-27 paying more inheritance tax. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.
The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief. These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27.
The tax base consists of all estates subject to inheritance tax that are projected to claim agricultural property relief or business property relief across the scorecard period. The tax base is estimated using HMRC administrative data, and is grown over the forecast in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for inheritance tax receipts. More detail on the Government’s estimates, including why these projections should be viewed as a maximum, are also available in a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee in November 2024, which is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.
The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The independent OBR certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024 and it does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024 and this is available at https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/. The OBR recently published more detail in January 2025 on the costings at https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/IHT-APR-and-BPR-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.