Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking with regulators to help tackle (a) the use of inflation linked price rises in consumer communications contracts and (b) the advertising of VAT exclusive prices.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ofcom, the independent regulator of telecommunications, has banned inflation-linked in-contract price rises. Since 17 January 2025, all retail telecom providers have been required to set out clearly ‘in pounds and pence’ the price the consumer will pay at the point of sale and be up-front about any increases.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act 2024 prohibits unfair commercial practices against consumers, including misleading omissions and actions. The Department is not currently working with regulators regarding the advertising of VAT exclusive prices. The Advertising Standards Agency has provided advice to businesses on advertising prices: https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/compulsory-costs-and-charges-vat.html
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve catering policies in health services to ensure are they are (a) patient-centred and (b) nutritious.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Access to good quality, nutritious and attractively presented hospital food can improve patient morale and contribute to recovery.
All National Health Service trusts are expected to follow the NHS National Standards for Healthcare Food and Drink. There are eight mandatory standards all trusts are required to meet. This includes having a food and drink strategy and demonstrating that they have suitable food service provision 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is appropriate for their demographic.
The guidance requires that NHS organisations must show they comply with the British Dietetic Association’s Nutrition and Hydration Digest which identifies actions to be taken in relation to the provision of nutritional food. Further, a key part of the specific standards for retail, staff and visitors in healthcare settings is the need to comply with the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services mandatory nutrition standards.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to review proposals to tax pickup trucks as personal vehicles.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Double Cab Pick Up vehicles (DCPUs) have in the past been treated as goods vehicles for tax purposes, rather than cars. Following a judgement by the Court of Appeal, DCPUs must be treated as cars, rather than goods vehicles, for certain tax purposes, based on their primary suitability.
At Autumn Budget 2024, the government had to make difficult decisions, and in the given fiscal situation was not willing to legislate to change this treatment and provide a significant tax break worth hundreds of millions per year for these vehicles.
The transitional arrangements put in place meant that this would not affect the capital allowances treatment of any business that already owned a DCPU, or that purchased one before April 2025; and businesses that purchase or have purchased a DCPU after this date will still be able to deduct the cost from their taxable profits at 18% or 6% per year. Under the transitional arrangements for Benefit-in-Kind treatment, anyone who accessed a DCPU before 6 April 2025 will not be impacted until the sooner of disposal of the vehicle, 5 April 2029 or when their lease expires.
In addition, there are alternatives to DCPUs (such as Single Cab Pick Ups, or 4x4 vans) that are still treated as goods vehicles.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to reintroduce measures to increase tax on higher polluting vehicles.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on vehicles used or kept on public roads. As announced by the Government at Autumn Statement 2022, from April 2025, zero emission and hybrid cars, vans and motorcycles will begin to pay VED in a similar way to petrol and diesel vehicles.
While first year rates for zero emission cars have been frozen at £10 until 2029/30, rates for the most polluting vehicles that emit over 76mg/km have doubled.
In addition, at Autumn Budget 2024 the government announced Company Car Tax rates will continue to strongly incentivise the take-up of electric vehicles. Appropriate Percentages (APs) for all vehicle bands above 50 g/km will increase by 1 percentage point per year in 2028-29 and 2029-30. The maximum AP will also increase by 1 percentage point per year to 38% for 2028-2029 and 39% for 2029-2030.
Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help protect young people in care from (a) grooming gangs, (b) exploitation and (c) other forms of criminal activity.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to protecting children and young people from all forms of abuse and exploitation, including child sexual exploitation and ‘grooming gangs’, alongside other forms of exploitation and criminal activity.
In June 2025, the Government accepted all the recommendations made in Baroness Louise Casey’s Independent National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girl’s statement made to the House on 2 September, which sets out an update on the Government’s work to establish a new national inquiry and national police operation to strengthen understanding and responses to group-based offending, including grooming gangs.
Since 2019, the Home Office has funded The Children’s Society to deliver the nationwide Prevention Programme that works to raise awareness of child exploitation to professionals working within the private, statutory and third sectors, as well as the public. The programme upskills staff, including within social care, to better respond to, disrupt and prevent all forms of child exploitation.
We are committed to tackling child criminal exploitation and have introduced a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill and developed new civil preventative orders to disrupt and prevent child criminal exploitation and pursue the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime. These will, alongside other additions in the bill, work to tackle the interconnected and exploitative practices often used by criminal gangs, especially in county lines.
An important protective factor for children living in residential children’s homes is ensuring that staff are trained, have the right skills, are supported to provide good quality care and can be challenged where they are not doing so. The Government has committed to improve qualifications, standards, and access to training for staff working in residential children’s homes to ensure they are able to safeguard and protect the children in their care.
Furthermore, the Government is going further to better protect children, including children in care or leaving care, including through the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which is establishing multi-agency child protection teams and improving information sharing, including through a single unique identifier.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
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 hospital patients with specific (a) dietary and (b) nutritional needs receive appropriate meals during their recovery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Access to good quality, nutritious and attractively presented hospital food can improve patient morale and contribute to their recovery.
All NHS Trusts are expected to follow the NHS National Standards for Healthcare Food and Drink. There are eight mandatory standards all Trusts are required to meet. This includes having a food and drink strategy and demonstrating that they have suitable 24/7 food service provision, which is appropriate for their demographic.
The guidance requires that NHS organisations must show they comply with the British Dietetic Association’s (BDA) Nutrition and Hydration Digest which identifies actions to be taken in relation to the provision of nutritional food. The Digest is available at the following link: https://www.bda.uk.com/specialist-groups-and-branches/food-services-specialist-group/nutrition-and-hydration-digest.html.
Furthermore, a key part of the specific standards for retail, staff and visitors in healthcare settings is the need to comply with the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF) mandatory nutrition standards.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to standardise the measure of vehicle sound testing in MOTs.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Excessive exhaust noise is currently tested with a subjective assessment at the MOT in which the tester can fail the vehicle if they believe it is producing excessive noise for the vehicle model. The MOT standard for exhaust noise requires that the noise from the vehicle must not be unreasonably above the noise level a tester would expect from a similar vehicle with a standard silencer in average condition.
This standard is derived from the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 (C&U) where regulation 54 states:
“Every exhaust system and silencer shall be maintained in good and efficient working order and shall not after the date of manufacture be altered so as to increase the noise made by the escape of exhaust gases.”
The MOT noise test also meets the requirements of the European Roadworthiness Directive, which all EU Member States are required to comply with.
For most vehicles, the MOT tester will be familiar with the level of exhaust noise to be expected and should have no difficulty in determining whether the noise complies with the standard or not.
Introducing a metered noise test with the use of a calibrated decibel meter to record noise levels more accurately would require approximately 23, 400 garages to purchase and maintain this equipment. In addition, the accuracy of such a test will be difficult to achieve due to localised noise pollution around testing centres, and within a noisy garage environment.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the risks of using (a) disposable and (b) portable barbecues in public places.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has not made an assessment of the risks of using disposable and portable barbecues in public places. Research published under the previous Government considered the risks posed by disposable barbecues. This is available at: Sky Lanterns, Single-Use Barbecues and Helium Balloons - Risks and Mitigation Options - EV04104.
Local authorities already have powers to apply local controls on the use of disposable barbeques on council or public land.