Edward Argar

The Government recognises the important role that horseracing makes to British culture and its important contribution to the economy, particularly in rural areas.

According to the British Horseracing Authority, the industry is worth over £4 billion to the economy in direct, indirect, and associated expenditure every year. With over 20,000 people directly employed across the 59 licensed racecourses, training yards and thousands of breeding operations.

The department does not hold data on places currently available.

Information on unfilled state secondary school places, as at May 2023, is published in the School Capacity statistics publication at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. School level information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/data-set/5f26c269-bf72-41ab-8292-e17b58ed7c98.

The department does not hold data on places vacant on 6 September 2024.

Information on unfilled state secondary school places, as at May 2023, is published in the School Capacity statistics publication at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity. For ease, local authority level information within the publication for Leicestershire can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a00d6b70-f8fc-4392-b2a8-08dccd7b0275 and can be aggregated to Borough and Parliamentary Constituency level by linking to information at the following link: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

For Melton Borough, there were zero secondary school places unfilled in May 2023. For Melton and Syston parliamentary constituency, there were 531 secondary school places (11%) unfilled in May 2023.

The Environment Agency (EA) has spent the following in Leicestershire on flood prevention and mitigation:

• Investment in capital projects in Leicestershire in 2023/24 included:

• £223k on Wood Brook and Tributaries Flood Risk Management scheme to develop the business case.
• £59k on Quorn House recondition work to repair flood bank low spots.
• £48k on Leicester Flood Risk Management Scheme conveyance works to complete handover of asset to the local authority.
• £25k on River Soar Flood Risk Management Scheme to close-out the project which cannot proceed due to it being economically unviable.
• £20k on new flow gauging on Rothley Brook at Rothley for improved flood warning and modelling.

Additionally, in 23/24 the EA were allocated £2.9 million revenue funding for flood prevention and mitigation in Leicestershire. This is for the EAs work on asset maintenance and repairs, and in-river maintenance such as vegetation clearance and de-silting.

Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, the Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.

In addition, the Government’s new Floods Resilience Taskforce sets out a new approach to preparing for flooding by working cross-government and with external stakeholders. It plans to meet again in January 2025 and will discuss the recent flooding.

During the flooding incident, the Environment Agency (EA) has informed the public about flood risk; operated flood risk assets to prevent or reduce the severity of flooding; supported authorities to pump flood water away from properties and infrastructure; and worked with partners to coordinate the emergency response.

Going forward, the EA will contribute to the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Recovery Cell; continue to deploy officers to affected communities to assess the impacts of flooding to properties and businesses; and continue to work with others to identify further opportunities to reduce flood risk in Leicestershire and support the resilience of communities to flooding.

The Government has committed to ensure we are building more high-quality, well-designed and sustainable homes, and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery. Flood risk is an important consideration in the planning system.

The Environment Agency (EA) is a statutory consultee in the planning process on flood risk matters, in particular flooding from rivers.

On a strategic level, the EA actively engages with Local Planning Authorities’ (LPAs) Local Plan making process to ensure that new developments will be in line with the National Planning Policy Framework’s requirements on flood risk.

The EA ensures the LPA has the most up-to-date flooding information and data to make informed decisions regarding which locations they choose for significantly sized new development, using the principle that those areas at least risk of flooding should be chosen first.

Government recognises that keepers and businesses can be affected not only by the impacts of bluetongue disease on animals, but also by disease control measures. That is why Defra seeks to minimise these burdens as far as practically possible, easing them where safe to do so using exemptions under licenses, whilst maintaining the integrity and efficacy of measures intended to mitigate the risk of disease spread.

The restricted zone currently in force has contained and slowed the spread of disease and prevented disease circulation in the areas of the country with the highest cattle and sheep density. Defra are aware of the significant challenges that affected farmers and businesses have faced, and we continue to work closely with industry representatives. Restrictions remain under continuous review, including their likely economic impact, and any decisions are based on the latest scientific evidence and veterinary advice.

The previous government made a number of funding commitments in the Network North Command Paper and these will be examined closely by the government in the coming months.

Funding for safety critical repairs is drawn from National Highways’ Maintenance and Renewals budget, the budget for 2024/25 is £230m for maintenance and £1.2bn for renewals.

Decisions on schemes are taken following the governance arrangements set out in National Highways’ Licence and Framework and within the level of funding agreed at the start of each Road Period. National Highways improves safety of the network through various activities including operations, maintenance and renewals; major enhancements; designated funds (including a Safety & Congestion Designated Fund). Schemes that improve safety are designed according to the safety objectives of the given section of the road network. Scheme designs are appraised for value for money and how effective they are at achieving scheme objectives.

The number of reported road collisions by collision severity and at the requested road junctions on the A52 between 2010 and 2022, for which is the latest reported year, can be found in the table below.

Annual statistics on the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients and households by local authority and by Westminster parliamentary constituency are made publicly available via GOV.UK. For Winter 2022 to 2023 11,729 people received a Winter Fuel Payment in the Melton Borough.

Caseload statistics are routinely published and made publicly available via DWP Stat-xplore. At November 2023, there were 770 people claiming Pension Credit in Melton Borough.

Access to National Health Service care at accident and emergency departments, and the waiting times at the point of delivery for those services, will always be based on clinical priority.

I chaired fortnightly meetings on winter preparedness from 26 September 2024 until early December 2024 at which point, as planned, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, began chairing a weekly meeting.

We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget 2024, which enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.

The employer National Insurance contributions (ENICs) rise will be implemented in April 2025. The Government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, like hospices, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of businesses with ENICs liabilities either gain or see no change next year. Businesses and charities will still be able to claim ENICs reliefs, including those for under 21 and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

Our approach to ENIC exemptions has been consistent with the approach taken by previous governments. This does not include an exemption for independent contractors, including charities like hospices.

On 19 December, the Government announced the biggest investment in a generation for hospices in England, supporting the sector with a £100 million boost for adult and children’s hospices to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices. We will set out the details of the funding allocation and dissemination in the coming weeks.

There is no official National Health Service data collected and validated for publication on the number of ‘critical incidents’ as these are declared locally by NHS organisations and can be stood-up and stood-down quickly.

NHS management information as of 8 January 2025 reports that that there are 18 active critical incidents. Critical incidents can be declared in response to operational pressures and for other reasons including power outages, or IT or estates issues.

Ministers in the Department engage with NHS England regularly on a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, winter preparedness.

The Chancellor’s July ‘Public Spending: Inheritance’ speech set out the state of the UK’s spending inheritance from the previous Government. In this context, the Chancellor has set out a path to confirming plans for this year and next at the forthcoming Budget on October 30th.

We understand that this may have caused uncertainty about the status of the Community Ownership Fund. The Government will seek to provide certainty wherever it can between now and conclusion of the Spending Review.

All of the 37 people released in error, because of being incorrectly sentenced for breaching restraining orders under outdated legislation, were returned to custody.

The last of the 37 prisoners was returned to custody on 28 September 2024.

On 25 July, the Lord Chancellor announced that around 5,500 offenders will be released, in two tranches, in September and October. Further detail is set out in the Impact Assessment.

Data on further offences of SDS40 releases forms a subset of data intended for future publication.

All of the 37 people released in error because of being incorrectly sentenced for breaching restraining orders under outdated legislation are now back in custody.

Data on releases in error since 10 September 2024 forms a subset of data intended for future publication.

On 25 July, the Lord Chancellor announced that around 5,500 offenders will be released, in two tranches, in September and October. Further detail is set out in the Impact Assessment.

Data on further offences of SDS40 releases forms a subset of data intended for future publication.

Data on SDS40 releases, including number of recalls, forms a subset of data intended for future publication.